Qiao Shi (24 December 1924 – 14 June 2015) was a Chinese politician and a senior leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He served as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the party's top decision-making body, from 1987 to 1997, and as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's parliamentary body, from 1993 to 1998.
Early Life and Education
Qiao Shi was born Jiang Zhitong (蒋志彤) in Shanghai, Republic of China, on 24 December 1924. His father, from Dinghai, Zhejiang province, worked as an accountant, and 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 in underground revolutionary activities at age sixteen, later dropping the surname Jiang and using the name Qiao Shi. He joined the CCP in August 1940 and participated in the anti-Kuomintang student movement.
Political Career
Mao Era (1949–1976)
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Qiao Shi served as a leader of the Communist Youth League in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, until 1954. From 1954 to 1962, he worked at the Anshan Iron and Steel Company in Liaoning and later at the Jiuquan Iron and Steel Company in Gansu. In 1963, he was transferred to the International Liaison Department (ILD) of the CCP Central Committee. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), he was persecuted because his wife, Yu Wen, was a niece of Chen Bulei, a key advisor to Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek. He was sent to rural labor camps in Heilongjiang and Henan before returning to the ILD in 1971.
Rise to Power (1977–1987)
After the Cultural Revolution, Qiao Shi became deputy director of the ILD in 1978 and its director in 1982. He also served as an alternate member of the Central Secretariat, director of the CCP General Office, and head of the Organization Department. In 1985, following the defection of spy chief Yu Qiangsheng, Qiao Shi was appointed Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. He was elected to the Politburo in 1985 and became a Vice Premier of the State Council in 1986.
Politburo Standing Committee (1987–1997)
Qiao Shi became a member of the Politburo Standing Committee in 1987 and concurrently served as Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (1987–1992), overseeing internal security, intelligence, justice, and party discipline.
During the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Qiao Shi was reported to have held an ambivalent position. According to some accounts, including the autobiography of General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, he abstained from a May 1989 Politburo vote on sending the army to Tiananmen Square. He retained his leadership position after Zhao Ziyang and Hu Qili were purged.
Following the protests, Qiao Shi was considered a candidate for the party's top leadership. However, paramount leader Deng Xiaoping ultimately selected Jiang Zemin as General Secretary. Qiao Shi instead became Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee in March 1993, a position ranked third in the state hierarchy. In this role, he sought to strengthen China's legal system and promote the rule of law.
Retirement (1998–2015)
After Deng Xiaoping's death in 1997, Jiang Zemin consolidated power by lowering the retirement age for party officials. Qiao Shi, then 73, was excluded from the Central Committee and Politburo at the 15th National Congress and retired from politics in 1998. He largely stayed out of public view thereafter. In 2012, he published Qiao Shi On Democracy and Rule of Law, which drew attention for its emphasis on legal institutions.
Death
Qiao Shi died in Beijing on 14 June 2015 at age 90. His obituary described him 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." Flags were flown at half-mast, and his funeral at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery was attended by President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and other senior leaders.
Family
Qiao Shi married Yu Wen (1926–2013) in 1952. They had two sons and two daughters. Their eldest son, Jiang Xiaoming, earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Cambridge. Their younger daughter, Qiao Xiaoxi, studied medicine at Baylor University and worked in the United States.
Legacy
Qiao Shi was noted for holding a broader range of key offices—spanning party administration, organization, discipline, intelligence, security, legislation, and justice—than any of his contemporaries. Compared with peers such as Jiang Zemin, he was regarded as adopting a more liberal stance on political and economic policy, promoting the rule of law and market-oriented reform of state-owned enterprises.
