Liu Shaoqi (redirected from Liu Shao Chi)

Liu Shaoqi or Liu Shao-ch'i (both: ly shou-chē), 1898?–1969, Chinese Communist political leader. Liu joined (1920) a Comintern organization in Shanghai, where he studied Russian. While in Moscow in 1921, he joined the Chinese Communist party. After he returned to China, his reputation as a labor organizer grew. He rose rapidly in the party hierarchy, was a member of the central committee in 1927, and in 1934 was promoted to the powerful politburo. Liu became the Communists' foremost expert on organization and party structure. In the 1950s and early 60s he played an important role in all aspects of public life, especially as chairman and head of state of the Chinese People's Republic (1959–68). Attacked during the early stages of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) as the "number one capitalist-roader," Liu was stripped of power in 1968. He was rehabilitated posthumously in 1980.

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Liu Shaoqi

 or Liu Shao-ch'i

(born Nov. 24, 1898, Ningxiang district, Hunan province, China—died Nov. 12, 1969, Kaifeng, Henan province) Chairman of the People's Republic of China (1959–68) and chief theoretician of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). An activist communist background from the 1920s helped Liu's rise within the CCP in the 1930s and '40s, while his excellent education and studies in the Soviet Union made him an effective spokesman for the new government in China. When Mao resigned as chairman after the failure of his Great Leap Forward, Liu assumed the title. His policies for revitalizing agriculture by permitting peasants to cultivate private plots and giving them monetary incentives were ones to which Mao later strongly objected. In 1968 Liu was purged from power for being a “capitalist roader,” and Lin Biao was appointed Mao's successor.