Qiao Shi

Qiao Shi (Chinese乔石, Pinyin Qiao Shi, * December 1924 in Dinghai (Zhejiang ) Province ) is a Chinese communist politician, former chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and a former member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China.

Study and during the Second World War

Qiao Shi, who was born as Jiang zhitong (Chinese蒋志彤, Pinyin Jiǎng zhitong ), was a distant relative of Chiang Kai- shek. In August 1940 he joined the Communist Party of China (CPC ). During his studies at the Tongji University of Shanghai, he participated in a student movement against the run of Chiang Kai- shek Kuomintang. During this time he changed his birth name first in Jiang Qiao Shi, the only two strokes of Chiang Kai- shek differs in Chinese to work in the underground, but also to show his enthusiasm for the revolution. From 1945 to 1949 he was secretary of the student organization of the CCP at Tongji University.

People's Republic of China

Era of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he was first a number of years an employee of the All- Chinese Communist Youth League. Between 1954 and 1962 he was a laborer in the iron and steel plant of Anshan in Liaoning Province.

In 1963 he joined the staff responsible for the planning of foreign policy the International Department of the Central Committee (CC ) of the CCP. During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976 Qiao Shi and his family, however, was persecuted because of their distant biological relationship to Chiang Kai- shek. One of his sons, who was tired of the persecutions and humiliations, convinced the rest of the family for another name change. This step was considered by the Red Guards and the supporters of the Cultural Revolution as a revolutionary and as a break with the past. Qiao Shi himself was at that time how many other persecuted cadres in custody and could therefore not do anything against the name change was made by his children.

Intelligence coordinator and Deputy Prime Minister

After the end of the Cultural Revolution, he became a member of the International Department of the Central Committee again and got there by the analysts as of the Head of the Department and the Secretariat of the Central Committee candidates in 1982 to. At the 12th Party Congress of the CCP, he also was elected in 1982 as a member of the Central Committee. Subsequently, he was Head of the Department and the Organization Department of the Central Committee. Following the discovery of a Chinese double agent in the American Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA) in 1985, he followed the former party secretary of Shanghai Chen Pixian as Head of the Disciplinary Committee of the CCP. At the same time he was appointed member of the Politburo of the Central Committee. As such, he was responsible for national security and intelligence agencies from 1985 to 1998.

In 1986, he was also Deputy Prime Minister and took over as such the responsibility for the areas of law and order. In the following years, he joined particularly for the promulgation of a "new law " on the handling of the riots during the era of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution in particular.

Ascent to the member of the Standing Committee and Parliament President

On the 13th and 14th Congress of the CPC in 1987 and 1992, he was elected a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China. After the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 3 and 4 June 1989, he retained his office despite his pro-democracy stance.

On March 27, 1993, he was also president of the Standing Committee of the National People 's Congress (NPC ) President of the Parliament. He officially took a third place within the Chinese state and party leadership. In this role, he won the "New Law" in contrast to the tendency to self- representation of the then President Jiang Zemin popularity especially because of its designated use for that. The election of the Speaker of Parliament was seen by observers as disempowering because this office compared with the previous post as Deputy Prime Minister and intelligence coordinator includes mainly representative functions.

Speculation about his loss of power

After the 15th Party Congress of the CCP in 1997 he resigned from the Standing Committee of the Politburo and his other party offices. This was based on his age of 73 years officially. On the other hand, went speculations of mass media from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the West believe that Qiao Shi involved in a power struggle after the death of Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, which he eventually lost. On March 16, 1998, he finally gave also his position as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in the previous Premier Li Peng.