Wang Pingyi

Wang Pingyi (; 1912 – June 18, 1970) was a Chinese politician who served as Communist Party Secretary of Hangzhou during the early years of the People's Republic of China. A veteran of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, he held numerous leading positions in Hangzhou after 1949, including vice mayor, Chinese Communist Party Deputy Committee Secretary, and Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary. During the Cultural Revolution, he was persecuted and died in custody in 1970. He was officially rehabilitated in 1978. His son, Wang Guoping, later also served as Communist Party secretary of Hangzhou.

Biography

Wang was born in Kaijiang County, Sichuan, in 1912. He enlisted in the revolutionary forces in December 1937 and joined the Chinese Communist Party in July 1938. During his early revolutionary career, he served as a squad leader in the National Liberation Vanguard Corps at the Shaanbei Public School and later became secretary of the United Front Work Committee under the CCP Jinshu Special Committee in Zhejiang.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Wang played an important role in developing underground Communist organizations in western Zhejiang. As a leading youth cadre of the CCP Jinqu Special Committee, he directed the activities of the National Liberation Vanguard Corps in Fuyang, organizing political education based on works such as On Protracted War and other Marxist publications while cultivating local Party activists. In 1940 and 1941, he repeatedly inspected Party organizations in Fuyang and neighboring counties and was entrusted with organizing Party work across Pujiang, Fuyang, Tonglu, and Jiande. He later served as commander and political commissar of the Eighth Battalion of the Jinxiao Detachment in eastern Zhejiang before transferring to the East China Field Army, where he held political and propaganda positions, including chief of the publicity section of the Political Department of the First Column and deputy editor of the Qianfeng Daily.

Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Wang was appointed deputy director of the Social Affairs Department of the Hangzhou Military Control Commission. He subsequently served as director of the Hangzhou Labor Bureau, secretary-general and later director of the Municipal Finance and Economic Commission, vice mayor of Hangzhou, deputy secretary of the CCP Hangzhou Municipal Committee, and eventually Party secretary of Hangzhou. He also served concurrently as First Political Commissar of the People's Liberation Army Hangzhou Military Subdistrict. During his tenure, he played a significant role in the industrialization of Hangzhou, urban development, and the expansion of the city's parks and green spaces. He was elected a delegate to the 8th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, a member of the Chinese Communist Party Zhejiang Provincial Committee, and chairman of the first three committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Hangzhou Municipal Committee.

During the Cultural Revolution, Wang became the target of political persecution by followers of Lin Biao and the Gang of Four. After being diagnosed with gastric cardia cancer, his medical treatment was deliberately delayed for nearly a year, and he continued to be subjected to political interrogation and mistreatment even after surgery. He died on June 18, 1970, at the age of 58. In April 1978, the CCP Hangzhou Municipal Committee, with the approval of the Chinese Communist Party Zhejiang Provincial Committee, formally rehabilitated him and overturned the charges brought against him during the Cultural Revolution.