Wan Shaofen (; born August 1930) is a retired Chinese politician who served as

Party Secretary of Jiangxi The secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party is the Party leader, leader of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As t ...

from 1985 to 1988, the first female provincial-level party chief of the People's Republic of China. Her career was closely tied to that of

Hu Yaobang Hu Yaobang (20 November 1915 – 15 April 1989) was a Chinese politician who was a high-ranking official of the People's Republic of China. He held the Leader of the Chinese Communist Party, top office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from ...

. She was persecuted during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

because of her association with Hu, rose to prominence after he became

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party The general secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party ( zh, s=中国共产党中央委员会总书记, p=Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Wěiyuánhuì Zǒngshūjì) is the leader of the Chinese Communist Part ...

in 1982, and lost her position as party chief of Jiangxi after Hu's downfall in 1987.

Life and career

Wan was born in August 1930 in a village near

Nanchang Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi, China. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east by Poyang Lake. Because of its strate ...

, the capital of Jiangxi Province. Her parents were primary school teachers, and she is said to have descended from a

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

defense minister. Wan studied economics at National Chung Cheng University (now

Nanchang University Nanchang University (NCU; ) is a provincial public university in Nanchang, Jiangxi, China. It is affiliated with the Province of Jiangxi, and co-sponsored by the Jiangxi Provincial People's Government and the Ministry of Education of China. The ...

), where she participated in underground

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

activities in 1948. She formally joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1952, after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and became a local leader in 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 or CYL) is a people's organization of the People's Republic of China for youth between the ages of 14 and 28, r ...

(CYL) and the official

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

. Besides Nanchang, she also worked in

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

Province under the CYL leader

, whom she befriended. During the

, she was persecuted for her association with Hu Yaobang, and was incarcerated and physically abused. She was denounced as a

capitalist roader In Maoism, a capitalist roader is a person or group who demonstrates a marked tendency to bow to pressure from bourgeois forces and subsequently attempts to pull the Chinese Communist Revolution in a capitalist direction. If allowed to do so, thes ...

and a follower of the fallen leaders

Liu Shaoqi Liu Shaoqi ( ; 24 November 189812 November 1969) was a Chinese revolutionary and politician. He was the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 1954 to 1959, first-ranking Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communis ...

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 ...

, and Hu. She was politically rehabilitated in 1974 and returned to work in Jiangxi. After Deng Xiaoping took power and began the reform era, Wan gained prominence thanks to her friendship with Hu, who became

in 1982. She rose through the ranks in Jiangxi, working in labour and women's affairs. In 1984 she became head of the Jiangxi CCP Organization Department and a member of the

Provincial Party Standing Committee Members of the standing committees of the Chinese Communist Party provincial-level committees, commonly referred to as ''Shengwei Changwei'' (), make up the top ranks of the provincial-level organizations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I ...

. On 16 June 1985, she was elected by the Jiangxi Party Congress as the Provincial Party Committee Secretary. She gained attention worldwide as the first woman to hold a top provincial leadership position in the PRC. Wan did not complete her term as Party Chief of Jiangxi, mainly because Hu Yaobang was purged in January 1987. In June 1988, she left her posts in Jiangxi and became briefly deputy party secretary of the

All-China Federation of Trade Unions The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) is the national trade union center and people's organization of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest trade union in the world with 302 million members in 1,713,000 primary tra ...

, maintaining her provincial rank. In December 1988, she was appointed deputy head of the

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 ...

, in charge of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan affairs, and served in that position until September 1995. Starting in 1993 she also served two terms as a member of the

National People's Congress Standing Committee The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) is the permanent body of the National People's Congress (NPC), the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. It exercises the powers of the NPC when it is not in s ...

; in 1998, she was named deputy chair of the

National People's Congress Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee The Supervisory and Judicial Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress () is one of ten special committees of the National People's Congress, the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. History The special committe ...

. She is the honorary president of China Charity Federation.

Legacy

Wan is best known as the first female provincial party chief in China. It would be more than 20 years before another woman,

Sun Chunlan Sun Chunlan ( zh , s = 孙春兰 ; born 24 May 1950) is a retired Chinese politician. She served as the second-ranked Vice Premier of China and the highest-ranking incumbent female government official until March 2023. Previously, she served a ...

, took on the top provincial office, of Fujian, in 2009. However, Wan's background in the youth league, the trade union, and women's work was not well suited for running a provincial economy in the reform era. During her tenure, the economic growth of Jiangxi lagged behind neighbouring provinces, especially the coastal provinces of

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

, and

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 ...

. On the other hand, Wan made great contribution to women's work in her home province. She implemented major policies to improve the life of women, set up schools to train female cadres, organized public lectures to raise women's awareness of their rights, and drafted regulations protecting women and children. In 1984, the

All-China Women's Federation The All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) is a women's rights people's organization established in China on 24 March 1949. It was originally called the All-China Democratic Women's Foundation, and was renamed the All-China Women's Federation in 195 ...

issued an unprecedented circular calling for other women cadres to learn from Wan's leadership.

Personal life

After her divorce in the late 1960s, Wan raised her daughter as a single mother.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wan, Shaofen 1930 births Living people Chinese women in politics People's Republic of China politicians from Jiangxi Chinese Communist Party politicians from Jiangxi Political office-holders in Jiangxi Nanchang University alumni Politicians from Nanchang Members of the 13th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Victims of the Cultural Revolution Chinese women's rights activists Members of the 12th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party