Xi Zhongxun

Early life and education

Xi was born on 15 October 1913, to a land-owning family, in rural Fuping County, Shaanxi. His parents were Xi Zongde (习宗德) and Chai Caihua (柴菜花). Xi's childhood name was Xiangjin, which according to Xi Jinping's recounting of family history, was drawn from the Three Character Classic to have the meaning "to become closer through practice".

In 1922, Xi enrolled in primary school. Xi joined the Chinese Communist Youth League in May 1926. In January 1927, he studied at the Fuping County First Higher Primary School. At the end of the year, he was forced to suspend his studies for organizing students to oppose the traditional old-style education system. In January 1928, he enrolled at the Third Normal School (三原省立第三师范) in Sanyuan County.

During the White Terror in Shaanxi, the Nationalists engaged in mass arrests of Communists and students, and executed members of the Communist Youth League. After initial unsuccessful efforts at leading peasant revolts in response, the Communist Party branch in Shaanxi launched what became the Weihua Uprising in March 1928. Xi was among the students and Communists in Sanyuan County who mobilised in support. Xi and two of his fellow students were recruited to assassinate the head of instruction at Third Normal School. They failed and were arrested. In prison, Xi joined the Chinese Communist Party. He participated in a hunger strike to win better food for inmates and did political work to build relations with Nationalist deserters who were imprisoned. Through the intervention of Song Zheyuan, the then Chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Government under the Kuomintang, Xi Zhongxun and his colleagues were acquitted and released.

Shortly after Xi Zhongxun was released from prison, his father died. Xi's mother and two sisters were in poor health due to famine and died shortly thereafter. After their death, Xi worked to care for his family, which by that time had ten people.

Career

Red Army period

In 1930, Xi was appointed by the party to work in the Guominjun under Yang Hucheng. In March 1932, Xi Zhongxun, together with , Li Tesheng, , and others, orchestrated the , holding the position of Party Committee Secretary for the Fifth Detachment of the Shaanxi-Gansu Guerrilla Force of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. The army was subsequently disbanded during an assault on Yongshou County, and Xi Zhongxun clandestinely returned to his native place. In September 1932, he joined the and assumed the role of political instructor for the Second Detachment of the Weibei Guerrilla Force.

In March 1933, he joined Liu Zhidan and others in founding the Shaanxi–Gansu (Shaangan) Border Region Soviet Area, and became the chairman of the Soviet area government while leading guerillas in resisting Nationalist incursions and expanding the Soviet area. Working with Liu was influential on Xi, who in 1979 described Liu as having taught him that "revolution demands a united line" and the importance of listening to differing voices, including those outside the Communist Party.

In February 1935, the revolutionary base regions in Northern Shaanxi and the Shaanxi-Gansu border region were consolidated during the Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign, resulting in the formation of the . Xi Zhongxun emerged as a prominent figure within the Northwest Working Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and maintained his role as Chairman of the Soviet Government of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region.

In September 1935, Xi Zhongxun, together with and others, went to Wazichuan in Bao’an County to welcome the upon its arrival in northern Shaanxi after the Long March. Shortly thereafter, Xi was arrested as part of a purge of alleged rightists. In October, after CCP Chairman Mao Zedong arrived in northern Shaanxi, Xi was released and politically rehabilitated. Xi attributed Mao's arrival to saving Xi's life. It is said that Xi's "Revolutionary Base Area of the Northwest saved the Party Center and the Party Center saved the revolutionaries of the Northwest."

In January 1936, Xi Zhongxun was designated as Vice Chairman of the Soviet Government of the Central Shaanxi Special District and Secretary of the Party Group. Subsequent to the Northeastern Army's occupation of the Central Shaanxi region in April, he assumed the role of Secretary of the CCP Central Shaanxi Working Committee, persistently directing the efforts of the battle. In June 1936, Xi participated in the Red Army's westward campaign, subsequently holding the positions of Secretary of the CCP Quhuan Working Committee and Secretary of the Huan County Committee. In September, he was once more assigned to Central Shaanxi by the Central Committee of the CCP, where he held the positions of Secretary of the Central Shaanxi Special Committee, Political Commissar of the Central Shaanxi Guerrilla Force, and Political Commissar of the Central Shaanxi Special District Command.

