Chin Chung-hua

February, 1902

Zhejiang, China

For a brief period in 1936 Chin was in Hong Kong with leftist journalist and publisher Tsou T’ao-fen publishing the Sheng-huo jih pao (Life daily). Chin soon returned to Shanghai, however, where he became associated with still another publication, the Kuo-min chou-k’an (National weekly). Among his colleagues on the latter were the well-known lawyer, Chang Chih-jang, and Miss Shen Tzu-chiu, later the wife of Hu Yu-chih. Chin spent the years from 1938 to 1941 in Hong Kong, where he was chief editor of the influential Hsing-tao jih-pao. From 1939 to 1941 he was also a member of the International Committee of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, better known by its abbreviated name “Indusco,” an organization that attempted to stimulate the manufacture of small producer and consumer goods in China after the loss of the main industrial centers to the Japanese (see under Meng Yung-ch’ien). When Hong Kong fell to the Japanese in late 1941, Chin went to Kweilin, where from 1942 to 1944 he edited a daily. The fall of Kweilin to the Japanese in November 1944 again forced Chin to move, this time to Chungking, where from 1944 to 1946 he was in charge of translation for the Press Monitoring Section of the U.S. Office of War Information. An American colleague of his at this time asserts that he was completely fluent in English.1 After the war ended he went back to Shanghai, where from 1946 to 1948 he continued to be in charge of translation, now with the U.S. Consulate General. In this same period he again served as an editor for the Shih-chieh chih-shih that had resumed publication in Shanghai at the end of 1945. Chin stayed in Shanghai until 1948 when he went to Hong Kong, where he worked as a free-lance writer. Although he had long been associated with “progressive” or left-inclined publications, the exact date he joined the CCP is not known. Eric Chou, a former writer for the Communist Ta-kung pao, claims that Chin was already a Party member when he worked for the Americans in Chungking. Chin left Hong Kong and made his way to Communist-controlled areas in north China in March 1949 and by the following month was in Peking. His first assignment was to accompany Kuo Mo-jo to Prague to attend the World Peace Congress in April. Upon his return home he was assigned to Shanghai, where he had worked for many years. There he became a cultural and educational adviser to the Shanghai Military Control Commission. He returned to Peking to participate in the formation of the “mass” organizations and the central government in the summer and fall of 1949. Chin attended the meeting in July 1949 that established the Preparatory Committee of the All-China Journalists’ Association (ACJA); he was elected at this time to membership on the Preparatory Committee, and in this capacity attended the inaugural session of the CPPCC in September, the organ that brought the new central government into existence (October 1). By the latter part of 1949 Chin was back in Shanghai where, aside from occasional trips to Peking, he has since worked. To govern east China the Communists formed in early 1950 the East China Military and Administrative Committee (ECMAC), known from December 1952 until its dissolution in 1954 as the East China Administrative Committee (ECAC). During this four-year period Chin was a member of the ECMAC-ECAC, a deputy director of the Culture Department, and a member of the Culture and Education Committee. In 1952 Chin assumed two additional journalistic assignments. In that year the well-known English-language monthly China Reconstructs was established; Chin has been an editor since the journal began and since 1955 he has also chaired the Editorial Board. In October 1952 the China News Service (Chung-kuo hsin-wen she) was inaugurated with Chin as director. This news agency, not to be confused with the better- known New China News Agency, directs most of its dispatches toward the overseas Chinese community. It was probably for this reason that Chin was appointed in March 1957 to membership on the State Council’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission, a position he continues to hold. In the middle and late fifties he received still more journalistic posts. In September 1954 he was elected a vice-chairman of the All-China Journalists’ Association, and by 1955 he was chairman of its Shanghai branch. When he attended the IOJ meeting in Helsinki in mid-1956, he was elected a member of the IOJ Executive Committee; three years later, at the IOJ meeting in Bulgaria, Chin replaced Teng T’o as the Chinese vice-president of the IOJ. During the 1957-1958 “rectification” movement, Chin denounced numerous “rightists” in the field of journalism, and when Hsu Chu-ch’eng was purged in March 1958 as director of the important Shanghai Wen-hui pao, Chin replaced him. Like Chin, Hsu was a veteran journalist and had also worked for the U.S. Government in Shanghai. Already a top Communist journalist, with the assumption of this post on the important Wen-hui pao, Chin clearly moved to the forefront of journalism in the PRC’s largest city-long the publishing center of China.

