27 Facts About Liu Geping

Liu Geping was a Chinese communist revolutionary and politician of Hui Muslim heritage.

Liu Geping is best known as the founding Chairman of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and later for seizing power in Shanxi during the Cultural Revolution, where he made himself the top leader of the province.

Liu Geping later returned to work, only to be purged again several years later during the Cultural Revolution.

Liu Geping was rehabilitated after the Cultural Revolution and spent the rest of his life in ceremonial positions.

Liu Geping was born on 8 August 1904 into a large landowning family of Muslim Hui ethnicity in Dadi East Village, Mengcun County, Hebei.

Liu Geping used the names Liu Zimin and Liu Xiangnong.

Liu Geping joined the Chinese Socialist Youth League in 1922, and returned home to spread revolutionary values.

In July 1926, Liu Geping joined the Chinese Communist Party and then spearheaded a series of educational initiatives aimed at increasing the influence of the party in the Tianjin-Hebei region.

Liu Geping was arrested that year for his agitation and spent the next three years in prison.

Liu Geping was again arrested on April20,1934, after organizing the Majia River uprising in Qingyun.

Liu Geping was held in Caolanzi Prison in Beijing, along with 61 other Communist Party leaders including Bo Yibo, An Ziwen, and Liu Lantao.

Liu Geping then went to Shandong to found an organization for ethnic Hui to aid soldiers on the front lines of the Chinese Civil War.

In September 1949, Liu Geping was selected as an ethnic minority representative to attend the first meeting of the Communist-led Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference; he was ranked first among minority delegates.

Liu Geping joined the government and became deputy director of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.

Liu Geping was a delegate to the 1st National People's Congress in 1954.

In 1956, Liu Geping was elected a member of the 8th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

In 1958, Liu Geping began heading up the party organization of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on an interim basis.

Liu Geping became the first chairman of the autonomous region government in October 1958.

In December 1965, Liu Geping regained favour and was named Vice-Governor of Shanxi.

At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, having gained the support of leftist radicals in Beijing, Liu Geping successfully overthrew his superior Wei Heng and became Chairman of the Shanxi Revolutionary Committee, the de facto top leader.

In contrast, Liu Geping was heralded as a hero for his refusal to sign the denunciation.

Liu Geping was invited to make speeches all over the country and was re-elected to the 9th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in April 1969.

However, Liu Geping had become involved in major disputes with the military leaders in Shanxi and was engaged in factional violence in the province.

Liu Geping was dismissed from office in July 1969, just three months after his re-election to the Central Committee.

Liu Geping was allowed to return to Beijing in 1975.

Liu Geping was given full funeral rites at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery.

Liu Geping's body was taken back to his native village and buried according to Muslim Hui rituals.