Background
She was born about 1900 in Shou-kuang hsien in north-central Shan-tung. Her father, a poor peasant, had been a soldier during the 1911 Revolution.
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Ch’en Shao-min
Edit ProfileEducation
From 1913 to 1924 Ch’en was a lace factory worker in Shantung. Although already in her twenties, she attended primary school in Shantung from 1924 to 1926, and then in 1927 studied briefly at a middle school in Wei-hsien, not far southeast of her native Shou-kuang. It was apparently while she attended the middle school that Ch’en had her first contact with Communist activities, joining the Communist Youth League in 1927 and the CCP two years later.
Career
By 1930 Ch’en was back in the textile mills, active this time as a Communist political worker. Work of this sort took her to Peking, Tientsin, and Tsingtao. At about this time her husband, Jen Kuo-cheng, one-time secretary of the Shan-tung Party Committee, was executed (1931). A child of this marriage died in 1932. In the years from 1930 to 1933, Ch’en continued her political work until arrested and briefly imprisoned by the Nationalist authorities in 1933.
Sources are conflicting about Ch’en’s activities during the period from her release from prison in 1933 to the beginning of the war in 1937. Non-communist sources assert that she engaged in Party organizational work in Hopeh, Shan-tung, and Honan. The Communists, however, have described her “heroic” feats on the Long March from Kiangsi to Shensi in 1934-35. In any event she was in Yenan in 1937 where she attended a conference of CCP organizations in Nationalist-controlled areas dnd also attended a Party school for a brief period.
In 1938 Ch’en was assigned to united front work in Nanchang, the Kiangsi capital, for a brief period. But in the latter part of the same year she was sent to Honan and remained in the central China area for the remainder of the war. In Honan she directed the Party’s Organization Department in 1938, but in the following year she joined guerrilla leader Li Hsien-nien in Hupeh to help organize the Hupeh-Honan guerrilla base. Ch’en is also credited with having commanded guerrilla units and, during and immediately after the war, is known to have held the following posts: director, Organization Department, CCP Central China Bureau; deputy secretary, Central China Bureau; acting chair-man, Hupeh-Honan Border Region Government. It is possible that her work in the Central China Bureau brought her into contact with Liu Shao-ch’i, the Bureau secretary in the early 1940’s.
During the period from her release from prison in 1933 to the beginning of the war in 1937. Non-communist sources assert that she engaged in Party organizational work in Hopeh, Shan-tung, and Honan. The Communists, however, have described her “heroic” feats on the Long March from Kiangsi to Shensi in 1934-35. In any event she was in Yenan in 1937 where she attended a conference of CCP organizations in Nationalist-controlled areas dnd also attended a Party school for a brief period.
In 1938 Ch’en was assigned to united front work in Nanchang, the Kiangsi capital, for a brief period. But in the latter part of the same year she was sent to Honan and remained in the central China area for the remainder of the war. In Honan she directed the Party’s Organization Department in 1938, but in the following year she joined guerrilla leader Li Hsien-nien in Hupeh to help organize the Hupeh-Honan guerrilla base. Ch’en is also credited with having commanded guerrilla units and, during and immediately after the war, is known to have held the following posts: director, Organization Department, CCP Central China Bureau; deputy secretary, Central China Bureau; acting chair-man, Hupeh-Honan Border Region Government. It is possible that her work in the Central China Bureau brought her into contact with Liu Shao-ch’i, the Bureau secretary in the early 1940’s.
At the Party’s Seventh Congress, held from April to June 1945 in Yenan, Ch’en was elected an alternate member of the Central Committee, possibly in absentia. At this Congress, only three women were elected as full or alternate members, the two others being Ts’ai Ch’ang (Mme. Li Fu-ch’un) and Teng Ying-ch’ao (Mme. Chou En-lai). Ch’en’s activities in the postwar years are not documented. She may have remained in east-central China where, with the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists still in progress, she was elected in February 1949 (at an undisclosed location) to membership on the Executive Committee of the East China Women’s Association. Moreover, she was also named as a delegate to the First National Congress of Women held two months later in Peking. At this congress the Chinese formed the All-China Federation of Democratic Women (ACFDW); Ch’en was elected to the Executive Committee and was later re-elected to this position at the congresses held in 1953 and 1957. (At the 1957 congress the ACFDW was renamed the National Women’s Federation of China.)
Ch’en’s position as one of the most important women Communists was illustrated by the events surrounding the historic Eighth Party Congress held in September 1956. At the Seventh Congress in 1945, Ch’en had been elected as the eighth-ranking alternate member of the Central Committee. However, in the intervening years, several deaths among the members of the Central Committee had had the effect of raising her to full membership by the time the Eighth Congress was held in 1956. Then, at the close of the Eighth Congress she was elected to full membership on the new Central Committee. Aside from a few women who reached Central Committee membership in the early history of the CCP (e.g., Hsiang Ching-yu), in more contemporary times Ch’en is one of only four women to have reached this level, the others being Ts’ai Ch’ang, Teng Ying-ch’ao, and Ch’ien Ying. (There are also four women who are alternate members: Chang Yun, Li Chien-chen, Ou Meng-chueh, and Shuai Meng-ch’i) Ch’en attended the Eighth Congress as a delegate from Hupeh (where she had worked many years earlier), she also served as a member of the Congress presidium (steering committee) and as one of the executive chairmen for two of the daily sessions.
