1. Fang Yi was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, diplomat, and high-ranking politician.
24 Facts About Fang Yi
1. 2.
Fang Yi was a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.
3.
On 26 February 1916, Fang Yi was born in Xiamen, Fujian Province to a poor family.
4.
Fang Yi had an older brother, and his mother died 26 days after Fang Yi was born.
5.
Fang Yi's father remarried, and had another son and daughter.
6.
When Fang Yi was eight his father died, and the family fell into abject poverty.
7.
Fang Yi later went to Shanghai and worked at the Commercial Press, a leading publishing house.
8.
Fang Yi was released from a Suzhou prison in 1937, after the Xi'an Incident and the Japanese invasion of China.
9.
Fang Yi went on to serve as a political commissar in northern China during the Anti-Japanese War, and in the ensuing Chinese Civil War, he was Secretary General of the North China People's Government, the semi-autonomous Communist government in northern China.
10.
Fang Yi served as vice governor in the Communist government of Shandong Province.
11.
Fang Yi was then appointed Vice Minister of Finance in September 1953, but only served for a year before being posted, together with his wife Yin Sen, to the Chinese embassy to North Vietnam in 1954.
12.
In 1961, Fang Yi returned to Beijing and oversaw China's foreign aid program in the Office for Economic Relations with Foreign Countries until 1976.
13.
Fang Yi survived the Cultural Revolution and became an alternate member of the 9th CCP Central Committee in 1969.
14.
Fang Yi led the team implementing it, instructing schools, factories, and communes to organize youth-focused events celebrating science and technology.
15.
When Deng rose to power, Fang Yi was made one of China's vice-premiers in March 1978, and was elected as a member of the 11th CCP Politburo.
16.
Fang Yi served as President of the CAS from 1979 to 1981.
17.
Under Deng's leadership, China established economic contacts with the Western world, and Fang Yi led Chinese delegations to Japan and West Germany.
18.
Fang Yi accompanied Deng on the latter's historic visit to the United States in January 1979.
19.
Fang Yi headed a separate delegation to American technological centers, such as the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Texas Medical Center, and a Lockheed plant near Los Angeles, with the aim of advancing China's industry.
20.
In May 1982, Fang Yi became a state councilor, serving until 1988.
21.
Fang Yi was a member of the Presidium of the 12th Congress of the CCP.
22.
Fang Yi was honorary chairman of the Chinese Weiqi Association from 1977 until his death.
23.
On 17 October 1997, Fang Yi died in Beijing at the age of 81.
24.
Fang Yi married his wife Yin Sen in 1940, when he was fighting in Anhui Province during the Sino-Japanese War.