Sun Chih-yuan

1911 (age 48)

China

Little is known about his career prior to the Sino-Japanese War aside from the brief statement in his obituary that he “worked in KMT-controlled areas prior to 1937. With the outbreak of war he worked with guerrilla forces near Paoting in central Hopeh, and then about 1938 he became director of the Political Department of the Communist Eighth Route Army forces in the Central Hopeh Military District under the command of Lii Cheng-ts’ao. Lii, who had joined the Party in 1937, commanded guerrilla forces in the Hopeh District from 1938 to 1943. Both men were members of the Chin-Ch'i-Chi (Shansi- Chahar-Hopeh) Border Region Administrative Committee from its formation in early 1938 (see under Sung Shao-wen, the chairman), Sun Chih- yuan retained this post until 1945. He moved his headquarters to the west sometime before the end of the war and became chief-of-staff and Political Department director of both the Shansi-Suiyuan Military Region and the Shansi-Suiyuan Field Army, posts he held until the close of hostilities in 1945. Sun remained in the Suiyuan area after the war and in 1946 he was the Communist representative on the Peking Executive Headquarters' Field Team at Chi-ning (Tsining, presently in Inner Mongolia), one of the teams responsible for implementing the terms of the Cease-fire Agreement of January 1946, arranged under the auspices of U.S. Special Envoy George C. Marshall. Personal military ranks were not in use in the Communist army, but at Chi-ning Sun held the simulated rank of major-general. After the collapse of the mediation efforts to bring the Communists and Nationalists together, the officers assigned to the field teams returned to the battlefields. Sun served as a column political commissar and an army political department director in the period prior to the defeat of the Nationalists in 1949, during this time he was apparently associated with P'eng Te-huai's First Field Army in the northwest. In late 1952 Sun was released from his posts in the southwest and brought to Peking where he was made a deputy secretary-general of the Government Administration Council (the cabinet) on November 15, 1952. Shortly thereafter he was also named a vice-chairman of the Council’s Labor Employment Committee which had been established in July. In 1954 Sun was elected as a deputy from Szechwan to the First NPC; he was more actively involved in NPC affairs than many deputies, serving on the ad hoc Motions Examination Committee for each of the five sessions held between 1954 and 1958. In October 1954, shortly after the close of the initial NPC meeting, Sun was appointed as a deputy director of the State Councirs Third Staff Office, where he served under Director Po I-po. This office, in charge of coordinating and supervising the work of ministries and commissions in the heavy industry and construction field, underwent a reorganization in September 1959, at which time Sun was removed. Concurrent with his 1954 appointment to the Third Staff Office, Sun was made a vice-chairman of the State Construction Commission, but he was released in November 1956 to become a vice-chairman of the State Economic Commission, in charge of annual economic planning. In both organizations he again served under Po I-po. In September 1959 Sun was reappointed a vicechairman of the Economic Commission and, in addition, he was also made a commission member. Then, in April 1961, he was removed as a vice-chairman, but he retained some influence in commission affairs by his retention of commission membership until June 1964. In the meantime, in March 1956, Sun was named to the newly formed National Association for the Elimination of Illiteracy, but little was heard of his role in this organization. In January 1961 he became minister of the Third Ministry of Machine Building, a post to which he was reappointed in January 1965. The fact that the machine building ministries are not often mentioned in the press probably explains why little was heard about Sun in the sixties. At the time of his reappointment to the Third Ministry in January 1965, Sun was also made a member of the National Defense Council. Though this organization is not regarded as particularly significant, it seems noteworthy that the ministers of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Ministries of Machine Building were also added to the Defense Council at this time, suggesting closer liaison between industry and the military establishment. Sun’s only noted writing, an article entitled ilThe Establishment of Industries by People's Communes and Its Great Significance,” appeared in the JMJP of October 26, 1959. He remained an active member of the central bureaucracy until his death in Peking on October 11, 1966, at the age of 55.

Sun Chih-yuan

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politician

Background

Nothing is known about his background.

Education

He is reported to have graduated from a “teachers’ training college” possibly Peking Normal College. He joined the Communist Youth League in 1929, probably during his student days, and in the following year he was admitted to the CCP.

Career

Little is known about his career prior to the Sino-Japanese War aside from the brief statement in his obituary that he “worked in KMT-controlled areas prior to 1937. With the outbreak of war he worked with guerrilla forces near Paoting in central Hopeh, and then about 1938 he became director of the Political Department of the Communist Eighth Route Army forces in the Central Hopeh Military District under the command of Lii Cheng-ts’ao. Lii, who had joined the Party in 1937, commanded guerrilla forces in the Hopeh District from 1938 to 1943. Both men were members of the Chin-Ch'i-Chi (Shansi- Chahar-Hopeh) Border Region Administrative Committee from its formation in early 1938 (see under Sung Shao-wen, the chairman), Sun Chih- yuan retained this post until 1945. He moved his headquarters to the west sometime before the end of the war and became chief-of-staff and Political Department director of both the Shansi-Suiyuan Military Region and the Shansi-Suiyuan Field Army, posts he held until the close of hostilities in 1945.

