Jiang Minkuan (; May 1930 – 6 June 2012) was a politician and engineer of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. He served as

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

province, deputy director of the State Science and Technology Commission, and deputy head of the

United Front Work Department The United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (UFWD; ) is a department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which is officially tasked with "united front work". For this endeavo ...

Biography

Jiang Minkuan was a native of

Wu County Wu County or Wuxian (; 221 B.C. – December 2000) is a former county and city located in modern Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province. Its name refers to its former status as the capital of the state of Wu during the Spring and Autumn period. Histo ...

(now part of

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

province. He joined 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 ...

in June 1961. Starting in 1950 he worked as an engineer in the

non-ferrous metal In metallurgy, non-ferrous metals are metals or alloys that do not contain iron (allotropes of iron, ferrite, and so on) in appreciable amounts. Generally more costly than ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals are used because of desirable proper ...

industry in

Northeast China Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of t ...

. In 1952 he studied

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Fushun Fushun (, formerly romanised as ''Fouchouen'', using French spelling, also as Fuxi ()) is a prefecture level city in Liaoning province, China, about east of Shenyang, with a total area of , of which is the city proper. Situated on the Hun Ri ...

Liaoning Liaoning () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmost ...

province, and later trained and worked at an

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

factory in the

Ural region Ural (russian: Урал) is a geographical region located around the Ural Mountains, between the East European and West Siberian plains. It is considered a part of Eurasian Steppe, extending approximately from the North to the South; from the A ...

of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. After returning to China, he worked as a manager at the state-owned No. 101 Factory starting in 1955. In 1966 he became the deputy chief engineer of the state-owned No. 122 Factory, later promoted to chief engineer and general manager of the factory. In 1982, Jiang was appointed Deputy Communist Party Chief and Vice Governor of

province, and three years later was promoted to Governor of Sichuan. He attempted to open up Sichuan's economy by linking it more closely with the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries. However, his proposal was deemed "unrealistic" by premier

Zhao Ziyang Zhao Ziyang ( zh, 赵紫阳; pronounced , 17 October 1919 – 17 January 2005) was a Chinese politician. He was the third premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 198 ...

and was criticized by

Yang Rudai Yang Rudai (; December 1926 – 24 February 2018) was a politician of the People's Republic of China (PRC). He served as the Communist Party Chief of Sichuan, then China's most populous province, and was the first native Sichuanese to become the ...

, then

Communist Party Chief A Party Committee Secretary () is the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organization in a province, city, village, or other administrative unit. In most cases, it is the ''de facto'' highest political office of its area of jurisdictio ...

of Sichuan. Due to his conflict with Yang, Jiang was replaced by

Zhang Haoruo Zhang Haoruo (; 1932 – 27 March 2004) was a politician and petroleum engineer of the People's Republic of China. He served as Governor of Sichuan province and Minister of Internal Trade. Biography Zhang Haoruo was born in Jiaozuo, Henan provin ...

as Sichuan governor and transferred to the central government in 1988. In 1988 Jiang was appointed deputy director of the State Science and Technology Commission and head of the

State Intellectual Property Office The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA; ), also known as the Chinese Patent Office, is the patent office of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was founded in 1980 as the Patent Office of the People's Republic of Ch ...

, and in 1990 he became the executive deputy head of the

, a minister-level position. Jiang was an alternate member of the 12th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and a full member of the 13th and 14th Central Committees. Jiang retired in April 2004. He died on 6 June 2012 in Beijing, aged 82.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jiang, Minkuan 1930 births 2012 deaths Governors of Sichuan Chinese Communist Party politicians from Jiangsu People's Republic of China politicians from Jiangsu Politicians from Suzhou