Thursday, October 16, 2008

Lui Ming Wah

Lui Ming Wah, , , was the member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong , representing industrial industry in functional constituencies seats. He was the member of in Legco.

Lui is a businessman and a registered engineer. He is the founder chairman of Hong Kong Shandong Business Association.

Li Zhaoxing

Li Zhaoxing was the foreign minister of the People's Republic of China from 2003 to 2007.

He was born in Jiaonan, Qingdao,Shandong province and graduated from Peking University in 1964. He worked as a diplomat in Africa before becoming Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1990 and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1995, ambassador to the United States in 1998, and Foreign Minister in 2003. He is also now one of the Global Elders and a professor at Peking University. He is married, and has one son.

Leung Chun Ying

Leung Chun Ying BSc is a current member of the of the Hong Kong.

Mr Leung is Chairman of DTZ Debenham Tie Leung Limited, as well as:

Member of the National Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
Member of the Commission on Strategic Development
Member and Chairman of the Council,
Member of the Court of Lingnan University
Member of Honours Committee
Chairman of the Professional Services Advisory Committee, Hong Kong Trade Development Council
Member of the Services Promotion Programme Committee, Hong Kong Trade Development Council
Chairman, Coalition of Professional Services
Chairman, Board of Directors, One Country Two Systems Research Institute Ltd

Kang Sheng

Kang Sheng , Communist Party of China official, was the head of the People's Republic of China's security and intelligence apparatus at various points until his death, and was subsequently accused along with the of being responsible for persecutions during the Cultural Revolution.

Origins


Kang Sheng’s early life is documented as if relating to different people. He was born in Shandong to a gentry family and named Zhao Rong in 1903, or as Zhang Zongke, perhaps in 1893, 1898, or 1899. Kang studied at Shanghai University and joined the party, both in 1924-25. In 1920, Kang took preparatory courses at Qinghua University, then taught in a rural school in Zhujiang, Shandong before resuming studies in Shanghai. He joined the CCP in 1924 or 1925 in Shanghai, where he worked as a labor organizer under different alias such as Zhang Shaoqing and Zhao Rong, and took part in the unsuccessful Communist uprising in 1927. As a Shanghai district CCP leader, he participated in uprisings in that city under the leadership of Zhou Enlai ; when the uprising was put down by Kuomintang, Kang escaped from Shanghai. He was briefly a CCP department chief in the Jiangsu Provincial Committee in 1928 and then joined the surviving Communist cadres in the rural areas, and in 1930.

One report has Kang as CCP Central Committee Organization Department Director , politburo member and Central Committee secretary before being sent as a permanent member of the CCP delegation to the Comintern Executive in Moscow. Other reports say that he studied in Moscow from as early as 1930, and remained there until 1937, working in the Comintern under Wang Ming and, at least at times, along side Chen Yun. All three returned to China, to Yenan, in 1937 and taught at the Anti-Japanese University .

At Yan'an



Kang arrived in Mao Zedong's base at Yan'an sometime in the late 1930s, with the latest inside information on Moscow’s thinking, and was appointed to the CCP CC Secretariat in 1938. He may have already realized that Wang Ming was falling out of favor, and Zhang Guotao was originally selected by the Comintern to replace Wang. Kang Sheng allied himself with Mao to destroy Wang's faction within the party, seeing Wang as the greatest enemy at the time.

At Yan'an, Kang became a close friend of Jiang Qing, who may have been Kang's maid during his youth in Shandong, and who became a second-rate young actress in Shanghai and a newly converted Communist. He introduced her to Mao Zedong, who later married her.

In June 1942, Kang was said to have been spending all his time with Mao. There are conflicting reports about his role, or fate during the 1942 Rectification Campaign : One source says he was criticized, and then replaced Li Weihan as head of the CCP Party School, while another says he was responsible for turning Mao’s innocent effort to educate newly arrived cadres into a violent purge. In his August 1943 speech, Kang explained how he and his colleagues used rectification to expose spies and trick anti-Party elements into reveling themselves. The strategy calls to mind the 1950s Hundred Flowers Movement and its aftermath.

During the 1946-49 Chinese Civil War, Kang was named to CCP chief of Shandong Province and second Deputy General Secretary of the party’s East China Bureau.

After 1949


Kang played no visible public role in the early years of the PRC: it is said that the enmity of President Liu Shaoqi and Premier Zhou Enlai kept his role to a minimum. He resurfaced in the mid- 1950s following his active role in the purge of military leader Peng Dehuai, and apparently resumed control of the CPC security apparatus. He became Mao's personal agent in the intra-Party struggles that began with the "Anti-Rightist Campaign" of 1959 and culminated in the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. As a close associate of Jiang Qing, he became a member of the Party Secretariat under Deng Xiaoping in 1962. By 1966, he became an "adviser" to the Cultural Revolution Group under the Central Committee, and a member of the Politburo's Standing Committee. His actions set into motion the Cultural Revolution, which he created in order to increase his personal power and rank within the CPC.

