Background
Ch’i Yen-ming was born in Wan-p’ing hsien, Hopeh, a few miles west of Peking. His courtesy name is Chen-hsun.
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Ch’i Yen-ming
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also known as
Chen-hsun
Education
Sources differ on his education, but apparently he graduated from Yenching University, he is reported to know English, French, and some Russian. Sometime in the 1920’s, Ch’i began his career as a teacher, working first in the First Peking Municipal Girls Middle School and then at Ta-t’ung Middle School. In about 1930 he joined the CCP, probably in secret. He continued his teaching career in Peking, serving as a lecturer in the department of literature at the Sino-French University in 1933-34. Then from 1934 to 1937 he taught at China Institute (presumably Chung- kuo kung-hsueh, a school that was disbanded after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War).
Career
When the war broke out in mid-1937 with Japan he fled to Yenan where he became dean of a political training institute. His activities in Yenan during the war are undocumented, but presumably he was engaged in teaching. In 1945 he served as a deputy secretary-general of the preparatory committee for a “People’s Assembly of the Liberated Areas” held in Yenan, but further information on this meeting is lacking.
There can be little question that during the Yenan period Ch’i gained the confidence of the Party leaders. Proof of this was evident by the winter of 1945-46 when he accompanied the Communist delegation led by Chou En-lai to Chungking to participate in the Political Consultative Conference (held in January 1946). Three years later, in April 1949, a Nationalist delegation came to Peking to conduct peace negotiations with the Communists talks that inevitably ended in failure as the Communists had by then conquered most of China north of the Yangtze. Ch’i served as the secretary-general of the Communist side for these negotiations.
By mid-1949 Ch’i was busily engaged in preparations for establishing the Communist government and mass organizations, in July he was a member of the preparatory committee for the First All-China Scientists Conference and in the same month he was also one of the convenors of the Social Science Workers Conference. Out of these two conferences grew several of the more important mass organizations formed in the early days of the PRC (e.g., the All-China Federation of Scientific Societies and the Political Science and Law Association of China). More important was Ch’i’s participation in the formation of the central government. The first formal steps were taken in June 1949 when a preparatory committee was formed for the “new” Political Consultative Conference, a committee chaired by Mao Tse-tung. Party veteran Li Wei- han was named as the secretary-general of the committee, with Ch’i serving as one of the deputy secretanes-general. From the work of the preparatory committee came the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The first session of the CPPCC was held in September, immediately after which the PRC was brought into existence. While these meetings were in session, Ch'i served as one of the deputy secretaries-general of the CPPCC presidium (steering committee) under Secretary-general Lin Po-ch’ii.
When the central government was fully staffed in October 1949, Ch’i received two important administrative posts. He was named as head of the Staff Office of the Central People’s Government Council (CPGC), the supreme organ of state power until the constitutional government was inaugurated in 1954 and a body under the direct leadership of Mao Tse-tung. Standing below the CPGC was the cabinet-like organ known from 1949 to 1954 as the Government Administration Council (GAC), the other post Ch’i received in October 1949 was that of a deputy secretary-general of the GAC. He continued as a deputy secretary-general after the GAC was renamed the State Council in 1954, and until he was removed in March 1965 he was the only man who had served continuously in this post from the formation of the central government in 1949. During this period of over 15 years Ch’i served as the immediate subordinate of three important Party leaders: Li Wei-han, Hsi Chung-hsun, and Chou Jung-hsin. Moreover, from December 1949 to March 1952, Ch’i also headed the Secretariat of the GAC, an organization that dealt with security matters. Ch’i’s involvement in the security field was well illustrated in June 1951 when he delivered a report (which was approved) before the 87th GAC meeting on the “preservation of state secrecy” and on regulations for the organization of “security committees” at all levels of government.
By 1951 he was serving as secretary-general of the Party’s United Front Work Department headed by Li Wei-han (until 1965), who was also Ch’i’s superior in the GAC. The duration of Ch’i’s tenure in this post is not known. In view of his background as an intellectual, he would be a logical candidate for work in the United Front Department, the organization charged with gaining maximum cooperation from China’s non-Party personages, particularly the intellectuals and minority groups.
Ch’i’s work during the early and mid-1950’s was mainly along administrative lines, as the titles of his many positions suggest. He continued in this type of work even after the constitution was inaugurated in September 1954 at the first session of the First NPC (which Ch’i attended as a deputy from his native Hopeh). As already noted, he was reappointed as a deputy secretary- general of the State Council during this governmental reorganization (fall 1954); in addition, he was appointed to head the Staff Office of the Premier (Chou En-lai), a position he held until April 1958. It was as a senior administrative official in the State Council that Ch’i took part in the talks with the Soviet Union which led to the signing in December 1954 of the Sino-Soviet Air Service Agreement, formalizing civil air service between the two Communist powers. In October 1956, Ch’i received still another high-level administrative assignment when he was made director of the State Council’s Bureau of Experts Administration, an organ apparently responsible for the placement of senior scientific personnel (but one which should not be confused with the “Bureau of Foreign Experts”).
On December 12, 1960, the Chinese formed the China-Cambodia Friendship Association, just prior to a visit to China by Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. Ch’i was named as president of this organization and, owing to the increased ties with Cambodia in the years after 1960, he has been involved in a great number of activities (such as banquets or tours) sponsored by the association for Cambodian visitors to China. Logically, Ch’i was present in December 1960 when Prince Sihanouk signed the Sino-Cambodian Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Non-aggression in Peking at the close of his visit.
Further evidence of Ch’i’s growing role in cultural affairs was provided in 1961 and 1962. In March 1961 he was named as chairman of the Committee on the Culture of Minority Nationalities (Ch’i himself being a Mongol) under the Ministry of Culture and two months later (May 1961) was elected as secretary-general of the Peking Society of Philosophy at its inaugural meeting. He was among the speakers at a national forum in Canton in March 1962 which dealt with the writing of plays and “modern” operas, a forum attended by such top Party leaders as Chou En-lai and Ch’en I. In the following month in Peking he presided over a meeting concerned with the problems of training writers and artists of minority nationalities and of compiling minority folk art.
As already noted, Ch’i was elected from his native Hopeh as a deputy to the First NPC (1954-1959). He again served from Hopeh to the Second NPC (1959-1964) and then in October 1964 was re-elected from Hopeh once more for the Third NPC, which held its initial session in December 1964—January 1965. Aside from numerous positions already mentioned, Ch’i has participated in the work of many other bodies and meetings, or organizations of minor importance. For example, since August 1956 he has been an executive committee member of the China Welfare Institute (headed by Sung Ch’ing-ling); in September 1959 he served on the preparatory committee for celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of the PRC; and in September 1961 he served on the preparatory committee for commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution.
Membership
In May 1957, when the State Council’s Scientific Planning Commission was reorganized, he was named as a member, holding this position until the commission was merged with another in November 1958. After this, the scope of Ch’i’s activities changed somewhat, giving greater emphasis to cultural as opposed to purely administrative work. For example, in 1958 he served as head of a section under the Scientific Planning Commission devoted to the classification and publication of ancient Chinese classics. This new emphasis on cultural affairs culminated in February 1960 when he was named as a vice-minister of Culture under Shen Yen-ping (Mao Tun) and, after January 1965, under Lu Ting-i. In August 1960, Ch’i was a member of the presidium (steering committee) for the third congress of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (ACFLAC). At the close of the congress he was named to the ACFLAC National Committee and in the same month became a member of the Standing Committee of one of the affiliates of the ACFLAC, the Uniori'of Chinese Drama Workers.
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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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1937
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1949
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1954
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March, 1961