Background
Nothing is known aboun Ch'en's background.
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Ch’en Yu
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Ch’en’s whereabouts in the late forties and early fifties are not documented, but apparently he spent most of this period at the WFTU Head-quarters, then in Vienna.
Career
Although Ch’en had returned to China by 1953, he was to spend much time abroad in the ensuing years, usually traveling under the auspices of either the WFTU or the ACF IU and very frequently in the company of either Liu Ning-i or Liu Ch’ang-sheng. The two Liu’s, both politically more important than Ch’en, have held high posts in the WFTU. It is evident that Ch’en’s career is intimately linked with these two leaders, both of whom are CCP Central Committee members. Thus it was as a member of a delegation led by Liu Ning-i that Ch en attended the Third WFTU Congress in Vienna in October 1953 when he was re-elected an alternate member of the General Council. He was next abroad in March-April 1955 as an adviser to the WFTU delegation sent to Japan for a meeting of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE), a regional organization subordinate to the United Nations. In the interim, reflecting his activity in international relations.
In December 1956 Ch’en was identified as a deputy director of the ACFTU’s International Liaison Department, a logical assignment in view of his background. Within less than a year he was serving as acting director, and by September 1958 he had become the director. In the meantime he had gone abroad again, attending a congress of the Indonesian Plantation Workers’ Union in January 1957. In July of that year he left Peking for Hong Kong en route to Tokyo to attend a congress of the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan, better known by its Japanese contraction, “SOHYO.” Ch’en stayed 10 days in Hong Kong but returned to China when the Japanese refused to give him a visa. In October 1957 he was once again elected an alternate member of the WFTU General Council at the Fourth WFTU Congress in Leipzig, East Germany. He was, in addition, elected an alternate member of the smaller but more important WFTU Executive Committee. The Chinese delegation was led by Liu Ch’ang-sheng, but it is not certain if Ch’en attended the Congress. When the Eighth ACFTU Congress was held in December 1957, Ch’en served as one of the deputy secretaries-general of the Congress presidium (steering committee), and at the close of the meetings he was re-elected to the Executive Committee, a position he still holds. Several years later, in April 1966, he was identified as a secretary of the ACFTU Secretariat, the body in charge of the routine work of the Federation when the Executive Committee is not in session.
Throughout the 1950’s the activities of the WFTU had been conducted in a spirit of unanimity; more bluntly, the WFTU was essentially a mouthpiece for the policies of the Soviet Union. However, beginning about 1960, as a by-product of the Sino-Soviet ideological dispute, the WFTU was used by both the Chinese and the Russians to denounce each other. It was in this changing atmosphere that Ch’en attended the 11th Session of the WFTU General Council in Peking in June 1960. The meetings were characterized by only slightly veiled recriminations between the Chinese and the Russians. (For a more detailed treatment of this important meeting, see under Liu Ch’ang-sheng, the head of the Chinese delegation.) In July-August 1960 Ch’en was in Japan as a member of Liu Ning-i’s delegation sent there to attend the 10th anniversary of the SOHYO as well as its 15th Congress. In addition, the same delegation also participated in the Sixth World Conference for the Prohibition of Atomic and Hydrogen Weapons. In October of the same year Ch’en was a member of Liu Ch’ang-sheng’s trade union delegation to Australia; their appearance there was greeted with open hostility by the Australians (see'under Liu Ch’ang-sheng).
Between 1961 and 1965 Ch’en attended three more WFTU meetings. These were held in East Berlin (February 1961); Sofia, Bulgaria (March 1963); and, Moscow (January 1965). During this same period he was promoted within the WFTU hierarchy; he was elevated to full membership on the WFTU General Council in 1961 and to full membership on the Executive Committee by 1964. Most important, he became a member of the WFTU Secretariat in 1965, re-placing K’ang Yung-ho who, like Ch’en, is a specialist in international liaison activities. Apart from these trips to WFTU meetings, Ch’en has made two others. In July 1964 he went to Japan for a SOHYO congress and in October-November 1964 he led a trade union delegation to Algeria for the 10th anniversary of the Algerian Revolution. From there he proceeded to the Congo (Brazzaville) where he attended a Congolese trade union congress.
Membership
He was not reported in China until May 1953 when he was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) at the Seventh Labor Congress. In this same month he was also identified as a member of the Asian and Australasian Liaison Bureau of the WFTU; by November 1953 he had become secretary-general of the Bureau, a post he held until at least the end of 1956. However, rather little was heard about the Bureau and it apparently lapsed into inactivity by the mid-fifties.
Ch’en was made a member in May 1954 of the Board of Directors of the newly formed Chinese People’s Association for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, a position he probably still retains.
As already noted, Ch’en had become director of the ACFTU International Liaison Department in 1958. In this capacity, aside from his numerous trips abroad, he has been very frequently in contact with the many foreign trade union delegations that have visited China. He remained as Liaison Department director until the spring of 1963 when he was replaced by Li Yun-ch’uan whose activities have been quite similar to Ch’en’s. In the late fifties and early sixties Ch’en also received new posts, most of them related to some aspect of international relations. Since July 1958 he has been a member of the Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee of China and a Standing Committee member of the China Peace Committee. In March 1960 he was named to Standing Committee membership on the newly established China-Latin America Friendship Association. He has also been affiliated with the CPPCC since the Third National Committee was formed in April 1959. Representing the ACFTU he was a member of the Third Committee (1959— 1964), and he was again named to the Fourth Committee that opened its initial session in December 1964.
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Born
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Nationality
China -
Ethnicity
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Political Party
Chinese Communist Party