Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Zhu Rongji

Zhū Róngjī is a prominent Chinese politician who served as the Mayor and Party chief in Shanghai between 1987 and 1991, before serving as Vice-Premier and then of the People's Republic of China from March 1998 to March 2003.

A tough administrator, his time in office saw the continued double-digit growth of the Chinese economy and China's increased assertiveness in international affairs. Known to be engaged in a testy relationship with President Jiang Zemin, under whom he served, Zhu provided a novel pragmatism and hard work ethic in the government and party leadership increasingly infested by corruption, and as a result gained great popularity with the Chinese public. His opponents, however, charge that Zhu's tough and pragmatic stance on policy was unrealistic and unnecessary, and many of his promises were left unfulfilled. Zhu retired in 2003, and has not been a public figure since. Premier Zhu was also widely known for his tasteful humour.

Purges, "rehabilitation," and Deng Xiaoping


Zhu joined the Communist Party of China in October, 1949. He graduated from the prestigious Tsinghua University in 1951 where he majored in electrical engineering. Afterwards, he worked for the Northeast China Department of Industries as deputy head of its production planning office.

From 1952-1958, he worked in the State Planning Commission as group head and deputy division chief. Having criticized Mao Zedong's "irrational high growth" policies during the Great Leap Forward, Zhu was labeled a "Rightist" in 1958 and sent to work as a teacher at a cadre school. Pardoned in 1962, he worked as an engineer for the National Economy Bureau of the State Planning Commission until 1969.

During the Cultural Revolution, Zhu was purged again, and from 1970 to 1975 he was transferred to work at a "May Seventh Cadre School," a type of farm used for re-education during the Cultural Revolution .

From 1975 to 1979, he served as the deputy chief engineer of a company run by the Pipeline Bureau of the Ministry of Petroleum Industry and as the director of Industrial Economics Institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

When Deng Xiaoping started economic reforms in 1978, his politic looked for like-minded economic advisors and sought out Zhu. The CCP formally rehabilitated Zhu on the strength of Zhu's forward-thinking and bold economic ideas. His membership in CCP was restored. Deng once said that Zhu "has his own views, dares to make decisions and knows economics."

Career in Shanghai


Zhu went to work for the State Economic Commission as the division chief of the Bureau of Fuel and Power Industry and as the deputy director of the Comprehensive Bureau from 1979 to 1982. He was appointed as a member of the State Economic Commission in 1982 and as the vice-minister in charge of the commission in 1983, where he held the post until 1987, before being appointed as the mayor of Shanghai.

As the mayor of Shanghai from 1989 to 1991, Zhu won popular respect and acclaim for overseeing the development of Pudong, a Singapore-sized Special Economic Zone wedged between Shanghai proper and the East China Sea, as well the modernization of the city's telecommunications, urban construction, and transport sectors.

Vice Premiership


In 1991, Zhu became the vice-premier of the State Council, transferring to Beijing from Shanghai. Also holding the post of director of the State Council Production Office, Zhu focused on industry, agriculture and finance, launching the drive to disentangle the "debt chains" of state enterprises. For the sake of the peasantry, he took the lead in eliminating the use of credit notes in state grain purchasing.

Between 1993 and 1995, Zhu served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee while retaining his posts as the vice-premier of the State Council and as the governor of the People's Bank of China. From 1995 to 1998, he retained the positions of Standing Committee member and vice-premier.

Concurrently serving as governor of the Central Bank, Zhu tackled the problems of an excessive money supply, rising prices, and a chaotic financial market stemming, in large measure, from runaway investments in fixed assets. After four years of successful macro-economic controls with curbing inflation as the primary task, an overheated Chinese economy cooled down to a "soft landing". With these achievements, Zhu, acknowledged as an able economic administrator, became premier of the State Council.

Premiership


Zhu has a reputation for being a strong, strict administrator, intolerant of flunkeyism, nepotism, and a dilatory style of work. For his hard work ethic and general truthful and transparent attitude, he is generally considered one of the most popular Communist officials in mainland China..

With support from Jiang Zemin and Li Peng, then president and premier respectively, Zhu enacted tough macroeconomic control measures. Favoring healthy, sustainable development, Zhu expunged low-tech, duplicated projects and sectors that would result in "a bubble economy" and projects in transport, energy and agricultural sectors, averting violent market fluctuations. He focused on strengthening agriculture, still the economic base of the developing country and on continuing a moderately tight monetary policy.

