Background
Nothing is known about his background.
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Yang Ching-jen
Edit ProfileEducation
Yang Ching-jen was educated locally.
Career
Yang was active in the spring of 1949 in the formation of the two important youth organizations, the New Democratic Youth League (NDYL) and the All-China Federation of Democratic Youth (ACFDY). He was a Central Committee member of the former from April 1949 to the next NDYL congress in mid-1953 and also served as a National Committee member in the ACFDY from April 1949 to June 1953, at which time he was transferred out of this organization. When youth organization officials are removed, it is usually because of age or because their experience is needed elsewhere, and generally they have no further direct relations with the organization in question. For reasons which are not evident, an exception was made in Yang's case, and he was brought back to the federation (renamed the All-China Youth Federation in 1958) to serve as a vice-chairman from April 1958 to April 1962.
In June 1949 the preparatory committee for the CPPCC was set up under Mao Tse-tung; Yang was named as a member, and when the CPPCC held its first session in September 1949 to form the central government, he attended as a representative of the national minorities and served on the important Credentials Committee for the CPPCC session. When the central government was staffed in the following weeks, Yang received assignments within the Nationalities Affairs Commission of the Government Administration Council (the cabinet), he was named to membership on the commission under chairman Li Wei-han, a veteran Party leader, in addition, Yang was named to head the commission Staff Office, a post he held until about 1953. In other words, Yang was given the identical positions under the central government which he had held under the Shensi-Kansu- Ninghsia Government during and immediately after the Sino-Japanese War.
Although Yang spent most of the first decade of the PRC in the national capital, he received nominal appointments under the regional politico-military administration for the northwest, known as the Northwest Military and Administrative Committee from its formation in January 1950 and as the Northwest Administrative Committee from its reorganization in January 1953 to its dissolution in November 1954. From March 1950 until 1954 he was also a member of the Northwest Nationalities Affairs Committee.
Yang's next major assignment began in 1952 when the first steps were taken to form the China Islamic Association. In addition to religious personages, a number of Party-affiliated men of Hui nationality were needed (in accordance with normal Communist practice) to organize this society. Yang was thus named to a vice-chairmanship on the preparatory committee (1952-53), and when the first national conference was held in May 1953, he was elected as one of the vice-chairmen. Because Chairman Burhan was a relative newcomer to the Communist Party, it may be that Yang was in fact the most significant Party figure in the association. At the next national conference (December 1956) he was one of the principal speakers and at the close of the meeting was reelected as a vice-chairman. However, at the third conference held in October-November 1963, Yang was dropped from membership, probably because of his transfer in 1962 to very responsible positions in Ninghsia.
In 1954, Yang was elected from his native Kansu to the First NPC (1954-1959), he was re-elected to the Second NPC (1959-1964), but by the time that elections were held for the Third NPC (1964 to date) Yang was working in Ninghsia and was therefore elected from that Autonomous Region. He also served as a member of the Credentials Committee under all three Congresses, and for most of the individual sessions of the Congress has served on the Motions Examination Committee, a committee newly formed for each session. Soon after the constitutional government was established in the fall of 1954 at the First NPC session, Yang was named (October 1954) as a vice-chairman of the Nationalities Affairs Commission; in effect, this was a promotion because he had previously only been a member. However, because of his 1960 transfer out of Peking he was dropped in December 1960 as a vice-chairman (but still retains membership on the commission).
In mid-1960 the chairman of the NHAR (Liu Ko-p’ing, a leading Hui) was accused of “local nationalism” and was removed from his post in September 1960. Yang was immediately transferred from Peking to replace Liu and has been there since in this capacity. Not long afterwards (by February 1961), Yang had also assumed the senior Party post when he succeeded Wang Feng as the First Secretary of the Ninghsia-Hui Party Committee. While such concurrency of posts within one province was a frequent situation in the early 1950’s, it had become a relatively rare occurrence by the 1960’s. Thus it seems to suggest a rather unusual trust in Yang (not even a Central Committee member) when he became (by March 1964) the political commissar of the Ninghsia Military District. Furthermore, he was given still another significant post by March 1965 when he was identified as a secretary of the Northwest Party Bureau under First Secretary Liu Lan-t’ao.
Aside from these major positions, Yang has held a host of lesser posts, in many cases obviously because he belongs to one of China’s minority nationalities. From October 1949 to about 1952 he was a board member of the Association for the Reform of the Chinese Written Language. In the spring and summer of 1950 he took part in the preparatory work which led to the formation of the China Educational Trade Union, and from 1950 to 1961 he served on the board of the Chinese Red Cross Society. In May 1956 he was named to the board of the newly formed China-Pakistan Friendship Association, and when a similar organization involving Egypt was established in November 1956 he was also named to that board of directors. In September 1957 the China-Syria Friendship Association was founded, with Yang as one of the vice-presidents. Following the merger of Egypt and Syria into the United Arab Republic (UAR) in February 1958, the Chinese merged the two organizations into a China-UAR Friendship and named Yang to a vice-presidency. In July 1958 he was selected for national committee membership on the reorganized China Peace Committee, and in April 1960 he became a board member of the China-Africa People's Friendship Association. Except where noted, Yang retains his positions in all these organizations.
Politics
He joined the Communist Party during the Sino-Japanese War and by 1941 was serving in an “Islamic Cavalry Brigade” as the chief-of-staff. During this same period he also held civil posts in Yenan, serving as head of the Minority Nationalities Section of the Party's Northwest Bureau as well as holding membership on the Nationalities Affairs Committee under the civil administration in the northwest, known as the Shensi-Kansu-Ninghsia Border Region Government. Yang also was chief of the Staff Office, generally an important office in Chinese Communist organizations and one concerned with day-to-day management and administrative problems. These positions dealing with national minorities were the first of many that Yang would hold in the years ahead.
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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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1950 - 1954
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1954
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1957
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April, 1958 - April, 1962