Kang was closely involved in the Cultural Revolution purges which resulted in the downfall of Peng Dehuai, Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Marshal Lin Biao, Marshal He Long, and many other leading CPC figures. His position in the CPC rose with the fall of each of these high-ranking leaders. Kang's campaigns of state terror reached as far as Inner Mongolia, where he instigated a deadly witchhunt for members of the defunct Inner Mongolian People's Party, which had once existed as a separatist party but was disbanded and absorbed by the CPC long before; and Yunnan Province, where thousands were died. In this wave of persecution, Kang Sheng adopted a different tactics than that of Yan'an: learning from his dismay from Zheng Feng movement more than two decades earlier, Kang Sheng cleverly stayed in the background this time, and encouraged the Red Guards and the general populace to eliminate the class enemy, as well as fighting each other, hence shifted the responsibility ostensively away from himself and Mao. As a result, Mao was pleasd with Kang Sheng for achieving the elimination of the so-called class enemy while shifting the responsibility to others , and Kang Sheng's position was further strengthened in the Cultural Revolution.

Kang also left a lasting imprint on China's foreign policy. While the mainstream of the CPC leadership cultivated Prince Norodom Sihanouk as Cambodia's anti-Western and anti-imperialist leader, Kang advocated that Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was the real revolutionary leader in the Southeast Asian nation. As a result, Pol became the recipient of Chinese aid for years to come.

At the apex of his power, Kang ranked fourth behind Mao, Lin Biao, and Zhou Enlai. His last service to Mao was the 1976 campaign to criticise "rightist deviationism," which was aimed at Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, though Kang died of cancer in late 1975 before it was launched. Even before drawing his last breath, Kang had called Mao's interpreters and proteges Nancy Tang and Wang Hairong to his hospital, accusing Jiang Qing of having betrayed the CPC to the KMT before the Communist victory. Kang may have forecasted Jiang's fall, or he may merely have been speculating as to her fate.

Legacy


Had Kang not died, he would certainly have been removed from power along with the after Mao's death. In a secret speech delivered in 1978, Hu Yaobang compared Kang to secret police chiefs Felix Dzerzhinsky and Lavrenty Beria. He was posthumously expelled from the Party in 1980, and his remains were removed from Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing, where the remains of many prominent CPC leaders are interred.

In contrast to Dzerzhinsky, who was a pious believer in communism and who lived a very simple and modest daily life, Kang lived an extravagant and corrupt lifestyle. As the best calligraphist among senior leaders of CPC, as well as a painter, art and antique connoisseur, poet, and historian, Kang had a great appetite for valuable antiques and used his power to embezzle many from the Forbidden City and from the storehouses of the Cultural Relics Bureau during the Cultural Revolution, a fact uncovered only after his death. According to the audits by the Chinese government and researches by the Japanese, Kang Sheng was both the very first millionaire and the first multi-millionaire in China, based on the value of artifacts he owned in 1970s price. Furthermore, it was rumored that he had kept an affair with the sister of his wife Cao Yi'ou for quite a long time, and he built several villas for their rendezvous.

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Jiang Qing

Jiang Qing is the pseudonym that was used by Chinese leader Mao Zedong's last wife and major Chinese Communist Party power figure Li Shumeng . She went by the stage name Lan Ping during her acting career. She married Mao in Yan'an in November 1938, and is sometimes referred to as Madame Mao in Western literature, serving as Communist China's first "first lady". Jiang Qing was most well-known for playing a major role in the Cultural Revolution and for forming the radical political alliance known as the "". She was named the "Great Flag-carrier of the Proletarian Culture" , and became a prominent leader in state affairs between 1966 and 1976.

Around the time of Chairman Mao's death, maintained control of many of China's power institutions, including a heavy hand in the media and propaganda. Jiang Qing's political success was limited, however, and she was arrested in October 1976 by Hua Guofeng and his allies, and was subsequently accused of being counter-revolutionary. Since then, Jiang Qing and Lin Biao have been branded by official historical documents in China as the "Lin Biao and Jiang Qing Counter-revolutionary Cliques" , to which most of the blame for the damage and devastation caused by the Cultural Revolution was assigned.

Early years




Jiang Qing was born as Lǐ Shūméng in Zhucheng , in 1914. Jiang Qing's father was called Li Dewen , who reputedly wanted a son, thus gave his daughter the name ''L? Jìnhái'' in anticipation for a son. Jiang Qing, first known as L? Yúnhè , grew up in the homes of her courtesan mother's rich lovers. She was an only child who was never doted upon and whose instincts were never curbed. In her early twenties, and after already exhausting two marriages, Jiang Qing went to university and studied literature and drama. Soon, Jiang Qing adopted the stage name "Lán Píng" , and became a professional actress. She appeared in numerous films and plays, including ''A Doll's House'', ''Big Thunderstorm'', ''God of Liberty'', ''The Scenery of City'', ''Blood on Wolf Mountain'' and ''Old Mr. Wang''. In Ibsen's play ''A Doll's House'', Jiang Qing played the role of Nora, who, after being accused of talking like a child and not understanding the world she lives in, replies, "No I don't . But now I mean to go into that... I must find out which is right - the world or I." Being out of sorts with the world was also Jiang Qing's experience, whose early life was fraught with harsh realities. Jiang Qing first married in Shandong, to a wealthy businessman, but became bored of the closed married life. She escaped to Shanghai, where she began reconstructing an acting career and was involved with Yu Qiwei.

