Wu Xiuquan | |
|---|---|
伍修权 | |
 Wu in 1946 | |
| Chinese Ambassador to Yugoslavia | |
| In office 26 February 1955 – 1 September 1958 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Chargé d'affaires |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1908-03-06)6 March 1908 |
| Died | 3 November 1997(1997-11-03) (aged 89) |
| Party | Chinese Communist Party |
| Spouse | Xu He |
| Alma mater | Moscow Sun Yat-sen University |
| Wu Xiuquan | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 伍修權 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 伍修权 | ||||||||||
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Wu Xiuquan (Chinese:伍修权;Wade–Giles:Wu Hsiu-ch'üan; 6 March 1908[1][2][3] – 9 November 1997) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, military officer, and diplomat. He studied in theSoviet Union, enlisted in theChinese Red Army, and participated in theLong March. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, China's first ambassador toYugoslavia, and Vice Minister of theInternational Department of the Chinese Communist Party. After being imprisoned for eight years during theCultural Revolution, Wu was appointed Deputy Chief of thePeople's Liberation Army General Staff Department in 1975 and later served as vice president of the special court that tried and convicted theGang of Four and theLin Biao clique of numerous crimes during the Cultural Revolution.
Wu was born on 6 March 1908 inWuchang,Hubei, toward the end of theQing dynasty, with his ancestral home inYangxin County.[4] While studying at Wuhan Middle School, he was active in the student movement[5] and became a member of theSocialist Youth League of China under the influence ofChen Tanqiu andDong Biwu.[4]
In October 1925, he was sent to theSoviet Union to study international politics atMoscow Sun Yat-sen University.[4][5] After the 1927Shanghai massacre, theChinese Communist Party established its own military force, and Wu transferred to Moscow Infantry School to receive military training.[6] He worked in theRussian Far East after 1929.[4]
Wu returned to China in May 1931, when the Communist movement was at its nadir.[4] He enlisted in theRed Army and participated in theLong March.[5] At the crucialZunyi Conference in 1935, Wu served as the interpreter for theComintern advisorOtto Braun (Li De), but opposed Braun and supportedMao Zedong's strategy, unlike other returnees from the Soviet Union who supported Comintern's orthodox line.[6]
During theSecond Sino-Japanese War, Wu was appointed head of theEighth Route Army'sLanzhou office, which he developed into a hub for receiving and transporting military aid from the Soviet Union for China's war effort.[6] After thesurrender of Japan at the end the war, Wu was appointed Chief of Staff of thePeople's Liberation Army (PLA) in the formerly Japanese-occupiedNortheast China. He became Chairman of theShenyang Military Control Commission after the PLA seized the city in November 1948, and a member of the Northeast People's Government when it was founded in August 1949.[5]
When the People's Republic of China was founded in October 1949, Wu was appointed head of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe Department of theForeign Ministry and accompaniedMao Zedong on his visit to the Soviet Union in January 1950. In November 1950, Wu attended aUnited Nations Security Council meeting as the PRC representative. He made a long speech condemning the United States for its "armed aggression" in Taiwan and "armed intervention" in theKorean War, and called for the UN to demand the withdrawal of U.S. forces from both Taiwan and Korea.[5]
In 1951, Wu was promoted to Vice Foreign Minister of the PRC. In March 1953, he visited Moscow again, as a member of the Chinese delegation led by PremierZhou Enlai, to attend the funeral ofJoseph Stalin.[5]
In September 1954, Wu was elected a member of theSichuan delegation to the1st National People's Congress. In March 1955, he was appointed the PRC's first ambassador toYugoslavia.[6] He was elected a member of the8th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 1956.[5] In 1958, he attended the Seventh Congress of Yugoslavian Communist Party, after which Sino-Yugoslavian relations almost broke because China harshly criticized Yugoslavia for its disobedience against Soviet Union. From October 1958 to April 1967, he served as Vice Minister of theInternational Department of the Chinese Communist Party.[4] In December 1962 and January 1963, Wu visitedBulgaria,Hungary,Czechoslovakia andEast Germany to attend each country's party congresses, the last of which attended byKhrushchev. Wu exchanged fierce remarks with local communists and meanwhile, theSino-Soviet dispute worsened.[7]
During theCultural Revolution, Wu resistedKang Sheng's attempt to persecute the senior leaderWang Jiaxiang. On 8 April 1967, after he posted abig-character poster condemning the chaos created by the radicals at the International Liaison Department, Kang Sheng andLin Biao arrested Wu as a foreign spy and imprisoned him for eight years.[6]
In April 1975, MarshalYe Jianying worked to rehabilitate Wu and appointed him Deputy Chief of thePLA General Staff Department.[5][6] After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Wu was appointed vice president of the special court for the trials of theGang of Four and the Lin Biao clique. He presided over 16 trials and participated in 14 others.[6] He was elected a member of the11th Central Committee and a standing committee member of the 12th and 13thCentral Advisory Commission.[4] He was also a member of the Standing Committee of theNational People's Congress and theChinese People's Political Consultative Conference.[5]
In October 1979, Wu became the founding chairman of the newly established Beijing Institute for International Strategic Studies, which in October 1992 was renamed theChina Institute for International Strategic Studies (CIISS).[citation needed]
Wu published several memoirs, includingMy Life's Journey,Reminiscences of Wu Xiuquan, andEight Years in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[5]
On 9 November 1997, Wu died in Beijing at the age of 89.[4]
Wu had four daughters and a son with his first wife. After her death, Wu married Xu He (徐和) in 1948 inDalian, and she gave birth to another daughter.[8] Xu He was the third of five children of the educator Xu Yibing.Xu Chi, a renowned writer, andXu Shunshou, a founder of China's aircraft manufacturing industry, were Wu's brothers-in-law.[9]
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