Qiao Shi
Encyclopedia
Qiao Shi is a politician
in the People's Republic of China
. He was born as Jiang Zhitong , to parents of Dinghai, Zhejiang province
ancestry. He is said to be distantly related to Chiang Kai-shek
's family and this was the cause for the persecution he suffered during the Cultural Revolution
. A recognised international studies expert within the Communist Party
, Qiao Shi was at one time ranked third
in the Communist Party leadership. Despite Western speculation in the 1990s, Qiao Shi never rose to paramount power and retired in 1998.
student movement in his youth, and joined the Communist Party of China
in August 1940. To facilitate undercover work, and also to show his revolution zeal, he changed his name from the original Jiang Zhitong (蒋志彤) to Jiang Qiaoshi (蒋乔石), a name which happened to differ from that of Chiang Kai-shek
by just two strokes. He was educated at Tongji University
, Shanghai
. Qiao Shi is married to wife Yu Wen, and they have two sons and two daughters.
in 1949, Qiao Shi worked in the Communist Youth League
system for a number of years. From 1954 to 1962 he worked at Anshan Iron and Steel Development Company. From 1963, he worked in the Communist Party's central International Liaison Department, which was responsible for policy formation in foreign affairs. Starting as an analyst, he rose to be Department Head in 1982, and became an alternate member of the central Secretariat. Subsequently he also held the positions of head of the General Office, and of the Organization Department.
During the Cultural Revolution
, Qiao Shi and his family members were persecuted due to their distant biological relation to Chiang Kai-shek
; moreover, Qiao Shi's name in Chinese was very similar to that of Chiang Kai-shek
. Fed up with the persecution and humiliation, one of Qiao Shi's son convinced the rest of the family to change the surname by either adopting their mother's last name Li, or simply dropping the original surname Jiang. Such move was viewed as revolutionary by Red Guards
and other Cultural Revolution
zealots at the time because it was viewed as severing the tie to the evil past. Qiao Shi, at the mean time, like many other persecuted cadres, was in jail and powerless to do anything to prevent his children's action, and in the post Cultural Revolution
era, nobody in the family bothered to change the names again, so the names remained as they were, including that of Qiao Shi.
In 1985, after a major defection by Yu Qiangsheng, a director of the National Security Department, which resulted in the arrest of Larry Wu-Tai Chin
, the Chinese agent in Central Intelligence Agency
, Qiao Shi succeeded Chen Pixian
and was placed in charge of national security and intelligence. From 1985 to 1998 he was the head of the Communist Party's central Secrets Committee (中央保密委员会). From 1986, he became a Vice Premier of the State Council
. During this time, he also took charge of law and order, and became prominent in the promulgation of new laws as the Communist Party sought to establish a Rule of Law
to counteract the excesses of Mao
-era dictatorship.
From 1987 to 1997, Qiao Shi was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee.
From March 27, 1993 to March 16, 1998, he was the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
. As head of the legislature, he was officially ranked third in political positions in the People's Republic of China
. Qiao Shi gained popularity during this time because of a stated commitment to the Rule of Law
, in contrast to then-President Jiang Zemin
's tendency for self-promotion.
In 1998 Qiao Shi, then 74, retired from politics officially due to his age. However, media speculation from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the west hold that Qiao was involved in a power struggle with Jiang Zemin, and eventually lost.
, despite his alleged pro-democracy sympathies. Others claimed that his appointment as the Chairman of the Standing Committee
of the National People's Congress
was actually a demotion because the post was mostly ceremonial despite being equally ranked with Qiao Shi's previous posts. It was also claimed that Qiao Shi (born with surname Jiang), was related to Chiang Kai-shek
, and could help to resolve the Taiwan issue
. There was hope that, with Qiao Shi as leader, the Communist Party of China would pursue further reforms towards a more legalist and democratic system of government. However, the speculation turned out unfounded and Qiao Shi retired in 1998 from his number three position as Chairman of the National People's Congress
.
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
in the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. He was born as Jiang Zhitong , to parents of Dinghai, Zhejiang province
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
ancestry. He is said to be distantly related to Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
's family and this was the cause for the persecution he suffered during the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
. A recognised international studies expert within the Communist Party
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
, Qiao Shi was at one time ranked third
Political position ranking of the People's Republic of China
The political ranking of the People's Republic of China is the ranking of political leaders in China, by order of presumed political power. Although there is no formally published ranking, there is usually an established convention and protocol, and the relative positions of Chinese political...
in the Communist Party leadership. Despite Western speculation in the 1990s, Qiao Shi never rose to paramount power and retired in 1998.
Early life
Qiao Shi became involved with the anti-KuomintangKuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
student movement in his youth, and joined the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
in August 1940. To facilitate undercover work, and also to show his revolution zeal, he changed his name from the original Jiang Zhitong (蒋志彤) to Jiang Qiaoshi (蒋乔石), a name which happened to differ from that of Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
by just two strokes. He was educated at Tongji University
Tongji University
Tongji University , colloquially known as Tongji , located in Shanghai, has more than 30,000 students and 8,000 staff members . It offers degree programs at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels...
, Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
. Qiao Shi is married to wife Yu Wen, and they have two sons and two daughters.
