Background
Judging from the date of his student days in Peking, Lu P’ing was probably born in 1910 or soon thereafter, and a former professor at Peking University believes that he is a native of Hopeh.
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Lu P’ing
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A member of Communist-led youth organizations in the mid-1930's, Lu PJing was among the top youth leaders in the early years of the PRC. He was subsequently in charge of the Harbin Railway Administration, and from 1954 to 1957 he was a vice-minister of Railways. From 1957 to 1960 he was vice-president of Peking University, and from 1960 until he fell victim to the Cultural Revolution in 1966, he was president of this famed school.
Education
He apparently had his first contact with the left-wing, and ultimately the Communists, when he was a student in the mid-1930’s at China’s foremost academic institution, Peking University (Peita). He was almost certainly a participant in the December Ninth Movement, the name given to a series of student demonstrations that began on December 9，1935, in response to Japanese incursions into north China (see under Li Ch’ang). At first the demonstrations were motivated principally by nationalism, but soon the Communists became active organizers. One of the outgrowths of this patriotic activity was the National Liberation Vanguard of China (NLVC), a student group formed in early 1936, mainly from students in Peking and Tientsin. By no later than the spring of 1936 Lu was deeply involved in the affairs of the NLVC.
Although the students were united in their opposition to the Japanese, they were splintered into a number of student organizations, and thus the NLVC was engaged in internal battles for the allegiance of the students within the various north China universities. According to a Communist account of 1961, Lu took part in a series of debates in the spring of 1936, in which the students argued the appropriate tactics to follow to arouse the nation to action against Japan. The NLVC had been established in February 1936, but it did not hold its first congress until the next February. Although it is not known if Lu attended, he was elected one of the 39 members of the NLVC Executive Committee. A former faculty member at Peita believes that Lu went to Communist-held areas in the northwest to engage in guerrilla warfare after the Japanese attacked in mid-1937.
Career
A number of young students like Lu fled to the northwest in the late 1930, and because of their youth, most of them did not receive much public attention in those war years. But a large number of these young men emerged after the end of the Sino-Japanese War to positions of authority. Only fragmentary information is available on Lu, but apparently he worked briefly in 1945 as a propagandist for the CCP in Shanghai, and then from 1946 was in Hong Kong serving as secretary of the Kowloon Branch Office of the CCP South China Bureau (Kowloon being a major sub-division of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong). Lu next emerged on the public scene back on the mainland in 1948. In August of that year the Communists held the Sixth Labor Congress in Harbin, Manchuria, out of which grew the All-China Federation of Labor (ACFL). Lu was named in May 1949 as a deputy director of the ACFL Youth Labor Department (under Feng Wen-pin, then a senior youth leader), a post he held until about 1952. He became even more deeply involved in youth affairs with the convocation of two youth congresses in the spring of 1949. Out of one of these congresses grew the New Democratic Youth League (NDYL), China's most important youth organization, constitutionally linked to the CCP. Lu was elected to the Central Committee and named to the Standing Committee, then consisting of only nine members. He was also given three other tasks with the Laegue: from 1949 to about 1952 he was head of the NDYL Young Workers Department, secretary of the League’s “Railway Work Committee,” and a committee member of the North China branch of the NDYL. A few days after the NDYL was established (April 1949), another youth congress met (May 1949) and formed the All-China Federation of Democratic Youth (ACFDY). Lu served on the preparatory committee for the congress (representing the SJorth China “liberated areas”) and was subsequently named to the ACFDY First National Committee. Both of these youth organizations held congresses in mid-1953, at which time Lu (already transferred to other work) was dropped from all his positions within both the League and Federation.