Second Sino-Japanese War

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Xi Zhongxun occupied several pivotal roles in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and Northwest China. In October 1937, he was designated Secretary of the CCP Guanzhong Subcommittee while simultaneously holding the position of Political Commissar of the local Security Command. In May 1939, he was appointed Commissioner of the Guanzhong Special Administrative Office. In 1940, he took on the position of Principal at the Second Normal School in the border area and became a member of the .

Beginning in 1941, Xi held the position of Political Commissar for both the Guanzhong Military Subdistrict and the First Security Brigade, directing the Eighth Route Army in countering aggressions by Nationalist forces. In August 1942, he was appointed President of the Party School of the CCP Northwest Bureau. In early 1943, Mao Zedong personally wrote the slogan “The Party’s interests come first” to acknowledge Xi's contributions.

In February 1943, he was designated Secretary of the CCP Suide Prefectural Committee and Political Commissar of the Suimi Garrison Area and the Independent First Brigade. During this period, he advocated for the model worker and furthered the . He also endeavored to rectify communist deviations throughout the Yan'an Rectification Movement.

In June 1945, Xi was elected as an alternative member of the CCP Central Committee during the Seventh National Congress, and in August, he assumed the role of Deputy Head of the CCP Central Organization Department. In the same year, he became the head of the Northwest Bureau. He additionally held the position of Political Commissar for the provisional command during the counteroffensive campaign at Yetai Mountain (爷台山), successfully repelling Nationalist forces that had infiltrated the border area.

Second Kuomintang-Communist Civil War

Following the Second Sino-Japanese War, Xi maintained a pivotal position in the Northwest region. He was designated Secretary of the CCP Northwest Bureau and Political Commissar of the . In November 1946, he effectively convinced , the deputy commander of the Kuomintang's Shaanbei Security Command during the in northern Shaanxi, to defect to the Communist faction, thereby bolstering the CCP's influence in northern Shaanxi.

In early 1947, Xi was designated as the Political Commissar of the and participated in the command of the . In March, as Hu Zongnan's Nationalist troops initiated a significant offensive against Yan’an, the Central Military Commission consolidated all regional forces under the unified command of Peng Dehuai and Xi Zhongxun. Xi, formerly the Vice Political Commissar of the Northwest Field Corps, played a pivotal role in the significant engagements at Qinghuabian, Yangma River, and Panlong Town—collectively referred to as the "three consecutive victories." In late May, Xi Zhongxun and Peng Dehuai orchestrated a significant offensive in eastern Gansu, targeting Ma Hongbin's soldiers and recapturing crucial regions such as Huan County, Dingbian and Jingbian.

As of July 1947, Xi remained the Deputy Political Commissar of the Northwest Field Army and the Political Commissar of the Joint Defense Forces. He collaborated closely with He Long to implement military restructuring, political education, and support operations in the rear area. In February 1948, he assumed the role of Political Commissar of the Joint Defense Military District, and in February 1949, he became the Political Commissar of the Northwest Military Region. In June 1949, he was designated Third Secretary of the CCP Northwest Bureau, significantly contributing to the ultimate liberation of Northwest China.

Early period of the PRC

Subsequent to the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Xi Zhongxun was designated as a member of the Central People's Government, a member of the People's Revolutionary Military Commission, the Second Secretary of the CCP Northwest Bureau, Vice Chairman and acting Chairman of the Northwest Military and Political Committee, Vice Chairman of the Northwest Administrative Committee, and Political Commissar of both the First Field Army and the Northwest Military Region. He managed all significant party, government, and military matters in the Northwest region for an extended duration. He was the youngest leader of a major regional bureau. Xi spearheaded initiatives to assume control of urban governance, eradicate banditry and local tyrants, execute land reform, enforce campaigns against counterrevolutionaries. In this capacity, Xi was known for his moderate policies and the use of non-military means to pacify rebellious areas.

