Ch’ien San-ch’iang

Background

Ch’ien was born in October 1913. There is conflicting information about his birthplace; some sources list Peking whereas others give Shao-hsing, Chekiang.

Education

However, a student directory published in 1937 by Ch’ien’s alma mater, Tsinghua University, states that he comes from Wu-hsing, Chekiang, the birthplace of his father, Ch’ien Hsuan-t’ung, who was a scholar and one of the leaders of the May Fourth Movement. Young Ch’ien graduated from the Physics Department of Tsinghua University in 1936, and after engaging briefly in research work in Peking he went to France to pursue his study of nuclear physics. There, from 1937 to 1944, he studied at the famous Curie Laboratory, receiving his doctorate in 1943. Ch’ien remained in Paris until 1947 where he continued his research; in 1946 he won the physics award from the French Academy of Sciences. It was also in 1946 that he served as a technical expert to the Republic of China’s delegation at the UNESCO General Conference in Paris, and in this same year he joined the board of directors of the Communist-front World Federation of Scientific Workers.

Career

Ch’ien returned to China in 1948 where he assumed a teaching post in physics at Peking University. He remained in Peking in 1949 when the Communists came to power and in April of that year was a member of the delegation to the Communist World Peace Congress in Prague, visiting the Soviet Union en route. In the next month he was elected to the Standing Committee of the All-China Federation of Democratic Youth, a post he held until the Third Congress of the Federation in 1958. In the same year he became a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, the international organization to which the Chinese Federation is affiliated.

In the summer of 1949 the Communists began detailed preparations for the establishment of the central government as well as for many professional organizations. Ch’ien served on the Preparatory Committee of the CPPCC, which was established in June under the chairmanship of Mao Tse-tung; he subsequently became a member of the First National Committee of the CPPCC from its first session September 1949 when the central government was inaugurated. In early 1953 he was elevated to the Standing Committee, the governing body of the CPPCC when the National Committee is not in session. More important, however, was his participation in the initial steps to reorganize the Chinese scientific community. This was begun in July 1949 at a nationwide conference of scientists, at which time a preparatory committee was established with Ch’ien as one of the members. One year later (August 1950) the All-China Federation of Scientific Societies was brought into being at another conference of scientists. Ch’ien was named to the Standing Committee of this organization, as well as to the Planning Committee. In September 1958 the Federation was merged with another scientific organization to form the China Scientific and Technological Association; from that date to the present he has been a member of its National Committee. Subordinate to the Federation (and later the Association) are a number of professional societies, one of them the China Physics Society of which Ch’ien has been a vice-chairman since January 1952.

It was also in 1949 that Ch’ien joined two of the most active of the “people’s” organizations, the China Peace Committee and the Sino-Soviet Friendship Association. He served on the National Committee of the former until 1958 and on the Executive Committee of the latter until 1954. In October 1949 he received his first post under the new government when he was appointed to membership on the Culture and Education Committee of the Government Administration Council (the cabinet). By the spring of 1950 he was known to be the head of the Physics Department at his alma mater, Tsinghua University.

Since the spring of 1950 Ch’ien has held a series of important posts in the Academy of Sciences. The first was as deputy director of the Planning Bureau; he was appointed to this post in May 1950 and by 1954 had become the director, a position he may still hold. It was also in May 1950 that he was named as deputy director of the Institute of Modern Physics, and in March 1951 he was promoted to the directorship. (In 1958 the Institute was renamed the Institute of Atomic Energy.) In 1954 he became a secretary-general of the Academy, but by 1959 another man succeeded to this post and Ch’ien was made one of the deputy secretaries-general, a post he still holds. Since June 1955 he has also been a member of the Academy’s Department of Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry, and from October of the same year he has served as a member of Science Awards Committee. For the Kuang-ming jih-pao of July 21, 1953, Ch’ien wrote an article summarizing the growth of the Academy of Sciences; a very similar article by him appeared in the English- language People’s China (issue of September 16, 1953).

