Ma Wenrui (; November 4, 1912 – January 3, 2004) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician. He served successively as China's Minister of Labour, First Party Secretary (top leader) of his native

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 ...

Province, and a Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). He was implicated in the

Liu Zhidan Liu Zhidan (4 October 1903 – 14 April 1936), also known as Liu Chih-tan, was a Chinese military commander and Communist leader, who founded the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Base Area in north-west China, which became the Yan'an Soviet. Early life Li ...

incident in the 1960s, and was persecuted and imprisoned for five years during 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 ...

Early life and revolution

Ma Wenrui was born on November 4, 1912, into a well-off family in

Zizhou County Zizhou County () is a county of Yulin, Shaanxi Yulin () is a prefecture-level city in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Inner Mongolia to the north, Shanxi to the east, and Ningxia to the west. It has an administrative ar ...

Province. His mother died when he was only four. When he was 14, he began studying

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 ...

. He joined the

Communist Youth League of China The Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), also known as the Young Communist League of China or simply the Communist Youth League (CYL), is a youth movement of the People's Republic of China for youth between the ages of 14 and 28, run by the ...

in 1926, and participated in various student movements. He then worked in revolutionary agitation in his home province. In 1935, at age 23, he was instrumental in the founding of two soviets in Shaanxi. 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 worked in northern Shaanxi near the Communist base in

Yan'an Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an) ...

, and studied military science at

Counter-Japanese Military and Political University Counter-Japanese Military and Political University (), also commonly known as Kàngdà () and Kangri Junzheng University (), was a comprehensive public university located in Yan'an, Shaanxi, the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party during t ...

. He was one of the major leaders of the Northwest Bureau of the Communist Party, and an early follower of

Xi Zhongxun Xi Zhongxun (15 October 1913 – 24 May 2002) was a Chinese communist revolutionary and a subsequent political official in the People's Republic of China. He is considered to be among the first and second generation of Chinese leadership. ...

Minister of Labour and persecution

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Ma was elected an alternate member of the

8th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party The 8th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was in session from 1956 to 1969. It was preceded by the 7th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. It held 12 plenary sessions in this period of 13 years. It was the longest serv ...

. He was appointed Minister of Labour in 1954. In 1962,

Kang Sheng Kang Sheng (; 4 November 1898 – 16 December 1975) was a Chinese Communist politician best known for having overseen the CCP's internal security and intelligence apparatus during the early 1940s and again at the height of the Cultural Revolu ...

accused Li Jiantong's biographical novel about the Communist martyr

as an "anti-Party conspiracy", and Ma became implicated merely because Li had interviewed him and written his name in her notebook. The three main victims,

, Jia Tuofu, and Liu Jingfan, were labelled the "Xi-Jia-Liu anti-Party group". At the beginning of the

, Jia died in 1967 after repeated

struggle session Denunciation rallies, also called struggle sessions, were violent public spectacles in Maoist China where people accused of being "Five Black Categories, class enemies" were public humiliation, publicly humiliated, accused, beaten and tortured by ...

s. Ma was then elevated to become a main conspirator of the group, now renamed "Xi-Ma-Liu clique", and subject to severe persecution. He was arrested in January 1968 and spent five years imprisoned at a military garrison.

Post-Cultural Revolution

Ma was politically rehabilitated in 1977, after the end of the Cultural Revolution, and returned to work as the deputy chair of the State Planning Commission, and Vice President of the Central Party School. In December 1978, when the Shaanxi First Party Secretary

Wang Renzhong Wang Renzhong (; January 15, 1917 – March 16, 1992) was a Chinese political leader. He was born to a peasant family in Jing County, Hebei. In November 1933, he joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). From 1938, he served as the vice director ...

was promoted to vice premier, Ma returned to Shaanxi to succeed Wang as the province's top leader. His major contributions to his home province include the restoration of the Xi'an City Wall and the construction of the

Xi'an Xianyang International Airport Xi'an Xianyang International Airport is the main airport serving Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, as well as the whole Guanzhong area. Covering an area of , it is the largest airport in Northwest China, and the second largest airport in Northern Chi ...

. He was a full member of the

11th 11 (eleven) is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12. It is the first repdigit. In English, it is the smallest positive integer whose name has three syllables. Name "Eleven" derives from the Old English ', which is first atteste ...

and 12th CCP Central Committees. He was elevated to the mostly ceremonial position of the Vice-Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in May 1984 and served until 1993, when he retired from politics. In 1990, Ma, together with

Peng Zhen Peng Zhen (pronounced ; October 12, 1902 – April 26, 1997) was a leading member of the Chinese Communist Party. He led the party organization in Beijing following the victory of the Communists in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, but was ...

, founded the Foundation for Research into the Yan'an Spirit; Ma served as its inaugural president. Ma died on January 3, 2004, in Beijing. His last words were "I miss Yan'an".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ma, Wenrui 1912 births 2004 deaths People's Republic of China politicians from Shaanxi Chinese Communist Party politicians from Shaanxi Political office-holders in Shaanxi Government ministers of the People's Republic of China Politicians from Yulin, Shaanxi Victims of the Cultural Revolution Vice Chairpersons of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference