Liu Geping

Liu Geping (; 8 August 1904 – 11 March 1992) was a Chinese communist revolutionary and politician of Hui Muslim heritage. He is best known as the founding Chairman of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and later for seizing power in Shanxi during the Cultural Revolution, where he made himself the top leader of the province.

Liu spent his early days as a communist agitator, leading peasant uprisings and building the party organization in rural areas. A political survivor, he was arrested several times during the Warlord Era and served two prison terms. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he held important roles in the party and government but was branded a traitor in 1960. He later returned to work, only to be purged again several years later during the Cultural Revolution. He was rehabilitated after the Cultural Revolution and spent the rest of his life in ceremonial positions.

Republic of China Warlord Era Liu Geping was born on 8 August 1904 into a large landowning family of Muslim Hui ethnicity in Dadi East Village , Mengcun County, Hebei. He also used the names Liu Zimin and Liu Xiangnong . In 1918 he joined the army of Li Chun, a warlord of the Zhili Clique, and entered its military school in Nanjing. The next year he participated in the May Fourth Movement as an activist. He joined the Chinese Socialist Youth League in 1922, and returned home to spread revolutionary values. Instrumental in the founding of the first socialist youth cell in the area, in December 1925 he co-led an armed peasant uprising against the Beiyang government, the first of its kind in northern China.

In July 1926, Liu joined the Chinese Communist Party and then spearheaded a series of educational initiatives aimed at increasing the influence of the party in the Tianjin-Hebei region. After founding schools and party organizations in dozens of counties, he took part in the founding of a 300-strong "Southern Tianjin Revolutionary Army", which aimed to topple warlords and incite armed uprisings. In June 1928 he led a peasant uprising in Qingyun County, occupying the county seat and taking guns from the local police. He was arrested that year for his agitation and spent the next three years in prison. After he was released, the Communist Party sent him to Shaanxi to work for Yang Hucheng's army.

Japanese invasion and Civil War After the Mukden incident and subsequent Japanese incursions into China, Liu became a founding member of the "Hui People Against Japanese Invasion" organization. In 1932 he returned home to work on military operations and to coordinate underground party activities. He was again arrested on April20, 1934, after organizing the Majia River uprising in Qingyun. In 1983, he was named a member of the National Committee of the 6th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a ceremonial position.

Liu died in Beijing on 11 March 1992. He was given full funeral rites at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery. His body was taken back to his native village and buried according to Muslim Hui rituals.