Xu Aizhen, a veteran of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army who worked on battlefield communications during the Korean War, died of illness on November 11, 2026, aged 94, according to The Paper, which reported the news on November 13.

Public records cited by The Paper say Xu was born in November 1932 in Fengcheng, Jiangxi province. Her father, Xu Jingming, had attended the Whampoa Military Academy and was killed in the defense of Nanjing. Xu enlisted in November 1950 and studied at the People’s Liberation Army’s Fourth Communications School in Wuhan.

In November 1952, she led 15 classmates on a 17-day journey through Wuhan, Beijing, Shenyang and Andong before reaching Korea to report to the Volunteer Army headquarters’ communications department. Initially assigned to a radio receiving station, she maintained communications equipment and repaired a frequency-drift fault in a Model 7512 receiver. She later worked as a technician with the 20th Army Corps’ communications department.

In June 1954, Xu married fellow communications worker Shi Lei. He was killed while carrying out a mission in Vietnam in 1965. After returning from Korea, Xu held technical posts at institutions and factories in Zhangjiakou, Tianjin and Beijing. She retired in 1985 at a deputy-division-level rank.

Xu was among 12 Volunteer Army veterans named in the closing tribute of the film The Volunteers: Peace at Last, released in September 2025.