Rise to power
After the founding of the People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
in 1949, Qiao Shi worked in the Communist Youth League
Communist Youth League
The Communist Youth League of China also known as the China Youth League is a youth movement of the People's Republic of China for youth between the ages of fourteen and twenty-eight, run by Communist Party of China. The league is organized on the party pattern. Its leader is its First Secretary...
system for a number of years. From 1954 to 1962 he worked at Anshan Iron and Steel Development Company. From 1963, he worked in the Communist Party's central International Liaison Department, which was responsible for policy formation in foreign affairs. Starting as an analyst, he rose to be Department Head in 1982, and became an alternate member of the central Secretariat. Subsequently he also held the positions of head of the General Office, and of the Organization Department.
During the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
, Qiao Shi and his family members were persecuted due to their distant biological relation to Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
; moreover, Qiao Shi's name in Chinese was very similar to that of Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
. Fed up with the persecution and humiliation, one of Qiao Shi's son convinced the rest of the family to change the surname by either adopting their mother's last name Li, or simply dropping the original surname Jiang. Such move was viewed as revolutionary by Red Guards
Red Guards (China)
Red Guards were a mass movement of civilians, mostly students and other young people in the People's Republic of China , who were mobilized by Mao Zedong in 1966 and 1967, during the Cultural Revolution.-Origins:...
and other Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
zealots at the time because it was viewed as severing the tie to the evil past. Qiao Shi, at the mean time, like many other persecuted cadres, was in jail and powerless to do anything to prevent his children's action, and in the post Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
era, nobody in the family bothered to change the names again, so the names remained as they were, including that of Qiao Shi.
In 1985, after a major defection by Yu Qiangsheng, a director of the National Security Department, which resulted in the arrest of Larry Wu-Tai Chin
Larry Wu-Tai Chin
Larry Wu-tai Chin was a former Chinese language translator working for the CIA's Foreign Broadcast Information Service...
, the Chinese agent in Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
, Qiao Shi succeeded Chen Pixian
Chen Pixian
-Biography:Chen Pixian was born in Shanghang County, Fujian in 1916. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1931.After the People's Republic of China was founded, Chen was the Secretary of the CPC Shanghai Committee from 1956 to 1960....
and was placed in charge of national security and intelligence. From 1985 to 1998 he was the head of the Communist Party's central Secrets Committee (中央保密委员会). From 1986, he became a Vice Premier of the State Council
State Council of the People's Republic of China
The State Council of the People's Republic of China , which is largely synonymous with the Central People's Government after 1954, is the chief administrative authority of the People's Republic of China. It is chaired by the Premier and includes the heads of each governmental department and agency...
. During this time, he also took charge of law and order, and became prominent in the promulgation of new laws as the Communist Party sought to establish a Rule of Law
Rule of law
The rule of law, sometimes called supremacy of law, is a legal maxim that says that governmental decisions should be made by applying known principles or laws with minimal discretion in their application...
to counteract the excesses of Mao
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
-era dictatorship.
From 1987 to 1997, Qiao Shi was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee.
From March 27, 1993 to March 16, 1998, he was the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is a committee of about 150 members of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China , which is convened between plenary sessions of the NPC. It has the constitutional authority to modify legislation within limits set by...
. As head of the legislature, he was officially ranked third in political positions in the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. Qiao Shi gained popularity during this time because of a stated commitment to the Rule of Law
Rule of law
The rule of law, sometimes called supremacy of law, is a legal maxim that says that governmental decisions should be made by applying known principles or laws with minimal discretion in their application...
, in contrast to then-President Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin is a former Chinese politician, who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002, as President of the People's Republic of China from 1993 to 2003, and as Chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2005...
's tendency for self-promotion.
In 1998 Qiao Shi, then 74, retired from politics officially due to his age. However, media speculation from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the west hold that Qiao was involved in a power struggle with Jiang Zemin, and eventually lost.
Western speculation
In the early 1990s there was considerable speculation outside of China that Qiao Shi would rise to further prominence. Some pointed to his being virtually untouched by the fallout of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
, despite his alleged pro-democracy sympathies. Others claimed that his appointment as the Chairman of the Standing Committee
Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is a committee of about 150 members of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China , which is convened between plenary sessions of the NPC. It has the constitutional authority to modify legislation within limits set by...
of the National People's Congress
National People's Congress
The National People's Congress , abbreviated NPC , is the highest state body and the only legislative house in the People's Republic of China. The National People's Congress is held in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, capital of the People's Republic of China; with 2,987 members, it is the...
was actually a demotion because the post was mostly ceremonial despite being equally ranked with Qiao Shi's previous posts. It was also claimed that Qiao Shi (born with surname Jiang), was related to Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
, and could help to resolve the Taiwan issue
Political status of Taiwan
The controversy regarding the political status of Taiwan hinges on whether Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu should remain effectively independent as territory of the Republic of China , become unified with the territories now governed by the People's Republic of China , or formally declare...
. There was hope that, with Qiao Shi as leader, the Communist Party of China would pursue further reforms towards a more legalist and democratic system of government. However, the speculation turned out unfounded and Qiao Shi retired in 1998 from his number three position as Chairman of the National People's Congress
National People's Congress
The National People's Congress , abbreviated NPC , is the highest state body and the only legislative house in the People's Republic of China. The National People's Congress is held in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, capital of the People's Republic of China; with 2,987 members, it is the...
.