Lüqiu Xiaotong

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His Excellency Lüqiu Xiaotong
陆秋晓彤
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	Lüqiu Xuejing (father) Zhen Qigang (mother)
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 left-wing 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 its'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, forming the International Solidarity Pact, a defense pact of democratic socialist states implicitly opposed 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, liberal family, and attended Zhejiang University from 1942 to 1946, where he became 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 - publicly valorized and personally traumatized - temporarily served as a Buddhist monk, studying 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 worked for the Chinese Solidarity and Labour Federation, a large democratic socialist union federation 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 of 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 and 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 independent, Workers' Party-aligned activists, and became Chairman of the Western China Development Authority in 1960 and Minister of Economic Affairs in 1962. Then, Lüqiu's 1964 Martyrs' Blood speech, praising the Plural Left Coalition and denouncing the KMT's campaigning tactics, catapulted him to national prominence. Though the Plural Left Coalition lost the 1964 election, the Speech helped elect Lüqiu Leader of the Patriotic Labour Party, a merger of Plural Left Coalition's largest parties, 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 election amidst an economic recession, Lüqiu Xiaotong became Premier, leading a coalition government between the PLP, the Islamic socialist and regionalist Fidesian Workers' Coalition, and the centrist Progressive Coalition. During Lüqiu's Premiership, the government endeavored to establish a social-democratic welfare state, guaranteeing universal, subsidised childcare through the Families First Program and old-age pensions through the State Pension Fund. Lüqiu's Premiership also saw 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. Lüqiu Xiaotong's government also nationalised the Four Northern Banks and Three Southern Banks, and reorganised China's mining and extractive industries into the State Mining and Extraction Corporation. Seeking to render a capital strike ineffective, Lüqiu established the State Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund which, by owning plurality or majority shares in government-linked companies, helps ensure substantial state power over the Chinese economy to this day. However, Lüqiu's election also led to severe capital flight by American investors, and the unpopular establishment of additional Special Economic Zones failed to prevent this. China's export-oriented economy entered into recession in late 1969, and right-wing government member Lishan Hebei attempted a coup d'état in early 1970. While this attempt failed, it nevertheless caused most Progressives and many moderate Patriotic Labourites to leave the government, triggering an election in 1970 that the rump Patriotic Labour Party lost in a landslide.

Politically isolated and out of power, Lüqiu emigrated to Communist-ruled India, where he had political connections since the 1960s, serving as a Professor at Delhi University and economic advisor to the Indian government, though he remained a Legislator. However, after the Lei Machine scandal revealed most elections since 1964 were fraudulent, to the Progressive Coalition's benefit, and after the Chinese economy entered into an economic recession in 1980 following several years of prosperity, Lüqiu returned to China, forging strong relations with FECR leaders, engaging in a high-profile campaign against the right and for the PLP, and becoming President after the Patriotic Labour Party and its allies won a landslide victory in the 1982.