President Jiang Zemin nominated Zhu for the position of the Premier of the State Council at the Ninth National People's Congress , who confirmed the nomination on 17 March 1998 at the NPC First Session. Zhu was re-elected as a member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee, China's ''de facto'' central decision-making group, at the 15th CPC Central Committee in September 1997.

The 1990's were a difficult time for economic management, as unemployment soared in the cities, and the bureaucracy became increasingly tainted with corruption scandals. Zhu kept things on track in the difficult years of the late 1990s, so that China averaged growth of 9.7% a year over the two decades to 2000. Against the backdrop of the Asian financial crisis mainland China's still grew by 7.9% in the first nine months of 2002, beating the government's 7% target despite a global economic slowdown. This was achieved, partly, through active state intervention to stimulate demand through wage increases in the public sector, among other measures. China was one of the few economies in Asia that survived the crisis.

While foreign direct investment worldwide halved in 2000, the flow of capital into mainland China rose by 10%. As global firms scrambled to avoid missing the China boom, FDI in China rose by 22.6% in 2002. While global trade stagnated, growing by one percent in 2002, mainland China's trade soared by 18% in the first nine months of 2002, with exports outstripping imports.

Despite the glowing growth statistics, Zhu tackled deep-seated structural problems: uneven development; inefficient state firms and a banking system mired in bad loans. Observers think there are few substantial disagreements over economic policy in the CPC; tensions focus on the pace of change. Zhu's economic philosophies had often triumphed over that of his colleagues, but it nevertheless resulted in a testy relationship with then-President Jiang Zemin.

The PRC leadership struggled to modernize State-owned enterprises without inducing massive urban unemployment. As millions lost their jobs as state firms close, Zhu demanded financial safety nets for unemployed workers, an important aim in a country of 1.3 billion. China needs 100 million new urban jobs in the next five years to absorb laid off workers and rural migrants; so far they have been achieving this aim due to high per capita growth. Under the auspices of Zhu and Wen Jiabao , the state tried to alleviate unemployment while promoting efficiency, by pumping tax revenues into the economy and maintaining consumer demand. Zhu has won acclaim domestically and internationally for steering the People's Republic of into the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Critics have charges that there is an oversupply of manufactured goods, driving down prices and profits while increasing the level of bad debt in the banking system. But so far demand for Chinese goods, domestically and abroad, is high enough to put those concerns to rest in the time being. Consumer spending is growing, boosted, in large part, due to longer workers' holidays.

Zhu's right-hand man, Vice Premier Wen Jiabao, oversaw regulations for the stock market and campaigned to develop poorer inland provinces to stem migration and regional resentment. Zhu and Wen set tax limits for peasants to protect them from high levies by corrupt officials.
Well-respected by ordinary Chinese citizens, Zhu also holds the respect of Western political and business leaders, who found him reassuring and credit him with clinching China's market-opening World Trade Organisation deal, which has brought foreign capital pouring into the country.

Zhu remained as Premier until the National People's Congress met in March 2003, when it approved his struggle to clinch trusted deputy Wen Jiabao as his successor. Wen was the only Zhu ally to appear on the 9-person Politburo Standing Committee. Like his fourth-generation colleague Hu Jintao, Wen's personal opinions are difficult to discern since he sticks very closely to his script. Unlike the frank, strong-willed Zhu, Wen, who has earned a reputation for being an equally competent manager, is known for his suppleness and discretion.

During the in Taiwan, Zhu gave the warning "there will be no good ending for those involved in Taiwan independence". In his farewell speech to the National People's Congress, Zhu unintentionally referred to China and Taiwan as two "countries" before quickly correcting himself. His stance on Taiwan during his time in office was always with the Party line.

Personal


Zhu has a good command of . He is rarely seen speaking from a script. In his free time, Zhu enjoys the Peking Opera. According to some reports, Zhu is a descendent of Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming Dynasty . His wife, Lao An, was once vice-chairman of the board of directors of China International Engineering and Consulting. She and Zhu were in the same schools twice, first the Hunan First Provincial Middle School and then Tsinghua University. They have a son and a daughter.

