Liu Shaoqi (24 November 1898 – 12 November 1969) was Chairman of the People's Republic of China from 27 April 1959 to 31 October 1968, succeeding Mao Zedong and preceding Dong Biwu.
Biography[]
Liu Shaoqi was born in Ningxiang, Hunan, China in 1898, the son of moderately rich peasants. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1921 after studying in the Russian SFSR, and he worked as a communist organizer during the 1920s. In 1927, he was elected to the party's Central Committee, and he became the Party Secretary of Fujian in 1932 and of North China in 1936. In 1945, he became supreme leader of all communist forces in Manchuria and northern China, and he served as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 1954 to 1959. That year, he became Chairman of the People's Republic of China, and he was a strong supporter of the Great Leap Forward. Liu was an orthodox Soviet-style communist, and Liu and Deng Xiaoping later enacted measures to fix the problems caused by the campaign. Deng and Liu became well-known moderates, and Liu was publicly acknowledged as Mao's chosen successor in 1961. However, his opposition to Mao's policies led to him losing Mao's trust in 1962, and the Maoist Cultural Revolution of 1966 was a reaction to Liu's Marxist-Leninist policies. Liu and Deng were condemned as "capitalist roaders" and purged from office. Liu was regularly beaten at public humiliations after 1967, and Jiang Qing sought to keep Liu alive so that he could be a living target for supporters of the revolution. He died under harsh treatment in 1969, and Deng Xiaoping's government rehabilitated him in 1980, accusing Lin Biao and the Gang of Four of concocting false evidence against him.