Wan Li
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Wan Li
万里 萬里 |
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| In office April 13, 1988 – March 27, 1993 |
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| Preceded by | Peng Zhen |
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| Succeeded by | Qiao Shi |
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4th First Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China
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| In office 1983 – 1988 |
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| Premier | Zhao Ziyang Li Peng |
| Preceded by | Deng Xiaoping |
| Succeeded by | Yao Yilin |
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| Born | December, 1916 |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Political party | Communist Party of China |
Wan Li (traditional Chinese: 萬里; simplified Chinese: 万里; pinyin: Wàn Lǐ) (born December, 1916) was during a long administrative career in the People's Republic of China Vice Premier, National People's Congress Chairman, and a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, its Secretariat and its Politburo.
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[edit] Pre-1949
Wan Li joined the Communist Party of China in 1936,[1] and served in party administrative positions, many in Shandong province, from county level on up. In 1937-38, Wan was CCP Secretary (i.e., head) of Dongping County, in 1938-40 Propaganda and Organization Department director in Taixi Prefecture, deputy head of propaganda for Western Shandong regional CCP committee in 1940, and Secretary of the party's 2nd, 7th and 8th Prefecttural Committees in the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Area in 1940-47.[1] In the last phases of the Civil War, he was Secretary-General of the Border Area committee (1947-49).
[edit] Early Liberation Years
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Wan was named deputy director of the finance department of the Nanjing Municipality Military Control Committee, director of the Economic Department and Chief of the city Construction Bureau,[1] all within a few months. He served as Deputy Director of the CCP South-west Military and Administrative Committee's Industrial Department (1949-52), where he would have encountered Deng Xiaoping.
In 1952 Wan moved into national-level politics.[2] He shortly became the Vice Minister of Architectural Engineering (1953) followed by the post of Minister of Urban Construction (1955). From 1958, he was a secretary of the Beijing Municipality CCP Committee (under Peng Zhen) and Vice Mayor of the city government.[1]
[edit] Post GPCR
After being purged in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Wan was restored to his Beijing posts in 1973. He was named Minister of Railways in January 1975 (to April 1976) and 1st Vice Minister of Light Industry in 1977. In May of the same year, he took over Anhui Province as CCP 1st Secretary and Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee (i.e., government).[1]
In Anhui, Wan Li was responsible for the earliest post-Mao agrarian reform. On his own authority, he instituted a contract responsibility system whereby farmers divided communal lands and assigned them to individual farmers. His six guidelines (the Anhui liu tiao) relaxed controls on trading as well, permitting farmers to sell surplus produce independently. Peasants were allowed to grow vegetables on 3/10th of a mu and did not have to pay taxes on wheat and oil-bearing plants grown on private plots. [3]
After their initiative was supported by Wan Li, and later in Sichuan province by Zhao Ziyang, it became national policy. The Anhui agricultural reforms were heralded as brilliant innovations by the central government. Wan Li was immortalised in the folk saying "If you want to eat rice, look for Wan Li." (要吃米, 找万里)
[edit] National politics
Wan was elected to the 11th Central Committee in 1977, and to the CC Secretariat in February 1980, where he worked under General Secretary Hu Yaobang. In April he was made Vice Premier to fellow agrarian reformer Zhao Ziyang, and in August Wan was named Minister of the State Agricultural Commission. HE was also made a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress in September of that year.[4]
Wan Li became the Vice Premier in 1984 and the Chairman of the National People's Congress in 1988. Wan backed Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang in arguing to spread the household land contract scheme nationwide in 1979-81. [5] He also supported Zhao in curtailing the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign in the mid-1980s. [6]
After the January 1987 resignation of CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang, Wan Li was named to the interim five- member party Politburo Standing Committee; he was confirmed in that role at the September 1987 13th National Party Congress. The appointment was opposed by party elder Bo Yibo and others in the Chen Yun faction such as Yao Yilin. While resistance to Wan remaining on the PBSC had to yield to Deng Xiaoping's wishes, the conservatives were able to block Wan's elevation to the State Presidency, a position handed to General Yang Shangkun. As a compromise, Wan was named Chairman of the National People's Congress.<Zhao, pp. 210-211.</ref>
Because he was sympathetic to the student movement during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he was temporarily put under house arrest but was soon able to resume his work.
Wan Li retired in 1993. In 2004, he called for more democratic decision-making procedures in China to improve the country's "imperfect" Socialist system and boost economic development.
Along with 20 other retired Politburo members, they openly asked the Central Government to rehabilitate former General Secretary and Premier Zhao Ziyang’s name and hold memorial services for him for his many important contributions to China.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Editorial Board, Who's Who in China: Current Leaders (Foreign Language Press, Beijing: 1989), p. 662
- ^ Leung, Pak-Wah (2002) "Wan Li" Political Leaders of Modern China: A Biographical Dictionary Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, pp. 163-165, ISBN 0-313-30216-2
- ^ Becker, Jasper, Hungry Ghosts: China's Secret Famine, John Murray (London: 1996), p. 261.
- ^ Lamb, Malcolm, Directory of Officials and Organizations in China, 1968-1983 (M.E. Sharpe, New York: 1984).
- ^ Zhao Ziyang, Prisoner of the State (Simon & Schuster: London, 2009), ISBN 978-1-84737-697-8, p. 141.
- ^ Zhao, p. 163.
| Government offices | ||
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| Preceded by Lu Zhengcao |
Minister of Railways of the People's Republic of China 1975 – 1976 |
Succeeded by Duan Junyi |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Song Peizhang |
Secretary of the CPC Anhui Committee 1977 – 1980 |
Succeeded by Zhang Jinfu |
| Preceded by Song Peizhang |
Governor of Anhui 1978 – 1979 |
Succeeded by Zhang Jinfu |
| Preceded by Peng Zhen |
Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress 1988–1993 |
Succeeded by Qiao Shi |
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