List of Famous people born in Xinzhou, People's Republic of China

Xu Xiangqian was a Chinese Communist military leader and one of the Ten Marshals of the People's Liberation Army. He was the son of a wealthy landowner, but joined Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army, against his parents' wishes, in 1924. When the Kuomintang began to fight the Communists in 1927, Xu left Chiang's forces and led a Communist army based in Sichuan under the political authority of Zhang Guotao. After Zhang was purged in the early 1930s, Xu survived politically and rejoined the Red Army, in a less senior position, under the leadership of Mao Zedong.

Bo Yibo was a Chinese political and military leader. He was one of the most senior political figures in China during the 1980s and 1990s.

Yan Xishan IPA: [jɛ̌n ɕǐʂán]; 8 October 1883 – 22 July 1960, 閻錫山) was a Chinese warlord who served in the government of the Republic of China. He effectively controlled the province of Shanxi from the 1911 Xinhai Revolution to the 1949 Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War. As the leader of a relatively small, poor, remote province, he survived the machinations of Yuan Shikai, the Warlord Era, the Nationalist Era, the Japanese invasion of China and the subsequent civil war, being forced from office only when the Nationalist armies with which he was aligned had completely lost control of the Chinese mainland, isolating Shanxi from any source of economic or military supply. He has been viewed by Western biographers as a transitional figure who advocated using Western technology to protect Chinese traditions, while at the same time reforming older political, social and economic conditions in a way that paved the way for the radical changes that would occur after his rule.

Xu Xiaoyan is a retired lieutenant general (zhongjiang) in the People's Liberation Army. Previously he was Deputy Director of Science and Technology Committee of General Equipment Department of the People's Liberation Army. He was promoted to the rank of major general (shaojiang) in 1994 and lieutenant general (zhongjiang) in 2006.

Sun Chuanting, courtesy name Boya, was born in Shanxi; he was the late Ming Dynasty's Defence minister, and field Marshal (Dushi). He led 10,000 Ming troops against Li Zicheng's 70,000 troops. He was defeated and killed by Li in the Battle of Tongguan (1643).

General Xu Yongchang was the Minister of Board of Military Operations of the Republic of China between December 22, 1948, and April 22, 1949, and the representative of the Republic of China on September 2, 1945, at the signing of the Instrument of Surrender of Japan that ended World War II.