Yang Shangkun was born on July 5, 1907 in Tongnan in the Chinese province of Sichuan.

As a leading member of the Chinese Communist Party, he held various leadership positions within the Central Committee between 1956 and 1968. He was demoted during the Cultural Revolution and was not rehabilitated until 1978. In 1988, he was promoted to President and held this office until March 1993.

As a close companion of Mao Zedong, he is still referred to as one of the eight immortals of the Communist Party in China after his death on September 14, 1998.

When a delegation from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China visited Wiesbaden City Hall on May 31, 1981, Shangkun signed the city's Golden Book as deputy head and general secretary.