Hu Qiaomu


Hu Qiaomu was a revolutionary, sociologist, Marxist philosopher and prominent politician of People's Republic of China. In the age of economic reform that followed the death of Mao Zedong, Hu was one of the reform's most prominent opponents.
He was the first president of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, member of Politburo of the Communist Party of China, permanent member of Central Advisory Commission, and the former president of Xinhua News Agency. He was an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Early career

Born in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province in 1912, Hu graduated from the Department of Foreign Literature, College of Arts and Sciences, National Chekiang University in 1935. Before this, he also studied history in Tsinghua University during 1930-1932.
He joined the Communist Youth League of China in 1930 and the Communist Party of China in 1932. In the early part of his career, he was, in chronological order, the party secretary in Xijiao District, Beiping City ; the head of the Propaganda Department in Xijiao District, Beiping City. He was a leader of anti-Japanese student and worker movement in Beiping. In 1936, he became the general secretary of Chinese Sociologist League, the general secretary of Chinese Leftism Cultural League, and a member of CPC Jiangsu Province Temporary Committee of Labours.
From February 1941 to June 1966, he was Mao Zedong's main secretary. In the beginning, his secretarial work was mainly focused on culture, but later shifted to politics. His secretarial career was ended by the Cultural Revolution.
From October 1, 1949 to October 19, 1949, he was the president of Xinhua News Agency. He also was the head of the News Office, People's Republic of China; the vice president of Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee; the general secretary of the Central Government Culture and Education
Committee; the vice general secretary of the Central Government. In 1954, he also participated in making the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. In 1956, Hu was elected to be a member of the Eighth Politburo of the Communist Party of China, and the alternative secretary of Secretariat of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. In 1977, he became the first president of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, later on, advisor and the honorary president.
In 1951 Hu wrote "Thirty Years of the Chinese Communist Party," which the party declared at the time to be the most important text on its history.