Zhu is known for his technical intellect. In 1997 at a state banquet in Australia, Zhu left for the bathroom, and was gone quite a while. Concerned security staff finally went off to find him. He was in the bathroom, studying the water-saving dual-flush system which he had just disassembled. As a hydrologist, Zhu grasped the impact such water savings, multiplied by China's huge population, could have on China's infrastructure.

Legacy


Zhu Rongji was noticeably more popular than his predecessor, Li Peng, and some analysts point out that Zhu's tough administrative style in the Premier's office bore a certain resemblance to Premier Zhou Enlai. Zhu, a competent manager and a skilled politician, ran into various roadblocks during his tenure because of the attitude of President Jiang Zemin and the Chinese political system in general, which has seemed to historically favour talkers instead of doers. Critics charge that Zhu made too many "big promises" that are unable to be achieved during his term in office. In dealing with the Falun Gong situation, Premier Zhu received international attention for being the first Chinese communist leader to deal with an issue of public outcry through the methods of dialogue.

Zhou Fohai

Zhou Fohai , Chinese politician, and second in command of Wang Jingwei's collaborationist Nanjing Nationalist Government Executive Yuan.

Born in Hunan Province in 1897, Zhou chose a political career after studying in Japan. He attended the first conference of Communist Party of China in July 1921 but quit the Party in 1924 to join the Kuomintang and his political career began while he was assigned to the publicity department of the central government. In 1938, as the Second Sino-Japanese War was going badly, he became a close collaborator of Wang Jingwei.

Zhou followed Wang when he formed the puppet Nanjing Nationalist Government in Japanese occupied China. Zhou control in the regime extended to finance, treasury, foreign affairs and part of the army. He was also police minister, treasurer and mayor of Shanghai.

After the invading Japanese were defeated in 1945, Zhou was captured and taken to Chongqing where he remained in custody for nearly a year. He was then sent to Nanjing in Jiangsu Province where he stood trial for his wartime role. He was sentenced to death but this was commuted to life imprisonment by Chiang Kai-shek, after his wife had interceded for him. He suffered from heart and stomach problems while in prison and died on February 28, 1948, aged 52.

Yuan Meng

Yuan Meng is a female professional tennis player. She is China's fifth-highest ranked women's singles player and has won four singles titles and one ITF doubles title.

Career


2001


Yuan began competing on the ITF circuit at age fifteen in May 2001, but that year lost in the first round of qualifying in all four events she entered, and ended the year still unranked.

2002


In 2002, she won seven matches in qualifying and one in a main draw, and finished the year ranked 984th.

2003


In 2003, she won eleven matches in qualifying and five in main draws, and after reaching the final qualifying round for a $50,000 event at Shenzhen she finished the year world-ranked nearly 300 places higher, at 689th.

2004


In March 2004, she reached the final of a $10,000 grass-court event at Yarrawonga, Australia, only to default to her last opponent. In early June, shortly after her eighteenth birthday, she reached the semi-final of a $25,000 event at Wulanhaote, before losing to more experienced countrywoman Liu Nan-Nan. In December, she reached her first $25,000 tournament final at Port Pirie, before losing a tight three-set championship decider to a little-known Australian. Overall, she had won thirty-two matches in the year, lifting her world ranking to 387, up another 300 places year-on-year.

2005


Yuan's consistent upward progress through the rankings continued in 2005. In February, she reached the semi-final of a $50,000 hard-court tournament at Bendigo, Australia. In March, she finally won her first career ITF singles title at the $10,000 grass-court event in Benalla, also in Australia. She performed solidly in several successive $25,000 tournaments over the Spring, reaching the semi-final at Campobasso, Italy in May with an impressive win over emerging star Jarmila Gajdosova , and defeating Gajdosova in three once more, as well as the equally promising youngster Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, and the experienced Australian Christina Wheeler, in reaching the final at Grado in June. In August, she nearly qualified for the $50,000 Bronx tournament after a fine three-set victory over Tatiana Poutchek, but lost in the deciding set in an extremely close qualifying-round match against Angelika Bachmann.

