Background
Nothing is known about his early years.
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Ch’ien Li-jen
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Ch’ien Li-jen did not emerge in the Communist movement until after the establishment of the PRC in 1949, he had become one of the most significant youth leaders by the midfifties. He began his public career in Shanghai in 1949 as a member of the New Democratic Youth League (known as the Communist Youth League after 1957).
Education
Little is known about Ch’ien in the early days of the PRC aside from the fact that in 1952 he was a judge on the Shanghai “People’s Court” and in the same year took part in organizing celebrations in East China to mark the third anniversary of the PRC.
Career
Ch’ien first reached a level of national prominence in 1953 when both the Youth League and the All-China Federation of Democratic Youth held their second congresses. In the more important Youth League he served as a Central Committee member from 1953 to 1964, and during the 1960-1964 period he was also a member of the Standing Committee, the committee responsible for managing League affairs when the Central Committee is not in full session. His rise in the All-China Federation of Democratic Youth (known as the All-China Youth Federation after 1958) approximates his role in the Youth League. He went from membership on the National Committee in 1953 to a vice-chairmanship in 1962, serving also as a deputy secretary-general (1953-1958) and then as secretary-general from 1959 to 1962. However, none of these posts were as important as his part in the international liaison work of both youth organizations. Like most important organizations in Communist China, both the Youth Federation and the Youth League have extremely active international liaison departments. Until the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations in the early 1960’s, the liaison activities of both organizations were strongly oriented toward the Soviet Bloc nations and such Communist-dominated organizations as the World Federation of Democratic Youth. In both the Federation and the League, Ch’ien was one of the key international liaison figures from the early fifties to the early sixties. He began to take an active part in these affairs in June 1953 when he was named as deputy director of the Youth Federation’s International Liaison Department at the close of the second Federation Congress. He succeeded to the directorship of the Department by 1959 and held the post until about 1962. Paralleling this assignment, he was a deputy director of the Youth League’s International Liaison Department by 1957 and the director by 1959; he held this position until 1964.
In May 1965 he was a member of the Chinese delegation to the Fourth Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Conference in Ghana. The Chinese group was led by Central Committee member Liao Ch’eng-chih, one of Peking’s most influential figures in the promotion of Afro- Asian ties. In the following month, Ch’ien served as an adviser to the government delegation led by Premier Chou En-lai to the Second Afro-Asian Conference scheduled to be held in Algiers. Whereas the “Solidarity” conferences have ostensibly been non-governmental, the Afro-Asian Conference was to be the direct heir of the famous governmental Bandung Conference of 1955. However, owing mainly to a coup in Algiers just prior to the scheduled opening of the conference, it was not held. The Chinese delegation, therefore, never proceeded beyond Cairo.
He also served on an ad hoc committee formed in April 1963 to “receive and settle Chinese nationals victimized in India,” which, as the title suggests, pertained to the aftermath of the Sino-Indian border conflict of late 1962 following which a number of Chinese nationals in India emigrated to Communist China. Ch’ien has also held one position in the national government, serving on the Third National Committee of the CPPCC as a representative of the All-China Youth Federation. He was elected to the post in 1959, but he was not returned to the Fourth Committee that opened in December 1964.
In 1964 and 1965 both of the major youth organizations underwent major changes of top echelon personnel. Ch’ien lost all his posts in both of the Youth League and the Youth Federation. However, as already described, it was after these events that he made the two important trips to Africa in 1965 in the company of such top leaders as Liao Ch’eng-chih and Chou En-lai. It is apparent, therefore, that he has advanced to a level of authority beyond the youth organizations. His long ties in international liaison work suggest that he will continue in this line of activity, possibly in some capacity in the Foreign Ministry or in a Party organization related to foreign affairs.
Politics
In addition to serving as host for numerous youth delegations visiting China in the fifties and sixties, Ch’ien’s important role in international youth liaison work was most clearly manifested by the large number of trips made abroad on behalf of one or both of the youth organizations. Between 1953 and mid-1965, Ch’ien made no less than 13 journeys abroad, trips that took him to 16 different nations. In general, his travels can be divided into two categories - those to Communist countries (or to events dominated by Communists) and, secondly, to the Afro- Asian nations. Thus, Ch’ien participated in delegations sent by China to meetings or youth “festivals” sponsored by either the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) or the International Union of Students (both Communist-backed) in Rumania (July-August 1953), Sweden (January 1954 and February 1961), the U.S.S.R. (July-August 1957 and July 1961), Austria (July-August 1959), Finland (February 1961 and July-August 1962), and Czechoslovakia (November 1961). It was while he was in Rumania in July 1953 that he was elected as a secretary of the WFDY (at the third congress of this organization). It is not certain how long he held this position, but presumably he relinquished it by the middle or late fifties.
As the Chinese Communists became more involved with the Afro-Asian nations in the mid- 1950’s, they naturally began to participate in (and often initiate) meetings to gather together peoples from the Afro-Asian world. One of the first endeavors in this field was the 1955 Asian Countries Conference (see under Yang Shuo), later altered to “Afro-Asian Solidarity Conferences” (see below). It was in this vein that Ch’ien led a group to Jakarta in May-June 1956 to attend meetings of the International Preparatory Committee for the Afro-Asian Students’ Conference. He went in his capacity as secretary- general of the All-China Students’ Federation, although he does not appear to have had any later affiliation with this organization. Perhaps his most important assignment in promoting Afro-Asian relations occurred over the winter of 1963-64 when he led a “youth friendship” delegation to six African nations. From late November 1963 to the end of January 1964 the group toured Mali, Ghana, Senegal, Tanganyika, Kenya, and Somali, visits that took place at a time when the Chinese were vigorously attempting to garner support for their policies in Africa. It is also noteworthy that these visits took place just a few weeks or days before Chou En-lai visited three of these nations (Mali, Ghana, and Somali).
Apart from those trips already described, Ch’ien also led a youth delegation to the Fourth National Conference of, the Cuban Socialist Youth League in April 1960. Early in the next month he took his group to Chile at the invitation of Chile-China Cultural Institute to attend a celebration sponsored by the Institute to commemorate the anniversary of the famous Chinese May Fourth Movement. Ch’ien was to have made a trip in May—June 1964 to Japan at the invitation of the Japan-China Friendship Association (in Tokyo). However, because the Japanese authorities would not permit the entry of Ch’ien’s group into Japan, the visit was cancelled.
Membership
In view of this extensive record of contacts abroad, it is not surprising that Ch’ien has assumed several positions in the many organizations in Peking devoted to one or another aspect of foreign relations. A list of these posts is as follows: member, Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee of China, July 1958. Promoted to a vicechairmanship, June 1965, member, Board of Directors, China-Iraq Friendship Association, September 1958 to date; member, Standing Committee, China-Latin American Friendship Association, March 1960 to date.
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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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1953 - 1964
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1953