Li Weihan (; 2 June 1896 – 11 August 1984) was a

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 ...

politician. After pursuing his studies in France in 1919–20, he returned to China for the first

National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party The National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (; ) is a party congress that is held every five years. The National Congress is formally the highest body within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Since 1987 the National Congress has b ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

in 1921. He studied at the Hunan Self-Study University founded by Mao Zedong. Li became a member of the 6th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party in 1927 but fell out of favour shortly afterwards in the wake of the unsuccessful Autumn Harvest Uprising in junction of

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

and

Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

provinces. When he sought to bring the uprising to an end, he found himself accused of cowardice. Li was eclipsed until reemerging in the early 1930s as a supporter of Li Lisan, a leading figure in the CCP at the time, and an opponent of the anti- Mao 28 Bolsheviks faction. Li Weihan was promoted to become the first principal of the

Yan'an Yan'an; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi Province of China, province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several c ...

-based Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party, the highest training center for party workers and leaders. Li served as principal from 1933 to 1935 and again from 1937 to 1938. After the

Proclamation of the People's Republic of China The proclamation of the People's Republic of China was made by Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), on October 1, 1949, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The government of a new state under the CCP, formally called ...

in 1949, Li was involved in managing China's minorities and nationalities as Chairman of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission. He was also a significant player in the CCP's drive to introduce state control of the economy (

Soviet-type economic planning Soviet-type economic planning (STP) is the specific model of Planned economy#Central planning, centralized planning employed by Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist socialist states modeled on the economy of the Soviet Union. The post-''pere ...

), and in the late-1950s

Anti-Rightist Campaign The Anti-Rightist Campaign () in the People's Republic of China, which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged " Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country as a whole. The campaign w ...

, in which his own brother was purged. Li was the director between 1944 and 1964 of the United Front Department, the predecessor to the present-day

United Front Work Department The United Front Work Department (UFWD) is a department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tasked with " united front work". It gathers intelligence on, manages relations with, and attempts to gain influence over ...

. He was removed from his post in 1964 and was subsequently criticised by

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...

for "capitulationism in united front work". However, he reemerged after 1978 as a supporter of the reformist

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping also Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Teng Hsiao-p'ing; born Xiansheng (). (22 August 190419 February 1997) was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary, and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's R ...

– who Li had saved from persecution years before – and as a critic of Mao and autocracy in the CCP, which Li referred to as "feudalism". Deng promoted Li in 1982 to the post of vice chairman of the Central Advisory Commission, which Deng himself chaired. Li died in office in August 1984.

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