Deng Zihui (1896-1972)

Chinese proletarian revolutionary; an outstanding leader of the Chinese peasant movement; one of the main founders of the western Fujian revolutionary base area. Native of Longyan, Fujian Province. In 1917, he went to Japan to study. In the autumn of 1925, he joined the left wing of the restructured KMT. In 1926, he joined the CPC. On May 1, 1927, he led the May 1 Rebellion in Chongyi County. In March 1928, he led the Longyan Houtan riot with Luo Huaisheng and others, and successively served as the minister of Publicity Department of the Shanghang County Committee of the CPC and the deputy commander of the Western Fujian Riot Committee, leading the local armed riots, and cooperating with Mao Zedong and Zhu De leading the Fourth Red Army into Fujian.

In late December 1929, he attended the Ninth Congress of the Fourth Red Army. In 1930, he was served as chairman of the Chinese Soviet government in Western Fujian and political commissar of the Ninth Red Army. Around July 1932, he served as Minister of Finance and Acting Minister of Land of the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic. In October 1934, after the Long March of the Red Army, the main force of the Central Committee, he was ordered to stay in the Soviet Area. In July 1937, on behalf of the Southwest Fujian Military and Political Commission, he participated in the negotiations with the Cantonese Army which ended successfully. During the Anti-Japanese War, he led the struggle in Huaibei Base Area and served successively as vice-director of the Political Department of the New Fourth Army, director of the Political Department of the Jiangbei Command, member of the Central Plains Bureau, director of the Political Department of the General Command of the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army. In June 1945, he was elected member of the Central Committee at the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China. In September of the same year, he served as secretary of the Central China Bureau of the CPC and political commissar of the Central China Military Region. In April 1946, he participated in the discussion and formulation of the “May Fourth Directive”.

In June 1948, he was the third secretary of the Central Plains Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, director of the financial office and deputy political commissar of the Central Plains Military Region. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as director of the Financial and Economic Committee of the Central South Bureau, secretary of the Disciplinary Inspection Committee of the Central South Bureau, second secretary of the Central South Bureau, Vice-Chairman and acting first secretary of the Central South Military and Political Committee. Then his focus of work gradually shifted to rural work. In September 1950, he presided over the formulation of the implementation measures of the Central-South Land Reform Law. In January 1953, Feng was transferred to Beijing to form the Rural Work Department of the CPC Central Committee and serve as minister. In April of the same year, he hosted the First National Conference on Rural Work to correct the impetuous and rash tendency in agricultural work.

In September 1954, he served as vice premier of the State Council and director of the Seventh Office of the State Council. He was in charge of agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, meteorology, supply and marketing and credit cooperation. In June 1955, his opinion on the problem of the speed of agricultural cooperation was wrongly criticized. In September 1962, he was criticized again for advocating "contracting production to households". In November of the same year, he was withdrawn from the Central Rural Work Department and transferred to the National Planning Commission as the deputy director. On December 10, 1972, he died of illness in Beijing at the age of 76. His main works are included in Collected Works of Deng Zihui.