Liang Xiang (; 1919 – 13 December 1998) was a politician 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 was originally from the city of

Kaiping Kaiping (), postal map romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized in Cantonese as Hoiping, is a county-level city in Guangdong provinces of China, Province, China. It is located ín the western section of the Pearl River Delt ...

, in

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

province. He graduated from

Beijing Normal University Beijing Normal University (BNU, ), colloquially known as Beishida (), is a public research university located in Beijing, China, with a strong emphasis on humanities and sciences. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China ...

, and was a representative in the fifth, sixth, and seventh

National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2, ...

es.

Biography

Liang joined the

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

in 1936 at the age of 17. He then served as the deputy director of the

Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China The Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party (), commonly known as the Central Party School (), located in Beijing, is the higher education institution which trains Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadres. As of 2012, it has around 1,60 ...

. He served as the Party secretary for the working committee of Xi'an County in

Jilin Jilin (; alternately romanized as Kirin or Chilin) is one of the three provinces of Northeast China. Its capital and largest city is Changchun. Jilin borders North Korea (Rasŏn, North Hamgyong, Ryanggang and Chagang) and Russia (Prim ...

province. He rose first to the position of head of Xi'an county, and then to the Party secretary of the Chaoyang city region. From January 1955 to August 1964, he served as the vice-mayor of

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

. After leaving his post there, Liang served as the deputy Party secretary for the central committee of

Shaoguan Shaoguan (; Hakka: Seukoan) is a prefecture-level city in northern Guangdong Province (Yuebei), South China, bordering Hunan to the northwest and Jiangxi to the northeast. It is home to the mummified remains of the sixth Zen Buddhist patriarch H ...

city until November 1972. From then until June 1977, he served as the deputy Party secretary of the third People's Congress of Guangzhou. From 1977 to 1981, Liang was a member of the Guangdong provincial People's Congress, and the Second Secretary of Guangzhou city. In 1981, Liang served briefly as the First Secretary of

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

. He then became a citizen of the city, and a member and secretary of the standing committee to create its

Special Economic Zone A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...

. Once the government was founded, he served as the mayor of Shenzhen. He continued to serve as mayor and Party secretary of the city's central committee until August 1985, when he gave up the position of mayor. He continued to serve as Party secretary of the central committee until 1986. From 1986 to 1987, he served as the deputy director of the Guangdong People's Consultative Committee. From 1987 to 1988, Liang was the deputy organization minister during the founding of

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

province. In February 1988, he became the deputy secretary of the central working committee of the new province. From March 1988 to September 1989, he served concurrently as the deputy secretary of the Hainan central committee and as the first governor of the province. In the wake of the Tiananmen Square Massacre of June 3-4, 1989, Liang Xiang allowed many of the protest leaders to flee the country through Hainan. Mary Ann O’Donnell, “Heroes of the Special Zone: Modeling Reform and Its Limits,” in Mary Ann O’Donnell, Winnie Wong, and Jonathan Bach, eds., Learning from Shenzhen: China’s Post-Mao Experiment from Special Zone to Model City (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), 58. As a result, he was purged in September on trumped up charges of corruption and misuse of power. In that same year, Liang lost his status as a representative at the 7th National People's Congress. On 13 December 1998, Liang Xiang died due to illness in Guangzhou.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liang Xiang 1919 births 1998 deaths Delegates to the 5th National People's Congress Delegates to the 6th National People's Congress Delegates to the 7th National People's Congress People from Kaiping People's Republic of China politicians from Guangdong Chinese Communist Party politicians from Guangdong Mayors of Shenzhen Political office-holders in Guangdong Governors of Hainan Beijing Normal University alumni Politicians from Jiangmen