in 1939.
Ye Ting is first from the left and Ye Zhengda is second from the left. Ye was born
Ye Funong () on 22 August 1927 in
Shanghai, with his
ancestral home in
Huiyang,
Guangdong. He was the first of nine children of the famous general
Ye Ting and his wife Li Xiuwen, who both died in a plane crash in 1946. His siblings included Ye Zhengming (, 1931–2003), Ye Huaming (, born 1935), Ye Jianmei (, 1937–1993), Ye Yangmei (, 1936–1946), Ye Zhengguang (, born 1939), and Ye Qiguang (born 1942). In 1947, Ye attended a Russian-language school in northeastern China founded by the
Northeast Democratic United Army. He joined the
Chinese Communist Party in the following year. He graduated from
Moscow Aviation Institute in 1955, where he majored in aircraft production. He later served as deputy dean of the Six Research Institute of the PRC Ministry of National Defense, deputy director of Defense Industry of the
State Council of the People's Republic of China, deputy director of the Science and Technology Committee of the
Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, and director of the 2nd and 3rd
Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was awarded the military rank of
lieutenant general (zhongjiang) in 1988. He retired in 1998. On December 14, 2017, he died in
Beijing. ==Personal life==