In September, Yuan won her second career singles title and first $50,000 title at Beijing, defeating the highly competent Top-150 player Vilmarie Castellvi 4–6 6–4 6–4 in the final. Then she finally qualified for her first event at Guangzhou, but lost in the first round to Arantxa Parra-Santonja of Spain. In October, as a direct entrant to the WTA tournament at Bangkok, she impressed in defeating Aiko Nakamura and Sania Mirza , to win her first ever main-draw matches at a WTA event in reaching the quarter-final, where she took Gisela Dulko to three sets. Two further semi-final performances at $25,000 ITF contests rounded off the Chinese teenager's best year to date, which saw her ascend another 234 places in the world rankings to 153rd, well within contention for qualifying for more WTA tournaments in the new year.

2006



2006 began well with the much-improved Chinese rising star qualifying for with wins over Cara Black, Kaia Kanepi and Casey Dellacqua. But Top 20 player Francesca Schiavone was a challenge too far in the main draw first round, defeating Yuan for the loss of just five games. Not one for being easily discouraged, she proceeded to come through qualifying for her fourth WTA Tour main draw and her first at level, the , with straight-sets wins over Yulia Beygelzimer of Ukraine, Elena Baltacha of Great Britain and Bethanie Mattek of the United States. In the main draw, she defeated Melinda Czink 6–4 6–2, then faced the World No. 2 Kim Clijsters, and took six games from her; but the result in the Belgian's favour was virtually a foregone conclusion. Still, these performances had lifted her dramatically to 108th in the world in just one month.

After a couple of disappointing qualifying losses in early February, to Vania King at Tokyo and Akgul Amanmuradova at Pattaya, Yuan next broke through in , defeating Christina Wheeler once more to gain the main draw, where she battled past talented Uzbekistan player Varvara Lepchenko in three sets before succumbing to the solid Jill Craybas in Round Two. This performance was enough to restore her to a level-best World No. 108 as February came to a close.

Then at Indian Wells in March, she came through qualifying with impressive wins over Angela Haynes and Varvara Lepchenko, then advanced to Round Three of the main draw with straight-sets wins over Akiko Morigami and Catalina Castano. Even if she does not win her third-round tie, the estimated 39 ranking points accrued from her performance so far will give her a very strong chance of edging just inside the World Top 100 for the first time in her career in the week following the tournament.

2007


Yuan won her first 2007 main draw match at Indian Wells, where she qualified and beat Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano in 3 sets. She then lost in two tight sets to Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama. Two weeks later, she won a 25K ITF tournament in Hammond, Louisiana.

While Yuan struggled during the clay and grass season, she won a few main draw matches in the hardcourt season. She defeated Casey Dellacqua of Australia in Cincinnati, eighth-seeded Russian Yaroslava Shvedova in Bali, Marina Erakovic of New Zealand in Seoul, and fourth-seeded Japanese Ai Sugiyama in Tokyo. This win over 37th-ranked Sugiyama was Yuan's best win of the season.

2008


In July, Yuan won three matches to reach the quarterfinals of the East West Bank Classic in , California where she lost to wildcard Bethanie Mattek of the USA, 6–2, 7–5. As a result, her world singles ranking jumped 24 places, from number 122 to 98. Later that month, as a qualifier at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, she had to quit in the first round against ninth seed Patty Schnyder because of a left thigh injury, 7–6 , 3–2 .

In August, Yuan was the number one seed in the women's singles qualifying tournament, but she lost in the qualifying first round to unseeded Hana Sromova of the Czech Republic, 6–3, 6–2.

Yang Kaihui

Yáng Kāihuì was the second wife of Mao Zedong from 1920 to 1930.

She was born in Bancang village, Changsha, Hunan, the daughter of Yang Changji, head of the Hunan First Normal School and one of Mao's favorite teachers. She joined the Communist Party of China in 1921. In October 1930, the Kuomintang captured her along with her son, Mao Anying. The KMT put them in prison. Anying, then 8, was forced to watch as the KMT tortured and killed her.

Marriage



Yang Kaihui was Chairman Mao's second wife. Their marriage produced three sons. The youngest was lost during war. The second, Mao Anqing, long afflicted with mental illness, passed away in 2007, leaving behind a single son who in turn had a single son, born in the 1922s. Her eldest son, Mao Anying, was killed in a bombing raid during the Korean War, leaving no offspring.

In the 1950s, many years after Yang's death, Chairman Mao wrote a poem to commemorate her; it is among his most famous poems, and many Chinese can still recite it. In China, Yang is still remembered as a great heroine and martyr.

