Liu Shaoqi（1898—1969）

Liu Shaoqi was a great Marxist; a great proletarian revolutionary, statesman-politician, and theorist; one of the main leaders of the CPC and the PRC; one of the founding father of the People’s Republic of China; he was an important member of the first generation of the collective central leadership of the CPC with Comrade Mao Zedong at its core. He was born in 1898 in Ningxiang of Hunan Province. He joined the May 4th Movement in his youth, the Socialist Youth League in 1920 and the Communist Party of China in 1921. He served as the secretary of the All-China Labor Syndicate, organized several workers' strikes in the Yangzi Valley and at Anyuan on the Jiangxi-Hunan border. Liu Shaoqi made outstanding contributions in worker movements and the Party’s work in KMT-controlled areas. He was one of China’s famous worker movement leaders and main leaders and participated in the strike of Anyuan railroad and mine workers, the May 30th Movement, the Guangzhou-Hong Kong strike and Wuhan workers’ fight for taking back the British concession area. In April 1927, at the Fifth National Congress of the CPC, he was elected a member of the Central Committee. After the failure of the Great Revolution, under the severe white terror conditions, he went to Shanghai, Tianjin, Northeast China, North China and other places to lead the Party's underground work. He led the work of the Provincial Party Committee of Shunzhi (today Hebei) and the Provincial Party Committee of Manchuria. In the winter of 1932, he traveled to the central revolutionary base area which was in the Jiangxi Province and served as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions in the Soviet Area and later as the secretary of the Provincial Party Committee of Fujian. He participated the Long March and took part in leading the Army corps. In January 1935, he participated the famous Zunyi Conference—an enlarged conference of the CPC Political Bureau, which was during the Long March days and firmly supported Mao Zedong’s correct opinions in this Conference. In the spring of 1936, he was appointed by the Party Central Committee to Tianjin to serve as the representative of the Central Committee in the Northern Bureau of the CPC which was seated in Tianjin; he implemented the Party’s Anti-Japanese National United Front policy and consolidated and further developed the favorable results nation-wide December 9 Event led by the Party. During early period of the Anti-Japanese War, he served as the secretary of the Northern Bureau, also went deep into the enemy's rear areas; in accordance with the strategic principle of carrying out independent guerrilla warfare behind the enemy lines put forward by the Party Central Committee and Mao Zedong, together with Liu Shaoqi, mobilized the masses and carried out the anti-Japanese and national salvation campaign, and effectively led the work for the establishment of the new anti-Japanese armed forces in Shanxi and establishing anti-Japanese base areas in north China. After the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the CPC in 1938, he went to south and served as the Secretary of the Central Plains Bureau of the CPC and went south to organize and establish anti-Japanese base areas in central China. Between 1939-1941, he made famous speeches such as "How to be a Good Communist” and "On the Inner-Party Struggle ", which enriched CPC’s Party building theory.

After the Southern Anhui Incident in 1941, he served as the Political Commissar of the New Fourth Army, and together with Chen Yi, restored and strengthened the revolutionary forces in Central China. In 1945, at the Seventh National Congress of the CPC, he presented the "Report on Amending the Party Constitution" and gave a complete summary and systematic elucidation of the Mao Zedong Thought. In August of the same year, Japan announced its surrender, and Mao Zedong went to Chongqing to negotiate with Chiang Kai-shek. During the absence of Mao Zedong , Liu Shaoqi acted as the Chairman of the Central Committee of CPC.

In March 1947, when the enemy attacked Yan'an during the civil war, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Ren Bishi and others stayed in northern Shaanxi to command the Liberation War, and the campaign to defend the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. Under these circumstances Liu Shaoqi was entrusted by the Party Central Committee moved to north China to serve as the secretary of the Working Committee of the CPC and joined Zhu De, in taking charge of the Party Central Committee’s day-to-day work. Between July to September of 1947, Liu Shaoqi led the National-Level Land Issues Conference which was held in Pingshan County, Hebei Province and presided over the meeting where in the "Outline of Land Law of China" was adopted. The guidelines set at this Conference further promoted the development of the land reform movement in the Liberated Areas.

After the founding of New China in 1949, Liu Shaoqi was elected as the Vice-Chairman of the Central People's Government. In 1954, at the first meeting of the First National People's Congress, he was elected as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. In September 1956, at the Eighth National Congress of the CPC, he made a political report on behalf of the Central Committee, pointing out the direction for the development of socialist cause and Party building, and later he was elected as the Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the CPC at the First Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the CPC. In April 1959, Liu Shaoqi was elected as the Chairman of the People's Republic of China at the first meeting of the Second National People's Congress, and served till October 31, 1968. In the early 1960s, when the Chinese economy was faced with serious difficulties, Liu Shaoqi conducted a large number of investigations and studies and participated in the formulation of a series of important measures and policies to restore and develop the national economy. After the beginning of the “Cultural Revolution” in 1966, Liu Shaoqi was erroneously criticized, and was subjected to political plots and personally defamed and framed by the counter-revolutionary cliques of Lin Biao and Gang of Four. He unjustly died in suffer due to illness on November 12, 1969. In February 1980, the Fifth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Party of the Party made a resolution which rehabilitated Liu Shaoqi. His main works are included in the Selected Works of Liu Shaoqi and Liu Shaoqi's Manuscripts Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China.