Wei Jianxing (; January 2, 1931 – August 7, 2015) was a senior leader in 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), most active during the 1980s and 1990s. He successively held a number of important offices, including member of the

Politburo Standing Committee The Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), officially the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is a committee consisting of the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Histori ...

, the

Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China is the head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The Secretary is a very important political position, serving as one of the top lea ...

, the Communist Party Secretary of Beijing and the chairman of

All-China Federation of Trade Unions The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) is the national trade union center of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest trade union in the world with 302 million members in 1,713,000 primary trade union organizations. The ACFTU ...

Biography

Wei Jianxing was born in

Xinchang County Xinchang County () is a county in the east-central part of Zhejiang province, administratively under the municipal government of Shaoxing. 430,000 people live in Xinchang. Administrative divisions Subdistricts: * Yulin Subdistrict (羽林街道) ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

Province. He moved to Shanghai and entered

Guanghua University East China Normal University (ECNU) is a comprehensive Public university, public research university in Shanghai, China. It was formed in 1951 by the merger of the Great China University (est. 1924) and Kwang Hua University (est. 1925) and origin ...

High School in 1947, where he became close to fellow Zhejiang native and Guanghua alumnus

Qiao Shi Qiao Shi (24 December 1924 – 14 June 2015) was a Chinese politician and one of the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He was a member of the party's top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, from 1987 to 1997. ...

, who was a leader of the student movement of the underground CCP. Wei joined the CCP in March 1949. Wei later enrolled in

Dalian University of Technology Dalian University of Technology (DUT) (), colloquially known in Chinese as Dagong (), is a public research university located in Dalian, Liaoning, China, with an additional campus in Panjin, Liaoning. Established in April 1949, it is the ...

and graduated in 1952, majoring in mechanics. From 1952 to 1953, he studied Russian language in

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 ...

. Wei was then sent to the Soviet Union to study industrial management until 1955. In the early stages of the Cultural Revolution he was politically disgraced and performed manual labour, but regained favour in 1970 and became the head of the revolutionary committee of the factory he worked at. Between 1981 and 1983 he served as Mayor of

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

. Wei was then transferred to work at the

where he served on the organization's Secretariat. He then rose to become head of the

Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party The Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party () is a human resource management department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party that controls staffing positions within the CCP. The Orga ...

. His work gained recognition from then party General Secretary

Hu Yaobang Hu Yaobang (; 20 November 1915 – 15 April 1989) was a high-ranking official of the People's Republic of China. He held the top office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1987, first as Chairman from 1981 to 1982, then as Genera ...

. In 1987 Hu was oustered in a power struggle by conservative forces within the party and Wei, being branded a Hu loyalist, was transferred out of the organs of power to serve in a relatively unimportant position of Minister of Supervision. While serving at the ministry Wei played an important role in developing China's civil servant supervision programs as well as rules and regulations on the discipline of government officials. In October 1992, at the 14th Party Congress, Wei was named to the

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...

, in addition to becoming a Secretary of Central Secretariat, and the Secretary of

Central Commission for Discipline Inspection The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) is the highest internal control institution of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), tasked with enforcing internal rules and regulations and combating corruption and malfeasance in the par ...

(CCDI). During Wei's term as CCDI chief, some 680,000 disciplinary cases were processed. The most prominent case was that against Beijing party chief

Chen Xitong Chen Xitong (; June 10, 1930 – June 2, 2013) was a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party and the Mayor of Beijing until he was removed from office on charges of corruption in 1995. Early life Chen was born on June 10, 1930, i ...

, who was investigated for corruption beginning in July 1994 and expelled from the party a month later. In the wake of Chen's disgrace Wei himself took over at Beijing party chief and stayed in the position for two years. In 1993, he also became Chairman of the

and served for two terms. At the 15th Party Congress held in 1997, Wei earned a seat on the elite seven-man

and continued to serve as CCDI Secretary. Wei retired in 2002 and left public life. He has attended some official functions sporadically since then. He died in Beijing on 7 August 2015.

References

, - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Wei, Jianxing 1931 births 2015 deaths People's Republic of China politicians from Zhejiang Politicians from Shaoxing Chinese Communist Party politicians from Zhejiang Political office-holders in Beijing Members of the 15th Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Secretaries of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Members of the 14th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party People from Xinchang County People of the Republic of China