Zhao Yannian (; July 1929 – 18 October 2019) was a Chinese politician. An ethnic

Hui The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...

, he served as Vice Minister of the

State Ethnic Affairs Commission The National Ethnic Affairs Commission is a cabinet-level executive department of the State Council of the People's Republic of China under the formal leadership of the United Front Work Department that is responsible for relations between ...

from 1986 to 2003.

Biography

Zhao Yannian was born in July 1929 in

Nanzhao County Nanzhao County () is a CPRC, county under the jurisdiction of Nanyang, Henan, Nanyang City, in the southwest of Henan province, China, has an area of and a population of 600,000 as of 2002. Administrative divisions As 2012, this county is divid ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

. He was a member of the Hui ethnic group. Zhao 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 March 1950. From 1954, he served as deputy magistrate and

county magistrate County magistrate ( or ) sometimes called local magistrate, in imperial China was the official in charge of the ''xian'', or county, the lowest level of central government. The magistrate was the official who had face-to-face relations with the ...

of Nanyang County. In 1958, he was transferred to

Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Ningxia (,; , ; alternately romanized as Ninghsia), officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR), is an autonomous region in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu in 1 ...

, where he served as deputy director of the Policy Research Office, deputy director of the Office of the Party Committee, and deputy director of the Rural Work Office of the Party Committee. Zhao was persecuted during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

. After his political rehabilitation, he served as director of the Policy Research Office of the Ningxia Party Committee in April 1978. From April 1979, Zhao served as head of the Planning Bureau and then head of the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the National Agricultural Committee. He later became Director of the Agricultural Bureau of the State Economic Commission. In May 1986, he was appointed Vice Minister of the

, serving until his retirement in December 2003. He was an alternate member of the 13th and

14th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China The 14th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was in session from 1992 to 1997. It held seven plenary sessions. It was preceded by the 13th Central Committee. It was elected by the 14th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party ...

. Zhao died on 18 October 2019 in Beijing, aged 90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhao, Yannian 1929 births 2019 deaths Politicians from Nanyang, Henan Political office-holders in Henan Political office-holders in Ningxia Hui people People's Republic of China politicians from Henan Victims of the Cultural Revolution Alternate members of the 13th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Alternate members of the 14th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party