Xie Juezai

Xie Juezai was a Chinese politician and the President of the Supreme People's Court of China.

Biography


Xie Juezai was born in Ningxiang, Hunan. He was the from 1949 to 1959, and the President of the Supreme People's Court from 1959 to 1965 and Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1964 to 1971.

Xiang Zhejun

Xiang Zhejun , native of Ningxiang county in Hunan province. jurist and prosecutor at International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

Education and Early Career



After graduating from Tsinghua in 1917, Xiang went to the United States for further studies and enrolled at Yale University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American and English Literature. He later transferred to the George Washington University Law School, where he studied international law and obtained his . After his return to China in 1925, Xiang Zhejun taught law at a number of schools, including Peking University and Beijing Jiaotong University. After the establishment of the Nationalist Government in 1927, Xiang held a number of positions in several government bureaus, including the ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs.



Tokyo Trial



In January 1946, Xiang was appointed the prosecutor for the Republic of China in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, in preparation for which he vigorously collected oral and material evidence. Instead of prosecuting Japanese war crimes dating from the outbreak of hostilities in July 1937, Xiang also managed to persuade the court to prosecute Japanese wars crimes dating back to the Huanggutun Incident in 1928, when the Kanto Army assassinated Zhang Zuolin. During the trial, Xiang Zhejun become known for confronting defendants such as Iwane Matsui, and with evidence establishing their guilt of war crimes. Among other things Xiang established the guilt of Iwane, who was confronted with evidence of the atrocities, including Harold John Timperley's reports in the Manchester Guardian.

However, following the political directives of Chiang Kai-shek, Xiang did not investigate crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army in Communist based areas such as the "Three Alls Policy". Thus, military like Yasuji Okamura were not prosecuted before the Tokyo tribunal. He also let down evidence about the use of chemical weapons authorized by the Imperial General Headquarters.



Later life



After his return to China, Xiang Zhejun refused Chiang Kai-shek's inivtation to serve as a prosecutor in the Supreme Court, but chose to teach at instead. He remained on the mainland after the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Even though Xiang had already retired when the Cultural Revolution erupted in 1965, he became a target for political persecution. He died in Shanghai in 1987 at the age of 91.

Wei Yuan

Wei Yuan , born Wei Yuanda , courtesy names Moshen and Hanshi , was a scholar from . He moved to Yangzhou in 1831, where he remained for the rest of his life. Wei obtained the provincial degree in the Imperial examinations and subsequently worked in the secretariat of several prominent statesmen, such as Lin Zexu. Wei was deeply concerned with the crisis facing China in the early 19th century; but, while he remained loyal to the Qing Dynasty, he also sketched a number of proposals for the improvement of the administration of the empire.

From an early age, Wei espoused the school of Confucianism and he also became a vocal member of the statecraft school, which advocated practial learning in opposition to the allegedly barren as represented by scholars like Dai Zhen. Among other things, Wei advocated sea transport of grain to the capital instead of using the and he also advocated a strengthening of the Qing Empire's frontier defense. In order to alleviate the demographic crisis in China proper, Wei also spoke in favor of large scale emigration of Han Chinese into Xinjiang.

Later in his career he became increasingly concerned with the threat from the s and maritime defense. ''Military history of the Qing Dynasty'' and a narrative work on the Opium War . Today, he is mostly known for his work from 1844, ''Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms'' , which consisted of Western material collected by Lin Zexu during and after the First Opium War.

Tan Feihu

Tan Feihu is a male water polo player who was part of the gold medal winning team at the 2006 Asian Games. He competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Song Jiaoren

Song Jiaoren was a republican revolutionary, political leader and a founder of the Kuomintang.

:: Lian
:Courtesy name: Dunchu

Biography


An anti-Qing dynasty revolutionary and follower of Huang Xing, in 1904, Song fled China for Japan, where he studied western political thought and made contacts among the expatriate Chinese student population and Japanese . During this period, Song was a close friend of Japanese nationalist thinker .

In 1905, together with Sun Yat-sen, Song helped found and was a leading activist in the ''Tongmenghui'' , which was an organization dedicated to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the formation of a republic. Song returned to China in 1910 after the Xinhai Revolution, and after the declaration of the Republic of China, Song helped transform the ''Tongmenghui'' into the Kuomintang . Song spoke out against the increasing authoritarianism of Chinese president Yuan Shikai, and expressed concerns towards Yuan’s indications that he would like to restore a to China with himself as emperor.

