Chang Chih-i

1900

Wuhang, Fujian, China

Chang was known to have been in Sinkiang in about 1939 when a number of important Party leaders such as Ch’en T’an-ch’iu, Mao Tse-min (Mao Tse-tung’s brother), and Ma Ming-fang were working there.1 These men were in Sinkiang with the sufferance of Sheng Shih-ts’ai, the provincial governor, who from the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War to about 1942 was on friendly terms with the Soviet government in Moscow and the Chinese Communists. After Sheng’s 1942 break with the Communists, he imprisoned and executed some important Communists (including Ch’en T’an-ch’iu and Mao Tse-min), but Chang had already left the area, because by 1941 he was working with Ch’en I’s New Fourth Army in east China where he was director of the Political Department of the 15th Brigade of the Fifth Division. The Fifth Division was created after the Nationalists routed a large part of the Communist Army in central China in the military coup known as the New Fourth Army Incident (January 1941). The Division, composed of guerrilla forces from the “Honan-Hupeh Volunteers,” which had been brought together in the area north of Hankow by Li Hsien-nien, established a headquarters in the Hupeh-Honan-Anhwei Military Area in the spring of 1941. Here Chang was director of the Political Department of the Third Military Sub-district. Chang presumably remained in east-central China with Li Hsien-nien throughout the 1940’s, for he was with Li’s forces in the spring of 1949 when the Communists captured Hupeh and its leading city, Wuhan. Chang was assigned to his native Wuhan as a vice-mayor serving under Mayor Wu Te-feng, another native of Hupeh. At this same time he was also director of the United Front Work Department of the CCP’s Central China Bureau. When this Bureau was enlarged into the Central-South Bureau in the latter part of 1949 (reflecting the expansion of the area of control as the Communist armies pushed southward), Chang retained the directorship, a position he held until the Bureau was abolished in the fall of 1954. The directorship of the United Front Work Department placed him in control of Party relations with both the non-Communist intellectuals and the national minority groups in central-south China. Hupeh Province was one of the six provinces that, for administrative purposes within the government structure, was subordinate to the Central-South Military and Administrative Committee (CSMAC), brought into existence under the chairmanship of Lin Piao in February 1950. It was to the CSMAC (known as the Central-South Administrative Committee after January 1953) that Chang devoted the major portion of his time until 1954. Within a month of its creation he was named as the CSMAC secretary-general, and in November 1951 he was appointed to head the Nationalities Affairs Committee, his field of special competence. In December 1951 he became a vice-chairman of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee under Li Hsueh-feng, later to become a Central Committee member. Then in May 1953 Chang replaced Li as the chairman. He also served as a vice-chairman of an ad hoc committee for the region established in November 1951 to promote the Party drive against corruption and waste. The committee was headed by Teng Tzu-hui, the top economic specialist of the CSMAC in the early 1950’s. During this same period Chang’s extracurricular activities brought him onto several committees concerned with different phases of Party work in the central-south region. Thus he was secretary-general of the central-south branch of the China Peace Committee in 1950, and in 1952 he was vice-chairman of the Wuhan Anti-Corruption Committee and a member of committees concerned with flood control and the prevention of epidemics. In January 1953 he led a delegation to visit the national minorities in Honan. Chang was first appointed to a post in the national government in November 1952, when he became a vice-chairman of the Nationalities Affairs Commission, the principal government organization handling minority affairs (then under the Government Administration Council). However, he continued to work in central-south China until 1954, when regional governments were abolished with the inauguration of’ a constitutional government. In that year Chang was elected to represent his native Hupeh in the First NPC. At the close of the initial NPC session in September 1954, he was named to the Nationalities Committee, the body concentrating on minority questions as they concern the Congress, and one of two NPC Committees that are, active between the national congresses. Chang became a vice-chairman of the Nationalities Committee in mid-1955, and continued to serve there throughout the term of the First NPC (1954— 1959). He was not, however, re-elected to the Second NPC that opened in April 1959, but he was elected as a Honan deputy to the Third NPC that held its initial session in December 1964-January 1965. By April 1955 Chang also received an important promotion in the CCP, becoming a deputy director of the national CCP United Front Work Department, a position he still holds. The Department was headed by Li Wei-han until 1965 and thereafter by Hsu Ping. Tn May 1955 Chang was made a deputy director of the Eighth Staff Office of the State Council. Also headed by Li Wei-han, the Eighth Office was in charge of coordinating the work of the State Council’s ministries, commissions, and bureaus concerned with united front work, overseas Chinese, and national minority affairs. Chang remained in the Eighth Office until it was abolished in September 1959 when the State Council underwent a partial reorganization. In March 1957 Chang was named as a CCP representative on the Second National Committee of the CPPCC to fill a vacancy. In October of the same year he was appointed as a deputy secretary-general of the CPPCC National Committee, serving under Secretary-general Hsu Ping. He was again named to membership on the Third National Committee of the CPPCC, formed in April 1959, and at the close of the National Committee’s initial session he was elevated to Standing Committee membership. In addition to continuing under the Third Committee as a deputy secretary-general, he was also a vice-chairman of its Local Work Committee, posts he held until the Fourth Committee of the CPPCC was established in December 1964-January 1965. Chang was named to the Fourth Committee as a “specially invited personage” (rather than from the CCP); however, he was not re-elected to the Standing Committee. Both these facts suggest a somewhat lessened role within this organization. Since coming to Peking in late 1954, Chang has made a tremendous number of public appear-ances at events related to work with national minority groups, non-Communist intellectuals, and religious groups. To cite two random but typical examples, he spoke at a national conference of Christians held late in 1960 and early 1961, and in July 1962 he was a speaker at the graduation ceremony of the Central Institute of Socialism, a special school for training non-Communist intellectuals. He has also been a steady contributor to a number of newspapers and journals, most frequently writing about national minority or religious questions. He has written most of his articles for such publications as Min-tsu t’uan-chieh (Nationalities unity), the chief organ dealing with minority questions, or for the Kuang-ming jih-pao, the newspaper ostensibly edited by the eight non-Communist political parties. Among his more important writings are two articles on Party policies toward religion; one was entitled “Atheists and Theists Can Cooperate Politically and Travel the Road of Socialism” (1958) and the other “Correctly Understand and Implement the Party’s Policy on Freedom of Religious Belief” (1962). But his most important work is a major historical and ideological treatment of the minorities question, a book entitled Chung-kuo ko-ming te min-tsu wen-t’i ho min-tsu cheng-ts’e chiang-hua (A discussion of nationalities questions and policies in the Chinese revolution; Peking, 1956). George Moseley has translated and annotated Chang’s book, publishing it under the title The Party and the National Question in China (Cambridge, Mass., 1966).

