Liu Shaqi
Liu Shaoqi, the son of a landowner, was born in Yinshan, China, in 1898. While at school he met Mao Zedong. After studying Russian in Shanghai he went to live in the Soviet Union.
On his return he joined the Chinese Communist Party. Sun Yat-sen, leader of the Kuomintang, died on 12th March 1925. Chiang Kai-Shek
emerged as the new leader of the Kuomintang. He now carried out a purge
that eliminated the communists from the organization. Those communists
who survived managed to established the Jiangxi Soviet.
The nationalists now imposed a blockade and Mao Zedong decided to evacuate the area and establish a new stronghold in the north-west of China. In October 1934 Liu Shaoqi, Mao Zedong, Lin Biao, Zhu De, and some 100,000 men and their dependents headed west through mountainous areas.
The
marchers experienced terrible hardships. The most notable passages
included the crossing of the suspension bridge over a deep gorge at
Luting (May, 1935), travelling over the Tahsueh Shan mountains (August,
1935) and the swampland of Sikang (September, 1935).
The marchers
covered about fifty miles a day and reached Shensi on 20th October 1935.
It is estimated that only around 30,000 survived the 8,000-mile Long March.
When the Japanese Army invaded the heartland of China in 1937, Chiang Kai-Shek
was forced to move his capital from Nanking to Chungking. He lost
control of the coastal regions and most of the major cities to Japan. In
an effort to beat the Japanese he agreed to collaborate with Mao Zedong and his communist army.
During this period Liu Shaoqi became an expert in the theory of party organization and in 1939 published How to be a Good Communist. In 1943 he became Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party.
During the Second World War the communist guerrilla forces were well led by Zhu De and Lin Biao. As soon as the Japanese surrendered, Communist forces began a war against the Nationalists led by Chaing Kai-Shek.
The communists gradually gained control of the country and on 1st
October, 1949, Mao announced the establishment of People's Republic of
China. Soon afterwards Liu Shaoqi was appointed Vice-Chairman under Mao.
As a result of the failure on the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong
retired from the post of chairman of the People's Republic of China.
Liu Shaoqi replaced Mao as head of state. Mao remained important in
determining overall policy. In the early 1960s Mao became highly
critical of the foreign policy of the Soviet Union. He was for example
appalled by the way Nikita Khrushchev backed down over the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Mao Zedong became openly involved in politics in 1966 when with Lin Biao he initiated the Cultural Revolution.
On 3rd September, 1966, Lin Biao made a speech where he urged pupils in
schools and colleges to criticize those party officials who had been
influenced by the ideas of Nikita Khrushchev.
Mao
was concerned by those party leaders such as Liu Shaoqi, who favoured
the introduction of piecework, greater wage differentials and measures
that sought to undermine collective farms and factories. In an attempt
to dislodge those in power who favoured the Soviet model of communism,
Mao galvanized students and young workers as his Red Guards
to attack revisionists in the party. Mao told them the revolution was
in danger and that they must do all they could to stop the emergence of a
privileged class in China. He argued this is what had happened in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev.
Zhou Enlai at first gave his support to the campaign but became concerned when fighting broke out between the Red Guards
and the revisionists. In order to achieve peace at the end of 1966 he
called for an end to these attacks on party officials. Mao remained in
control of the Cultural Revolution and with the support of the army was
able to oust the revisionists.
The Cultural Revolution came to an end when Liu Shaoqi resigned from all his posts on 13th October 1968. Lin Biao now became Mao's designated successor.
Liu Shaoqi was banished to Henan Province where he died in 1969.
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