Sun remained in the Suiyuan area after the war and in 1946 he was the Communist representative on the Peking Executive Headquarters' Field Team at Chi-ning (Tsining, presently in Inner Mongolia), one of the teams responsible for implementing the terms of the Cease-fire Agreement of January 1946, arranged under the auspices of U.S. Special Envoy George C. Marshall. Personal military ranks were not in use in the Communist army, but at Chi-ning Sun held the simulated rank of major-general. After the collapse of the mediation efforts to bring the Communists and Nationalists together, the officers assigned to the field teams returned to the battlefields. Sun served as a column political commissar and an army political department director in the period prior to the defeat of the Nationalists in 1949, during this time he was apparently associated with P'eng Te-huai's First Field Army in the northwest.

In late 1952 Sun was released from his posts in the southwest and brought to Peking where he was made a deputy secretary-general of the Government Administration Council (the cabinet) on November 15, 1952. Shortly thereafter he was also named a vice-chairman of the Council’s Labor Employment Committee which had been established in July. In 1954 Sun was elected as a deputy from Szechwan to the First NPC; he was more actively involved in NPC affairs than many deputies, serving on the ad hoc Motions Examination Committee for each of the five sessions held between 1954 and 1958. In October 1954, shortly after the close of the initial NPC meeting, Sun was appointed as a deputy director of the State Councirs Third Staff Office, where he served under Director Po I-po. This office, in charge of coordinating and supervising the work of ministries and commissions in the heavy industry and construction field, underwent a reorganization in September 1959, at which time Sun was removed.

Concurrent with his 1954 appointment to the Third Staff Office, Sun was made a vice-chairman of the State Construction Commission, but he was released in November 1956 to become a vice-chairman of the State Economic Commission, in charge of annual economic planning. In both organizations he again served under Po I-po. In September 1959 Sun was reappointed a vicechairman of the Economic Commission and, in addition, he was also made a commission member. Then, in April 1961, he was removed as a vice-chairman, but he retained some influence in commission affairs by his retention of commission membership until June 1964. In the meantime, in March 1956, Sun was named to the newly formed National Association for the Elimination of Illiteracy, but little was heard of his role in this organization.

In January 1961 he became minister of the Third Ministry of Machine Building, a post to which he was reappointed in January 1965. The fact that the machine building ministries are not often mentioned in the press probably explains why little was heard about Sun in the sixties. At the time of his reappointment to the Third Ministry in January 1965, Sun was also made a member of the National Defense Council. Though this organization is not regarded as particularly significant, it seems noteworthy that the ministers of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Ministries of Machine Building were also added to the Defense Council at this time, suggesting closer liaison between industry and the military establishment.

Sun’s only noted writing, an article entitled ilThe Establishment of Industries by People's Communes and Its Great Significance,” appeared in the JMJP of October 26, 1959. He remained an active member of the central bureaucracy until his death in Peking on October 11, 1966, at the age of 55.

Politics

As a representative of this Army he attended the First Plenary Session of the CPPCC in September 1949, immediately after which the central government was established (October 1). When the CPPCC meetings closed, Sun was assigned to the southwest where, in July 1950, the Communists established the Southwest Military and Administrative Committee (SWMAC), with control over the provinces of Sikang, Kweichow, Yunnan, and Szechwan, and with its capital at Chungking. From 1950 to 1952 Sun was active in this administration, appointed a member of the SWMAC in 1950, he served concurrently as its secretary-general, as a member of the SWMAC Land Reform Committee from September 1951, and as chairman of its Labor Employment Committee from August 1952. In May 1951 he was one of four signers of an agreement for the “peaceful liberation of Tibet, negotiated between Peking and Tibet. The other signers were: Li Wei-han, then director of the Party's United Front Work Department (the chief signer for Peking), Chang Ching-wu, then Peking’s chief representative in Tibet, and Chang Kuo-hua, the military commander in Tibet.

Membership

Sun was made an alternate member of the Party Central Committee at the Second Session of the Eighth Party Congress in May 1958. He served as a CCP representative on the Third National Committee of the CPPCC (1959-1964), and when it first met in April 1959 he was named to its governing body, the Standing Committee. He again represented the CCP on the Fourth National Committee but was not reappointed to the Standing Committee when the first session closed in January 1965.

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Sun Chih-yuan

Background

Education

Career

Politics

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Born

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Career

1938 - 1943

1952

1954