Li Fuchun (; May 22, 1900 – January 9, 1975) was a

Chinese Communist The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

revolutionary and politician. He served as a

Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China The vice premiers of the State Council of the People's Republic of China () are high-ranking officials under the premier and above the state councillors and ministers. Generally, the title is held by multiple individuals at any given time, wi ...

Biography

Li Fuchun was born in

Changsha Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a population of over 10 million, and ...

Hunan Province Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

. After completing middle school in his home province, in 1919 he traveled to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

to attend a work-study program and here he started his political activity. Fascinated by

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

, in 1921 he joined the Socialist Youth of China and, in 1922, the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

(CCP). The following year he married Cai Chang,

Cai Hesen Cai Hesen (March 30, 1895 – August 4, 1931) was an early leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and a friend and comrade of Mao Zedong. Cai was born in Shanghai but grew up in Shuangfeng County in Hunan Province of China. He ...

's sister. In 1925 he went to study in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, but he returned in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

to take part at the

Northern Expedition The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...

, serving as head of the political division of the

National Revolutionary Army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China ...

's 2nd Army and acting CCP secretary of

Jiangxi Province Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into h ...

. It was in this period that he met

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

, working with him at the Peasant Movement Training Institute. Li Fuchun took part at all the Communist Party's major campaigns, including the

Long March The Long March (, lit. ''Long Expedition'') was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the National Army of the Chinese ...

, during which he was vice-director of the General Political Department of the Red Army and political commissar. He later served as secretary of the CCP Committee for

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...

–

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibe ...

– Ningxia. During the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific T ...

, he held a number of jobs, including deputy head of the CCP Central Organization Department, head of the CCP Central Economic and Financial Department, and director of the

General Office A General Office (also known as "administrative office") is an important administrative political organ in the communist party organizations and communist countries (such as China, Laos and Vietnam for instance). Generally speaking, the General Offi ...

. In 1945 he was elected member of the CCP Central Committee. During the 1945–1949

Liberation War Wars of national liberation or national liberation revolutions are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) to establish separat ...

(the final showdown between Communists and Nationalists), he had an important role in ruling Northern China, serving simultaneously as secretary of the CCP

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

Sub-Bureau, standing committee member and deputy secretary of the CCP Northeast Bureau, vice-chairman of the Northeast People's Government and deputy political commissar of the Northeast Military Region. With the establishment of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, both Li Fuchun and Cai Chang were transferred to

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

. While she served as chairwoman of the All-China Women's Federation (a post she held until 1978), Li Fuchun was appointed deputy head of the

Central Economic and Financial Commission Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

under

Chen Yun Chen Yun (, pronounced ; 13 June 1905 – 10 April 1995) was one of the most influential leaders of the People's Republic of China during the 1980s and 1990s and one of the major architects and important policy makers for the Reform and ...

and Minister of Heavy Industry. In 1954 he was promoted to vice-premier and chairman of the State Planning Commission, with the task of overseeing socialist economy planning in China. In 1956 he was also appointed member of the CCP Politburo, and co-opted in the CCP Secretariat in 1958. At the start of the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

, during a reshuffle of the Party's central authority at the 11th Plenary Session of the 8th CCP Central Committee in August 1966, Li Fuchun was elected to the top Politburo Standing Committee. However, he started to manifest his intolerance towards the course of the Cultural Revolution. During a "general report conference of the Centre’s political work" in October 1966, Mao Zedong said of him: "Li Fuchun has been asked to rest for a year. Even I do not know who is in charge of the Planning Commission. Fuchun respects the Party discipline. He told some things to the Secretariat which were not reported to me." Later, in February 1967 he openly attacked the Cultural Revolution during a meeting along with other top leaders like Chen Yi, Li Xiannian and Nie Rongzhen; as a result, they were labeled as the February Countercurrent and thoroughly criticized as revisionists. Despite being part of the "February Countercurrent", Li Fuchun was elected to the 9th CCP Central Committee in 1969. After the fall of Lin Biao in 1971, Mao Zedong declared that the "February Countercurrent" was a closed chapter, and so Li Fuchun was completely rehabilitated. He was elected to the 10th CCP Central Committee in 1973 and also to the 4th National People's Congress in 1974, but he could not attend it as he died on January 9, 1975, just 4 days before its first session. He is still regarded as one of the main founders of China's socialist economy.

Biography

See also