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Zhang Wentian

(1900.8.30-1976.7.1) Vice Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, People's Republic ofChina(1954.12-1960.11)

From 1920 to 1924, he stayed first inJapanand then in theUSfor study. In 1925, he went toSunYat-senUniversityand Red Professor Institute to study and work. In 1931, he returned home to serve as Publicity Minister of the Central Committee of the CPC and Member of the Standing Committee of the Interim Political Bureau of CPC. In 1934, he was elected Member of the Political Bureau of CPC, Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of CPC, Chairman of the People's Commission of theChineseSovietRepublic. After Zunyi Meeting in 1935, taking general charge of the Central Committee as a key leader of CPC for a long period of time, he made historical contribution to the realization of the Party's strategic shift from civil war to the united front to resist against Japanese aggression and the formation of the first generation of collective leadership of the Party. In 1938, he concurrently took the President office of theInstituteofMarxismand Leninism. In 1945, he was elected member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of CCCPC. After the victory of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, he was appointed Secretary of Hejiang Provincial Committee of CPC, Director General of the Organization Department of the North East China Bureau, Deputy Chief of North East China Financial and Economic Commission, and Secretary of Liaoning Provincial Committee of CPC. In January 1950, he was appointed Chief Representative ofChinato the UN (He didn't go to the post, though). In April 1951, he was designated Ambassador to theSoviet Union. In January 1955, he returned home to serve as Executive Vice-Foreign Minister. During his ten years of diplomatic career, he participated in a series of important diplomatic activities, for instance, the important negotiations and economic cooperation betweenChinaand theSoviet Union, Geneva Conference in 1954, and the negotiations as to the withdrawal of Chinese People's Volunteers fromKoreain his visit to the country following Zhou Enlai in 1958, etc. He paid attention to international studies and actively put forward situational analyses and policy proposals to the Central Committee of the Party. For instance, in 1951, his report on the negotiations on armistice and peace inKoreawas highly thought of by the Central Committee. He contributed a lot of important proposals. Among others, he insisted that we should adhere to peaceful coexistence diplomatic policies, and concentrate on domestic construction; that the main stream after the World War II was peace with partial wars to persist, but the possibility to avoid a world war was increasing; that to nationalistic countries, which were endowed with great vitality, we should neither export revolution nor carry out foreign aids irrespective of our own capacity; that our embassies in other countries could only take the governments of countries of residence as major objects so as to enhance national relations; and that we should stick to the principle of diligence and thrift in the development of diplomacy. These ideas played proactive roles in the formation of foreign policies and the development of foreign relations. He made three inspections over ten odd Chinese embassies inEuropeandAsiaand summoned a regional meeting of diplomats in Czech in 1958, at which the main tasks and guiding principles of diplomacy were established for embassies in other countries. During his tenure of executive vice-foreign minister, he established the regular meeting to guide the publicity of international issues and the research institution in the area of diplomacy, and stipulated and improved various internal rules and regulations, laying a sound basis for diplomacy. He advocated international studies across the country and founded the first institute for international studies and publishing house for the New China, a pioneering initiative. In 1956, he was elected alternate member of the Political Bureau of CCCPC. Afflicted with wrong criticism and punishment at Lushan Meeting in 1959, he was forced away from the front of diplomacy and became special research fellow of the Economic Institute. During the period of "Cultural Revolution" he was subject to cruel persecution. 1976 found him deceased in Wuxi,where he was exiled. In August 1978, he was thoroughly rehabilitated by the Central Committee of CPC. His major works were collected in "Selected Works of Zhang Wentian," and "Works of Zhang Wentian."

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