Xi was sometimes critical of the land reform movement, and was an advocate for the position of the middle peasantry. As violence increased in 1948, Xi reported that activists in the northwest had sometimes falsely designated landlords and manufactured struggle. In 1952, Xi Zhongxun halted the campaign of Wang Zhen and Deng Liqun to implement land reform and class struggle to pastoralist regions of Xinjiang. Xi, based on experience in Inner Mongolia, advised against assigning class labels and waging class struggle among pastoralists, but was ignored by Wang and Deng who directed the seizure of livestock from landowners and land from religious authorities. The policies inflamed social unrest in pastoralist northern Xinjiang where Ospan Batyr uprising had just been quelled. With the support of Mao Zedong, Xi reversed the policies, had Wang Zhen relieved from Xinjiang and released over a thousand herders from prison.

In July 1951, following the Communists' defeat of the Ma Clique armies in Qinghai, remnants of the Muslim warlords incited rebellion among Tibetan tribesmen. Among those who took up arms was chieftain of the Nganglha Tribe in eastern Qinghai. He released captured tribesmen, offered generous terms to Xiang Qian and forgave those who took part in the uprising. In 1953, Xiang Qiang became the chief of Jainca County. Mao compared Xi's deft treatment of Xiang Qian to Zhuge Liang's conciliation of Meng Huo in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Xi maintained a close relationship with Chökyi Gyaltsen, the 10th Panchen Lama, whom he first met in 1951. The Panchen Lama regard Xi as a good teacher and helpful friend. In 1951, Xi described the Panchen Lama as a progressive force in Tibet.

In September 1952, in anticipation of the execution of the First Five-Year Plan, the central government resolved to dismantle the six extensive administrative regions and convened prominent regional military and political figures in Beijing, including Gao Gang, Rao Shushi, Deng Zihui, Deng Xiaoping, and Xi Zhongxun—an event historically denoted as the “”. Xi Zhongxun was designated as Minister of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party and concurrently served as deputy director and Party Secretary of the Government Administration Council's Committee on Culture and Education. He spearheaded the formation of the guiding policy: "Rectify and enhance, prioritize development, elevate quality, and progress steadily".

Beginning in September 1953, Xi held successive positions as Secretary-General of the Government Administration Council of the Central People's Government and subsequently as Secretary-General of the State Council. When the 14th Dalai Lama visited Beijing in 1954 for several months of political meetings and studies in Chinese and Marxism, Xi spent time with the Tibetan leader, who fondly recalled Xi as "very friendly, comparatively open-minded, very nice." As a gift, the Dalai Lama gave Xi an Omega watch. When the Dalai Lama's brother Gyalo Thondup visited Beijing in the early 1980s, Xi was still wearing that watch.

At the 8th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 1956, he was elected a member of the CCP Central Committee.

Cultural Revolution

In 1962, 's novel Liu Zhidan commenced serial publishing in Guangming Daily, Workers' Daily, and China Youth Daily. Subsequent to its publication, Kang Sheng denounced the novel as "anti-Party" and mandated the to produce 600 copies of its fifth draft and 300 copies of its second draft for the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party's review, aiming to implicate Xi Zhongxun, , and as constituents of an anti-Party faction.

