He Luli

He Luli (; 7 June 1934 – 19 March 2022) was a Chinese politician and paediatrician. She entered politics after practicing medicine for 27 years, serving as vice-mayor of Beijing, chairwoman of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, Vice Chairperson of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

He Luli was the daughter of He Siyuan, the Kuomintang mayor of Beijing who negotiated the peaceful surrender of the city to the Chinese Communist Party near the end of the Chinese Civil War.

Early life

He Luli was born on 7 June 1934, in Jinan, Shandong, China. Her father He Siyuan was the French-educated education minister of Shandong Province, and her mother was a Frenchwoman who adopted the Chinese name He Yiwen . He Luli had two older brothers and a younger sister.

After Japan invaded China in 1937, He Siyuan led a guerrilla operation in Shandong to fight the enemy. He sent his wife and four children to live in the British concession in Tianjin. After the Pacific War broke out in December 1941, Japan occupied the British concession and Yiwen moved the family home to Tianjin's Italian concession. On 31 December, the Italian authorities arrested Yiwen and the children and handed them to the Japanese, who held them as hostages and demanded He Siyuan's surrender. He rejected the demand, condemned Japan and Italy's breach of international law through diplomatic channels, and held Italian missionaries in China as a bargaining chip. Japan eventually relented and released the family.

After the end of World War II, He Siyuan served as Mayor of Beijing (then known as Beiping). During the ensuing Chinese Civil War, he negotiated with the Communists for the peaceful surrender of Beiping. To prevent the surrender, Chiang Kai-shek sent agents to assassinate him. In the early morning of 18 January 1949, two bombs exploded in the He residence, killing Luli's 12-year-old sister Lumei and gravely injuring her mother. The rest of the family were also wounded. The Juntong agent who planted the bombs, Colonel Duan Yunpeng, was captured in 1954 and executed in 1967.

Career After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, He Luli studied medicine at Beijing Medical University (now Peking University Health Science Center) from 1952 to 1957. Starting in 1957, she worked as a doctor for 27 years at Beijing Children's Hospital, Xicheng District Children's Hospital, and Beijing No. 2 Hospital.