Dong Biwu (1886-1975)

One of the founders of the Communist Party of China; Chinese proletarian revolutionary; outstanding leader of the Party and statesman; founder of the Chinese socialist legal system. Also known as Dong Xiancong, Dong Yongwei, alias Biwu, native of Huang'an (now Hongan) County in Hubei Province. He took part in the Revolution of 1911 and joined the Tong Meng Hui (Chinese Revolutionary League) later that year. In 1914 and in 1916, he was enrolled in a university in Tokyo, Japan to study law.

In 1919, he took part in the May Fourth Movement, initially accepted Marxism. He later founded the Wuhan Middle School and taught Chinese language there. In 1920, he established a communist group in Wuhan together with Chen Tanqiu and others. In July 1921, he attended the First National Congress of the CPC. Later he became a member of the Executive Committee of the CPC Wuhan District, Secretary of the CPC Wuhan Prefectural Committee and member of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee. During the period of the first KMT-Communist cooperation, he led the preparations for the establishment of the KMT Party Department in Hubei Province and served as chairman of the Party Work Committee of the KMT in Hubei Province and alternate member of the Central Executive Committee of the KMT. He went to Moscow in 1928 to study at the Sun Yat-sen University and Lenin Institute. Returning to China in 1932, he served successively as president of the CPC Central Party School, secretary of the Party Affairs Committee of the CPC Central Committee and executive member of the CPC Central Democratic Government of Workers and Peasants. In October 1934, he participated in the Long March. After arriving in northern Shaanxi in 1935, he served as president of the CPC Central Party School and acting chairman of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government.

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he was appointed to Wuhan and Chongqing as member of the Yangtze River Bureau and the Southern Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. He participated in long-term negotiations with the KMT and engaged in the united front work of the Party. In 1938, he was elected as member of the Central Committee at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee. In April 1945, he represented the people of the Liberated Areas and the CPC at the United Nations Constituent Assembly in San Francisco. He returned home in November of the same year and served as a member of the delegation of the CPC to participate in the KMT-Communist Party negotiations. In 1948, he served as director of the Finance and Economics Committee of the Government Council, secretary of the Secretariat of the North China Bureau and president of the North China People's Government. After the founding of New China, he served as member of the Committee of the Central People's Government, Vice President of the State Council and director of the Political and Legal Committee. In 1954, he participated in the drafting and amending work of the Constitution. He served as president of the Supreme People's Court in September of the same year and was elected Vice-Chairman of the Second National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in December. In 1956, he served as secretary of the Central Supervisory Committee.

In 1959, he served as vice-president of the People's Republic of China. In April 1974, he became acting president of the People's Republic of China. In January 1975, he served as Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Fourth National People's Congress. He died in Beijing on April 2, 1975 at the age of 89. His main works are included in Selected Works of Dong Biwu, Collected Political and Legal Writings of Dong Biwu, Selected Poems of Dong Biwu, etc.