In recent years, the fact that Ch’ien has not been frequently in the news suggests that he has been devoting most of his time to purely scientific matters. On occasion, however, he has lent his name to such ceremonial committees as one established in September 1961 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution. In addition to his purely scientific writings, he is also the author of articles on science for popular consumption — as in the JMJP of October 11, 1959, when he wrote on the developments in China of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. Similarly, in mid-1962, he was mentioned among a group of prominent scientists who had been giving public lectures in Peking. He has also occasionally served as a host for scientific visitors to China; for example, in October-November 1962 he was mentioned several times in the press in connection with the visit to China of the head of the Theoretical Physics Institute in Copenhagen.

Politics

Ch’ien has had to devote much of his time to politics, particularly in the early fifties. For example, he attended the Second World Peace Congress in Warsaw in November 1950 and in the same month he participated in a Communist youth conference in Vienna. The year 1952 was the high point of his involvement in political activities. In the spring of that year he was a member of a Communist-sponsored group that was charged with the task of investigating the alleged use by the United States of bacteriological warfare in the Korean War, although he himself did not go with the investigation group to Korea. In March 1952 he spoke at a meeting of the World Peace Council in Oslo where he reiterated the charges about “germ warfare.” He visited Sweden briefly and then in May-June he attended a meeting in Austria of the Communist World Federation of Scientific Workers. In October he was an official member of the Chinese delegation to the Asian and Pacific Regions Peace Conference in Peking; at the close of the meeting he was one of the signers of a conference-sponsored declaration condemning the United States again on the “germ warfare” charges. In December 1952 he attended another World Peace Congress held in Vienna. From 1953 to 1955 he was a member of the World Peace Council, the permanent organization of the Communist international “peace” movement.

From February to May 1953 Ch’ien was in Moscow as head of a 26-member scientific delegation sent to study Soviet science and “to strengthen ties and cooperation” in scientific matters. This was the first large delegation of Chinese scientists to visit the Soviet Union. When Stalin died in March 1953, while Ch’ien was in Moscow, he was named to the official Chinese delegation led by Chou En-lai to attend the funeral. Several months after his return from Russia he presented a major report on his visit to the Soviet Union before a meeting of the Government Administration Council (January 1954).

Ch’ien was a deputy to the First NPC from Shantung. He was not elected to the Second NPC (1959-1964) but was again named as a Heilungkiang deputy to the Third NPC, which opened in December 1964. Although there are exceptions (see below), it appears that Ch’ien has been allowed to devote most of his time to scientific matters following his rather extensive political activities of the early 1950’s. Early in 1956 the PRC adopted a broad scale 12-year scientific development plan. To implement this, the Scientific Planning Commission was established in March 1956, and from that date until November 1958 (when it was reorganized) Ch’ien served as one of the members under Chairman Ch’en 1 and, later, Nieh Jung-chen. It was also in March 1956 that Ch’ien was in Moscow to attend a Bloc conference dealing with the establishment of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, which was set up at Dubna near Moscow. Apparently Ch’ien played a major role in this institute, because in May 1957 he spoke before a meeting in Peking of the Academy of Sciences, which dealt with China’s participation in the Dubna Institute.

Connections

Since his days in France he has worked closely with his wife, Ho Tse-hui, a prominent physicist in her own right, said to be the co-disoverer with Ch’ien of new techniques to split uranium atoms, which were developed during their days in France. For her work in China, she was awarded a third class prize in 1956 by the Academy of Sciences. Like her husband, she has been partially involved in political work under the PRC. From 1953 to 1957 she was an alternate member of the Executive Committee of the All-China Federation of Democratic Women, and since 1957 she has been a full member. In June 1953 she attended the Communist-sponsored World Congress of Women in Copenhagen. She has also been a member of the National Committee of the China Peace Committee since 1958 and a deputy from Honan to the Second NPC (19591964) and the Third NPC (1964 to date).

Spouse:

Ho Tse-hui