| Qiao Guanhua | |
|---|---|
| Foreign Minister of the PRC | |
| In office 1974–1976 |
|
| Preceded by | Ji Pengfei |
| Succeeded by | Huang Hua |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 28, 1913 Yancheng, Qing Empire |
| Died | September 22, 1983 (aged 70) Beijing, People's Republic of China |
| Political party | Communist Party of China |
| Spouse(s) | Zhang Hanzhi |
Qiao Guanhua (simplified Chinese: 乔冠华; pinyin: Qiáo Guānhuà; Wade-Giles: Chiao Kuan-hua; March 28, 1913 - September 22, 1983[1]) was a politician in the People's Republic of China.
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Qiao Guanhua was born in Yancheng in 1913; his father was a local land-owner, considered relatively illuminated. Since his childhood, Qiao Guanhua showed a great intelligence, especially remarkable memory, so he repeatedly skipped school grades, and was admitted to the Tsinghua University at the age of 16. While he was studying philosphy there, he came in contact with Marxism and engaged in several activities led by the Communist Party of China.
Qiao Guanhua gratuated in 1933 and went to Japan to continue his studies at the Tokyo Imperial University. He joined the Japanese Communist Party, leading to his expulsion from the university. He was then forced to travel to Germany, where he obtained a PhD at the University of Tübingen in 1936, when he was 23 years old.
As he returned in China, Second Sino-Japanese War had broken out. Qiao Guanhua engaged mainly in journalism with the pen name of Qiaomu (乔木, meaning Tree), working on the international review of several newspapers in Hong Kong.
Admitted to the Communist Party of China in the autumn of 1942, Qiao Guanhua was called to Chongqing to take charge of The Masses' Weekly and the international column of the Xinhua Daily. In Chongqing, he worked directly under Zhou Enlai, who recognized his interest in foreign affairs and took him as his personal assistant for international matters. After the war, he accompanied Zhou Enlai to Shanghai with the CPC delegation, and there he established the English-language Xinhua Weekly. At the end of 1946, he returned to Hong Kong as president of the local Xinhua News Agency branch.
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Qiao Guanhua continued to work in foreign affairs. He served as head of the Information Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, deputy director of the General Office of the Central People's Government, vice-president of the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, head of the Asia Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and vice-minister of Foreign Affairs.
Qiao Guanhua took part at several international delegations. In 1950 he accompanied Special Representative Wu Xiuquan to the United Nations Security Council to protest against the United States's shielding of Chiang Kai-shek's regime in Taiwan; in 1951 he was major consultant to the head of the Chinese delegation to the Panmunjeom talks during the Korean War; in April 1954 accompanied Zhou Enlai to the Geneva Conference on Indochina, and once again traveled to the 1961-1962 Geneva summit on Laos with Chen Yi.
With the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Qiao Guanhua was first identified as member of the counter-revolutionary clique ruling the Foreign Ministry along with Chen Yi and Ji Pengfei. Nevertheless, they were allowed to continue their work, and in 1969 Qiao Guanhua was appointed head of the Chinese delegation for the talks with the Soviet Union regarding the Zhenbao Island, where military fighting had erupted. In 1971 he led the Chinese delegation to the 26th Session of the United Nations General Assembly when China's seat was handed over to the People's Republic of China, and continued to lead Chinese delegations to the UN until 1976. In 1972, when President of the United States Richard Nixon visited China, he was put in charge of negotiations with Henry Kissinger and drafting the joint communiqué.
Starting from 1973, Qiao Guanhua enjoyed a more prominent role. He was elected member of the CPC Central Committee, and later was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1974, confirmed by the 4th National People's Congress in 1975. However, he grew very close to Jiang Qing and the Gang of Four in the latter half of the Cultural Revolution. The fall of the Gang in October 1976 did not result in his arrest, but he was stripped of his posts in December 1976 and forced to retire, though he nominally remained an advisor to the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.
He died of cancer in September 1982, aged 70.
Qiao Guanhua married with diplomat Gong Peng in 1943, and the two had a son, Qiao Zonghuai (who once served as vice-minister of Foreign Affairs), and a daughter, Qiao Songdu (who graduated from Tianjin Medical University. In 2008, she finished the book Qiao Guanhua and Gong Peng--my father and my mother ). In 1970 Gong Peng died of illness. Upon Mao Zedong's suggestion, Qiao Guanhua re-married in 1973 with Zhang Hanzhi, adopted daughter of the revolutionary journalist Zhang Shizhao and English interpreter for Chairman Mao himself, after she divorced with her previous husband, Hong Junyan.[1] Hung Huang is Qiao Guanhua's stepdaughter. Ten years later, Qiao Guanhua died of cancer.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Ji Pengfei |
Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China 1974–1976 |
Succeeded by Huang Hua |
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