At 23, Jiang Qing left her life on the stage behind and went to the Chinese Communist headquarters in Yan'an, to "join the revolution" and the war to resist the Japanese invasion. There she met Mao Zedong, and eventually married him in a small private ceremony. They had a daughter in 1940. Because Mao's marriage to He Zizhen had not yet ceased, Jiang Qing was made to sign a marital contract which stipulated that she would not appear in public with Mao as his escort, effective twenty years.

Rise to power




In the 1950s, Jiang Qing was involved with the Ministry of Culture. Backed by her husband, she was appointed deputy director of the so-called Central Cultural Revolution Group in 1966 and emerged as a serious political figure in the summer of that year. She became a member of the in 1969. By now she has established a close political working relationship with--what in due course would be known as the -- Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen. She was one of the most powerful figures in China during Mao's last years and became a controversial figure.

During this period, Mao Zedong galvanized students and young workers as his Red Guards to attack what he termed as 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 Nikita Khrushchev.

Jiang Qing incited radical youths organized as against other senior political leaders and government officials, including Liu Shaoqi, the at the time, and Deng Xiaoping, the Deputy Premier. Internally divided into factions both to the "left" and "right" of Jiang Qing and Mao, not all Red Guards were friendly to Jiang Qing.



The initial storm of the Cultural Revolution came to an end when Liu Shaoqi was forced from all his posts on October 13, 1968. Lin Biao now became Mao's designated successor. Chairman Mao now gave his support to the Gang of Four: Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, Yao Wenyuan and Zhang Chunqiao. These four radicals occupied powerful positions in the Politburo after the Tenth Party Congress of 1973.

Jiang Qing also directed operas and ballets with communist and revolutionary content as part of an effort to transform China's culture. The Eight model plays were allegedly created under her guidance. Critics would argue that her influence on art was too restrictive, because she replaced nearly all earlier works of art with revolutionary Maoist works.

Jiang Qing first collaborated with then second-in-charge Lin Biao, but after Lin Biao's death in 1971, she turned against him publicly in the Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius Campaign. By the mid 1970s, Jiang Qing also spearheaded the campaign against Deng Xiaoping . The Chinese public became intensely discontented at this time and chose to blame Jiang Qing, a more accessible and easier target than Chairman Mao.

Jiang Qing's hobbies included photography, playing cards, and watching foreign movies, especially ''''. It was also revealed that Mao's physician, Li Zhisui, had diagnosed her as a hypochondriac. When touring a troupe of young girls excelling in marksmanship, she "discovered" Joan Chen, then 14 years old, launching Joan's career as a Chinese and then international actress.

She developed severe degrees of hypochondriasis and erratic nerves. She required two sedatives over the course of a day and three sleeping pills to fall asleep. Staff were assigned to chase away birds and cicadas from her Imperial Fishing Villa. She ordered house servants to cut down on noise by removing their shoes and avoiding clothes rustling. Mild temperature extremes bothered her; thermostats were always set to 21.5°C in winter and 26°C in summer.

Mao Zedong's death



Mao began dying on September 2, 1976. By September 5, his condition was critical and Hua Guofeng contacted Jiang Qing. She returned from her trip and spent only a few moments in hospital's Building 202, where Mao was being treated, before returning to her own residence in the Spring Lotus Chamber. On the afternoon of September 7, Mao took a turn for the worse. Mao had just fallen asleep and needed the rest, but she insisted on rubbing his back and moving his limbs and she sprinkled powder on his body. The medical team protested that the dust from the powder was not good for his lungs, but she instructed the nurses on duty to follow her example later. The next morning, September 8, she came again. She wanted the medical staff to change Mao's sleeping position, claiming that he had been lying too long on his left side. The doctor on duty objected, knowing that he could breathe only on his left side, but she had him moved nonetheless. Mao's breathing stopped and his face turned blue. Jiang Qing left the room while the medical staff put Mao on a respirator and performed emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Mao revived and Hua Guofeng urged Jiang Qing not to interfere further with the doctor's work, however Mao's organs failed and the Chinese government decided to disconnect Mao's life support mechanism.

Downfall and death



On October 6, 1976, Jiang Qing and three others were arrested for attempting to seize power by setting up militia coups in Shanghai and Beijing. After her arrest, Jiang Qing was sent to the Qincheng Prison and detained for five years. Between 1981 and 1982, she was tried for crimes against innocent people and subverting the government. During her public trials at the "Special Court", Jiang Qing was the only member of the Gang of Four who bothered to argue on her behalf. The defense's argument was that she obeyed the orders of Chairman Mao Zedong at all times. Jiang Qing maintained that all she had done was to defend Chairman Mao. It was at this trial that Jiang Qing made the famous quote: "''I was Chairman Mao's dog. I bit whomever he asked me to bite.''" . The official records of the trial have not yet been released.

Jiang Qing was in 1981. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1983, allegedly to "give her time to repent". While in prison, Jiang Qing was diagnosed with throat cancer, but she refused an operation. She was eventually released, on medical grounds, in 1991. At the hospital, Jiang Qing used the name Lǐ Rùnqīng . She was alleged to have committed suicide on May 14, 1991, aged 77, by hanging herself in a bathroom of her hospital.

Trial




In 1980, the trials of Lin Biao and the Gang of Four began. The trials were televised nationwide. By showing the way the Gang of Four was tried, Deng Xiaoping wanted the people to realize that a new age had arrived.

