Han Che-i

Shantung, China

To administer those areas captured in north China, the North China People’s Government was created in August 1948. This government, in turn, was divided into a number of sub-districts, one of them the Hopeh-Shantung-Honan Administrative Office where Han served in 1948 and 1949 as a deputy director. The North China Government was absorbed by the central government when it was formed in October 1949, but just prior to that time (in August 1949) Pingyuan Province was formed with its capital in Hsin-hsiang (in present-day north Honan). Han was transferred southward to join this new government as a vice-governor and concurrently as head of the Industry Department; the next year he was also made a vice-chairman of the provincial Finance and Economics Committee (August 1950). These two appointments in the field of economics were a harbinger of the type of work that Han would perform in the years ahead. He was also engaged in 1950-51 in the perennial problem of controlling the Yellow River, being named in 1950 as a deputy director of the Yellow River Flood Prevention Headquarters. Apparently Han’s work in Pingyuan gained favorable attention in Peking, because he was called back north at the end of 195! when the North China Administrative Committee (NCAC) was established (December 1951), the NCAC was a multi-provincial governmental organ supervising the work in the five provinces of Hopeh, Shansi, Chahar, Suiyuan, and Pingyuan. It existed until the six regional administration committees were all abolished in 1954. A few days after his appointment to membership on the NCAC, Han was named (January 1952) as the NCAC Director of Finance. Within the next 18 months Han received two more important economic posts under the NCAC, in January 1953 he was appointed a vice-chairman of a committee to regulate warehouses in North China (a potentially important position in a nation where food storage is a critical matter), and in mid-1953 he was named a vice-chairman of the region’s Finance and Economics Committee. He held these posts to the end of the summer of 1954 when he was transferred to work in the national government. In August 1954 Han received two appointments in the central government, and from that time until transferred to East China in 1961 he held a series of important positions in the government’s network of economic commissions and bureaus. Because of the complexity of these appointments, they are first summarized in tabular form, and then commented upon in the text that follows. Member, State Planning Commission August-October 1954 Director, Slate Supplies Allocation Bureau, State Planning Commission August 1954-probably May 1956 Vice-chairman, State Planning Commission October 1954-November 1956 Vice-chairman, State Economic Commission November 1956-September 1959 Director, Administrative Bureau of Supplies State Council November 1956-probably September 1959 Vice-chairman, State Planning Commission October 1958-1961 The State Planning Commission had been formed in late 1952 on the eve of the First Five-Year Plan, inaugurated in 1953. Han became associated with the Planning Commission in August 1954, just prior to the general reorganization of the central government in September-October 1954. At this time Li Fu-ch’un, a top economic specialist and later a Politburo member, was named as Chairman; it was also at this point that Han was elevated from membership on the commission to a vice-chairmanship. The growing complexities of the economy' were such that in May 1956 the State Economic Commission was formed. It differed from the State Planning Commission in that it specialized in annual planning whereas the Planning Commission concentrated on long-range planning. This new commission has been headed from 1956 by Po I-po, a man who has ranked just below Li Fu-ch’un in the economic sphere. Han’s transfer from the State Planning Commission to a comparable post (vice-chairman) on the State Economic Commission in the fall of 1956 indicated that he was changing his emphasis from long-range economic planning to shorter-range planning. Two years later, he was reappointed to the State Planning Commission, so that from October 1958 to September 1959 he was concurrently a vice-chairman of the two top economic organizations. Moreover, from 1954 to 1959 Han also headed the government supply bureau, an organ charged with the allocation and distribution of many of the strategic materials needed by' all sectors of the economy. It has been a fairly rare situation when one man has held such high posts within two or more closely related commissions and bureaus and thus seems a tribute to Han’s abilities.

Han Che-i

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politician

Background

Han Che-i is a native of Shantung, but nothing is known of his early life.

Education

He was educated locally. Like many latter-day Communist officials he first emerged in the late 1940’s as the Communists pushed to the fore a number of cadre to staff the many new positions which the mastery of the huge China mainland demanded.

Career

To administer those areas captured in north China, the North China People’s Government was created in August 1948. This government, in turn, was divided into a number of sub-districts, one of them the Hopeh-Shantung-Honan Administrative Office where Han served in 1948 and 1949 as a deputy director. The North China Government was absorbed by the central government when it was formed in October 1949, but just prior to that time (in August 1949) Pingyuan Province was formed with its capital in Hsin-hsiang (in present-day north Honan). Han was transferred southward to join this new government as a vice-governor and concurrently as head of the Industry Department; the next year he was also made a vice-chairman of the provincial Finance and Economics Committee (August 1950). These two appointments in the field of economics were a harbinger of the type of work that Han would perform in the years ahead. He was also engaged in 1950-51 in the perennial problem of controlling the Yellow River, being named in 1950 as a deputy director of the Yellow River Flood Prevention Headquarters.

