“If you want rice, look for Wan Li” — the reform pioneer who let Anhui’s peasants contract land to households
From Shandong, he was vice-mayor of Beijing after 1949, directing the “ten great buildings” including the Great Hall of the People, and was persecuted in the Cultural Revolution. Appointed Anhui first secretary in 1977, he tolerated the secret land division at Xiaogang village and with the provincial “six articles” allowed household contracting in the famine-stricken countryside, the starting point of rural reform. As vice-premier for agriculture from 1980 he dismantled the people’s communes, and he chaired the National People’s Congress Standing Committee from 1988 to 1993. Returning from abroad in May 1989, he endorsed martial law. He died in 2015 at 99.
Career Timeline
- 1977–1980First Secretary of the Anhui Party Committee
- 1988–1993Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee
Related historical events
- 1976–1992Reform and opening: the Deng Xiaoping eraHousehold contracting in AnhuiTolerated the Xiaogang experiment and opened the way to its spread.
- 1989The Tiananmen protests and the crackdown of 4 June 1989NPC chairman who returned from abroad and backed martial lawStudents hoped he would convene the NPC; on 27 May he endorsed martial law.