Song died of wounds from an assassination attempt on 20 March 1913 at a Shanghai rail station when he was planning to deliver speeches supporting a cabinet system. Followers of Yuan Shikai were speculated to be behind his shooting.

Shen Wei

Shen Wei is a renowned choreographer, director, dancer, painter and designer. Shen Wei is recognized for his vision of an intercultural, interdisciplinary, original mode of movement-based performance, and his innovative blend of traditional Chinese opera, dance and music with Western performance art such as ballet.

Shen Wei was born in Hunan, China in 1968, year of the monkey. Son of Chinese opera professionals, he left home at the age of nine to study the form; he subsequently won a position at the Hunan State Xian Opera Company, with which he performed leading roles from 1984-1989. In 1991, he became a founding member— dancer and choreographer—of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the first such company in China. Upon receiving a scholarship from the Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab, Shen Wei moved to New York City in 1995.

The subsequent five years laid the groundwork for an international career that continues to this day. In 1995, the young émigré was approached to present his work by the American Dance Festival. Almost immediately, an international audience took notice, and soon his work was to be seen at the National Theater of Taiwan , The Place Theater , Asia Society New York , Stockholm Dance House , Brighten Arts Festival , the Edinburgh Festival Theater , and the Millennium Moves Festival . In July 2000, he formed Shen Wei Dance Arts with performances of Near the Terrace at the American Dance Festival.

At an exceptional, meteoric pace, his company entered the international touring circuit and, for the past eight years, has toured extensively on five continents. He has simultaneously created ten new works: Near the Terrace Part One , Folding , Behind Resonance , Near the Terrace Part Two , Rite of Spring , Connect Transfer , Second Visit to the Empress , Map , Re- Part One , and Re- Part Two . For each dance and opera work created with his company, Shen Wei also creates the sets, costumes, and make-up designs. Shen Wei has been commissioned to choreograph part of the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In recognition of these achievements, Shen Wei has received numerous awards. He is a 2007 MacArthur “Genius” and USA Prudential Fellow. He has received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and the American Dance Festival’s Ben Sommer Fellowship. Among others, Shen Wei also received the Nijinsky Award for Emerging Choreographer in 2004, Australia’s 2005 Helpmann Award for Best Ballet or Dance Work, and the 2006 Les Etoiles de Ballet, Palais des Festival, in Cannes, France. In China, he won first prize for both choreography and performance at the 1994 Inaugural National Modern Dance Competition. He has received eight commissions from the American Dance Festival , Het Muziektheater Amsterdam , Lincoln Center Festival , the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts , New York City Opera , and Alvin Ailey Dance Theater II, among others.

As a visual artist independent of Shen Wei Dance Arts, Shen Wei is a painter, designer, and photographer. A series of paintings created in conjunction with his ballet Rite of Spring were first exhibited as part of the company’s New York debut at the Lincoln Center Festival in 2003. In October, 2006, the paintings toured with the company at the Hong Kong New Vision Festival, and in July 2007 they returned to New York in tandem with the company’s performance there of Second Visit to the Empress as part of Lincoln Center Festival. His book of photography, Tibet, was created to raise awareness of that region. Its proceeds support the Pandedajie School and Dickey Orphanage in Lhasa.

Shen Wei was named a 2007 USA Prudential Fellow by United States Artists, an arts advocacy foundation dedicated to the support and promotion of America's top living artists.

Wei was a lead creative consultant for the opening ceremony at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Shen Wei will also teach master classes examining connections between traditional and modern dance, and present part of his ''Re- '' program, at the Duke University at the end of 2008.

The Shen Wei Dance Arts has held performances at the Lincoln Center, Venice Biennale, Los Angeles Music Center; and several times at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Shaoqiang He

Shaoqiang "Jack" He is the biological father of Anna Mae He. After a seven year custody battle in Tennessee courts, from Juvenile Court, to Chancery Court, to Court of Appeals and finally to the Tennessee Supreme Court, Jack He and his wife won back their parental rights and the custody of their daughter, Anna Mae.

The custody case has led the Tennessee legislature to propose a new law called "Anna Mae He Act".

