Background
Hsiao Fang-chou was born about 1910 in China.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Hsiao Fang-chou
Edit Profile周小芳
Education
Nothing is known about his education.
Career
By March 1955 Hsiao was identified as a deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), the organization to which he would devote most of his time in the years ahead. The Council was established in May 1952 immediately after the Moscow International Economic Conference, a meeting held for the purpose of breaking out of the economic blockade of the Communist nations by the United States and its allies. Since the CCPIT is technically a nonofficial organ, it has been used mainly in negotiations with nations not having diplomatic relations with Peking. From its establishment the CCPIT has been headed by trade specialists Nan Han-ch’en (the chairman) and the late Chi Ch’ao-ting (the secretary-general).
Hsiao led another delegation abroad in August-September 1956 when he went to the Zagreb International Fair, thus becoming one of the few Chinese officials to have visited Yugoslavia (a visit made during the brief period when Sino-Yugoslav relations were relatively harmonious). Hsiao was abroad again in 1959 and 1963 on similar missions. In February-March 1959 he headed the Chinese exhibition at the Leipzig International Fair in East Germany, one of the most important annual fairs in the Communist world. And in August-September 1963 he was in Algeria in charge of the Chinese “economic construction” exhibition, the opening of which was attended by Algerian Premier Ben Bella.
In the interim, Communist China was expanding its contacts with the non-Communist world, and Hsiao was receiving a number of assignments directly or indirectly related to this work. In November 1956 he was named to membership on the council of the China-Egypt Friendship Association, and when this was merged with a China-Syria counterpart organization in February 1958 (reflecting the merger of Egypt and Syria), Hsiao was placed on the council of the new China-United Arab Republic Friendship Association. Not long after, in July 1958, the Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee of China was enlarged, with Hsiao appointed as one of the new members. He received a broadly similar appointment in April 1960 when he was named to the Standing Committee of the newly formed China-Africa People’s Friendship Association.
As Hsiao’s stature as a foreign trade specialist was growing, he was also moving up the hierarchical ladder within the CCPIT. To handle disputes over maritime shipping, the CCPIT formed a “Maritime Arbitration Commission” in January 1959; Sun Ta-kuang was named as chairman and Hsiao as the vice-chairman. Then, in 1961, after having served several years as a deputy to CCPIT Secretary-General Chi Ch’ao-ting, Hsiao replaced him in this post. Apart from his secretary-generalship, Chi was also a CCPIT vice-chairman. After Chi’s death in August 1963, Hsiao succeeded him in this post, being identified by March 1964. It was in this capacity that Hsiao signed semiofficial letters on May 5, 1964, with a visiting Dutch trade promotion delegation affirming a mutual desire to conclude a trade agreement at a later date.
Politics
By the late 1950’s, it was clear that Hsiao was becoming a specialist in Sino-Japanese relations, with an emphasis on trade. He was very often on hand in Peking when Japanese visitors were there, and in March 1958 he took part in the negotiations (and was one of the signers) of an unofficial trade agreement between China and Japan providing for 35 million English pounds trade each way over a one-year period. Not long after, however, Sino-Japanese relations took a serious turn for the worse, with the result that this agreement was largely negated. Because of this sudden cooling off, Hsiao saw less of the Japanese for the next few years, but as relations improved in the early 1960’s he was once again in the forefront of persons negotiating with visiting Japanese. It was logical, therefore, that when the China-Japan Friendship Association was established in October 1963 Hsiao was named to the Standing Committee. After this extensive association with Japanese affairs, it was also natural that he would lead an economic and trade exhibition to Japan in June and July 1964.
Personality
From time to time Hsiao has written articles which, without exception, have dealt with foreign trade matters. For the Kuang-ming jih-pao of March 28, 1956, he wrote a piece on trade with Arab nations, and for the June 28, 1956, issue of the same newspaper he authored a denunciation of the United States trade embargo on China. He also wrote two articles for the English-language Foreign Trade of the People’s Republic of China; for the December 1963 issue he wrote about his trip to Algeria in AugustSeptember of that year, and for the March 1964 issue he discussed the potentials of Sino-Japanese trade.
-
Born
-
Nationality
China -
Ethnicity
-
Political Party
Chinese Communist Party