Bo Yibo (1908-2007)

Bo Yibo, Chinese: 薄一波; pinyin: Bó Yībō (February 17, 1908 - January 15, 2007) was a Chinese politician and one of the Eight Immortals of the Communist Party of China. Image File history File links Bo190. ... Image File history File links Bo190. ... It has been suggested that Pinyin method be merged into this article or section. ... February 17 is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... January 15 is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The term Eight Elders has two related but distinct meanings in Chinese and English. ...

He was alternate member and then member of the Politburo, deputy prime minister, chairman of State Economic Commission and vice-chairman of Central Advisory Commission of the Communist Party of China. The Politburo of the Communist Party of China ( Chinese: 中国共产党中央政治局 pinyin: Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Zhèngzhìjú) is a group of 19 to 25 people who oversee the Communist Party... The Communist Party of China (CPC) (official name, though almost universally known in English as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)) (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhōngguó GòngchÇŽndÇŽng) is the ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China, a position guaranteed by the countrys...

Joining the Communist Party of China when he was seventeen, Bo was one of the revolutionary veterans who were purged by the Mao Zedong-backed Gang of Four, and who returned to power after Mao's death. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... This does not cite its references or sources. ...

Bo was one of a select group of powerful veterans centred around late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping who were informally known as the Eight Immortals for the vast influence they commanded until gradually succumbing to old age and death mostly in the 1990s. Deng Xiaoping   (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Teng Hsiao-ping; August 22, 1904–February 19, 1997) was a leader in the Communist Party of China (CCP). ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ...

By some reckonings Bo was the last immortal to – in Deng’s phrase – “go to meet Marx”, but he is survived by 90-year-old Wan Li, another former vice-premier widely considered to have been one of the eight. Wan Li (Traditional Chinese: 萬里; Simplified Chinese: 万里) (born 1916, died 1996) was the Chairman of the National Peoples Congress before his retirement in 1993, and was generally considered to be a moderate. ...

Incidentally, the term "Eight Immortals" comes from Chinese myth and legend. They are worshiped by Daoists, but are also a popular element in secular Chinese culture. It is equivalent to saying Three Musketeers or Robin Hood in relation to events in modern Western politics. Taoism (pronounced and often written as Daoism (dow-ism)) is the English name for a religious and philosophical tradition in China. ... The Three Musketeers (Les Trois Mousquetaires) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. ... Robin Hood memorial statue in Nottingham. ...

Career

During the Second World War, Bo set up the 'Shanxi Suicide Squad for the Liberation of China', which was widely acclaimed not only as one of the most courageous sections of the Chinese Red Army against the Japanese invaders, but it also became the mainstream force in the struggle to overthrow the KMT regime. Bo was responsible for incorporating the warlord Yen Hsi-shan into the Red Army, who provided more than 200,000 troops. In return, communists in Shanxi under Bo's leadership helped Yen to implement many reforms that greatly increased the popular support for Yan's regime. Combatants Allied Powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Axis Powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33... Shanxi (Chinese: 山西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Shan-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Shansi) is a province in the northern part of the Peoples Republic of China. ... The Chinese Nationalist Party (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Tongyong Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo Kuo-min-tang), commonly known as the Kuomintang (KMT), is a centre-right political party in the Republic of China on Taiwan, and is currently the largest political party in terms of sitting Legislative... Yen Hsi-shan Yen Hsi-shan, Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Yen Hsi-shan (8 October 1883–22 July 1960) was a Chinese warlord who served in the government of the Republic of China. ... The Workers and Peasants Red Army (Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия, Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya; RKKA or usually simply the Red Army) were the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and that in 1922 became the army of the Soviet Union. ... Shanxi (Chinese: 山西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Shan-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Shansi) is a province in the northern part of the Peoples Republic of China. ...

During the civil war, Bo worked with Liu Shaoqi – later persecuted and killed during the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution (GPCR) – in underground “white” Nationalist-controlled areas. At the end of the war, he was named first secretary of the CCP Central Committee’s North China Bureau (1949-1954). This is a Chinese name; the family name is 劉 (Liu) Liu Shaoqi (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Liú Shàoqí; Wade-Giles: Liu Shao-chi) (November 24, 1898 – November 12, 1969) was a Chinese Communist leader. ...

