Qiao Shi

Qiao Shi (24 December 1924 – 14 June 2015) was a Chinese politician and one of the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He was a member of the party's top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, from 1987 to 1997. He was a contender for the paramount leadership of China, but lost out to his political rival Jiang Zemin, who assumed the post of General Secretary of the party in 1989. Qiao Shi instead served as Chairman of the National People's Congress, then the third-ranked political position, from 1993 until his retirement in 1998. Compared with his peers, including Jiang Zemin, Qiao Shi adopted a more liberal stance in political and economic policy, promoting the rule of law and market-oriented reform of state-owned enterprises.

Early life Qiao Shi was born Jiang Zhitong in December 1924 in Shanghai. His father was from Dinghai, Zhejiang province and worked as an accountant in Shanghai. His mother was a worker at Shanghai No. 1 Textile Mill. He studied literature at East China Associated University, but did not graduate. He adopted the nom de guerre Jiang Qiaoshi after becoming involved with underground revolutionary activities when he was sixteen years old, as was common practice at the time for young aspiring Communists. He eventually dropped the surname Jiang altogether and simply went by "Qiao Shi". He joined the CCP in August 1940, and became involved with the anti-Kuomintang student movement in his youth. His specialty was intelligence and security.

Mao era After the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, Qiao Shi served as a leader of the Communist Youth League in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province until 1954. From 1954 to 1962, he worked at Anshan Iron and Steel Company in Liaoning province, and then Jiuquan Iron and Steel Company in Gansu province. In 1963, Qiao Shi was transferred to the International Liaison Department (ILD) of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. He was recognized as an expert in international studies, and travelled widely to other communist countries. In that year, Qiao Shi was elected to the Politburo of the Communist Party, the second highest rung of power. In 1986, he became a Vice Premier of the State Council. In 1998, Qiao Shi, then 73, retired from politics, and largely stayed out of the public eye thereafter. In 2012, he published the book Qiao Shi On Democracy and Rule of Law, which received significant attention from both domestic and international media.

Decline and death Qiao Shi died on 14 June 2015 in Beijing at the age of 90. In his official obituary, Qiao Shi was extolled as "an excellent Party member, a time-tested fighter for the communist cause, and an outstanding proletarian revolutionary, statesman and leader of the Party and the state". Qiao Shi was the first major leader from the third-generation of leadership to have died. His obituary numbered over 2,000 Chinese characters, half of the length of the obituaries of second-generation stalwarts Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun, but far higher than the word count of the obituaries of Hua Guofeng, Liu Huaqing, and Huang Ju, who were each given a mere few hundred words. The announcement of his death was the third item on the evening Xinwen Lianbo program; the announcement was made in the form of a "joint statement" by the top organs of the party and state, which is generally reserved for only the highest-ranked leaders.

Flags were flown at half-mast in mourning of Qiao Shi's death. Qiao's send-off ceremony took place at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery on 19 June 2015. It was attended by President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and all the other sitting members of the Politburo Standing Committee except for Zhang Gaoli, who at the time was away on a visit to Europe. Former general secretary Hu Jintao also attended. Jiang Zemin did not attend the funeral proceedings, but state news agencies made special mention of Jiang expressing his condolences; Jiang and his family sent a wreath to the ceremony. Qiao died just one month before his predecessor, former Chairman Wan Li died on 15 July 2015. They had two other children, son Jiang Xiaodong and daughter Qiao Ling . Qiao's family is largely scandal free and has never been the target of overseas media speculation or criticism, unlike the families of other top Communist officials.

Honours In April 1996, Qiao Shi was awarded an honorary citizenship by the Cuban capital Havana, and an honorary doctorate in law by the University of Regina of Canada.