Dong Biwu, CPC member who took part in Revolution of 1911

CPC Encyclopedia | Updated: 2011-10-09 14:21

Dong Biwu (March 5, 1886 - April 2, 1975), born in Huang'an (now Hong'an), Hubei, is one of the founders of the Communist Party of China and is a great Marxist, proletarian revolutionary and statesman. He is one of the principal leaders of the Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China. He laid the foundation for China's socialist legal system.

He took part in the Revolution of 1911 and joined the Tong Meng Hui (Chinese Revolutionary League) later that year. He was enrolled in a university in Tokyo, Japan in 1914 to study law. It was there that he joined the Revolutionary Party of China founded by Sun Yat-sen.

In June 1915, Dong returned to China and was arrested twice for engaging in the Second Revolution against Yuan Shikai. After being released from prison in 1916, he went to Japan again and returned in 1918 to take part in the Third Revolution against the Beiyang Government.

In 1919, he took part in the May Fourth Movement in Shanghai. He later founded the Wuhan Middle School and taught Chinese language there.

Dong established a communist group in Wuhan, Hubei in the fall of 1920. On behalf of the Wuhan group, he attended the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China in July 1921.

He went to Moscow in 1928 to study at Sun Yat-sen University and the Lenin Institute and returned in 1932. He joined the Long March in October 1934.

After the founding of the new China, Dong served as President of the Supreme Court of China, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Vice President and Acting President of China. In 1975, he was elected Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's National Congress.

Dong was a member of Politburo of the Communist Party of China from 1945 to 1975. He was elected one of nine members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo at the 10th Congress of the Communist Party in 1973.

He died on April 2, 1975, just a year before Mao and several other important politicians like Zhou Enlai and Zhu De.