Chang Chih-i

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polititician

Background

Chang Chih-i was a native of Wuhan, he was born approximately 1900.

Education

He has come to be one of the Party’s foremost spokesmen in national minorities affairs. He probably gained some familiarity with minority problems in the late 1930’s when he was working for the Parly in Sinkiang, a province predominantly populated by non-Han Chinese.

Career

Chang was known to have been in Sinkiang in about 1939 when a number of important Party leaders such as Ch’en T’an-ch’iu, Mao Tse-min (Mao Tse-tung’s brother), and Ma Ming-fang were working there.1 These men were in Sinkiang with the sufferance of Sheng Shih-ts’ai, the provincial governor, who from the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War to about 1942 was on friendly terms with the Soviet government in Moscow and the Chinese Communists. After Sheng’s 1942 break with the Communists, he imprisoned and executed some important Communists (including Ch’en T’an-ch’iu and Mao Tse-min), but Chang had already left the area, because by 1941 he was working with Ch’en I’s New Fourth Army in east China where he was director of the Political Department of the 15th Brigade of the Fifth Division. The Fifth Division was created after the Nationalists routed a large part of the Communist Army in central China in the military coup known as the New Fourth Army Incident (January 1941). The Division, composed of guerrilla forces from the “Honan-Hupeh Volunteers,” which had been brought together in the area north of Hankow by Li Hsien-nien, established a headquarters in the Hupeh-Honan-Anhwei Military Area in the spring of 1941. Here Chang was director of the Political Department of the Third Military Sub-district.

Chang presumably remained in east-central China with Li Hsien-nien throughout the 1940’s, for he was with Li’s forces in the spring of 1949 when the Communists captured Hupeh and its leading city, Wuhan. Chang was assigned to his native Wuhan as a vice-mayor serving under Mayor Wu Te-feng, another native of Hupeh. At this same time he was also director of the United Front Work Department of the CCP’s Central China Bureau. When this Bureau was enlarged into the Central-South Bureau in the latter part of 1949 (reflecting the expansion of the area of control as the Communist armies pushed southward), Chang retained the directorship, a position he held until the Bureau was abolished in the fall of 1954. The directorship of the United Front Work Department placed him in control of Party relations with both the non-Communist intellectuals and the national minority groups in central-south China.