Relatively little was heard about Ch’en in the late fifties and early sixties, although she appeared from time to time in public (most frequently when a foreign trade union delegation was visiting Peking). At one of these public occasions, in July 1961, she was identified as a Council member of the China-Mongolia Friendhip Association, although her membership in this rather unimportant organization must be regarded as largely pro forma. However, her continuing importance in the Party hierarchy was reaffirmed at the Central Committee’s 10th Plenum held in September 1962, when it was decided to expand the powers and membership of the Central Control Commission. In this expansion, which roughly tripled the size of the Commission, Ch’en was added as a member. Although the Communists have never spelled out the details regarding the qualifications for Commission membership, it is clear that representation is by functional groups (e.g., the military, youth organizations). Thus, it is evident that Ch’en represents the labor movement on this important Commission.
Politics
In the earliest days of the PRC, the Communists set about to organize a number of constituent trade unions under the jurisdiction of the ACFL (which Ch'en had represented at the CPPCC meetings). One of the first to be organized was the All-China Textile Workers’ Trade Union (ACTWTU); a preparatory committee was set up in December 1949 followed by the convocation in January 1950 of a conference to elect the leading officials. Ch’en’s long experience in textile factories, plus the fact that this industry had always employed a great number of women, made her a logical choice for the chairmanship of the Preparatory Committee. When the ACTWTU was established on a permanent basis at a conference held in July 1950, Ch’en was the dominant figure, making the keynote speech on past work and future tasks and being elected to the union’s chairmanship. At the next congress, held in Tientsin (an important textile city) in August 1953, she again made the keynote address and was re-elected to the chairmanship. In December 1957, however, probably because she had by then assumed more important responsibilities, Ch’en relinquished the chairmanship to another person (although she has continued to serve on the National Committee of the ACT-WTU).
Membership
At the first session of the CPPCC, held in Peking in September 1949 to form the new government, Ch’en attended as a representative of the All-China Federation of Labor (ACFL). She served on both the presidium (steering committee) and the committee to draft the declarations published in connection with the work of the CPPCC. At the close of the CPPCC meetings Ch’en was elected as a member of the First National Committee representing the ACFL. She again represented the Labor Federation on the Second and Third National Committees (1954-1964), serving also as a Standing Committee member. Although she was named again to the Fourth Committee, she was not re-appointed to the Standing Committee when the first session ended in January 1965 (probably owing to the fact that she had been transferred to the NPC Standing Committee at that time see below). When most of the assignments were made to the new central government in October 1949, Ch’en was named to membership in the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (the approximate equivalent to the office of the U.S. Attorney General), then headed by Lo Jung-huan. She held this post until the constitutional government was inaugurated in the fall of 1954.
In the earliest days of the PRC, the Communists set about to organize a number of constituent trade unions under the jurisdiction of the ACFL (which Ch'en had represented at the CPPCC meetings). One of the first to be organized was the All-China Textile Workers’ Trade Union (ACTWTU), a preparatory committee was set up in December 1949 followed by the convocation in January 1950 of a conference to elect the leading officials. Ch’en’s long experience in textile factories, plus the fact that this industry had always employed a great number of women, made her a logical choice for the chairmanship of the Preparatory Committee. When the ACTWTU was established on a permanent basis at a conference held in July 1950, Ch’en was the dominant figure, making the keynote speech on past work and future tasks and being elected to the union’s chairmanship. At the next congress, held in Tientsin (an important textile city) in August 1953, she again made the keynote address and was re-elected to the chairmanship. In December 1957, however, probably because she had by then assumed more important responsibilities, Ch’en relinquished the chairmanship to another person (although she has continued to serve on the National Committee of the ACT-WTU).
Since November 1951, Ch’en has been a member of the Chinese People’s Committee in Defense of Children and from June 1952 to October 1956 she was a Standing Committee member of the All-China Athletic Federation. In both cases she represented the ACFL, but there are no indications that she has devoted much time to either organization. Ch’en received her next important assignment in 1954 when the NPC was formed. She was elected as a deputy from her native Shantung to the First NPC (1954— 1959) and to the Second NPC (1959-1964). She was once again elected from Shantung to the Third NPC, and when it held its first session (which closed in January 1965), she was elevated to the NPC Standing Committee, the committee in charge of congressional work between the annual sessions.
Connections
There are reports, apparently incorrect, that Ch’en was the wife of Politburo member Li Hsien-nien. If true, this must have been prior to 1964 when Li was known to be married to Lin Chia-mei,
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Born
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Nationality
China -
Ethnicity
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Political Party
Chinese Communist Party
Career
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1930
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1945
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1961