In the first years after 1949, Bo was Minister of Finance, a position he lost in December 1953 to his political ally of the time, Deng Xiaoping. His ouster was as much the result of a factional dispute with Gao Gang and Rao Shushi as it was about fiscal policies deemed insufficiently pro-state. The finance minister is a cabinet position in a government. ... Gao Gang Gao Gang (Wades-Giles: Kao Kang) (1905-1954) was a Chinese Communist political figure. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Later in the 1950s, he was among the veteran planners resistant to Mao Zedong’s economic policies. Others in opposition to the Great Leap Forward and similar extreme economic measures included Chen Yun, Li Xiannian, Li Fuchun and Yao Yilin. Bo served as Vice Chair (1952-56) and later Chair (1956-59) of the State Planning Commission, a position in which he took a leading position in repairing the damage of Maoist economic policies pursued during the Great Leap Forward. // Recovering from World War II and its aftermath, the economic miracle emerged in West Germany and Italy. ... The Great Leap Forward (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ) of the Peoples Republic of China was an economic and social plan used from 1958 to early 1962 which aimed to use Chinas vast population to rapidly transform mainland China from a primarily agrarian economy dominated by peasant farmers... Chen Yun (Simplified Chinese: 陈云; Traditional Chinese: 陳雲; Hanyu Pinyin: ) (June 13, 1905 – April 10, 1995) was one of the most influential leaders of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Lǐ Xiānniàn (1902–June 21, 1992) was President of the Peoples Republic of China between 1983 and 1988 and then president of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference until his death. ...

Bo Yibo was a member of the CCP Politburo from the 8th National Party Congress in 1956 to the beginning of the GPCR, and again in the early Deng Xiaoping era, from 1979 until the 12th National Party Congress in 1982, when most of the elders retired.

During the Cultural Revolution, Bo was imprisoned as a political prisoner by Jiang Qing, Chairman Mao's wife, for his pro-democratic activities and for advocating freedom of trade with western countries. He was held in a prison with some of the worst conditions available for fifteen years, during which time his wife was beaten to death. His sons and daughters were either imprisoned (e.g. Bo Xiyong, Bo Xilai and Bo Xicheng, at the ages of sixteen, seventeen and seventeen again respectively) or sent to some of the poorest places in China (e.g. Bo Xining, at the age of fourteen). During the Cultural Revolution, Bo was struggled in public for 136 times, and interrogated for 206 time. The most common way of torture by Red Guards was to struggle and interrogate him in the early morning and to wake him up at dawn, and the way to wake him up was to grab his limbs while he was asleep, and then throw Bo directly into cold waters from his bed in order to let him have a clear mind to accept the people's re-education. Bo Yibo, however, did not crack under such pressure and in his 7 ft by 7 ft jail cell, he developed his own excerise to strengthen his body and mind to stay healthy, and called his own excersie the 7-step drill. This experience resulted in a mixed attitude toward the reform later on, while strongly supported the economic reform, Bo was reluctant to support the political reform. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; literally Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution; often abbreviated to 文化大革命 wénhuà dà gémìng, literally Great Cultural Revolution, or even simpler, to 文革 wéngé, Cultural Revolution) in the Peoples Republic of China was a struggle for power within the... Jiang Qing, commonly referred to as Madame Mao, (Chinese: ; pinyin: Jiāng Qīng; Wade-Giles: Chiang Ching) (March 1914 ~ May 14, 1991), and used the stage name Lan Ping (蓝苹/Blue Apple), among other names, was the fourth wife of Chairman Mao Zedong of the Peoples Republic of... The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; literally Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution; often abbreviated to 文化大革命 wénhuà dà gémìng, literally Great Cultural Revolution, or even simpler, to 文革 wéngé, Cultural Revolution) in the Peoples Republic of China was a struggle for power within the... Red Guards refer to socialist or communist militia formed to instigate, support, or defend communist revolutions. ...

