Lüqiu Xiaotong
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His Excellency Lüqiu Xiaotong | |
|---|---|
| 陆秋晓彤 | |
.jpg) Lüqiu Xiaotong in 1970 | |
| 14th President of China | |
| In office 25 January 1982 – 23 February 1987 | |
| Premier | Zhu Min (1982–83) Li Hwei-ru (1983-86) Luísa Wong (1986-88) |
| Vice President | Yang Lei Cao Fen |
| Preceded by | Tatiana Antonova |
| Succeeded by | Cao Fen |
| 27th Premier of China | |
| In office 21 January 1968 – 11 April 1970 | |
| President | Yuni Tian |
| Preceded by | Zhao Lei |
| Succeeded by | Su Wuying |
| Leader of the Patriotic Labour Party | |
| In office 4 March 1965 – 15 December 1970 | |
| Deputy | Sima Jia |
| Preceded by | Position Established |
| Succeeded by | Hu Yaobang |
| Minister of Economic Affairs | |
| In office 9 February 1962 – 27 November 1964 | |
| Premier | Sima Jia |
| Preceded by | Deng Xiaoping |
| Succeeded by | Na Mu |
| Chairman of the Western China Development Authority | |
| In office 10 March 1960 – 9 February 1962 | |
| Premier | Sima Jia |
| Preceded by | Yu Qiuli |
| Succeeded by | Ma Hong |
| Member of the Legislative Yuan | |
| In office 9 February 1962 – 23 February 1987 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Lüqiu Tianqiao |
| Constituency | Yangpu (1968-87) |
| In office 4 February 1956 – 19 March 1960 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 March 1924 Shanghai China |
| Died | 23 February 1987 (aged 62) Lagos Nigeria |
| Cause of death | Malaria infection |
| Political party | Patriotic Labour Party (1965-1987) |
| Other political affiliations | Solidarity (1956-1965) Minmeng (Before 1956) |
| Spouse | Xia Jie |
| Children | 13, including Zhenglong and Tianqiao |
| Parents |
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| Education | Zhejiang University (BA) London School of Economics (MA) |
| Profession | Economist |
| Religion | Chinese folk religion Three teachings |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Republic of China |
| Branch/service | National Revolutionary Army |
| Years of service | 1947-1948 |
| Rank | Sergeant |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | Order of Victory |
Lüqiu Xiaotong (26 March 1924 - 23 February 1987) was a Chinese politician, economist, and political philosopher who served as Premier of China from 1968 to 1970 and President of China from 1982 to his death in 1987. Ideologically a Principled Communist and civic nationalist, Lüqiu promoted his philosophy of traditional socialism as a democratic socialist alternative to the Marxism-Leninism of the French Commune and the liberal capitalism of the United States. Accordingly, as President Lüqiu led China to challenge France and the United States; first, Lüqiu funded anti-colonial guerrillas in French Indochina and French Africa, destabilizing the French Commune and leading to Operation Just Cause, a multilateral invasion of the French Commune, that led to the Commune's dissolution and the establishment of democratic socialist states in French Africa and social democratic states in Indochina and France proper; second, Lüqiu helped end the Sino-American alliance that existed since World War II and make the two countries each other's greatest rivals by, among other anti-American actions, helping form the International Solidarity Pact, a defense pact of democratic socialist states implicitly standing in opposition to the United States's Pacific-Atlantic Treaty Organization. These policies, amongst others, made Lüqiu Xiaotong one of the most consequential and controversial politicians in Chinese history.
Lüqiu Xiaotong was born in Shanghai in 1924 to a middle-class, politically active family supportive of the liberal Minmeng in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Lüqiu attended Zhejiang University as a student of political economy from 1942 to 1946, becaming a Marxist. After graduating from Zhejiang, Lüqiu enlisted in the National Revolutionary Army, serving as a Sergeant during the late stages of World War II. After the War ended, Lüqiu - traumatized thanks to his wartime experiences, although those he knew venerated him as a war hero - temporarily served as a Buddhist monk, a practice relatively common in Southeast Asia but less so in China. Lüqiu then studied international relations at the London School of Economics from 1949 to 1952, coming under Harold Laski's influence.
After graduating from the LSE, Lüqiu briefly served as an international liaison for the Chinese Solidarity and Labour Federation, a democratic socialist union federation and the largest trade union federation in China in the early 1950s which spearheaded the merger of the Minmeng's socialist faction and the Communist Party of China into the Workers' Party in 1953, swiftly banned under the Political Organizations Act. He subsequently became a professor development economics at Tsinghua University in 1953, promoting government-directed industrialisation and the ideas of Michal Kalecki, , particularly in relation to the importance of agrarian reform in economic development and the importance of the reserve army of labour.
Lüqiu was then nominated and successfully elected to the Legislative Yuan in 1956 as a member of the far-left Solidarity Party, formed by After independent, Workers' Party-aligned union activists. His academic and political background eventually caused the ruling Government to appoint him Chairman of the Western China Development Authority in 1960. Lüqiu performed admirably as Chair of the WCDA, helping spread spreading the prosperity of the early 1960s to the impoverished West, leading to his appointment as Minister of Economic Affairs in 1962. Then, Lüqiu's 1964 Martyrs' Blood speech, praising the Plural Left Coalition's economic policies and denouncing the KMT's campaigning tactics, catapulted him to national political prominence. Though the Plural Left Coalition failed to win reelection in 1964, the Spech helped elect Lüqiu Xiaotong Leader of the Patriotic Labour Party, a merger of the largest parties in the Plural Left Coalition, in 1965. As PLP Leader, his major electoral strategy - appealing to rural, historically KMT voters - mirrored his support for a social conservative-socialist alliance, which led him to author From Zongzu to Minsheng: On Tradition and Socialism, beginning the traditional socialist movement.
After the Patriotic Labour Party made gains during the 1968 parliamentary elections during an economic recession, Lüqiu Xiaotong became Premier at the helm ofa coalition government between the PLP, the Islamic socialist and regionalist Fidesian Workers' Coalition, and the centrist Progressive Party. During Lüqiu's Premiership, the government endeavored to establish a social-democratic welfare state, successfully establishing universal childcare and two free school meals daily through the Families First Program and old-age pensions through the State Pension Fund, though the Pension Fund only came into effect in 1980. Lüqiu's Premiership also enacted agrarian reform through the National Agricultural Board and Regional Agricultural Boards, enjoying a monopsony on staple crops and owning agricultural machinery and warehouses in accordance with the principle of an Ever-Normal Granary.