Liu Shaoqi
(1898–1969), People's Republic of China president. Liu Shaoqi was a tragic political figure, symbolizing the political struggle occurring in China over the first fifty years of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Liu joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1921 when he was studying in Moscow. After he returned to China, he became one of the CCP leaders working underground among workers. Along with Li Lisan (1899–1967), Liu organized a strike by 400,000 workers in 1922. In 1934, Liu participated in the Long March and played an important support role for Mao Zedong (1893–1976) during the Yan'an period.
After the PRC was founded in 1949, Liu was named chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) in 1954. In 1956, he made a bold proposal to reform the Chinese economy, a move that eventually cost him his life. Along with Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997), Liu insisted that China's socialism should concentrate on increasing the productivity and development of the national economy. In 1959, Liu was promoted to the posts of president of China and chairman of the Defense Committee. He was also in charge of the daily work of the PRC and CCP before the Cultural Revolution. However, Liu began to struggle with Mao in 1960 regarding the national economic policy.
At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1967, Liu was labeled as "taking the capitalist road" and arrested. Liu was physically abused by the Red Guards (students who adulated Mao during the Cultural Revolution), kicked out of the CCP, and died in Henan Province in 1968. In February 1980, the CCP rehabilitated his name, but only after fourteen years of humiliation.
Further Reading
Baum, Richard. (1994) Burying Mao: Chinese Politics in the Age of Deng Xiaoping. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Fairbank, John King. (1987) The Great Chinese Revolution: 1800–1985. New York: Harper and Row.
Fairbank, John King, and Merle Goldman. (1998) China: A New History. Enlarged ed. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
This is the complete article, containing 322 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