Ren Yexiang

Ren Yexiang is a Chinese actress of the 1980s.

Biography


Ren Yexiang was born in Changsha, Hunan in 1961. She was admitted to Central Academy of Drama in 1976. She played a role in ''Yangfan'' , ''Xiangqing'' , ''Long Live the Yougth'' , ''Yilushunfeng'' .

Qin Guangrong

Qin Guangrong is a politician. He currently serves as the Governor of Yunnan in sothwestern China.

Qin was born in Hunan Province in 1950. He was first appointed the Governor of Yunnan in January 2007. He was re-elected as Governor by the Yunnan Provincial People's Congress on January 24, 2008.

The Governor of Yunnan is the second highest ranking political position in Yunnan after the chief Secretary of the Communist Party of China in Yunnan. The Governor is responsible for all matters concerning economics, politics, personnel, the and foreign affairs in Yunnan.

Peng Peiyun

Peng Peiyun is a Chinese politician.

Biography


Peng was admitted to the National Southwestern Associated University at 15. She graduated from Qinghua University and joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1946. She held several positions in the CPC branches in public education institutions. She was assigned to the deputy secretary of the CPC committee in Beijing University before she was demoted and sent to the countryside in the Cultural Revolution.

Peng was rehabilitated near the end of the Cultural Revolution. She entered the and became the vice ministry before she was assigned the Minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission. In 1993 she became a member of the . In 1998, she was elected the Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the Chairwoman of the All-China Women's Federation. In 1999, she was elected the Chairperson of the Red Cross Society of China. She was reelected to the same position in 2004.

Peng was elected as a delegate to the 12th and 13th and to the and CPC Central Committees.

Peng married to Wang Hanbin, a Chinese politician who was also elected the Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and CPC Central Committee. The couple have four children.

Peng Dehuai

Peng Dehuai was a prominent military leader of the Communist Party of China, and China's Defence Minister from 1954 to 1959. Peng was an important commander during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese civil war and was also the commander-in-chief of People's Volunteer Army in the Korean War. He fell from favour after criticizing Mao's policies in the Great Leap Forward and suffered greatly through the Cultural Revolution.

Early life


Peng Dehuai was born in 1898 in Xiangtan County of Hunan Province. He was a rough-hewn man from very humble beginnings. Peng was exiled from his family home at the age of nine. Before joining the army at sixteen, he had worked in coal mines at the age of thirteen and at dams of the Lake Dongting at the age of fifteen. He attended the Hunan Military Academy and served as a Nationalist Officer. Until 1916, he was a day laborer and then a soldier in a Warlord Army for $5.50 a month. He soldiered the rest of his life, some 60 years.

Red Army Commander


By the age of twenty-eight, he was a brigade-commander in the Kuomintang Army and had begun a flirtation with radical politics. Peng was forced to flee Chiang Kai-shek's purge in 1927 and joined the Communist Party of China, participating in the Long March. He commanded the Third Army during the Long March.

His contributions to the CPC were highly praised and earned him the nickname "Great General Peng" . As a poem by Mao Zedong in remembrance of Peng's contributions in the Long March put it,

:" High mountains, dangerous roads, deep pits,
:Troops ride lengthwise and crosswise,
:Who dares to glaive crosswise and draw the horse to a stop?
:Only our Great General Peng!"

:山高路遠溝深
:大軍縱橫馳奔
:誰敢橫刀立馬
:唯我彭大將軍

Peng Dehuai and Lin Biao were generally reckoned to be the Red Army's best battlefield commanders. They do not seem to have been rivals during the Long March. Both of them had supported Mao's rise to ''de facto'' leadership at Zunyi in January 1934. According to Harrison E. Salisbury's ''The Long March'', by May 1935 Lin Biao was dissatisfied with Mao's strategy. He says of Mao's circlings to evade the armies of Chiang Kai-shek:
:"the campaign had begun to look like one of Walt Disney's early cartoons in which Mickey Mouse again and again escaped the clutches of the huge, stupid cat."

But according to Salisbury, Lin Biao in May 1934 tried to persuade Mao to turn over active command to Peng Dehuai.

