Background
Nothing is known about his background.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Li Fan-wu
Edit Profile
Li Fan-wu is a native of Mu-ling hsien in eastern Heilungkiang about 100 miles from the Soviet Maritime Province. He is one of the few Manchurians to rise to prominence in the Chinese Communist Party. Li studied in Harbin and at a university in Peking, probably in the 1920’s. Shortly after the Mukden Incident precipitated by the Japanese in September 1931, he joined the CCP.
Education
He was educated locally.
Career
It was probably not difficult for Li to remain in contact with Communists and guerrilla forces because the heart of the resistance movement in Manchuria centered in the region close to Li’s native area. In 1935 several guerrilla forces in Manchuria were merged to form the Northeast Allied, or the Allied Anti-Japanese Army (AAJA), led by Yang Ching-yil, Chao Shang-chih, and Chou Pao-chung. Li’s career was closely linked with that of Chou, who ultimately became a Central Committee alternate member. With the formation of the AAJA, Chou became commander of the Fifth Army, with Li as the political commissar.
In addition to his military activities, Li was also reported to have been chairman of the “Eastern Kirin Anti-Japanese Association” in about 1935, apparently an offshoot of the North-east People’s Anti-Japanese Salvation Association, an organization formed in June 1934. After the outbreak of the war in 1937, he made his way westward and by 1938 became associated with the newly formed Shansi-Chahar-Hopeh (Chin-Ch’a-Chi) Border Region, one of the several such Communist regions established in the early stages of the Sino-Japanese War. This Border Region served as the contact point between interior China and Manchuria during the war years, and it was under the auspices of this governmental body that Li engaged in underground activities in the Manchurian areas closest to the Border Region.
At the war’s end, Li returned eastward to his native Mu-ling to organize local forces against the Nationalist Government’s troops. At this critical juncture of modern Chinese history, both the Communists and Nationalists were engaged in a race for the control of Manchuria. Although details are lacking, Li must have gone to Muling at about the time General Lin Piao was leading cadre of the Eighth Route Army into Manchuria to organize troops for the coming struggle against the Nationalists. At the close of the war the Nationalists had reorganized the governmental divisions of Manchuria. One of these provinces was Hokiang (Ho-chiang), Li served as a vice-governor of those portions held by the Communists from February 1946 until October 1948 when the Communists, then in almost complete control of Manchuria, abolished it. Li was then transferred to a comparable post in Sungkiang province, serving there in 1948-49 as vice-governor.
Li was evidently scheduled to remain as a governmental official in Manchuria as the Communists were making their initial plans for staffing the government there in 1949. In August 1949, the Northeast People’s Government was formed, and Li was named as one of the members of the Government Council. However, when these appointments were being confirmed in December 1949, it was officially announced that Li’s name had been withdrawn because of a transfer in assignments. The transfer had taken place, in effect, in October 1949 when Li was appointed as a vice-minister of the Ministry of Forestry and Land Reclamation (known as the Ministry of Forestry after November 1951). The original minister (Liang Hsi) and the other vice-minister were both non-Party members who had been named because of their technical competence. This meant that Li was the senior Party member and therefore the most powerful official in the ministry at the time of the formation of the PRC in 1949. He was to remain in the ministry for over eight years.
In February 1958 there was a partial reorganization of the State Council; Li was then transferred from the Ministry of Forestry to Heilung-kiang, becoming a Secretary on the provincial Party committee; by February 1961 he was promoted to the post of Second Secretary. In both instances he served under Central Committee member Ouyang Ch’in, a long-time senior Party official in Manchuria. When Ouyang relinquished the Heilungkiang gubernatorial post in September 1958, it was Li who succeeded him; he continues to hold this post.
From 1958 Li has been reported performing the tasks which are normal for a provincial official of his rank. Random examples include: deputy leader of a rural work inspection delegation in March 1961, speaker at a Harbin meeting in October 1961 marking the 50th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution, speaker at a Heilungkiang Young Communist League Congress in July-August 1963, speaker at a January 1964 rally in Harbin protesting American “aggression” in Panama. Residing in Harbin, Li is also obliged to spend some of his time hosting the many foreign visitors who come to that important city.
Politics
He was only occasionally mentioned in the press in the early 1950’s. The more significant reports stated that he was: a deputy secretary-general for the National Conference of Labor Models in September-October 1950; reporting on forestry work for 1950 and plans for the 1951 before a GAC meeting on April 13, 1951, a member of the GAC’s Labor Employment Committee from its formation in July 1952, holding this post to the dissolution of the committee in the fall of 1954; a member of the National Committee of the newly established (July 1954) All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, a post he still holds.
Membership
Li has been a rather active NPC member. He was elected to all three Congresses from Heilung-kiang (1954-1959; 1959-1964; 1964 to date); he was a member of the Budget Committee for each, and served on the Presidium for all four sessions of the Second NPC. At the April 1959 session he spoke on agriculture and industry in Heilungkiang, and at the session which closed in January 1965 he spoke on agricultural production in Heilungkiang.
-
Born
-
Nationality
China -
Ethnicity
-
Political Party
Chinese Communist Party
Career
-
1958
-
1946 - 1948