Chen Junsheng (; June 1927 – 8 August 2002) was a Chinese politician. As a provincial official in

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

in the early 1980s, he distinguished himself as an advocate of the

household responsibility system The household responsibility system ( zh, s=家庭联产承包责任制, t=家庭聯產承包責任制, p=jiātíng liánchǎn chéngbāo zérènzhì), or contract responsibility system, was a practice in China, first adopted in agriculture in 1979 ...

, resulting in the implementation of the reform in China's last bastion of collective agriculture. Consequently, he was elevated to the national government and served as

Secretary-General of the State Council The Secretary-General of the State Council () is an executive position within the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It ranks below the Premier and above the Ministers of various ministries and departments. The equivalent position in ...

(1985–1988),

State Councillor A state councillor () is a high-ranking position within the State Council, the executive organ of the Chinese government (comparable to a cabinet). It ranks immediately below the Vice-Premiers and above the ministers of various departments. ...

(1988–1998), and Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (1998–2002).

Early life and career

Chen was born in June 1927 in Huanan County,

province. During the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

, he was a member of the Mass Movement Group in Yilan County from 1946 to 1948, and was in charge of organizational affairs in Yidong County. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, from 1950 to 1957 he worked in the publicity department of

Suihua Suihua () is a prefecture-level city in west-central Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, adjacent to Yichun to the east, Harbin, the provincial capital, to the south, Daqing to the west and Heihe to the north. It has 3,756,167 inha ...

, Fuyu, and Keshan counties, and became party secretary of Keshan. 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 goa ...

, he suffered from persecution between 1967 and 1973.

Heilongjiang provincial committee

From 1973 to 1981, he served as deputy director and then director of the Heilongjiang Party Committee Policy Research Office, deputy director and director of the General Office of the Provincial Party Committee, member of the

provincial party standing committee Members of the standing committees of the Chinese Communist Party provincial-level committees, commonly referred to as ''Shengwei Changwei'' (), make up the top ranks of the provincial-level organizations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I ...

and secretary-general of Heilongjiang Party Committee, and party secretary of

Qiqihar Qiqihar () is the second-largest city in the Heilongjiang province of China, in the west central part of the province. The built-up (or metro) area made up of Longsha, Tiefeng and Jianhua districts had 959,787 inhabitants, while the total populat ...

City. From 1981 to 1984, Chen served as party secretary (then equivalent to deputy party chief) of Heilongjiang Province. In the early 1980s, when the rest of China was implementing the

, Heilongjiang's party chief Yang Yichen resisted the reform and the province was the last bastion of collective agriculture. Chen, a supporter of the reform, conducted an investigation in Nenjiang Prefecture in 1982, and concluded in his report that peasants supported household contracts because they directly rewarded their work and prevented abuse by officials and

egalitarianism Egalitarianism (), or equalitarianism, is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hu ...

. Chen's work, together with another official's investigation of conditions in other provinces, caused Yang to change his position. In a meeting in January 1983, Chen's report was approved by the provincial party committee and propagated as a policy guide. A month later, Yang lost his job as the province's party chief. He was later appointed procurator-general of the

Supreme People's Procuratorate The Supreme People's Procuratorate () is the highest national agency responsible for legal prosecution and investigation in the People's Republic of China. Conceived initially in 1949 as the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office, the agency was r ...

in an ostensible "promotion".

National government

Because of his advocacy of the rural household responsibility reform, Yang was transferred to the central government in Beijing. From 1984 to 1985 Chen was vice president of the

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 ...

and deputy director of the Rural Policy Research Office under the CPC Central Committee. He became

from 1985 to 1988, and served as a vice-premier-level

from 1988 to 1998. He became a Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in 1998, serving until his death in 2002. He was a member of the

13th In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave pl ...

and 14th Central Committees of the Chinese Communist Party. Chen died in Beijing on 8 August 2002.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Junsheng 1927 births 2002 deaths People from Jiamusi Chinese Communist Party politicians from Heilongjiang People's Republic of China politicians from Heilongjiang State councillors of China Vice Chairpersons of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Members of the 13th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the 14th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Political office-holders in Heilongjiang Qiqihar