Jiang Qing seemed almost defiant as the trial opened. Her jet-black hair was pulled severely back behind her ears; she marched into the courtroom with her head regally erect and then alternately smirked and yawned during the reading of the indictment, apparently to show contempt for the proceedings. Portions of the 20,000-word indictment were printed in China's press before the trial started; they accused the defendants of a host of heinous crimes that took place during the Cultural Revolution. The charges specify that 727,420 Chinese were "persecuted" during that period, and that 34,274 died, though the often vague indictment did not specify exactly how. Among the chief victims: onetime Chief of State Liu Shaoqi, whose widow Wang Guangmei, herself imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution for 12 years, attended the trial as an observer.

The indictment described two plots by the "Jiang Qing-Lin Biao Counterrevolutionary Clique" to seize power. Jiang Qing was not accused of conspiring with Lin Biao, or with other members of the Gang of Four who allegedly planned an armed rebellion to "usurp power" in 1976, when Mao was close to death. Instead, the charges against her focused on her systematic persecution of creative artists during the Cultural Revolution. Among other things, she was accused of hiring 40 people in Shanghai to disguise themselves as Red Guards and ransack the homes of writers and performers. The apparent purpose was said to find and destroy letters, photos and other potentially damaging materials on Jiang Qing's early career in Shanghai, which she wanted to keep secret.

Despite the seriousness of the accusations against her, Jiang Qing appeared unrepentant. She had not confessed her guilt, something that the Chinese press has emphasized to show her bad attitude. There had been reports that she planned to defend herself by cloaking herself in Mao's mantle, saying that she did only what he approved. As the trial got under way, Jiang Qing dismissed her assigned lawyers, deciding instead to represent herself.



Dialogues during the trial


1


Witness: "''Many comrades were put in jail on innumerable false charges. They were arbitrarily assigned heavy guilts, arrested and confined, some wore handcuffs for as long as 5 years.''"

Jiang Qing: "''You don't need to forge anymore. That has nothing to do with you!''"

Witness shouts: "''You have no right to talk!''"

Jiang Qing: "''I have the right to defend myself. I have the right to reveal you.''"

The judge rings the bell and the witness slams on the table: "''You are not allowed to talk!''"

2


After being shown the body examination of Zhang Linzhi, the former minister for the coal industry and a victim during the Cultural Revolution, Jiang Qing made the following statement:

''This may be true. However, those 'huge amount of evidences', as claimed by you, are merely picking bones from an egg. For instance, a sound record from the National Beijing Opera Institution were played again and again. Also, having me repeatedly appear in court 6 times so far can reveal something too. I understand only too well what you said. What you are doing now is to uglify me, Chairman Mao Zedong, and the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, in which hundreds of millions of people have participated. I was Chairman Mao's wife for 38 full years, not counting those years when we first knew each other. We have been through wars and hardships together. During the war time I was the only woman who followed Chairman Mao to the frontier! Where were you hiding then?!''

3


''I was Chairman Mao's dog. When Chairman Mao asked me to bite, I bit!'' perhaps her most famous line in defence of herself.

Names of Jiang Qing


#Birth name: Lǐ Shūméng
#Given name: Lǐ Jìnhái
#School name: Lǐ Yúnhè
#Modified name: Lǐ Hè
#Stage name: Lán Píng
#Revolutionary pseudonym: Jiāng Qīng
#Pen name: Lǐ Jìn
#Last used name: Lǐ Rùnqīng

Bibliography


*Ross Terrill, The White-Boned Demon: A Biography of Madame Mao Zedong . ISBN 0-671-74484-4
*Roxane Witke, Comrade Chiang Ch'ing . ISBN 0-316-94900-0
*Jung Chang, ISBN 0-671-68546-5
*Li Zhisui,The Private Life of Chairman Mao ISBN 0-09-9648814

Jiang Chunyun

Jiang Chunyun is vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress.

Biography


Jiang was born in county, Shandong province, April 1930, and started work in 1946; he joined the Communist Party of China in February 1947. Since then, Jiang has served as secretary-general of Communist Party of China Shandong Provincial Committee, secretary of Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Jinan Municipal Committee, governor of Shandong province, secretary of CPC Shandong Provincial Committee, and vice-premier of State Council.

He was a member of Secretariat of CPC Central Committee, a member of 13th through 15th CPC Central Committees, and a member of Political Bureau of 14th CPC Central Committee; and he is currently a member of Political Bureau of 15th CPC Central Committee.

Gong Xiao Bin

Gong Xiao Bin , born November 23, 1969 in , is a retired Chinese professional basketball player who enjoyed an outstanding career in the Chinese Basketball Association. In 1990 he was chosen as one of China's 50 all-time great basketball players.

Life and career


In 1982 he began play for the Shandong Province youth soccer team and in 1986, at the age of 17, was selected to the Chinese national U-19 team. In 1988 Gong competed in a national urban basketball tournament and was chosen as an outstanding player; he was also listed as one of China's top ten basketball players of that year; in 1989 at the age of 20 Gong joined the China national basketball team.

As a member of the national basketball team, Gong competed for China in the , the and in the . In 2002 at the age of 33 he was still playing internationally, representing China in the Asian games and the FIBA world tournament.

As for the Chinese Basketball Association, Gong played center for the Shandong Lions, in the 1997-1998 season winning the league scoring title. He was named to .

