Qiu Yihan

Qiu Yihan (; December 27, 1907 – November 2, 1956), born Qiu Xinzhen and also known as Li Yanwen, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, political commissar, and politician. She was one of the approximately thirty female soldiers of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army who participated in the Long March. Qiu took part in major campaigns of the Chinese Civil War, including the battles for Changsha and the Yangtze River Crossing Campaign, and later held senior political positions in eastern China after the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

Biography

Qiu was born on December 27, 1907, in Dingjiayuan Village, Ludong Township, Pingjiang County, Hunan. She became involved in revolutionary activities in 1924 and joined the Communist Youth League of China in 1926, serving as an instructor for local children's organizations in Pingjiang. In 1930, she joined the Chinese Communist Party.

During the Chinese Civil War, Qiu served in a variety of political and organizational posts within the Red Army and Communist Party organizations. She worked as a youth affairs officer in the political department of the Red 3rd Corps, head of the organization department of a Communist Youth League district committee, secretary of a district Communist Party committee, secretary of the Wanzai County Communist Party committee, and head of the women's department of the Hunan–Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. She also served as secretary of the Communist Youth League branch at the Red Army University and as a political instructor.

Qiu participated in the First Battle of Changsha and assisted her husband Yuan Guoping in founding the Red Army Daily, regarded as the first printed newspaper of the Chinese people's armed forces. During campaigns against the Kuomintang encirclement operations in the Jiangxi Soviet, she suffered a serious injury to her right arm that left her permanently disabled. In 1932, she became an inspector in the General Health Department of the Red Army.

In October 1934, Qiu joined the Long March. During the march, she served as an instructor at the Red Army Medical School and as secretary of the Communist Party general branch of the health department of the Red 3rd Corps. She was among the small group of female Red Army soldiers who completed the Long March with the Central Red Army. After arriving in northern Shaanxi, she became an instructor and senior instructor at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University and later head of the women's department of the Longdong Special Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Qiu accompanied Yuan Guoping to the New Fourth Army, where she held a number of political positions, including chief of the propaganda section and organization section of the political department of the New Fourth Army Training Corps, as well as chief of the organization section of the rear political department of the New Fourth Army. Beginning in 1942, she successively served as deputy director and director of the political department of the Fourth Branch of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, director of the political department of Huazhong Xuefeng University, and director of the political department of the East China Military and Political University.

During the later stages of the Chinese Civil War, Qiu served as chief of the organization section of the rear political department of the East China Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party, chief of the cadre section of the organization department of the East China Bureau, and director of the political department of the East China Military and Political University. She also participated in the Yangtze River Crossing Campaign.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Qiu held several important political positions in Nanjing, including member of the Standing Committee of the Nanjing Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, secretary of the district party committee, head of the organization department, and director of the municipal personnel bureau. She later became a member of the Central Women's Committee, director of the East China Women's Federation, secretary of the Shanghai Women's Committee, member of the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, and secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Supervisory Commission.

Qiu was a standing committee member of the 1st Jiangsu Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a delegate to the 1st National People's Congress, and a delegate to the 8th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Qiu died in Nanjing on November 2, 1956, at the age of 48.