Hu Qiaomu (4 June 191228 September 1992) was a Chinese sociologist,

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. Hu Qiaomu is a controversial figure for opposing the reform and opening up era of economic reform that followed the death of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

. He was a member of Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, permanent member of Central Advisory Commission, and the former president of

Xinhua News Agency Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

. He was an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Early career

Born in

Yancheng Yancheng () is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Jiangsu province of China, province, People's Republic of China. As the city with the largest jurisdictional area in Jiangsu, Yancheng borders Lianyungang to the north, Huai'an to the west, ...

Jiangsu Province Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

in 1912, Hu graduated from the Department of Foreign Literature, College of Arts and Sciences,

National Chekiang University Zhejiang University, abbreviated as ZJU or Zheda and formerly romanized as Chekiang University, is a national public research university based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It is a member of the prestigious C9 League and is selected into the na ...

in 1935. Before this, he also studied history in

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...

(in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

) during 1930-1932. Hu was an early member of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

(CCP), joining the Communist Youth League of China in 1930 and the CCP in 1932. In the early part of his career, he was, in chronological order, the party secretary (Communist Youth League of China) in Xijiao District, Beiping City (now Beijing); the head of the Propaganda Department (Communist Youth League of China) in Xijiao District, Beiping City. He was a leader of anti-Japanese student and worker movement in Beiping. In 1936, he became the general secretary of Chinese Sociologist League (), the general secretary of Chinese Leftism Cultural League (), and a member of CCP Jiangsu Province Temporary Committee of Labours (). From February 1941 (some say 1942) to June 1966, he was

's main secretary. In the beginning, his secretarial work was mainly focused on culture, but later shifted to politics. His secretarial career was ended by the Cultural Revolution. From October 1, 1949 to October 19, 1949, he was the president of

. He also was the head of the News Office of the People's Republic of China; the vice president of Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party; the general secretary of the Central Government Culture and Education Committee; the vice general secretary of the Central Government. In 1954, he also participated in making the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. In 1956, Hu was elected to be a member of the 8th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, Eighth Politburo of the CCP, and the alternative secretary of Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party. In 1977, he became the first president of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and later on, advisor and the honorary president. In 1951 Hu wrote "Thirty Years of the Chinese Communist Party". The book emphasised the Mao Zedong's ideological importance, writing that only he was able to correctly interpret and apply Marxism–Leninism to the Chinese situation. It also gave praise and recognition to orthodox Marxism, Joseph Stalin, the Communist International, Comintern and the Soviet Union, acknowledging their role in the revolution and the formation of the Chinese Communist Party.

Subsequent career and intellectual contributions

Hu was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution and rehabilitated in the 1970s. After his rehabilitation, Hu was involved in developing a new historiographical model for the CCP. Those contributions included an important role in party discussions on how to address the Cultural Revolution and a central role in preparing the 1981 "Resolution on Certain Questions in Our Party's History." Hu was instrumental in promoting the Second Sino-Japanese War as an academic subject. He successfully led a national-level campaign to open the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, War of Resistance Museum. In the 1980s, Hu advocated a view of history more accepting of incorporating the Nationalist government, Nationalists' contributions during the war. His history of dedication to the party and long-time focus on historiography gave further weight to this approach.

Early career

Subsequent career and intellectual contributions

References

Further reading