Hupeh Province was one of the six provinces that, for administrative purposes within the government structure, was subordinate to the Central-South Military and Administrative Committee (CSMAC), brought into existence under the chairmanship of Lin Piao in February 1950. It was to the CSMAC (known as the Central-South Administrative Committee after January 1953) that Chang devoted the major portion of his time until 1954. Within a month of its creation he was named as the CSMAC secretary-general, and in November 1951 he was appointed to head the Nationalities Affairs Committee, his field of special competence. In December 1951 he became a vice-chairman of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee under Li Hsueh-feng, later to become a Central Committee member. Then in May 1953 Chang replaced Li as the chairman. He also served as a vice-chairman of an ad hoc committee for the region established in November 1951 to promote the Party drive against corruption and waste. The committee was headed by Teng Tzu-hui, the top economic specialist of the CSMAC in the early 1950’s.

During this same period Chang’s extracurricular activities brought him onto several committees concerned with different phases of Party work in the central-south region. Thus he was secretary-general of the central-south branch of the China Peace Committee in 1950, and in 1952 he was vice-chairman of the Wuhan Anti-Corruption Committee and a member of committees concerned with flood control and the prevention of epidemics. In January 1953 he led a delegation to visit the national minorities in Honan.

Chang was first appointed to a post in the national government in November 1952, when he became a vice-chairman of the Nationalities Affairs Commission, the principal government organization handling minority affairs (then under the Government Administration Council). However, he continued to work in central-south China until 1954, when regional governments were abolished with the inauguration of’ a constitutional government. In that year Chang was elected to represent his native Hupeh in the First NPC. At the close of the initial NPC session in September 1954, he was named to the Nationalities Committee, the body concentrating on minority questions as they concern the Congress, and one of two NPC Committees that are, active between the national congresses. Chang became a vice-chairman of the Nationalities Committee in mid-1955, and continued to serve there throughout the term of the First NPC (1954— 1959). He was not, however, re-elected to the Second NPC that opened in April 1959, but he was elected as a Honan deputy to the Third NPC that held its initial session in December 1964-January 1965.

By April 1955 Chang also received an important promotion in the CCP, becoming a deputy director of the national CCP United Front Work Department, a position he still holds. The Department was headed by Li Wei-han until 1965 and thereafter by Hsu Ping. Tn May 1955 Chang was made a deputy director of the Eighth Staff Office of the State Council. Also headed by Li Wei-han, the Eighth Office was in charge of coordinating the work of the State Council’s ministries, commissions, and bureaus concerned with united front work, overseas Chinese, and national minority affairs. Chang remained in the Eighth Office until it was abolished in September 1959 when the State Council underwent a partial reorganization. In March 1957 Chang was named as a CCP representative on the Second National Committee of the CPPCC to fill a vacancy. In October of the same year he was appointed as a deputy secretary-general of the CPPCC National Committee, serving under Secretary-general Hsu Ping. He was again named to membership on the Third National Committee of the CPPCC, formed in April 1959, and at the close of the National Committee’s initial session he was elevated to Standing Committee membership. In addition to continuing under the Third Committee as a deputy secretary-general, he was also a vice-chairman of its Local Work Committee, posts he held until the Fourth Committee of the CPPCC was established in December 1964-January 1965. Chang was named to the Fourth Committee as a “specially invited personage” (rather than from the CCP); however, he was not re-elected to the Standing Committee. Both these facts suggest a somewhat lessened role within this organization.

Since coming to Peking in late 1954, Chang has made a tremendous number of public appear-ances at events related to work with national minority groups, non-Communist intellectuals, and religious groups. To cite two random but typical examples, he spoke at a national conference of Christians held late in 1960 and early 1961, and in July 1962 he was a speaker at the graduation ceremony of the Central Institute of Socialism, a special school for training non-Communist intellectuals. He has also been a steady contributor to a number of newspapers and journals, most frequently writing about national minority or religious questions. He has written most of his articles for such publications as Min-tsu t’uan-chieh (Nationalities unity), the chief organ dealing with minority questions, or for the Kuang-ming jih-pao, the newspaper ostensibly edited by the eight non-Communist political parties. Among his more important writings are two articles on Party policies toward religion; one was entitled “Atheists and Theists Can Cooperate Politically and Travel the Road of Socialism” (1958) and the other “Correctly Understand and Implement the Party’s Policy on Freedom of Religious Belief” (1962). But his most important work is a major historical and ideological treatment of the minorities question, a book entitled Chung-kuo ko-ming te min-tsu wen-t’i ho min-tsu cheng-ts’e chiang-hua (A discussion of nationalities questions and policies in the Chinese revolution; Peking, 1956). George Moseley has translated and annotated Chang’s book, publishing it under the title The Party and the National Question in China (Cambridge, Mass., 1966).

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Chang Chih-i

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1954

1952