Cui Tianmin joined the Communist Youth League of China on 1927 and moved to China on 1928. During the Agrarian Revolutionary War, he served as vice chairman of the Soviet government in northern Shaanxi, director of the Security Bureau, minister of the Ministry of National Economy, and political commissar of the 78th Division of the 15th Army of the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army. During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, he served as director and political commissar of the 687th Regiment of the 344th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army 1 15 Division, political commissar of the 689th Regiment, political commissar of the 344th Brigade and political commissar of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan detachment, political commissar of the second column of the Eighth Route Army and political commissar of the newly compiled second brigade, secretary of the military and political committee of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan border region of the Communist Party of China, and political commissar and commander of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region during the liberation war. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), he served as deputy political commissar of Chinese people's Volunteer Army Railway Corps, deputy political commissar of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Railway Corps and director and political commissar of the Political Department, chief commander and political commissar of the Acceleration Department of the Higher Academy of Military Sciences, political commissar of the Railway Corps and consultant of the Second Artillery Corps.

1955, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. Won the first-class August 1st Medal, the first-class Independent Freedom Medal, the first-class Liberation Medal and the first-class Red Star Meritorious Medal.

He is a member of the Third National Defense Commission, a deputy to the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth National People's Congress, and a deputy to the Seventh and Eighth National People's Congress.