Xi Zhongxun (1913-2002)

Chinese proletarian revolutionary; one of the outstanding political leaders of the CPC and the People's Liberation Army; one of the main founders and leaders of the Shaanxi-Gansu border revolutionary base areas. His ancestors lived in Dengzhou, Henan Province; he was born in Fuping County, Shaanxi Province. In May 1926, he joined the Communist Youth League of China. In spring of 1928, he was arrested for participating in the patriotic student movement and joined the Communist Party of China in prison. In 1930, he joined the Nationalists' Northwest Army under the command of Yang Hucheng and in the spring of 1932, he organized the "Mutiny in within the Army in the Liangdang County” in Gansu Province. In March 1933, together with Liu Zhidan and others founded the Zhaojin revolutionary base areas in Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region. In November, he took part in leading and opening up the revolutionary base area of Shaanxi-Gansu border with Nanliang as its center. On November 7, 1934, he was elected as the Chairman of the Chinese Soviet Republic in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region and devoted himself to the political power construction and mass work in the base areas.

In September 1935, he was arrested and sentenced to death for opposing the wrong “Left” dogmatic policy of leadership and in October when Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and others arrived in northern Shaanxi, Xi Zhongxun and his comrades were released. In June 1936, along with the Red Army's Western Expedition, he served successively as the Secretary of the labor commission of the Quhuan County branch of the CPC and later as the secretary of the Huanxian County Party Committee. In August, he was appointed as the Secretary of the Guanzhong Special Committee to guard the "South Gate" of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region for six years.

In February 1943, Mao Zedong commended him by writing an inscription in honor of him, which read “The Interests of the Party come first” ; in February of the same year, he was transferred to be the Secretary of the prefectural Party Committee in Suide and the Political Commissar of the Garrison Command. In June 1945, at the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, he was elected as the alternate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he served successively as the Secretary of the Northwest Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China; acting political Commissar of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia- Shanxi-Suiyuan Joint Defense Forces, the Political Commissar of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Field Group Army, and the Deputy Political Commissar of the North West Field Army. From March to May 1947, according to the strategic plan of the Central Committee, Xi started to assist Peng Dehuai in the defense of the Central Party Committee, and had won successive victories of the battles in Qinghuabian, Yangmahe, Panlong County, and finally crushed the KMT army's key attack on northern Shaanxi. Xi Zhongxun made extraordinary contributions to the liberation of the Grand Northwest and the whole China through joint efforts with Peng Dehuai and He Long in fighting in the Northwest Warfield, in political work such as the new rectification in the army, and in the logistic support for the front.

After the founding of New China, he successively served as the Second Secretary of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the Vice-Chairman as the sub-President of the Northwest Military and Administrative Commission, the Vice-President of the Northwest Administrative Commission; as the Political commissar of the first field army and the northwest military region. He has presided over general work of the party and government affairs of the Northwest China for a long time. In September 1952, he was appointed as the Director of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China; Deputy director of the Cultural and Educational Commission of the State Council and secretary of the leading Party group in this department. During this period he was in charge of publicity, culture and education, created a new situation perspective in cultural and educational work. He served as the General Secretary of the Government Administration Council in September 1953 and then the Secretary of the State Council in September 1954. In September 1956, he was elected a member of the Central Committee at the Eighth National Congress of the CPC, in April 1959, he was elected as the Vice premier of the State Council, responsible for the day-to-day work of the State Council. In 1962, at the Tenth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, he was wrongly trialed by the novel Liu Zhidan and severely persecuted during the “Cultural Revolution”.

In April 1978, he was sent to South China to serve as the Second and First secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and as the Governor of Guangdong Province. In September 1982, at the First Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, he was elected as the member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and head of the Secretariat work of the Central Committee; he was responsible for the daily work of the Central Committee. In September 1985, he resigned from his post of the Secretariat work of the Central Committee at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. In April 1988, he was elected as theVice-Chairmen of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress and as theVice-Chairmen of the Chief of the Committee for Internal and Judicial Affairs. He died in Beijing on May 24, 2002, at the age of 89. His main works are collected in Selected Works of Xi Zhongxun.