As a basketball player Gong Xiao Bin represented his native Shandong Province both as a sports role model and as a player, leading the Shandong men's team at the Chinese National Games, including the at which Shandong Province finished 3rd overall.

Retirement


Gong retired from play in 2003 and began a new career coaching basketball, for the CBA's Shandong Lions.

Fu Sinian

Fù Sīnián , was a famous educator and , and one of the leaders of the May Fourth Movement in 1919. He was also one of the creators of the Academia Sinica, and was named director of the Institute of History and Philology upon its founding in 1928. In 1933 he published his East Yi West Xia theory about the origin of prehistory culture in current China.

Fu Biao

Fu Biao was a famous Chinese actor.

Biography


A native to Shandong, he was born in a family of officer on September 27, 1963. After graduating from high school, he entered a film academy in Beijing to learn acting. As a film actor, he acted for the first time in the ''Shanghai Triad'' . From 1997 he acted in several New Year films directed by Feng Xiaogang and became a recognizable actor in the . He died from on August 30, 2005.

Filmography includes



''Shanghai Triad''
''''
''Sorry Baby''
''A Sigh''
''Big Shot's Funeral''
''A World Without Thieves''

Zhou Nan

Zhou Nan was a prominent Chinese politician and diplomat, and served as Director of the Xinhua News Agency in Hong Kong, Vice Minister of the People's Republic of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador to the United Nations. He was also a member of the Standing Committee of the 7th and 8th National People's Congress, and a member of the 14th Central Committee of the CPC. He is best known as China's delegation head and main representative during negotiations for the of sovereignties of Hong Kong and from and Portugal to China.

Early years and education


Born in December 1927 in Changchun, Jilin Province, Zhou was born under the name of Gao Qinglian. He was the smallest of five children born to Gao Guozhu, the magistrate of Anda County in Heilongjiang Province, and his second wife Wang Yunzhi. Just before the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the family moved to the city of Tianjin, where at age 14, Gao enrolled at Tianjin's Yaohua High School. Upon graduation, he attended Beijing University from 1944-1948, majoring in philosophy. In 1949, he was appointed Head of the English Department at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Early Political Career


In April 1946, Gao Qingzong formally entered the Communist Party of China under the nom de guerre "Zhou Nan", a poet from the Song Dynasty. Party members at the time were advised to go by aliases or false names to protect themselves from persecution. From then on, he made his name change official and became formally known as Zhou Nan. During the Korean War, Zhou served as the Chief of the Political Bureau of the People's Volunteer Army, and interrogated captured 's. In 1951, he joined the Foreign Service and took up a post as the Third Secretary and later Second Secretary at the newly created Chinese Embassy in Pakistan. After serving in Pakistan for four years, Zhou returned to Beijing in 1955 as Section Chief of the Department of West Asian and North African Affairs. During the Cultural Revolution, He was later appointed First Secretary at the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania, where he served until 1973.

Career as Ambassador to the United Nations


In 1973, Zhou Nan became First Secretary and Councellor of the People's Republic of China's first ever delegation to the United Nations. He was made the PRC's official ambassador to the U.N. in 1980. After serving twelve years on the Chinese delegation, Zhou returned from New York in the 1983 to engage in preliminary talks with the British government regarding the of the then British-owned Hong Kong to Chinese rule.

Career as Vice Foreign Minister



Zhou Nan was promoted to the office of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1984. His primary task was to spearhead the Chinese delegation to negotiate the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong with the British Foreign Ministry. Replacing his former superior Yao Guang, whose lack of progress the PRC government had become disenchanted with, Zhou remained in constant talks with the British delegation for 13 years until the official handover of Hong Kong in 1997. On September 26, 1984, Zhou Nan and British delegation head signed the important UK-China Joint Declaration at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The Joint Declaration promised Hong Kong's status as a Special Administrative Region of China after 1997, and allowed Hong Kong citizens to retain their rights and freedoms enjoyed under British rule.

Legacy


"Zhou was witty and urbane and liked to charm people by quoting classical Chinese poems. Although he wore old-fashioned glasses and drab Chinese-made suits, he spoke fluent English and was regarded as a sophisticated international diplomat. At the negotiating table, Zhou was tough, aggressive, even brutish. He was a ferocious negotiator who carried out instructions ruthlessly." - Mark Roberti, Asiaweek correspondent

"Intelligent, cultivated, a great man for quotations, whether in Chinese or English, a great man for toasts in maotai, had acquired some of the Western habits of transacting business: it was even possible to get authoritative answers out of him by telephone; and he accelerated the delicate manoeuvres on the agenda for the talks." - , British Ambassador to China

Zhang Tianran

Zhang Tianran is the founder of I-Kuan Tao, a modern religious movement. He is usually referred to as the ''Father of I-Kuan Tao'', or as ''Shi Zun'' , meaning the ''Honored Teacher''.

Early life


He was born under the name ''Kui Sheng'', and also as ''Zhang Guang Bi''. ''Zhang Tian Ran'' was his official religious name. He was also known as ''Kung Chang'' . Zhang was born on the 19th day of the 7th Lunar month in 1889, in Jining prefecture, northern province Shandong. In 1908, Zhang married with a woman named Zhu, but Zhu died a year later. Two years later Zhang married again to a woman of the surname Liu.

