Wang Guangmei

Wang Guangmei (26 September 1921 – 13 October 2006) was a Chinese politician, philanthropist and the wife of Liu Shaoqi, who served as the President of the People's Republic of China from 1959 to 1968.

Early years
Wang Guangmei was born in 1921 in Beijing. She grew up in a distinguished and prominent Chinese family. Her father, Wang Zhichang (also known as Wang Huaiqing), was a government minister and a diplomat, having taught at Tianjin Women's Normal College after graduating from the Commerce Department at Waseda University in Japan. He later served in various government roles during the warlord period (1912–27), including head of the Bureau of Industry and Commerce in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, and as acting minister of Agriculture and Commerce during the warlord period. Sources vary on his positions, with some saying he was an officer in the Beijing Police, and others that he headed the Bureau of Mining in the Ministry of Agriculture and Mining. Wang's mother came from a wealthy Tianjin family and graduated from Tianjin Women's Normal College. Wang was one of ten siblings: her eldest brother died at an early age and two elder brothers lived overseas, while the remaining six siblings all joined the CCP and became prominent in various fields.

Wang studied French, Russian, and English, becoming fluent in all three. She attended Furen University in Beijing, studying optics and cosmic rays. Wang Guangmei was the first woman in China to earn a graduate degree in atomic physics. After completing her MA at Furen, she received offers for doctoral programs at Stanford and the University of Chicago.

First lady
Later in 1946, it was arranged for Wang to be transferred to Yan'an, where she initially worked as a translator in the Foreign Affairs Department of the CCP Central Committee and then in land reform in the Jin-Sui (Shanxi-Suiyuan) liberated areas. In the mid-1940s, Wang traveled to the Communist Party headquarters in Yan'an and served as an interpreter during efforts by the American statesman George Marshall to negotiate a truce between the Nationalist government and the Communist rebels. During this time, she gained the admiration of many Americans, which would later play a role in charges that she was an American spy.

In 1948, Wang moved with the Military Commission of the Central Committee to Xibaipo in Hebei Province and became an editor and translator on Neibu cankao, a digest of news stories from around the world intended for the eyes of designated personnel only. That same year, she joined the CCP and married fifty-year-old Liu Shaoqi, head of the Central Committee's Organization Department, chair of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, and in 1958 China's head of state.

Wang Guangmei became once widely known in China as its beautiful, articulate, sophisticated first lady. Wang joined the Communist Party and became Liu Shaoqi's personal secretary. After Liu became PRC president in 1959, Wang accompanied him on state visits to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, and Indonesia.

Their twenty-year marriage produced one son and three daughters; Liu Shaoqi already had five children from previous marriages. Wang was transferred to the General Office of the Central Committee and worked as her husband's private secretary for nearly twenty years, until she was imprisoned in 1967 at the start of the Cultural Revolution. Wang Guangmei was also elected to the Executive Committee of the All-China Women's Federation in 1957.

In 1963, she joined a work team investigating corruption in the countryside, a mounting problem after the Great Leap Forward, Mao's catastrophic development programme of 1958–61, which led to widespread famine. In 1963, she secretly visited Funing County and summarized the Taoyuan Experience(Peach Garden Experience). Along with Liu Shaoqi, Wang led the Socialist Education Movement beginning in 1963.

Cultural Revolution
Wang Guangmei had earlier played a significant role in the Socialist Education Movement with her "Peach Garden Experience." In 1963, she participated in a work team in Funing County, Hebei Province, aiming to implement the Four Cleans Campaign, an anti-corruption initiative.

Her detailed report on this experience, known as the "Peach Garden Experience," outlined the harsh methods used to mobilize the masses against local cadres and corruption. Wang's report was highly praised by Mao Zedong and became an official Party document, widely disseminated and used as a model for similar campaigns nationwide. The techniques she described involved intense “all-out mass mobilization” and public criticism sessions, which created a climate of fear and suspicion.

