10 Facts About Wei Heng

Wei Heng, known as Wei Laiyu, was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician from Shanxi province.

Wei Heng was the Communist Party First Secretary and top leader of Shanxi province until he was overthrown by the rebel Red Guards at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

Wei Heng was tortured and committed suicide in January 1967.

Wei Heng was born in 1915 to a poor peasant family in Shapochi village in Lingchuan County, Shanxi province.

Wei Heng's father Wang Changju was a manual labourer who struggled to make ends meet, and Wei Heng was adopted by a relative surnamed Wei in a neighbouring village.

Wei Heng served as a guerrilla fighter and later political operative in his native Shanxi.

Wei Heng joined the Chinese Communist Party in October 1938, and was selected as a delegate to the 7th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party held in Yan'an in 1945.

In Shanxi, Wei Heng was outmaneuvered by his deputy Liu Geping, a Muslim who had the personal support of Mao Zedong and especially Kang Sheng, as well as top leaders of the Shanxi Military District.

Wei Heng was the third provincial-level chief to choose suicide as an escape from torture, after Wan Xiaotang of Tianjin and Yan Hongyan of Yunnan.

In June 1985, the party "completely vindicated" Wei Heng and denounced his persecution.