Liang Xiang (; 1919 – 13 December 1998) was a politician of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. He was originally from the city of

Kaiping Kaiping (), postal map romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized in Cantonese as Hoiping, in local dialect as Hoihen, is a county-level city in Guangdong provinces of China, Province, China. It is located in the western secti ...

, in

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

province. He graduated from

Beijing Normal University Beijing Normal University (BNU) () is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education of China, and co-funded by the Ministry of Education and the B ...

, and was a representative in the fifth, sixth, and seventh

National People's Congress The National People's Congress (NPC) is the highest organ of state power of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The NPC is the only branch of government in China, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs from the Sta ...

es.

Biography

Liang joined the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

in 1936 at the age of 17. He then served as the deputy director of the

Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party The Central Party School is a higher education institution that trains Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadres. It is located in Haidian, Beijing, close to Summer Palace and Old Summer Palace. The current president is Chen Xi, a former member ...

. He served as the CCP Committee Secretary of Xi'an County in

Jilin ) , image_skyline = Changbaishan Tianchi from western rim.jpg , image_alt = , image_caption = View of Heaven Lake , image_map = Jilin in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_al ...

province. He rose first to the position of head of Xi'an county, and then to the CCP committee secretary of the Chaoyang city region. From January 1955 to August 1964, he served as the vice-mayor of

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

. After leaving his post there, Liang served as the CCP Deputy Committee Secretary for the central committee of

Shaoguan Shaoguan is a prefecture-level city in northern Guangdong Province ( Yuebei), South China, bordering Hunan to the northwest and Jiangxi to the northeast. It is home to the mummified remains of the sixth Zen Buddhist patriarch Huineng. Its built-u ...

city until November 1972. From then until June 1977, he served as the deputy Party secretary of the third People's Congress of Guangzhou. From 1977 to 1981, Liang was a member of the Guangdong provincial People's Congress, and the Second Secretary of Guangzhou city. In 1981, Liang served briefly as the First Secretary of

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

. He then became a citizen of the city, and a member and secretary of the standing committee to create its

Special Economic Zone A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...

. Once the government was founded, he served as the mayor of Shenzhen. He continued to serve as mayor and Party secretary of the city's central committee until August 1985, when he gave up the position of mayor. He continued to serve as Party secretary of the central committee until 1986. From 1986 to 1987, he served as the deputy director of the Guangdong People's Consultative Committee. From 1987 to 1988, Liang was the deputy organization minister during the founding of

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

province. In February 1988, he became the deputy secretary of the central working committee of the new province. From March 1988 to September 1989, he served concurrently as the deputy secretary of the Hainan central committee and as the first governor of the province. In the wake of the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...

, Liang Xiang allowed many of the protest leaders to flee the country through Hainan. Mary Ann O’Donnell, “Heroes of the Special Zone: Modeling Reform and Its Limits,” in Mary Ann O’Donnell, Winnie Wong, and Jonathan Bach, eds., Learning from Shenzhen: China’s Post-Mao Experiment from Special Zone to Model City (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), 58. As a result, he was purged in September on trumped up charges of corruption and misuse of power. In that same year, Liang lost his status as a representative at the 7th National People's Congress. On 13 December 1998, Liang Xiang died due to illness in Guangzhou.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liang, Xiang 1919 births 1998 deaths 20th-century mayors of places in China Delegates to the 5th National People's Congress Delegates to the 6th National People's Congress Delegates to the 7th National People's Congress People from Kaiping People's Republic of China politicians from Guangdong Chinese Communist Party politicians from Guangdong Mayors of Shenzhen Political office-holders in Guangdong Governors of Hainan Beijing Normal University alumni Politicians from Jiangmen