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Yu Qiuli | |
|---|---|
余秋里 | |
 | |
| Director of thePeople's Liberation Army General Political Department | |
| In office September 1982 – November 1987 | |
| Vice Premier of China | |
| In office January 1975 – May 1982 | |
| Premier | Zhou Enlai Hua Guofeng Zhao Ziyang |
| Director of the State Planning Commission | |
| In office January 1975 – August 1980 | |
| Premier | Zhou Enlai Hua Guofeng |
| Preceded by | Li Fuchun |
| Succeeded by | Yao Yilin |
| Minister of Petroleum | |
| In office February 1958 – 1966 | |
| Premier | Zhou Enlai |
| Preceded by | Li Jukui |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1914-11-15)15 November 1914 Ji'an County,Jiangxi |
| Died | 3 February 1999(1999-02-03) (aged 84) Beijing, China |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Political party | Chinese Communist Party |
| Spouse | Liu Suge |
Yu Qiuli (Chinese:余秋里;pinyin:Yú Qiūlǐ; 15 November 1914 – 3 February 1999) was a ChineseCommunist army officer and politician, general of thePeople's Liberation Army. A veteran of theLong March, he held top military and government positions under bothMao Zedong andDeng Xiaoping and is considered the founding father of the Chinesepetroleum industry and theChina National Petroleum Corporation.[1]
Following military service as a senior commander andpolitical commissar in theSecond Sino–Japanese War and theChinese Civil War, Yu then served as Minister of the Petroleum Industry (1958–1966), Chairman of theState Planning Commission (1970–1980),Vice Premier (1975–1982), and Deputy Secretary-General of theCentral Military Commission as well as Director of thePLA General Political Department (in effect, responsible for ensuring the political loyalty of the entire PLA) from 1982 to 1987.[1]
Yu was born inJi'an,Jiangxi, in 1914, three years after the collapse of China's last imperial dynasty, into a poor peasant family. By the age of 14 he had taken part in a peasant uprising. At 16 he joined theChinese Communist Party. Yu was among the tens of thousands of guerrillas and their supporters who from 1934 joined theLong March in an effort to break through theKuomintang blockades around the Communist base in the south. In 1936, he was injured in the arm during a skirmish with pursuing nationalist forces. He continued on the journey north over treacherous terrain. Nine months later, after he had completed a journey of thousands of miles in terrible pain, his arm was amputated. "I am a man who has gone through nine deaths," Yu told the American journalistHarrison Salisbury in 1984.
From November 1936 to August 1937, he received advanced military and political training at theCounter-Japanese Military and Political University.[1]
During theSecond Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945, he served as Director of the Political Department of the 358th Brigade and in the subsequentChinese Civil War, as Commander and Political Commissar of the 1st Division of the 1st Field Army, he played a leading role in the capture ofQinghai.[1]
After the Communist victory in 1949, Yu Qiuli was transferred to theSouthwest, serving as a member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of the WesternSichuan District of the CCP and as the Principal and Political Commissar of the SeniorInfantry School. In December 1954, he was called toBeijing and was named Director of the General Finance Department of the PLA, holding that position until early 1957, when he became Director of thePLA General Logistics Department. In September 1955, he was awarded the rank oflieutenant general.
