1. Chen Muhua was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician who served as Vice Premier, State Councilor, Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade, Commissioner of the National Family Planning Commission, Governor of the People's Bank of China, and Chairwoman of the All-China Women's Federation.
Chen Muhua was an alternate member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, one of the few women to have entered China's top decision-making body.
Chen Muhua was born in 1921 in Qingtian County, Zhejiang Province, during the Republic of China period.
Chen Muhua's uncle was a Kuomintang air force official who helped her complete high school education, but she was sympathetic to the Communist cause and went to Yan'an, the wartime base of the Communists, in 1938, after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Chen Muhua told her mother that she would return in six months, but was unable to go home until the end of the war in 1945, when her mother had already died.
Chen Muhua's teachers included Zhu De, Chen Yun, and Otto Braun.
Chen Muhua was forced to give away her daughter when she was born in 1943.
Chen Muhua's brother was persecuted to death in Heilongjiang Province.
Chen Muhua was politically rehabilitated and appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade in 1970, reporting directly to Premier Zhou Enlai.
In 1978, Chen Muhua became a vice premier, the highest non-honorary government position achieved by a woman at the time.
Chen Muhua served as Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade, and implemented policies that encouraged export, which grew to over US$30 billion.
Chen Muhua served as a board member of the ADB, as well as the African Development Bank.
Chen Muhua was an alternate member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, one of the few women to have entered China's top decision-making body.
Chen Muhua successfully argued for quotas to increased women representation in Chinese political bodies.
In 1940, Chen Muhua married Zhong Yi, a graduate of Harbin Institute of Technology, in Yan'an.
Chen Muhua was forced to give away her newborn second daughter in 1943, when she was under investigation during the Rectification Movement.
On 12 May 2011, Chen Muhua died of an illness in Beijing, aged 90.