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Peng Zhen

Chinese politician (1902–1997)

Field	Value
name	Peng Zhen
native_name	彭真
image	Peng Zhen2.jpg
caption	Peng in 1945
office	4th Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
term_start	June 17, 1983
term_end	April 8, 1988
predecessor	Ye Jianying
successor	Wan Li
order1	Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission
term_start1	March 1980
term_end1	May 1983
predecessor1	Office Created
successor1	Chen Pixian
order2	Party Secretary of Beijing
term_start2	December 13, 1948
term_end2	May 1966
predecessor2	Office created
successor2	Li Xuefeng
birth_date
birth_place	Houma, Shanxi, Qing China
death_date
death_place	Beijing, China
nationality	Chinese
party	Chinese Communist Party (1923–1997)
spouse	Zhang Jieqing

Peng Zhen (pronounced ; October 12, 1902 – April 26, 1997) was a Chinese politician and leading member of the Chinese Communist Party. He led the party organization in Beijing following the victory of the Communists in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, but was purged during the Cultural Revolution for opposing Mao's views on the role of literature in relation to the state. He was rehabilitated under Deng Xiaoping in 1982 along with other 'wrongly accused' officials, and became the inaugural head of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

Biography

Born in Houma, Shanxi province, Peng was originally named Fu Maogong (傅懋恭). He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1923 as a founding member of the Shanxi Province CCP. Arrested in 1929, he continued underground political activities while imprisoned. He was released from prison in 1935 and began organizing a resistance movement against the invading Japanese forces. Peng was important in developing the Second United Front during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Around the same time, he was appointed the Organization Department Director of the North Bureau of CCP.

Peng also served on a number of positions as vice-president of the Central Party School and director of the CCP Policy Research Office. In 1945 he served in the history research committee and the organizing committee of the CCP's 7th National Congress.

In September 1945 Peng was sent by Mao Zedong to take up overall leadership of the CCP in Northeast China. He was accompanied by Lin Biao who was to assist Peng with directing military operations against the Nationalists. Peng decided that the CCP could hold the 3 big cities of the Northeast: Shenyang, Changchun and Harbin. When the Nationalists under the command of Du Yuming attacked in November 1945, the Communists were forced back. Peng was removed as the CCP leader in the northeast after further failure by Lin Biao's forces in March 1946 led to the Communists retreat back to Harbin.

Peng was a member of the CCP Central Committee starting from 1944 as well as a member of the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee. He also held the positions of First Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee, and Mayor of Beijing from 1951 to 1966. In addition to being mayor, he was a high-ranking member of the Politburo from 1956 to 1966.

In June 1958, Mao changed the party and government structure by establishing groups in charge of finance, legal matters, foreign affairs, science, and culture and education which bypassed the State Council. Peng was made the head of the legal matters group.

In June 1960, he attended Bucharest Conference of Representatives of Communist and Workers Parties, countering Soviet leader Khrushchev during the conference.

Peng was appointed head of the Five Man Group in charge of preparing a "cultural revolution", but he fell out of favor with Mao Zedong in April 1966 when he attacked Mao's belief that all literature should support the state. He was accused of being an associate to Wu Han's counter-revolutionary clique and deposed at a May 1966 conference in what became the opening act of the Cultural Revolution. Lu Dingyi, Luo Ruiqing and Yang Shangkun were also deposed.

Peng survived the Cultural Revolution, and was eventually rehabilitated under Deng Xiaoping. In February 1979, he headed the newly-established Legal Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Consisting of 80 legal officials, the office was given autonomy by the CCP to draft laws. In what was termed as a "miracle", the commission drafted and submitted seven bills in three months.

Peng subsequently became Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, a post he already held from late 1950s in the capacity of leader of a Central Politics and Law Leading Group. Beginning in 1983, as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the 6th National People's Congress, he sought to increase the NPC's power. He used the NPC as a base to oppose reform. In January 1987, Peng Zhen played a pivotal role in Hu Yaobang's resignation as General Secretary by attack and criticizing Hu during a meeting. Peng left Politburo after the 13th Party Congress in November 1987 and retired from politics in March 1988 after Wan Li took over his position as Chairman of NPC Standing Committee. During the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Peng Zhen supported the declaration of martial law in Beijing and the removal of Zhao Ziyang.

Peng Zhen died on April 26, 1997, from blood cancer aged 94, two months after the death of former vice premier Deng Xiaoping, and was eulogized with high honours by the highest organs of the party and the state. His official obituary declared him a "great proletarian revolutionary, politician, and outstanding expert in the affairs of the state; unswerving Marxist, instrumental in laying the foundations of legal institution in our country, and excellent leader of the party and state." The obituary also curiously made mention of his support of Deng Xiaoping's 1992 "southern tour" which re-ignited economic reforms after relative stagnation following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

He was considered one of the Eight Elders of the CCP.

Awards and honors

[[File:KHM_Royal_Order_Of_Sowathara_-Grand_Cross_rib(1956-1975).png|100px]] Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Sowathara (Cambodia, 1956)
[[File:PRK_Order_of_the_National_Flag_-_1st_Class_BAR.png|100px]] First Class of the Order of the National Flag (North Korea, 1962)

References

Citations

Sources

Original text based on marxists.org article (GNU FDL)

References

Opper, Marc. (2020). "People's Wars in China, Malaya, and Vietnam". [[University of Michigan Press]].
Tanner, Harold M.. (2012). "Big Army Groups, Standardisation, and Assaulting Fortified Positions: Chinese Ways of Warfare and the Transition from Guerilla to Conventional War in China's Northeast, 1945 - 1948.". Journal of Chinese Military History.
Chen, Jian. (2024). "Zhou Enlai: A Life". [[Harvard University Press]].
Wang, Liwan. "立法官僚化: 理解中国立法过程的新视角".
Fan, Shuhao. (2018-06-25). "The NPCSC Legislative Affairs Commission and Its “Invisible Legislators”".
Joseph Fewsmith, ''China since Tiananmen'', Cambridge University Press. 2009
"彭真同志逝世讣告".
柬埔寨国王赠予毛主席周总理最高勋章. [[People's Daily]]. 1956-02-09: 1.
象征中朝人民互相支持并肩作战的伟大友谊朝最高人民会议授予彭真一级国旗勋章. People's Daily. 1962-05-03: 1.

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