In February 1958, he became the Second Minister for the Petroleum Industry,[2]: 23 and decided to focus on oilfield exploration. He replaced Li Jukui in this role, a change made at the recommendation of Peng Dehaui.[2]: 23 This move thrust him into a far more prominent role in the Communist government. In the following year, the discovery of huge oil reserves inDaqing in the desolate wastes of north-eastern China gave him a mission for which he is much remembered. Yu became the leader of the so-called "Petroleum Group" of officials which promoted the Daqing model of industrialization.[2]: 3
Yu was in charge of the development of theDaqing oil field.[3]: 52 During its 1960 construction as part of theGreat Leap Forward, Yu mobilized workers building the Daqing oil field through ideological motivation instead of material incentives, focusing enthusiasm, energy, and resources to complete a rapid industrialization project.[3]: 52–53 Yu readMao Zedong's writing to workers, urging them to engage in the hard labor at hand out of commitment to the building of Chinese socialism.[3]: 52 In April 1960, Yu stated that Mao's textsOn Contradiction and withOn Practice would be the ideological core of the campaign to develop the oil field.[2]: 150 The Petroleum Ministry shipped thousands of copies by plane so that every Daqing oil worker would have copies and for work units to each set up their own study groups.[2]: 150
Under Yu's direction, the mosquito-infested marshland - in winter, an expanse of ice[3]: 52 - was transformed into China's biggest oil production centre. The economic benefits of the project were critical because without the production of the Daqing oil field, crude oil would have been severely limited after the Soviet Union cut off supplies as a result of theSino-Soviet split.[3]: 53
The successful construction of the Daqing oil field despite harsh weather conditions and supply limitations became a model held up by the Communist Party as an example during subsequent industrialization campaigns.[3]: 52–54 On February 5, 1964, the central Party promoted Daqing oil field to other industrial enterprises, instructing them to follow the "all-out battle" tactics of Daqing oil field.[3]: 53 Shortly afterwards, Mao Zedong praised the Daqing oil field at an education work conference, stating that with a "little investment" in a "short period of time" a "great achievement" had been finished.[3]: 54 Daqing oil field produced the famous Maoist iconIron Man Wang, who, in order to stop a blow-out, leapt into a pool of liquid concrete to mix it using his own body. Yu chose Wang as the first model worker from Daqing oil field.[2]: 137–138
After his success in Daqing, Yu went on to establish several more major production centres. In 1964, China declared itself self-sufficient in oil. That year, Yu was moved into the most important government ministry related to the economy, theState Planning Commission, as vice director.[2]: 103 He also functioned as thede facto director of the commission until 1980.[2]: 103
In 1965, Mao made Yu the top drafter of the ThirdFive Year Plan and put him in charge of relocating major industries to the remote hinterland of south-western China.[2]: 104 Yu had a major role in theThird Front Construction.[4]: 249
Yu was involved in theFebruary Countercurrent of 1967, an intra-party conflict in which a group of military leaders opposed the direction of theCultural Revolution and theGang of Four.[2]: 154 Yu supported the military leaders who contended that the Cultural Revolution had disrupted the social order and undermined Party leadership, although his criticism was not nearly as forceful as the criticism from leaders likeChen Yi andTan Zhenlin.[2]: 154 The radical side prevailed in the dispute and several leaders who had been a part of the February Countercurrent were required to take leaves of absence and makeself-criticisms.[2]: 154 Given his lower rank than others who were part of the February Countercurrent, Yu was able to retain his position.[2]: 154
However, Yu also became a frequent target ofRed Guards in Beijing and was subjected to numerous denunciation sessions.[2]: 154 At one point, radical students confined him to the Beijing Oil Institute untilZhou Enlai contacted theCultural Revolution Group to intercede with the students and allow Yu to return to work.[2]: 154
Also during the Cultural Revolution, Petroleum MinisterKang Shi'en was told to denounce Yu.[2]: 154 Kang refused and was forced out of his position as a result.[2]: 154
In 1975, Yu was appointedVice Premier.[5]
After the death of Mao in 1976, Yu was promoted to the Politburo. He was a member of what is commonly referred to as the "petroleum faction" or "petroleum group," a group of senior officials who advocated using the profits from petroleum exports to finance high technology imports from the West and Japan. These officials were essentially Stalinists in their economic thinking, favoring central planning and heavy industry - a strategy that clashed with that of the ascendant Deng. As Deng's political fortunes rose in the late 1970s, those of the petroleum faction waned. Yu was forced to make a self-criticism after the collapse of a Japanese-made oil rig in theBohai Gulf in 1979, and in 1980 he was transferred from the chairmanship of the State Planning Commission to the less high-profile post of head of the State Energy Commission.[citation needed]
In 1982, however, Yu was back in uniform, as Deng named him Deputy Secretary-General of theCentral Military Commission and Director of thePLA General Political Department, a position of massive influence in the PLA, being responsible for checking and ensuring the political reliability and loyalty of all military personnel, and often described as "Military Grand Inquisitor".[6] Yu held these posts until 1987, when he retired.[1]
During the First Plenary Session of the12th Central Committee, Yu was elected as a Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee.[7]
"Obituary: Yu Qiuli",The Independent, Feb 20, 1999 by James Miles
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