Bo important contribution toward the Chinese economic reform was mainly in the early 1980's when the reform was at its difficult time in its infancy. During the debate on whether free market economy should be allowed or not, Bo was firmly on the reformers' side. Once the free market economy was allowed, the hardline conservatives attempted to restrict it by limiting the maximum number of employees each private enterprise could have: no more than 8 according to the orthordox Marxism, because anymore would be exploitation. Bo Yinbo's support of private enterprises in free market economy was instrumental in helping to defeat the hardline conservatives' attempt to thwart the market reform. Bo's further support of economic reform came from one of his trips to Boeing facilities in the United States in the 1980's. During his visit, Bo discovered that there were only two airplanes parked at the facility so he asked Boeing executives that if those two were gone, then there would be nothing left. Boeing executives answered that it was exactly what they wanted because they production is based on customers' order and anything more than necessary would be a waste of money and other resources, just like when they could not fill customers' orders according to the schedule. After this visit to Boeing, Bo became much more critical to the Chinese practice of planned economy, accurately pointing out that the excess production plans were in fact a waste on resources, and even for the planned economy, it should be planned market economy instead of the rigid Soviet style planning. Economic reforms have triggered internal migrations within China. ... Marxism refers to the philosophy and social theory based on Karl Marxs work on one hand, and to the political practice based on Marxist theory on the other hand (namely, parts of the First International during Marxs time, communist parties and later states). ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661 ) is an aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661 ) is an aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661 ) is an aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661 ) is an aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ...

Despite his support of economic reform, Bo was by no means a reformer like Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang, Wan Li and Hu Qili in the political reform arena: after the 1982 12th National Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Bo was kicked upstairs to the vice chairmanship (equal to politburo rank) of the toothless CCP Central Advisory Committee, but remained instrumental in removing CCP Secretary General Hu Yaobang from power. He returned to a leadership position when he urged a crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and actively supported the removal of Zhao Ziyang. Bo died of old age at almost 99 in a Beijing hospital in mid January 2007. Hu Yaobang (Chinese: 胡耀邦 Pinyin: Hú Yàobāng, Wade-Giles: Hu Yao-pang) (November 20, 1915 – April 15, 1989) was a leader of the Peoples Republic of China. ... This is a Chinese name; the family name is Zhao Zhao Ziyang (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhào Zǐyáng; Wade-Giles: Chao Tzu-yang) (October 17, 1919–January 17, 2005) was a politician in the Peoples Republic of China. ... Wan Li (Traditional Chinese: 萬里; Simplified Chinese: 万里) (born 1916, died 1996) was the Chairman of the National Peoples Congress before his retirement in 1993, and was generally considered to be a moderate. ... Hu Qili (Simplified Chinese: 胡启立; Pinyin: ) was born in Shaanxi Province, China, in October of 1929. ... Hu Yaobang (Chinese: 胡耀邦 Pinyin: Hú Yàobāng, Wade-Giles: Hu Yao-pang) (November 20, 1915 – April 15, 1989) was a leader of the Peoples Republic of China. ... The Unknown Rebel - This famous photo was taken on 5 June 1989 by photographer Jeff Widener, depicts a lone protester whose tried to stop four advancing tanks until he was pulled into the crowd by a few other onlookers. ... This is a Chinese name; the family name is Zhao Zhao Ziyang (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhào Zǐyáng; Wade-Giles: Chao Tzu-yang) (October 17, 1919–January 17, 2005) was a politician in the Peoples Republic of China. ... Beijing [English Pronunciation] (Chinese: 北京 [Chinese Pronunciation]; Pinyin: Běijīng; IPA: ), a metropolis in northern China, is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ...

Family

His son Bo Xilai is called one of the "Crown Prince Party" and is currently serving as the Chinese Minister of Commerce, while the rest of his children obtained foreign residency, such as his daughter obtaining the American citizenship and resides in the United States. Bo Xilai (薄熙来; pinyin: Bó Xīlái) (born July 1949) is the current Minister of Commerce of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Crown Prince Party (太子党 Pinyin: Tàizǐ Dǎng), or The Princelings, are the descendants (usually in the second-generation) of prominent and influential senior communists of the Peoples Republic of China. ... The Ministry of Commerce of the Peoples Republic of China (MOFCOM) is one of the ministries of the State Council of China. ...

Bo Yibo's grandson studies at Harrow School in the UK. Harrow School, normally just known as Harrow, is one of the worlds most famous schools. ...

External links

• Report of death
• Bo Yibo, Chinese revolutionary, dies at 98 - Financial Times obituary
• Bo Yibo, leader who helped reshape Chinese economy, dies at 98 - New York Times obituary
• Obituary in The Guardian