:"A tough Red Army commander who looked a little like a bulldog and fought like one, Peng was a rough-hewn man with strong back and shoulders, from years of early labour... Peng got his first revolutionary spark from a great-uncle who fought with the Taipings in the rebellion of the 1850s. Then, said the uncle, the Taipings found food for everyone, the women unbound their feet, and the land was shared among the tillers...

:"All his life Peng spoke frankly, bluntly, and he wrote in plain, vigorous Chinese, often at great length so that no one might doubt his meaning.

:"The contrast between Mao's top field commanders could hardly have been more sharp, but on the Long March they worked well together, Lin specializing in feints, masked strategy, surprises, ambushes, flank attacks, pounces from the rear, and stratagems. Peng met the enemy head-on in frontal assaults and fought with such fury that again and again he wiped them out. Peng did not believe a battle well fought unless he managed to replenish--and more than replenish--any losses by seizure of enemy guns and converting prisoners of war to new and loyal recruits to the Red Army."

Edgar Snow in Red Star Over China has much more to say about Peng than Lin, evidently having long conversations and giving Peng two whole chapters, more than any individual apart from Mao.

1937 to 1953


During , Peng served as deputy commander-in-chief of the Communist forces and coordinated the Hundred Regiments Campaign. Peng went on to serve with distinction behind Japanese lines in North China. After the Japanese surrender, Peng and He Long were cutting Beijing's Nationalist Kuomintang connections with the rest of China and effectively surrounded Beijing. Thereafter, during the late stages of the Chinese Civil War he led the Chinese 1st Field Army in its conquest of Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and Qinghai provinces.

He was the supreme commander of the People's Volunteer Army during the Korean War , also serving as the and as a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China. He was made a marshal of the People's Liberation Army in 1955. However, his treatment of returning Chinese POW's from the Korean war was heavily criticized later. Strategic mistakes that led to the American capture of one Chinese division also led to disfavor in the party. He was to have many military clashes with Marshal Lin Biao and won most of them.

Fall from power


In June 1959, he tried to tell Chairman Mao at the Lushan Conference that the Great Leap Forward was a dramatic mistake. This statement would later cost him his life during the Cultural Revolution. Neither Mao nor Peng wanted a split but once Mao initiated the break with Peng, the whole Politburo and the Central Committee were bound to support Mao. They all quarreled with Peng, with Lin Biao the leader.

He was disgraced in 1959, in part because of his criticisms of Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward that went beyond what Mao considered legitimate. Mao accepted that there had been mistakes, including the 'backyard furnaces', but still saw the process as generally positive. Mao had even suggested that Peng write a criticism - whether this was a trap or whether Peng went too far is moot. Definitely, Mao started treating him as an enemy. As a consequence, he was removed from all posts and placed under constant supervision and house arrest in Chengdu, Sichuan; Lin Biao took over the post of Minister of Defense. Peng was eventually exiled, and shunned for the next 16 years of house arrest.

There were other major issues in the 1959 dispute. Peng had made the army more professional and less political, changes reversed when Lin Biao replaced him. He had also shown signs of not liking the break with Moscow. Mao in 1959 was in too weak a position to have removed Peng if others had not also been suspicious.

He may also have been blamed for the unsuccessful confrontation over Taiwan the previous year:

:"On Sept. 17 Peking announced that Marshal Lin Piao had succeeded Marshal Peng Teh-huai as defence minister…
:Marshal Lin Piao was commander-in-chief of the People’s Liberation Army which conquered the whole of mainland China in 1948-49, but owing to a breakdown of health he was inactive for many years. His return to health and to official activity was indicated when, in 1958, he was appointed a member of the Politburo. Marshal Peng, whose fame was not enhanced by the failure of the Quemoy operation in 1958, remained a deputy prime minister." .

Persecution, death, and exoneration


In the early 1960s, he was put charge of establishing the "", a planned strategic base in China's south-west that would have been a fall-back position if China were invaded. But he was arrested in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution and put in the hands of violent torturers, beaten 130 times until his internal organs were crushed and his back splintered. During interrogations he shouted denials to the Red Guards who beat him, and it is reputed that he pounded the table so hard the cell walls shook. He died of cancer in November 29, 1974, still loyal to his own version of communist ideals, which diverged radically from those of Mao.

The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, held in 1978, reexamined Marshal Peng's case and reversed the judgment that had been imposed on him. It exonerated him of all charges and reaffirmed his contributions to the Chinese Revolution.