Qiao Shi

Qiao Shi (24 December 1924 – 14 June 2015) was a Chinese politician and one of the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Qiao Shi was born Jiang Zhitong in December 1924 in Shanghai.

His father was from Dinghai, Zhejiang province and worked as an accountant in Shanghai.

His mother was a worker at Shanghai No. 1 Textile Mill.

He studied literature at East China Associated University, but did not graduate.

He adopted the nom de guerre Jiang Qiaoshi after becoming involved with underground revolutionary activities when he was sixteen years old, as was common practice at the time for young aspiring Communists.

He eventually dropped the surname Jiang altogether and simply went by "Qiao Shi".

He joined the CCP in August 1940, and became involved with the anti-Kuomintang student movement in his youth.

His specialty was intelligence and security.

After the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, Qiao Shi served as a leader of the Communist Youth League in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province until 1954.

From 1954 to 1962, he worked at Anshan Iron and Steel Company in Liaoning province, and then Jiuquan Iron and Steel Company in Gansu province.

In 1963, Qiao Shi was transferred to the International Liaison Department (ILD) of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

He was recognized as an expert in international studies, and travelled widely to other communist countries.

However, he was severely persecuted when the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, because his wife Yu Wen was a niece of Chen Bulei, a key advisor to the Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek.

He underwent numerous struggle sessions, which caused him to be hospitalized for duodenal ulcer and blood loss.

In 1969, Qiao Shi and his wife were sent to work in rural labour camps, first in Heilongjiang, and later in Henan province.

He was able to return to the ILD in 1971, when Geng Biao became Director of the department.

After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Qiao Shi became the deputy director of ILD in 1978,and Director in 1982, responsible for managing relationships with foreign communist parties.

He also became an alternate member of the central Secretariat, the day-to-day executive arm of the party organization.

Subsequently, he also held the positions of head of the CCP General Office, in charge of routine party administration, and of the Organization Department, in charge of human resources.

Under his directorship, the General Office changed its focus from class struggle to economic development, as part of the reform and opening-up policy.In 1985, Chinese spy chief Yu Qiangsheng defected to the United States, causing Politburo member and Political and Legal Affairs Commission Secretary Chen Pixian to be demoted.

Qiao Shi was then selected to fill the void, partly due to his proximity to General Secretary Hu Yaobang and earning the approval of paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.

In that year, Qiao Shi was elected to the Politburo of the Communist Party, the second highest rung of power.

In 1986, he became a Vice Premier of the State Council.

He was a member of the party's top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, from 1987 to 1997.

From 1987 to 1997, Qiao Shi was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's top decision-making body, overseeing the broad portfolios of internal security, intelligence, justice, and party discipline.

From 1987 to 1992, he also served as the Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party's agency in charge of anti-corruption efforts.

He was a contender for the paramount leadership of China, but lost out to his political rival Jiang Zemin, who assumed the post of General Secretary of the party in 1989.

Qiao Shi was thought to have played a key role during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, but it is uncertain whether he supported or opposed the crackdown against the student protesters.

Most sources, including the autobiography of General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, said that Qiao Shi held an ambivalent position on how to deal with the protests.

He was said to be tolerant of the student movement, and abstained from a May 1989 Politburo vote on whether to send the army to Tiananmen Square.

Qiao Shi managed to keep his leadership position when his Politburo colleagues Zhao Ziyang and Hu Qili, who opposed the crackdown, were purged.

In the political aftermath of Tiananmen Square, Qiao Shi and Premier Li Peng were touted as two of the top candidates to lead the party.

However, Deng and many party elders felt that Li Peng was too far left and unwilling to transition China out of a planned economy to take the top job.

Qiao Shi therefore appeared to be a 'default' choice based on his experience and seniority at the time.

Deng personally arranged a meeting with Qiao Shi to discuss the leadership question.

However, Qiao Shi eventually lost out to his rival, Shanghai Party Committee Secretary Jiang Zemin, who assumed the party's leading post in 1989 and the presidency in 1993.

It was never made clear why Qiao Shi did not get the nod to become party leader.

Qiao Shi instead served as Chairman of the National People's Congress, then the third-ranked political position, from 1993 until his retirement in 1998.

Compared with his peers, including Jiang Zemin, Qiao Shi adopted a more liberal stance in political and economic policy, promoting the rule of law and market-oriented reform of state-owned enterprises.