In August 1962, a preliminary conference for the 10th Plenary Session of the 8th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party convened in Beijing, during which Kang Sheng claimed that Liu Zhidan represented an effort to rehabilitate Gao Gang. On September 24, 1962, the 10th Plenary Session officially met under Mao Zedong's leadership, during which he presented a political report entitled "On Class, Situation, Contradiction, and Party Unity", which supported Kang Sheng's allegations. A special investigative committee was soon formed, led by Kang Sheng, to examine the purported political transgressions of Xi Zhongxun, Jia Tuofu, and Liu Jingfan. In 1963, the committee determined that Liu Zhidan represented "an effort to rehabilitate Gao Gang" and "an act of venerating Xi Zhongxun." Consequently, Xi, Jia, and Liu were designated as constituents of the purported "Xi-Jia-Liu Anti-Party Clique." Xi Zhongxun was subjected to an investigation at the Central Party School.

From December 1965 to January 1967, Xi was sent to work as deputy factory director at the , where he was in charge of safety and technical operations. He was assigned to a metalworking workshop and participated in manual labor, study sessions, and other daily activities. Reflecting on this period later, Xi described it as "a most unusual experience" and said it felt like "a year at an industrial university."

On January 1, 1967, Red Flag magazine disseminated Yao Wenyuan’s piece On the Counterrevolutionary Two-Faced Person Zhou Yang, which explicitly condemned Zhou Yang and the novel Liu Zhidan, so once more directing criticism at Xi Zhongxun. Subsequently, Xi was forcibly transported to Xi'an by Red Guards from Shaanxi, where he was incarcerated and endured struggle sessions. During this period, he corresponded with Premier Zhou Enlai, detailing his persecution and articulating his bewilderment regarding the Cultural Revolution, which captured Zhou's attention. On March 19, 1967, on Zhou's directive, the Shaanxi Provincial Military District assigned military security to Xi by transferring him to the district headquarters.

On October 2, rebel elements once more showcased Xi Zhongxun at a huge denunciation protest held at Yishan Middle School in Fuping County. Local people, appreciative of Xi's initiatives in distributing relief food during the 1962 famine, protected him from the sun with umbrellas and even confronted the Red Guards in his defense. On October 31 and subsequently in early November, Xi corresponded with both Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. In January 1968, the Central Committee facilitated Xi's relocation by a special aircraft to the PLA Beijing Garrison for "protective supervision."

From early 1968 until May 1975, Xi was confined in near-total isolation within a small room measuring 7 to 8 square meters at the Jiaotong Cadre School near Beixin Bridge in Beijing. During the winter of 1972, pursuant to a specific command from Zhou Enlai, Xi was permitted a brief reunion with his family. At that time, he allegedly could not differentiate between his two sons, Xi Jinping and Xi Yuanping. In May 1975, the "protective supervision" was removed; nonetheless, Xi continued to reside in Luoyang, occupying employee accommodations at a local refractory materials factory, where he persisted in undergoing political scrutiny until February 1978.

Guangdong

Main article: Reform and opening up, Special economic zones of China, Shenzhen speed

On February 22, 1978, Xi Zhongxun returned to Beijing to participate as a specially invited delegate in the First Session of the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Subsequent to April 1978, he was designated Second Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party; in December, he ascended to the position of First Secretary of Guangdong and Director of the Guangdong Provincial Revolutionary Committee. In January 1980, he assumed the positions of First Political Commissar and First Party Secretary of the Guangzhou Military Region. During the Third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi was appointed as a member of the Central Committee.

When he first arrived in Guangdong, he was told the provincial government had long been struggling to hold back the exodus of Chinese to Hong Kong since 1951. In meetings in April 1979, Xi convinced Deng to permit Guangdong to make its own foreign trade policy decisions and to invite foreign investment to projects in experimental areas along the provincial border with Hong Kong and Macau and in Shantou, which has a large overseas diaspora. As for the name of the experimental areas, Deng said, "let's call them, 'special zones', [after all, your] Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region began as a 'special zone'." Deng added, "The Central Government has no funds, but we can give you some favorable policies." Borrowing a phrase from their guerrilla war days, Deng told Xi, "You have to find a way, to fight a bloody path out." Xi submitted a formal proposal on the creation of special zones, later renamed special economic zones and in July 1979, the Central Committee and State Council approved the creation of the first four special economic zones in Shantou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xiamen and Hainan.

