Vice-premier and State Planning Commission chairman who ran the first two five-year plans and raised the Leap’s steel targets
From Changsha, Hunan, he went to France on the work-study programme in 1919 and joined the Communist Party in 1922, marrying Cai Chang, sister of Cai Hesen. After study in Moscow he took part in the Northern Expedition, and on the Long March was deputy director of the Red Army’s General Political Department. After 1949 he was minister of heavy industry and in 1954 became vice-premier and chairman of the State Planning Commission, joining the Politburo in 1956 and the Secretariat in 1958. In 1958 he proposed 30 million tonnes of steel in 1962 and overtaking Britain in seven years. In October 1960 he passed the report on the Xinyang incident to Mao, and in the readjustment he carried out the eight-character policy with Chen Yun. He died in 1975.
Also known as: Li Fu-ch'un
Activities and affiliations
-
1922–1975
Political and party leadership
- Politburo member; secretary of the Secretariat1956–1975
-
1923–1927
Political and party leadership
-
1954–1975
People’s Republic of China state institutionsVice-premier; Chairman of the State Planning CommissionMain
Economy, finance and planning
Career Timeline
- 1919Work-study in France
- 1922Joined the Communist Party
- 1925Studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East, Moscow
- 1934Deputy director of the Red Army General Political Department on the Long March
- 1945Central Committee member; deputy secretary of the Northeast Bureau
- 1950Minister of Heavy Industry
- 1954Vice-premier and chairman of the State Planning Commission
- 1956Politburo member
- 1958Secretary of the Secretariat; proposed the 30-million-tonne steel plan
- 1966Politburo Standing Committee member
Related historical events
- 1949–1956From New Democracy to socialist transformationFive-Year Plan drafter and treaty negotiatorHe sat in the 1950 Moscow talks and helped draft the First Five-Year Plan in 1952.
- 1958–1962The Great Leap Forward and the Great FaminePlanning chief who proposed 30 million tonnes of steelHe proposed overtaking Britain in seven years in 1958, passed the Xinyang report to Mao in 1960 and carried out the readjustment.
- 1966–1976The Cultural RevolutionVice-premier named in the “February Countercurrent”The first caucus of February 1967 met at his home, and the 1981 Resolution lists him among the leaders who criticised the Cultural Revolution’s errors.