Qiao Shi

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Qiao Shi (Chinese: 乔石; pinyin: Qiáo Shí; Wade-Giles: Ch'iao Shih; born December 1924) is a politician in the People's Republic of China. He was born as Jiang Zhitong (Chinese: 蒋志彤; pinyin: Jiǎng Zhìtóng) in Shanghai, China, to parents of Dinghai, Zhejiang province ancestry. He is said to be distantly related to Chiang Kai-shek's family and this was the cause for the persecution he suffered during the Cultural Revolution^{[citation needed]}. A recognised international studies expert within the Communist Party, Qiao Shi was at one time ranked third in the Communist Party leadership. Despite Western speculation in the 1990s, Qiao Shi never rose to paramount power and retired in 1998.

[edit] Early life

Qiao Shi became involved with the anti-Kuomintang student movement in his youth, and joined the Communist Party of China in August of 1940. To facilitate undercover work, and also to show his revolution zeal, he changed his name from the original Jiang Zhitong (蒋志彤) to Jiang Qiaoshi (蒋乔石), a name which happened to differ from that of Chiang Kai-shek by just two strokes. He was educated at Tongji University, Shanghai. Qiao Shi is married to wife Yu Wen, and they have two sons and two daughters.

[edit] Rise to power

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Qiao Shi worked in the Communist Youth League system for a number of years. From 1954 to 1962 he worked at Anshan Iron and Steel Development Company. From 1963, he worked in the Communist Party's central International Liaison Department, which was responsible for policy formation in foreign affairs. Starting as an analyst, he rose to be Department Head in 1982, and became an alternate member of the central Secretariat. Subsequently he also held the positions of head of the General Office, and of the Organization Department.

During the Cultural Revolution, Qiao Shi and his family members were persecuted due to their distant biological relation to Chiang Kai-shek; moreover, Qiao Shi's name in Chinese was very similar to that of Chiang Kai-shek. Fed up with the persecution and humiliation, one of Qiao Shi's son convinced the rest of the family to change the surname by either adopting their mother's last name Li, or simply dropping the original surname Jiang. Such move was viewed as revolutionary by Red Guards and other Cultural Revolution zealots at the time because it was viewed as severing the tie to the evil past. Qiao Shi, at the mean time, like many other persecuted cadres, was in jail and powerless to do anything to prevent his children's action, and in the post Cultural Revolution era, nobody in the family bothered to change the names again, so the names remained as they were, including that of Qiao Shi.

In 1985, after a major defection by Yu Qiangsheng, a director of the National Security Department, which resulted in the arrest of Larry Wu-Tai Chin, the Chinese agent in Central Intelligence Agency, Qiao Shi succeeded Chen Pixian and was placed in charge of national security and intelligence. From 1985 to 1998 he was the head of the Communist Party's central Secrets Committee (中央保密委员会). From 1986, he became a Vice Premier of the State Council. During this time, he also took charge of law and order, and became prominent in the promulgation of new laws as the Communist Party sought to establish a Rule of Law to counteract the excesses of Mao-era dictatorship.

From March 27, 1993 to March 16, 1998, he was the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. As head of the legislature, he was officially ranked third in political positions in the People's Republic of China. Qiao Shi gained popularity during this time because of a stated commitment to the Rule of Law, in contrast to then-President Jiang Zemin's tendency for self-promotion.

In 1998 Qiao Shi, then 74, retired from politics officially due to his age. However, media speculation from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the west hold that Qiao was involved in a power struggle with Jiang Zemin, and eventually lost.

[edit] Western speculation

In the early 1990s there was considerable speculation outside of China that Qiao Shi would rise to further prominence. Some pointed to his being virtually untouched by the fallout of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, despite his alleged pro-democracy sympathies. Others claimed that his appointment as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress was actually a demotion because the post was mostly ceremonial despite being equally ranked with Qiao Shi's previous posts. It was also claimed that Qiao Shi (born with surname Jiang), was related to Chiang Kai-shek, and could help to resolve the Taiwan issue. There was hope that, with Qiao Shi as leader, the Communist Party of China would pursue further reforms towards a more legalist and democratic system of government. However, the speculation turned out unfounded and Qiao Shi retired in 1998 from his number three position as Chairman of the National People's Congress.

Preceded by Wan Li

Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress 1993 - 1998

Succeeded by Li Peng