Ironically, the same revolutionary methods Wang promoted were turned against her during the Cultural Revolution. Her prominent role and the success of her report made her a target. In January 1965, Mao Zedong expressed dissatisfaction with the Four Cleans work teams. As the overseer of the campaign, Liu Shaoqi, and by extension his wife, faced the consequences of Mao's discontent.

Liu and his wife became targets of the Cultural Revolution, instigated by Chairman Mao. In mid-1966, when Red Guards erupted into prominence — and Liu and other leaders tried to fathom what Mao had in mind — Wang headed a work team to restore order among the students at Tsinghua University. The effort backfired when she came under attack by a militant opponent who accused her of being a counterrevolutionary. Her husband was also under fire by Mao and his deputies for being the leading "capitalist roader". Wang was accused of being a "spy for the imperialist services" (a reference to American intelligence) and, according to Jiang Qing, "Sukarno's whore" for wearing a pearl necklace and evening gown to meet the Indonesian president.

Wang Guangmei's public role had antagonized Mao's wife Jiang Qing, who was growing politically ambitious. In January 1967, she was lured to a hospital under false pretenses and captured by Red Guards who took her to Tsinghua University for interrogation. She initially managed to deflect their accusations, but by spring, she faced a more severe struggle session attended by half a million people. In April 1967, at Jiang's instigation, the Red Guards forced Wang to put on a tight-fitting qipao dress she had worn at a banquet in Indonesia, with silk stockings, high heels and a mocking necklace made out of ping-pong balls, as proof of her bourgeoise, counterrevolutionary attitude. A transcript of the trial, conducted between 6:30 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. on April 10, 1967, can be found here, demonstrating the pre-ordained finding of guilt by the examining Interrogator.

Wang was imprisoned in Qincheng Prison, enduring solitary confinement and harsh conditions for twelve years. During this time, she learned of her husband's death through a terse note from Mao in response to her children's inquiries. She was finally released in December 1978, two years after Mao's death. Wang then dedicated herself to rehabilitating Liu Shaoqi's reputation and engaging in philanthropy, founding Project Happiness to assist mothers living in poverty.

Wang Guangmei's experience reflects the brutal and chaotic nature of the Cultural Revolution, as well as the complex interplay of personal and political conflicts within the Chinese Communist Party. Her life exemplifies the contradictions and paradoxes of Chinese Communism, where revolutionary ideals often led to devastating personal consequences for those involved.

Later years
Soon, Liu's reputation was rehabilitated, and Wang received compensation for her suffering during the Cultural Revolution. In March 1979, Wang was elected as a member of the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In December of the same year, her personal freedom and status were restored. In 1979, she served as Director of the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In 1980, she appeared in court during the trial of the Gang of Four as a victim of Jiang Qing's persecution. Later, Wang was elected as a permanent member of the National People's Political Consultative Conference.

From 1984, she served as the chairwoman of the Beijing Alumni Association of Fu Jen Catholic University. In 1989, Wang Guangmei suffered from breast cancer and went through two major operations before and after. Later, due to tumor metastasis, she underwent major surgery again. In 1995, she founded the "Hope Project", a program which aided the poor in China. She donated her family's valuable antiques, a few dating back to the Qing and Song dynasties, to charity and donated the proceeds of 566,000 yuan to the "Hope Project". In October 1998, she won the honorary award of the third "China Population Award".

Around 2000, she underwent another operation, and her health gradually deteriorated. In 2005, she resigned from the post of planning director. Wang died on October 13, 2006, at the No. 305 Military Hospital in Beijing due to lung infection caused by heart failure. Her funeral was held at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery in Beijing on October 21, 2006.

Four days after her death, she was selected by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation as the winner of the 2nd China "Poverty Elimination Award" Achievement Award. On October 24, Fu Jen Catholic University in Taipei held a memorial service for her at the Yesheng Building on campus.

Family
Wang had four children: Liu Yuan, Liu Ting, Liu Pingping, Liu Xiaoxiao. Her son, retired general Liu Yuan, was a prominent officer in the People's Liberation Army. Her eldest daughter Liu Ting graduated from Boston University and Harvard Business School, and is chairman and president of the Asia Link Group, consultants in corporate finance.