Chin Chung-hua

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politician

Background

Chin was born in February 1902 in Chia-hsiang, in northern Chekiang midway between Shanghai and Hangchow, the capital of Chekiang.

Education

Little is known about his education.

Career

For a brief period in 1936 Chin was in Hong Kong with leftist journalist and publisher Tsou T’ao-fen publishing the Sheng-huo jih pao (Life daily). Chin soon returned to Shanghai, however, where he became associated with still another publication, the Kuo-min chou-k’an (National weekly). Among his colleagues on the latter were the well-known lawyer, Chang Chih-jang, and Miss Shen Tzu-chiu, later the wife of Hu Yu-chih. Chin spent the years from 1938 to 1941 in Hong Kong, where he was chief editor of the influential Hsing-tao jih-pao. From 1939 to 1941 he was also a member of the International Committee of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, better known by its abbreviated name “Indusco,” an organization that attempted to stimulate the manufacture of small producer and consumer goods in China after the loss of the main industrial centers to the Japanese (see under Meng Yung-ch’ien). When Hong Kong fell to the Japanese in late 1941, Chin went to Kweilin, where from 1942 to 1944 he edited a daily. The fall of Kweilin to the Japanese in November 1944 again forced Chin to move, this time to Chungking, where from 1944 to 1946 he was in charge of translation for the Press Monitoring Section of the U.S. Office of War Information. An American colleague of his at this time asserts that he was completely fluent in English.1 After the war ended he went back to Shanghai, where from 1946 to 1948 he continued to be in charge of translation, now with the U.S. Consulate General. In this same period he again served as an editor for the Shih-chieh chih-shih that had resumed publication in Shanghai at the end of 1945. Chin stayed in Shanghai until 1948 when he went to Hong Kong, where he worked as a free-lance writer. Although he had long been associated with “progressive” or left-inclined publications, the exact date he joined the CCP is not known. Eric Chou, a former writer for the Communist Ta-kung pao, claims that Chin was already a Party member when he worked for the Americans in Chungking.

Chin left Hong Kong and made his way to Communist-controlled areas in north China in March 1949 and by the following month was in Peking. His first assignment was to accompany Kuo Mo-jo to Prague to attend the World Peace Congress in April. Upon his return home he was assigned to Shanghai, where he had worked for many years. There he became a cultural and educational adviser to the Shanghai Military Control Commission. He returned to Peking to participate in the formation of the “mass” organizations and the central government in the summer and fall of 1949. Chin attended the meeting in July 1949 that established the Preparatory Committee of the All-China Journalists’ Association (ACJA); he was elected at this time to membership on the Preparatory Committee, and in this capacity attended the inaugural session of the CPPCC in September, the organ that brought the new central government into existence (October 1).

By the latter part of 1949 Chin was back in Shanghai where, aside from occasional trips to Peking, he has since worked. To govern east China the Communists formed in early 1950 the East China Military and Administrative Committee (ECMAC), known from December 1952 until its dissolution in 1954 as the East China Administrative Committee (ECAC). During this four-year period Chin was a member of the ECMAC-ECAC, a deputy director of the Culture Department, and a member of the Culture and Education Committee.