He left home and traveled to Nanjing and Shanghai. At age 24, Zhang joined the army as a low ranking military officer. Zhang was then initiated in I-Kuan Tao in 1914. The 17th patriarch Lu Zhongyi heard the conduct of Zhang and told Zhang to join in Jining. Lu died in 1925, and was succeeded by his sister, Lu Zhongjie who temporarily looked after I Kuan Tao for 6 years. In 1930, Venerable Zhang and Sun Su Zhen became the 18th patriarch.

Leadership in I-Kuan Tao


There are various versions concerning the transfer of the 18th patriarch and the meeting of Zhang Tianran with Sun Suzhen. The most simple version states that the Venerable Mother transferred the 18th patriarchs to both Zhang and Sun. The most widely accepted version in Western literature states that Zhang took Sun Suzhen as his second wife in 1930. She was already a member of I-Kuan Tao and it was believed that Zhang married her after a "divine message". Zhang was considered as the incarnation of Ji Gong, a Buddhist monk who was revered as an incarnation of an Arhat by Buddhists and also Taoists. Sun was then considered as the reincarnation of Yue Hui . Yet, it is noted that Zhang and Sun were husband and wife in name without intimate relationship. Sun was only responsible for leading and propagating Tao.

Zhang moved out of Jining, and in 1931 traveled to Jinan the capital of Shandong, to spread the teachings. He founded the Hall of Lofty Splendor and attracted many followers. These first followers later become Zhang's apostles. From Jinan I-Kuan Tao spread quickly throughout North China. Within a year, four more temples were established. In 1934, Zhang went to Tianjin established another temple and became the base of the propagation. In 1937, Tianjin had more than 100 temples. From Tianjin, Zhang's disciples propagated the teaching to various parts of China.

Under the Japanese occupation, I-Kuan Tao survived and spread rapidly, centered in Central China. The cult with apocalyptic belief and strong mystic element attracted many peasants.
The political chaotic, fear and panic situation in this period helped I-Kuan Tao grow more rapidly. The apocalyptic teaching promised that by following I-Kuan Tao, one will be spared and salvaged from calamity. By 1940, I-Kuan Tao reached the southern province of Jiangxi. I-Kuan Tao also attracted a number of officials of the Japanese puppet government of Wang Jingwei. During 1950, it was estimated in Beijing there were about 178,000 followers, and in Tianjin, 140,000.

Death


After the war ended, Zhang was sick and under accusation of conspiracy with occupying Japanese army. Zhang died on the 15th day of the 8th Lunar Month, the Mid Autumn Festival, in 1947 in the city of Cheng Du in Sichuan province. He was buried in Hangzhou.

Zhang Chunqiao

Zhang Chunqiao was a member of the .

Biography


He worked as a writer in Shanghai in the 1930s. After the Yan'an conference in 1938, he joined the Communist Party of China. With the creation of the People's Republic of China, he became a prominent journalist in Shanghai in charge of the Liberation Daily . He met Jiang Qing in Shanghai and helped to launch the Cultural Revolution.

Zhang first came to prominence as the result of his October 1958 ''Jiefang'' magazine entitled “Destroy the Ideas of Bourgeois Legal Ownership.” Mao Zedong ordered the reproduction of the article in ''Renmin Ribao'' , and personally wrote an accompanying “Editor’s Note” giving mild approval. In February 1967 he organized the Shanghai Commune. In April 1969 he joined the Politburo of the Central Committee and in 1973 he was promoted to the Standing Committee of the Politburo. In January 1975 he became second deputy Prime Minister. His attempt to promote himself higher in the party's hierarchy ended when he was arrested in October 1976. He was sentenced to death, together with Jiang Qing, in 1981, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Jiang died in 1991 shortly after being released on medical grounds.

He was released for medical reasons in August 2002 and was arranged to live in obscurity back in Shanghai.

Among those calling themselves Maoist outside China, a large perhaps majority portion still uphold the theories of Zhang Chunqiao. His most widely respected article is "On Exercising All-Round Dictatorship over the Bourgeoisie," in which he explained the bases and extent of the problem of the bourgeoisie in China and what would have to be done to prevent capitalist restoration.

In May 2005 it was announced that he had died of cancer the previous month.

Yang Jianli

Yang Jianli is a dissident with .

Yang, a in 1989, came to the United States, earned two s , and then founded the . Given his political activism, he was blacklisted by the government of the People's Republic of China, who also refused to renew his passport.

Yang returned to China in April 2002 on a friend's passport to view labor unrest in . He was detained when trying to board an internal flight. Although Freedom Now typically would not take up an illegal entry case, since his initial detention, Yang has been held incommunicado by the Chinese in violation of their own and international law. His wife and children as well as his extended family were denied access to Yang and were justifiably concerned for his health and safety while he languished in prison.

On May 13, 2004, the announced a guilty verdict and sentenced Yang to five years in prison for espionage and illegal entry.

On April 27, 2007, Yang was released from Chinese prison, but was not allowed to leave China. On August 19, 2007, he was finally allowed to return to the United States.

Reminded of his experience with the June 4, Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 for freedom of speech and democracy, Jianli's recent article in the Washington Post shortly after his return to United States reflects his vivid observation of the spiritually coined as Saffron Revolution, including China's 'parasitic relationship with Burma' and the genuine will of freedom loving intellectuals around the world condemning the current brutal oppressions in Burma.

