Liu Ying

Liu Ying, born in 1905, was a leading cadre who held multiple positions in the early Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and after its founding. In 1925 she joined the Communist Youth League of China and the same year transferred to the CPC. She served successively as secretary of the Party branch at Changsha Normal School and as head of the Women’s Department of the Hunan Provincial Committee. After 1929 she studied at the Moscow Chinese Labour University and at the International Radio School, returning to China in 1932. After returning, she was the secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League, and served as head of the Propaganda and Organization Departments of the CYL Central Bureau. In 1934 she participated in the Long March, serving as Director of the Political Department of the Third Column and Secretary-General of the Central Column. After reaching northern Shaanxi, she served as Minister of the Propaganda Department of the CYL Central Bureau, Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, and as a Standing Committee member and head of the Organization Department of the CPC Hejiang Provincial Committee and of the Liaodong Provincial Committee.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, from January 1950 to November 1954 she served as Counselor at the Chinese Embassy in the Soviet Union; from 1954 to 1959 she was Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, a CPC Committee member of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Assistant Minister and Director of the Personnel Department, and Secretary of the Ministry’s Supervisory Commission, and she also served as Vice-Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. In 1959, during the Anti-Rightist Campaign, Liu Ying was removed from her posts due to her husband Zhang Wentian’s involvement. During the Cultural Revolution she was persecuted and, together with Zhang Wentian, placed under guardianship for about ten years. After 1978, she was elected to the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference as a member and as a Standing Committee member, and she served as a member of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, engaging in disciplinary work, correcting wrongful cases, and participating in rehabilitation of cases. In 1983 and 1985 she resigned from the National Committee of the CPPCC and from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection; she continued to serve as Vice-Chairman of the China–Russia Friendship Association and as an adviser to the National Working Committee for the Care of the Next Generation, among other roles. In 1989 she received the National “Elite Award for the Elderly” and in 1991 she was awarded the title of “Advanced Individual in Caring for the Next Generation,” and she retired in 1991. In 1994, during the 60th anniversary of the Red Army’s Long March, she served as Deputy Director of the organizing committee for The Long March — Century Monument and donated more than 40,000 yuan to public welfare. She was a representative of the 7th, 8th, 14th and 15th National Congresses (and an invited representative), a member of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection at the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, and had previously served as a deputy to the 2nd National People’s Congress and as a Standing Committee member of the 5th CPPCC. She died in Beijing on August 26, 2002, at the age of 97.