35 Facts About Qiao Shi

Qiao Shi was a Chinese politician and one of the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.

Qiao Shi was a member of the party's top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, from 1987 to 1997.

Qiao Shi was a contender for the paramount leadership of China, but lost out to his political rival Jiang Zemin, who assumed the post of General Secretary of the party in 1989.

Qiao Shi instead served as Chairman of the National People's Congress, then the third-ranked political position, from 1993 until his retirement in 1998.

Qiao Shi was born Jiang Zhitong in December 1924 in Shanghai.

Qiao Shi's father was from Dinghai, Zhejiang province and worked as an accountant in Shanghai.

Qiao Shi's mother was a worker at Shanghai No 1 Textile Mill.

Qiao Shi studied literature at East China Associated University, but did not graduate.

Qiao Shi adopted the nom de guerre Jiang Qiaoshi after becoming involved with underground revolutionary activities when he was sixteen years old, as was common practice at the time for young aspiring Communists.

Qiao Shi eventually dropped the surname Jiang altogether and simply went by "Qiao Shi".

Qiao Shi joined the CCP in August 1940, and became involved with the anti-Kuomintang student movement in his youth.

In 1963, Qiao Shi was transferred to the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Qiao Shi was recognized as an expert in international studies, and travelled widely to other communist countries.

Qiao Shi underwent numerous struggle sessions, which caused him to be hospitalized for duodenal ulcer and blood loss.

Qiao Shi was able to return to the ILD in 1971, when Geng Biao became Director of the department.

Qiao Shi became an alternate member of the central Secretariat, the day-to-day executive arm of the party organization.

Qiao Shi was then selected to fill the void, partly due to his proximity to General Secretary Hu Yaobang and earning the approval of paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.

In that year, Qiao Shi was elected to the Politburo of the Communist Party, the second highest rung of power.

From 1987 to 1997, Qiao Shi was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's top decision-making body, overseeing the broad portfolios of internal security, intelligence, justice, and party discipline.

Qiao Shi was thought to have played a key role during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, but it is uncertain whether he supported or opposed the crackdown against the student protesters.

Qiao Shi was said to be tolerant of the student movement, and abstained from a May 1989 Politburo vote on whether to send the army to Tiananmen Square.

Qiao Shi managed to keep his leadership position when his Politburo colleagues Zhao Ziyang and Hu Qili, who opposed the crackdown, were purged.

Qiao Shi therefore appeared to be a 'default' choice based on his experience and seniority at the time.

Deng personally arranged a meeting with Qiao Shi to discuss the leadership question.

However, Qiao Shi eventually lost out to his rival, Shanghai Party Committee Secretary Jiang Zemin, who assumed the party's leading post in 1989 and the presidency in 1993.

Qiao Shi instead became Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in March 1993, officially ranked third in political positions in the People's Republic of China, after General Secretary and Premier.

Qiao Shi was a party veteran who had served the central organization for over a decade, while Jiang never had any experience in the centre.

Qiao Shi had a glowing resume with revolutionary credentials during his days as a student agitator in Shanghai; Jiang's revolutionary experience appeared unsubstantial by comparison.

Unlike his peers, most notably Jiang Zemin and Li Peng, Qiao Shi did not attend even the most important events on the Chinese political calendar after he retired, including the successive party congresses, National People's Congresses, the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, or various anniversaries of historical events.

That Qiao Shi, a normally low-profile figure content with retirement, would publish such a work in his old age led to speculation that the book was a veiled criticism against the perceived deterioration of the legal and security portfolio under security chief Zhou Yongkang.

In 2014, Qiao Shi donated 11 million yuan to the China Legal Exchange Foundation, whose goal was to promote justice and the rule of law.

Qiao Shi died on 14 June 2015 in Beijing at the age of 90.

Qiao Shi was the first major leader from the third-generation of leadership to have died.

Qiao Shi's obituary numbered over 2,000 Chinese characters, half of the length of the obituaries of second-generation stalwarts Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun, but far higher than the word count of the obituaries of Hua Guofeng, Liu Huaqing, and Huang Ju, who were each given a mere few hundred words.

Qiao Shi's family is largely scandal free and has never been the target of overseas media speculation or criticism, unlike the families of other top Communist officials.