Yang Chuantang

Yang Chuantang is the vice-director of the National Commission of Ethnic Affairs of the People's Republic of China.

Biography


Yang Chuantang was born in Yucheng, Shandong in 1954. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1976.

He was governor of Qinghai Province from January to December 2004, and party secretary of the committee for Tibet Autonomous Region from December 2004 to May 2006.

Wu Guoguang

Wu Guoguang is a native of Shandong Province, a renowned Chinese scholar, and a member of the Office for Restructuring Central Politics during the tenure of Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang.

Education



Wu holds a B.A. in journalism from Beijing University, an M.A. in law from the Chinese Academic of Social Sciences, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Princeton University. He has been a sent-down youth, a factory assistant, secretary to the president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, chief editor of the department of current affairs at the ''People's Daily'', and a member of the Office for Restructuring Central Politics. From 1986 to 1987, he participated in researching and formulating the Chinese Communist Party's policy on political reform, and, as an assistant to Zhao Ziyang's political secretary, Baotong, was one of the drafters of the Chinese Communist Party's '13th General Meeting' report on political reform. He is intimately familiar with Zhao's thought about and efforts on behalf of political reform. Later he resigned in response to the Tiananmen Incident, about which he was previously interviewed in the documentary ''Tiananmen''.

Recent Situation



Wu was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, a Luce Fellow at Columbia University, and a Wang An Post-Doctoral Fellow at the John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University. He was also an assistant and an associate professor in the Department of Politics and Administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and is currently an associate professor at the University of Victoria, where he teaches in the Departments of Political Science and History and holds the China Program Chair at the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives.

Wang Hao De

Wang Hao De is the founder of the Maitreya Great Tao religion , which is based in Hsin Chu, Taiwan. This sect according to Taiwan's survey in 2004 has 100,000 members and 2000 temples. Wang was born in 1921, the 28th day of the 7th lunar month in a small village called Zhang Gu in Shandong province. He moved to Taiwan as a businessman. He was introduced and initiated to the I-Kuan Tao sect in 1948. He appeared to be a talented businessman and he was entrusted to take care of Sun Su Zhen or "Shi Mu" 師母, the great mistress of I-Kuan Tao. According to his believer Wang served as aide to ''Shi Mu'' for 11 years until her death in 1975.

This begin the tension between Wang and I Kuan Tao. Wang claimed to be appointed as the leader or inheritant of the I Kuan Tao lineage by Shi Mu . As there are many factions or groups within I Kuan Tao, Wang demanded that all the I Kuan Tao factions to be under his leadership. Moreover Wang claimed that he was given the right to bestow 'Mandate of Heaven' or 天命''Tian Ming'' by Shi Mu. According to I Kuan Tao belief, the celestial mandate allows one to become an initiator ''Dian Chuan Shi'' 點傳師 with the right to transmit the Tao and its three treasures 三寶 . This mandate is passed along in succession. It is believed that only the last patriarch Zhang Tian Ran and Sun Su Zhen had superior mandate from the venerable mother ''Lao Mu''. They were allowed to bestow this "celestial mandate" to their disciples. It is believed that Shi Mu left a certain number of celestial mandate in Hong Kong. So in order to become a valid initiator, they have to be empowered by the 'true' mandate left by Shi Mu.
Thus Wang claimed to be the only one with the power to bestow the legitimate celestial mandate.
Conflict arose between Wang and the other factions. Wang set up his own sect first called Maitreya Great Tao. It appears that some factions followed his 'lineage', this includes ''Bao Guang'' 寶光組 . In 1987 Wang set up the Providence Maitreya Buddha Institute in Hsin Chu, Taiwan. Maitreya Great Tao has a large number of follower in Indonesia, where it is registered as a Buddhist religion. Wang died in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 1999. His group remained to have a large number of followers. Maitreya Great Tao's latest project is to built a bronze statue of Maitreya in Hsin Chu, with a height of 72 m.

Wang Fang (PRC politician)

Wang Fang is a politician of the People's Republic of China.

Biography


Native of Xintai, Shandong, Wang joined the Communist Party of China in 1938. He participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, now is supposed to live in Milan , where is attending an undergraduate program at Bocconi University.

After the foundation of the People's Republic of China, Wang Fang has been some high level officials including the Secretary of the CPC's Zhejiang Committee. He was the from April 1987 to November 1990.

Wang was the member of the 12th CPC Central Committee from 1982 to 1987, and member of the Central Advisory Commission from 1987 to 1992.

Tian Jiyun

Tian Jiyun is a politician in the People's Republic of China, known as a supporter of Deng Xiaoping's reforms. The best-known feature of his biography is the speech of 1992, delivered in the Central Party School, in which he ridicules the "leftists" . Tian proposed they establish their own "economic zones" preserving all the worst features of the old system.

Biography


Between 1981 and 1983, Tian served as the deputy secretary general of the . He was promoted to the secretary general in 1983, and served as the of the State Council between 1983 and 1993.

Tian joined the the Communist Party of China at the age of 16. He has been a member of the National Congress of the Communist Party of China since 1982, and joined the in 1987.

Tian was elected the vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in 1993 and 1998. Tian retired in 2002 at the age of 73.