Apparently Han’s work in Pingyuan gained favorable attention in Peking, because he was called back north at the end of 195! when the North China Administrative Committee (NCAC) was established (December 1951), the NCAC was a multi-provincial governmental organ supervising the work in the five provinces of Hopeh, Shansi, Chahar, Suiyuan, and Pingyuan. It existed until the six regional administration committees were all abolished in 1954. A few days after his appointment to membership on the NCAC, Han was named (January 1952) as the NCAC Director of Finance. Within the next 18 months Han received two more important economic posts under the NCAC, in January 1953 he was appointed a vice-chairman of a committee to regulate warehouses in North China (a potentially important position in a nation where food storage is a critical matter), and in mid-1953 he was named a vice-chairman of the region’s Finance and Economics Committee. He held these posts to the end of the summer of 1954 when he was transferred to work in the national government.

In August 1954 Han received two appointments in the central government, and from that time until transferred to East China in 1961 he held a series of important positions in the government’s network of economic commissions and bureaus. Because of the complexity of these appointments, they are first summarized in tabular form, and then commented upon in the text that follows.

Member, State Planning Commission August-October 1954 Director, Slate Supplies Allocation Bureau, State Planning Commission August 1954-probably May 1956 Vice-chairman, State Planning Commission October 1954-November 1956 Vice-chairman, State Economic Commission November 1956-September 1959 Director, Administrative Bureau of Supplies State Council November 1956-probably September 1959 Vice-chairman, State Planning Commission October 1958-1961

The State Planning Commission had been formed in late 1952 on the eve of the First Five-Year Plan, inaugurated in 1953. Han became associated with the Planning Commission in August 1954, just prior to the general reorganization of the central government in September-October 1954. At this time Li Fu-ch’un, a top economic specialist and later a Politburo member, was named as Chairman; it was also at this point that Han was elevated from membership on the commission to a vice-chairmanship. The growing complexities of the economy' were such that in May 1956 the State Economic Commission was formed. It differed from the State Planning Commission in that it specialized in annual planning whereas the Planning Commission concentrated on long-range planning. This new commission has been headed from 1956 by Po I-po, a man who has ranked just below Li Fu-ch’un in the economic sphere.

Han’s transfer from the State Planning Commission to a comparable post (vice-chairman) on the State Economic Commission in the fall of 1956 indicated that he was changing his emphasis from long-range economic planning to shorter-range planning. Two years later, he was reappointed to the State Planning Commission, so that from October 1958 to September 1959 he was concurrently a vice-chairman of the two top economic organizations. Moreover, from 1954 to 1959 Han also headed the government supply bureau, an organ charged with the allocation and distribution of many of the strategic materials needed by' all sectors of the economy.

It has been a fairly rare situation when one man has held such high posts within two or more closely related commissions and bureaus and thus seems a tribute to Han’s abilities.

Politics

Very little was reported about Han after the general government reshuffling of personnel in September 1959, thereby giving rise to the thought that he may have been among those “economic planners” who opposed the more extreme economic measures employed during the Great Leap Forward. But after receiving no publicity from 1959 to March 1961, he re-appeared in East China as a “responsible official.” Ultimately (July 1962) this description was re-fined to that of alternate secretary of the important East China Bureau of the Party Central Committee. Further evidence of Han’s permanent transfer to east China in early 1961 came with the publication of the semi-official yearbook of 1961, which failed to list him as a vice-chairman of the State Planning Commission (although it was not until February 1963 that he was officially removed).

Han’s transfer to east China came as an outgrowth of decisions taken at the Party’s Ninth Plenum held in January 1961. At that time it was decided to re-create the six regional Party Bureaus which had been abolished in 1954-55. This also came at a period when the effects of the faltering Great Leap Forward had seriously dislocated the entire economy and thus demanded a number of transfers from Peking of capable personnel in all walks of life.

Although a senior economic official, Han has apparently written very little. However, he did write an article for the important Central Committee organ Hung-ch'i (Red flag), May 23,1964. This dealt with a campaign then in progress that stressed the necessity for the less developed industrial regions to learn from the more advanced areas (such as Shanghai).

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Han Che-i

Background

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Career

1949

1953

1954

1954 - 1956