In 1952 Chin assumed two additional journalistic assignments. In that year the well-known English-language monthly China Reconstructs was established; Chin has been an editor since the journal began and since 1955 he has also chaired the Editorial Board. In October 1952 the China News Service (Chung-kuo hsin-wen she) was inaugurated with Chin as director. This news agency, not to be confused with the better- known New China News Agency, directs most of its dispatches toward the overseas Chinese community. It was probably for this reason that Chin was appointed in March 1957 to membership on the State Council’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission, a position he continues to hold. In the middle and late fifties he received still more journalistic posts. In September 1954 he was elected a vice-chairman of the All-China Journalists’ Association, and by 1955 he was chairman of its Shanghai branch. When he attended the IOJ meeting in Helsinki in mid-1956, he was elected a member of the IOJ Executive Committee; three years later, at the IOJ meeting in Bulgaria, Chin replaced Teng T’o as the Chinese vice-president of the IOJ. During the 1957-1958 “rectification” movement, Chin denounced numerous “rightists” in the field of journalism, and when Hsu Chu-ch’eng was purged in March 1958 as director of the important Shanghai Wen-hui pao, Chin replaced him. Like Chin, Hsu was a veteran journalist and had also worked for the U.S. Government in Shanghai. Already a top Communist journalist, with the assumption of this post on the important Wen-hui pao, Chin clearly moved to the forefront of journalism in the PRC’s largest city-long the publishing center of China.

Politics

Chin had gone to the World Peace Congress in Prague in 1949. Over the next decade and a half he made numerous other trips abroad and by the mid-sixties had become one of the most widely traveled Chinese Communist leaders. Because of Chin’s extensive experience in dealing with foreigners and his journalistic background, most of his journeys were related to either the promotion of the Communist-backed international “peace” movement or to the activities of the international front organization for journalists, the International Organization of Journalists (IOJ). Including his 1949 trip to Czechoslovakia, Chin led or was a member of 26 delegations between 1949 and 1964. These trips are summarized as follows: 1950: member, delegation led by Kuo Mo-jo to the Second World Peace Congress, Warsaw, November; 1952: member, delegation led by Sung Ch’ing-ling to the Congress of Peoples for Peace, Vienna, December; 1953: deputy leader, fourth sub-group of the delegation led by Ho Lung to “comfort” the CPV in North Korea, Octobcr-November, member, delegation led by Shen Yen-ping to a World Peace Council (WPC) meeting, Vienna, November 1954: member, delegation led by Kuo Mo-jo to an extraordinary session of the WPC, East Berlin, May, member, delegation led by Liu Ning-i to a WPC meeting, Stockholm, November-Deccmber; 1955 member, delegation led by Kuo Mo-jo to the Asian Countries Conference, New Delhi, April,1956: leader, delegation to the International Meeting of Journalists (sponsored by the IOJ), Helsinki, June; 1957: member, delegation led by Kuo Mojo to Afro-Asian Solidarity Conference, Cairo, December 1957 January 1958; 1958: leader, delegation to the Fourth Congress of the IOJ, Rumania, May, member, delegation led by Kuo Mo-jo to the Conference on Disarmament and International Cooperation, Sweden, July; 1959: member, delegation led by Liao Ch’eng-chih to the All-India Afro-Asian Solidarity Conference, Calcutta, April; member, delegation led by Kuo Mo-jo to an extraordinary session of the WPC, Stockholm, May; presumably attended a session of the Executive Committee of the IOJ, Varna, Bulgaria (at which time he was elected an IOJ vice-president).

Membership

He was elected a member of the First National Committee of the CPPCC, holding this post until the Second Committee was formed in December 1954. Chin also received posts in two important “mass” organizations. In October 1949 he was elected a National Committee member of the China Peace Committee, an affiliate of the World Peace Council in which he has been quite active. Almost 16 years later (June 1965), he was elevated to a Peace Committee vice chairmanship. Also in 1949 he was appointed to membership on the Board of Directors of the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs upon its establishment in December, another post he still holds.

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Chin Chung-hua

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1931 - 1948

1952