National People’s Congress

On February 25, 1980, the Central Committee formally rescinded the political charges against Xi Zhongxun, exonerating him. In September of that year, he was chosen Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the 5th National People's Congress, reentering the Party and state leadership. He then held the position of Chairman of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress concurrently. On March 28, 1981, he commenced his involvement in the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee. In June 1981, during the Sixth Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee, he was appointed as a Secretary of the Secretariat.

In September 1982, during the First Plenary Session of the 12th Central Committee, Xi was appointed as a member of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee and as a Secretary of the Secretariat, tasked with supervising the Secretariat's daily operations. During his time as a Politburo member, Xi often focused on ethnic minority policies and religion policies. His view was that ethnic relations in Xinjiang and Tibet Autonomous Region should focus on addressing local grievances, working collaboratively with local ethnic minority leaders, and promoting economic development. In 1987, Deng Xiaoping and powerful elder Chen Yun were dissatisfied with the liberal inclination of Hu Yaobang, and called a meeting to force Hu to resign as CCP General Secretary. Xi was the only one that defended Hu. In November 1987, during the First Plenary Session of the 13th Central Committee, Xi Zhongxun resigned from the Central Committee and discontinued his roles as a Politburo member and Secretary of the Secretariat.

In April 1988, Xi was chosen as First Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the 7th National People's Congress and simultaneously held the position of Chairman of the Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee, serving as the deputy to Wan Li. In March 1993, at the age of eighty, Xi resigned from his position as First Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee following the First Session of the 8th National People's Congress.

He subsequently resided in Shenzhen, Guangdong, for several years. On October 1, 1999, Xi Zhongxun participated in the grand commemoration in Beijing celebrating the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.

Personal life and death

Xi had a strong interest in family history. He had positive memories of his parents, describing his father as "extremely kind-hearted" and strict and his mother as "diligent and virtuous". Xi described his family background as poor, becoming middle peasants in 1919 or 1920.

In 1936, Xi married Hao Mingzhu, the niece of revolutionary fighter Wu Daifeng, in Shaanxi. The union lasted until 1944, and the couple had three children: one son, Xi Fuping (aka Xi Zhengning), and two daughters, Xi Heping, and Xi Ganping. According to Xi, he and Hao "were young and quick-tempered. Neither of us would surrender to the other. We acted willfully. Ultimately, we took the path we did." According to official records, Xi Heping died during the Cultural Revolution due to persecution, which historians have concluded means that she most likely committed suicide under duress. Little is known about Xi Ganping, except that she was retired by 2013 and regularly appears at meetings of Princelings. Xi Zhengning, meanwhile, was a researcher in the Ministry of Defence but later pursued a bureaucratic career; he died in 1998.

In 1944, Xi Zhongxun married Qi Xin, his second wife, and had four children: Qi Qiaoqiao, Xi An'an, Xi Jinping and Xi Yuanping. Xi Jinping became the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, thus the paramount leader of China, from 15 November 2012, and has been President of the People's Republic of China since March 2013.

Xi Zhongxun died 24 May 2002. His funeral and subsequent cremation at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery on 30 May was attended by party and state leaders, including CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji, and Vice President Hu Jintao. His ashes were subsequently buried at a cemetery named in honor of him at Fuping County. His official obituary described him as "an outstanding proletarian revolutionary," "a great communist soldier," and "one of the main founders and leaders of the revolutionary base areas in the Shaanxi-Gansu border region."

References

Citations

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• {{cite book
• China's New Rulers: The Secret File, Andrew J. Nathan and Bruce Gilley, The New York Review Book
• The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, Vol. 3 : The Coming of the Cataclysm, 1961-1966 (Columbia University Press, 1997)

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