Peng Zhen (1902-1997)

Chinese proletarian revolutionary, political and state leader; the main founder of China's socialist legal system; one of the the outstanding leaders of the CPC and the People's Republic of China. A native of Quwo County, Shanxi Province. In 1922, he was admitted to the No. 1 Shanxi Provincial Middle School in Taiyuan, seeking the way to save the nation and the people, participated in the progressive organization of the Youth Study Group and accepted Marxism. He joined the Chinese Socialist Youth League in 1923 and the CPC in the same year. In 1924, he participated in the preparations for the establishment of the KMT Shanxi Provincial Party Branch, launched the KMT-Communist cooperation, and fought against the KMT's right-wing activities aiming to exclude the members of the Communist Party. After the failure of the Great Revolution, he was appointed acting secretary and secretary of Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, member of the Standing Committee of Shunzhi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (leading the Party's work in Beiping, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Chahar, Henan and other provinces and cities at that time), head of Organization Department and acting secretary. He was one of the main leaders of the Communist Party of China in the northern region. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he participated in the work of leading the Party to carry out guerrilla warfare and establish Anti-Japanese War Base Areas in the Northern Region. In 1938, he served as Secretary of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Bureau (North China Bureau) of the CPC Central Committee, and developed and consolidated the Anti-Japanese War Base Areas of Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei together with Nie Rongzhen and other comrades. Since 1941, he has successively served as the education director and vice president of the Central Party School, the head of the Organization Department and the Urban Work Department of the CPC Central Committee and participated in and led the Yan'an Rectification Movement. In 1944, he participated in the Enlarged Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the served as a member of the Drafting Committee of the CPC History Report and CPC Constitution, and participated in the drafting of the “Resolution on Certain Historical Issues” and the “Report on the Amendment of the CPC Constitution”. In 1945, he attended the Seventh Party Congress and was elected member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the First Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee. In August of the same year, he was appointed as alternate secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he was sent to Shenyang to support the important task of opening up the Liberated Areas in Northeast China.

Since the founding of New China, he has successively served as deputy director of the State Council’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee, head of the Central Group for Political and Legal Affairs, member of the Committee for the Administration of North China, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the First, Second and Third National People's Congress, and Vice-Chairman of the Second, Third and Fourth National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In 1956, he was elected member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee at the First Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the CPC. Since 1951, he has concurrently been Mayor of Beijing and since 1955 the first secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC. Until May 1966, he was the main founder of the socialist modernization of the capital. During the “Cultural Revolution”, he suffered cruel persecution. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC in 1978, he successively served as member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Fifth and Sixth National People's Congresses. On April 26, 1997, he died of illness in Beijing. He was 95 years old. His main works are included in Selected Works of Peng Zhen.