Sun Suzhen

Sun Suzhen was the Matriarch of I Kuan Tao . She was the successor of Zhang Tian Ran, the last patriarch of I-Kuan Tao. She was also known ''Ming Shan'' or ''Hui Ming'' , her religious name.

Sun was born in Shan County, Shandong province on the 28th day of the eight lunar month in 1895. She was introduced to I-Kuan Tao in 1908 and became the student of Lu Zhongyi, there she met Zhang Tianran. Zhang took her as his second wife, which was believed to be Heaven's will and lifted her as the incarnation of Bodhisattva ''Yue Huei'' , the wife of Ji Gong. Her followers regarded her to hold the seat of the 18th patriarch together with Zhang in 1930.

After the death of Zhang in 1947, she took control of I-Kuan Tao. Many of the Zhang's followers
followed her leadership. Only a small fraction stayed on with Madame Liu, the first wife of Zhang.

When the communists took over China in 1949, Sun moved to Hong Kong. She then went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a short period then return to Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong she was said to left behind a large number of ''heavenly mandates'' . Until today there are few elders in Hong Kong who were believed to be the keeper of these heavenly mandates.

In 1954, she moved to Taiwan. Because I-Kuan Tao was illegal then, she kept a low profile and was kept under seclusion. She was sick in the last years and under the care of a nun surnamed Zhou in Taichung. And later she was under the care of Wang Hao De until her death. She died on the 23rd day of the second lunar month in 1975 one day before the death of Chiang Kai-shek.

She was buried in Tashi, Taoyuan . She was given the title ''Zong Hua Sheng Mu'' by her followers.

Sun Chuanfang

Sun Chuanfang aka the "Nanking Warlord" or leader of the "League of Five Provinces" was a Zhili clique warlord and protege of the "Jade Marshal" Wu Peifu .

Biography


He was given command of Zhejiang in 1924. By the next two years he expanded his rule to Jiangsu, Fujian, Anhui, and Jiangxi. He set his headquarters in Nanjing.

The ended his rule capturing Shanghai in March 1927 and he fled to Japanese-held Dalian. He was assassinated in Tianjin on 13 November 1935 by Shi Jianqiao, the daughter of an executed officer. She received sympathy from the Chinese people and was pardoned by the Kuomintang Government.

Meng Xuenong

Meng Xuenong is a politician of the People's Republic of China. He was the Governor of Shanxi province. A native of county, Shandong, Meng had previous leadership experience as Mayor of Beijing, until he was dramatically sacked for his failure to control and conceal the SARS epidemic. He is also a member of the 16th CPC Central Committee and a deputy in the 2003-08 National People's Congress.

Career


Meng studied engineering at Beijing Normal University during the later stages of the Cultural Revolution before being assigned to Beijing's No.2 Motor Vehicle Plant. He joined the Communist Party of China in July 1972, rising through the ranks of the Beijing municipal Communist Youth League and the car industry. In 1986 he was transferred to senior posts in the hospitality industry, briefly serving as General Manager of the Beijing Hotel group. He then spent four years at the University of Science and Technology of China, alongside Qiang Wei , who has been a consistent colleague. After graduating with an MBA, he became a vice-mayor of Beijing in 1993.

In January 2003 he was appointed deputy Party chief of the CPC Beijing Committee and Mayor of Beijing Municipality. The hit Beijing sometime in March, and Meng is said to have moved patients between hospitals in a botched cover-up that worsened the outbreak. The decided to remove him from his posts on 16 April as part of a double sacking with health minister Zhang Wenkang. The pair were held responsible both for the public health failure and the damage to trust in the Party. The sacking was described by one journalist as "the biggest political earthquake since the time of Tiananmen in 1989." The harsh treatment was privately questioned by other cadres in Beijing, but they were assured that Meng's co-operative attitude would be rewarded. Five months later, he was quietly created deputy director of the South-North Water Transfer Project, reporting to the State Council.

Meng was appointed Vice Secretary of the CPC Shanxi Committee on 30 August 2007 as part of a wider Party reshuffle, and then elected Vice Governor and acting by the Shanxi Provincial People's Congress on 3 September. His fortunes, however, proved short-lived when he resigned on September 14, 2008 after the .

Faction and policies


Meng is a member of the ''tuanpai'' faction of former Communist Youth League officials and has close personal ties to President Hu Jintao. As he stated himself, "My career in the CCYL provided a foundation for my political career later on." At a news conference in January 2003, he portrayed himself as an old friend of Hu, stating "Cadre Jintao was a major leader in the Communist Youth League 20 years ago and some of us worked under his leadership... What I remember most deeply are his fairness, personal integrity and selflessness. Those qualities make up his unique charisma." However, this has been subsequently disputed. Hu allegedly fired his protège in order to remove Zhang, linked to rival Jiang Zemin. Some reports claimed the mayor was "sacrificed" to protect Liu Qi. It has even been claimed that Meng is closer to Liu than Hu. However, most commentators saw Meng's return to power as a sign of the ''tuanpai'' faction's dominance.

The ''People's Daily'' has portrayed Meng as reformist. He claims his CYL experience helps him stay in touch with young people and remain open-minded. He used to live in Beijing's Siheyuan , and kept in touch with his former neighbours, claiming a special understanding of the people. On his election in Taiyuan, he told delegates, "I will do my utmost best to get familiar with Shanxi and become like a native... a great honour, but also comes with great responsibility."