Liu Zihou | |
|---|---|
| 刘子厚 | |
 | |
| Chairman of the Hebei Revolutionary Committee | |
| In office 24 January 1971 – 26 December 1979 | |
| Preceded by | Li Xuefeng |
| Succeeded by | Jin Ming |
| First Secretary of Hebei | |
| In office 25 August 1966 – 3 February 1968 | |
| Preceded by | Lin Tie |
| Succeeded by | Li Xuefeng |
| Governor of Hebei | |
| In office 16 April 1958 – 19 January 1967 | |
| Preceded by | Lin Tie |
| Succeeded by | Li Xuefeng |
| Governor of Hubei | |
| In office 1954–1956 | |
| Preceded by | Li Xiannian |
| Succeeded by | Zhang Tixue |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 1909 |
| Died | (2001-12-22)December 22, 2001 (aged 92) Beijing, China |
| Party | Chinese Communist Party |
Liu Zihou (Chinese:刘子厚; December 1909 – December 22, 2001) was a Communist revolutionary leader and politician of thePeople's Republic of China. He served as Governor ofHubei andHebei provinces, and as the top leader of Hebei during theCultural Revolution,[1][2] but was ousted from his positions after he opposed the reforms ofDeng Xiaoping. He was a protégé ofLi Xiannian, one of China's top leaders.[3]
Liu Zihou was bornLiu Wenzhong (刘文忠) inRen County, southernHebei province in December 1909. He also used the pseudonymMa Zhiyuan (马致远). In middle school he secretly participated in revolutionary activities and later joined theChinese Communist Party in October 1929. In 1935 he was one of the leaders of the peasant riot in southern Hebei, establishing aguerrilla force under theRed Army of China. In 1936 his force was expanded to a division and Liu became the division commander. During theSecond Sino-Japanese War and the subsequentChinese Civil War, he was a leader of the Communist guerrilla forces in the border region ofHubei andHenan provinces.[1][2]
After the Communists defeated theKuomintang and established the People's Republic of China in 1949, Liu Zihou became a leader of Hubei, and was the provincial governor from 1954 to 1956. From 1956 to 1958 he was appointed head of theSanmenxia Dam project on theYellow River.[1][2] In April 1958 he was appointed Governor of his native Hebei province,[4] subordinate toLin Tie, the First Secretary of the Communist Party and top official in Hebei.[5] In Hebei Liu was a proponent ofclass struggle and was praised by ChairmanMao Zedong.[6]
In May 1966, the beginning of theCultural Revolution, Liu Zihou made a bid for the top office of Hebei. He courtedLi Xuefeng, party chief ofNorth China, which includes Hebei province, and denounced the Hebei party chief Lin Tie. Lin was stripped of his positions and detained by the military. Liu then persecuted many war heroes including his own former associates, resulting in at least thirty-three deaths. On August 25 theCentral Committee of the Chinese Communist Party appointed Governor Liu as First Secretary of Hebei andPolitical Commissar of the Hebei Military Region. Having consolidated power over party, government, and army, Liu ruled Hebei like a monarch.[7]
In January 1967, however, Liu Zihou was attacked and detained by theRed Guards inBaoding, which had been designated the temporary capital of Hebei. When Liu arrived in Baoding, two major rival Red Guard factions, both of which included supporters of the former party chief Lin Tie, united to overthrow and capture Liu. On January 29, the Red Guards of the August First faction paraded Liu on a truck for five hours, which was reportedly witnessed by a million people. On February 11, the 69th Army of thePLA commanded by GeneralXie Zhenhua jailed 1000 members of the August First Red Guards, and restored Liu Zihou to power.[8]
At the end of February, 100,000 soldiers of the 38th Army loyal to MarshallLin Biao, the designated successor of Chairman Mao Zedong, entered Baoding from Beijing, while some units of the 69th Army were transferred to neighbouringShanxi province. In April, both Chairman Mao and Lin Biao criticized the February suppression of the Red Guards. The two rival armies armed their respective supporters (including high school students), who clashed with each other, resulting in high death toll. The bloodshed continued off and on until the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976.[9]
By summer 1967, Liu was again consolidating his power in Hebei.[10] Worried about the situation in Hebei, which surrounds the capital Beijing, in December Chairman Mao sentChen Boda and Li Xuefeng to the province. Revolutionary leaders all over Hebei, with the exception of Baoding, called for an alliance of the military and Liu Zihou's supporters.[11]
In mid-January 1968, theBeijing Military Region helped to create theRevolutionary Committee of Hebei, chaired by Li Xuefeng, the party boss of North China. Liu Zihou was nominally the first deputy chair, but thede facto head. The military exerted strong influence over the 121-member committee, but the 38th Army in Baoding still backed the rebels and challenged Liu's authority. On 29 January 1968, the capital of Hebei was moved from Baoding toShijiazhuang.[12]
In 1971, national political circumstances changed when Lin Biao died in a mysterious plane crash overMongolia,[13] and Li Xuefeng and Chen Boda were thrown into prison.[14]
On 28 July 1976, theGreat Tangshan earthquake, the deadliest of the 20th century, struck the city ofTangshan in northeastern Hebei. As the top official of Hebei, Liu Zihou led the relief effort in the aftermath of the earthquake.[15]
After the death of Mao Zedong and the fall of theGang of Four in 1976,[16] Liu Zihou supported Mao's designated successorHua Guofeng and resistedDeng Xiaoping's reformist agenda.[17] On 26 December 1979, he was ousted from his long-held positions in Hebei province. However, with the help of his patron, the senior party leaderLi Xiannian, in January 1980 he became the deputy director of theState Planning Commission of China.[2][18] Liu retired in 1982 and died in Beijing on 22 December 2001, aged 92.[2]
Liu was an alternate member of the eighthCentral Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and a full member of the ninth to eleventh Central Committees.[1][2]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Governor of Hubei 1954–1956 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of Hebei 1958–1968 | Succeeded byas Chairman of Revolutionary Committee of Hebei |
| First Secretary of Hebei 1966–1968 | ||
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Hebei Revolutionary Committee 1971–1979 | Succeeded byas Communist Party Secretary of Hebei |
| Succeeded byas Governor of Hebei | ||