Background
Nothing is known about his education.
Nothing is known about his education.
He was educated locally.
The other posts Hsu held in the southwest include the following: 1950-1952: member, Kweichow Provincial People’s Government Council and chairman of this government’s Nationalities Affairs Committee, deputy secretary, Kweichow Party Committee, 1951-1952: member, Land Reform Committee, SWMAC. Although few details are available about his work in the southwest, it is evident that he attracted the attention of the central authorities, because in November 1952 he was relieved of all his posts in the southwest and transferred to Peking to become a vice-minister of Public Health, serving under Li Te-ch’iian, who at that time was not a Party member. In the spring of 1953 he was elected an Executive Committee member of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions but relinquished the post at the next congress in December 1957. Another position he held in the mid-1950’s was with the State Council’s Scientific Planning Commission; from its establishment in March 1956 until its reorganization in May 1957, Hsu served as one of the deputy secretaries-general.
Hsu’s 12-year stint in the Ministry of Public Health was one of a steady climb in impor-tance. One of his first important appearances occurred in May-June 1954 when he was a keynote speaker at a ministry-sponsored industrial health conference, at which he emphasized the relationship between sound safety practices and production. More interesting was a speech made in December 1955 at the inauguration of the ministry’s Research Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Hsu emphasized that more work was needed to promote the spread of Chinese medicine (in addition to, though not necessarily in opposition to, Western medicine). At this same time, another vice-minister of Public Health, Ho Ch’eng, was severely criticized for having “belittled” Party leadership in the ministry and for “despising the medical traditions of the fatherland.”
In 1958 Hsu was elected a deputy from Shantung to the Second NPC (1959-1964) but was transferred to the Kweichow constituency for the Third NPC, which held its first session in December 1964-January 1965. A month later, in February 1965, when the Handicraft Industry Administrative Bureau of the State Council was abolished, the Second Ministry of Light Industry was established, with Hsu as the minister. Other persons appointed to this ministry further suggest that its chief work will be involved with the handicraft industry, still a major source of production in China. Hsu has not apparently had any special training or experience in this field; his major qualification appears to be Party loyalty. His former colleague has described him as a very serious-minded person and one completely dedicated to the Party. This same person also stated that as of the early 1960’s Hsu’s wife was working as a director of a bureau in the State Council.
Befitting his role as a ranking vice-minister, Hsu was often on hand to welcome and entertain visiting health delegations or to attend important conferences or ceremonies. He was, for example, a member of the presidium for the national conference of “advanced” cultural and educational workers in June 1960, one of the largest conferences ever held in China (attended by over 6,000 delegates), and in April 1964 he was the senior public health official at a ceremony honoring a military hospital in Peking for its work.