11 Facts About Wei Jianxing

Wei Jianxing was a senior leader in the Chinese Communist Party, most active during the 1980s and 1990s.

Wei Jianxing successively held a number of important offices, including member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Party Secretary of Beijing and the chairman of All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

Wei Jianxing moved to Shanghai and entered Guanghua University High School in 1947, where he became close to fellow Zhejiang native and Guanghua alumnus Qiao Shi, who was a leader of the student movement of the underground CCP.

Wei Jianxing was then sent to the Soviet Union to study industrial management until 1955.

Wei Jianxing was then transferred to work at the All-China Federation of Trade Unions where he served on the organization's Secretariat.

Wei Jianxing then rose to become head of the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party.

Wei Jianxing's work gained recognition from then party General Secretary Hu Yaobang.

In 1987 Hu was oustered in a power struggle by conservative forces within the party and Wei Jianxing, being branded a Hu loyalist, was transferred out of the organs of power to serve in a relatively unimportant position of Minister of Supervision.

In October 1992, at the 14th Party Congress, Wei Jianxing was named to the Politburo, in addition to becoming a Secretary of Central Secretariat, and the Secretary of Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

At the 15th Party Congress held in 1997, Wei Jianxing earned a seat on the elite seven-man Politburo Standing Committee and continued to serve as CCDI Secretary.

Wei Jianxing has attended some official functions sporadically since then.