Aside from youth work in the first few years of the PRC, Lu P'ing also participated in the formation of the central government in 1949 as well as the formation of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Association and the All-China Railways Workers' Trade Union. He was a delegate of the Youth League to the first session of the CPPCC in September 1949, at which time the central government was formed. During the session he served as a member of the committee which drafted the Organic Law of the CPPCC, one of the key documents adopted at that time. In October 1949 he was selected for membership on the Executive Board of the newly formed Sino-Soviet Friendship Association (remaining on the board until December 1954 when the Second Executive Board was formed), and late in 1949 he was named to the Preparatory Committee of the All-China Railways Workers Trade Union; when the union was brought into existence in February 1950, Lu was elected a vice-chairman under Li Chieh-po (later a Party Central Committee alternate). He remained as a vice-chairman of the union until the second congress was held in April 1954. Closely associated with his work in the railway trade union was his activity within the Ministry of Railways. From 1950 to about 1952 he was head of the ministry's Political Department, and in September 1951 he served on the presidium (steering committee) for a nationwide conference of “model” railway workers.
From the end of 1952 to October 1954, Lu was in Harbin serving as director of the Harbin Railway Administration, an organization directly subordinate to the Ministry of Railways. Apparently his work was viewed with favor, for in October 1954 he was brought to Peking and made a vice-minister of Railways under Minister T’eng Tai-yuan. Despite the importance of this post, nothing was heard of Lu until October 1957 when he was transferred from his position as a vice-minister to a vice-presidency of his alma mater, Peking University. The Peita president at that time was Ma Yin-ch'u, a non-Communist and one of China's most famed economists. Within a few months of becoming vice-president, Lu was identified as secretary of the CCP Committee at Peita, politically, therefore, Lu was the ranking university official by early 1958. Two years later, in March 1960, Lu succeeded to Ma’s post as president. Ma had been strongly attacked in the Party press for three years prior to his removal for his open disagreement with various Party-sponsored economic policies. Apart from the presidency of Peita, Lu has held still another post within the school from at least March 1959 when he was identified as chairman of the university “political course pedagogical research office.”
In 1958, Lu assumed two new posts, one in a “friendship” association and the other in the legislative arm of government. In September 1958 the China-Rumania Friendship Association was formed, Lu was named as a vice-president and then in 1960 succeeded to the presidency. Normally, such posts are not particularly taxing on the time of the officials involved; in this instance, however, the increasingly close Sino- Rumanian ties, dating from the winter of 1963-64, have meant that Lu has had to be fairly active in entertaining the frequent visitors from Rumania. Also in 1958, he was elected as a deputy from Heilungkiang to the Second NPC, after serving during the term of the Second NPC (1959-1964) he was re-elected to the Third NPC (which first met in December 1964-January 1965), but on this occasion he was elected as a deputy from Peking. In 1960 he became involved with another friendship association when he was named to council membership on the newly formed (March 1960) China-Latin America Friendship Association. Three months later (June 1960), Lu attended a national conference of “advanced” workers in the fields of culture and education.
Politics
From the mid-1950*s Lu has been often reported in the national press, most frequently in connection with Peita. To cite a random but typical example, he spoke on the achievements of Albania on November 25, 1962, at a meeting at the university held to mark the 50th anniversary of Albanian independence. On occasion he has written articles on educational matters. He wrote one on the achievements of Peita for the university journal in 1959 and another on teacher training for the Peking Kuang-ming jih-pao of September 12, 1963; in the latter he urged that teachers have more time for research and discussed the need for technical proficiency among teachers (apart from ideological considerations).
Lu continued to enjoy an active political career until the late spring of 1966 when, in one of the opening phases of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, he was severely denounced and removed from the presidency of Peita. He has subsequently been the object of innumerable attacks in the official press and the famed Red Guard wall posters and periodicals.
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
Lu is known to have suffered from high blood pressure from at least the late 1950’s, but to judge from his frequent public appearances this does not seem to have impaired his capacity for work. In fact, a former Peita student who was acquainted with Lu asserts that he is a large, robust, and very energetic man. This same person further described him as a very confident personality, a believer in hard work, and a person who tended to be patronizing toward intellectuals.
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Born
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Nationality
China -
Ethnicity
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Political Party
Chinese Communist Party
Career
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1949 - 1952
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May, 1949
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1950 - 1952
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1958
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1960