Liu Zijiu

Liu was born in Liuji village, Guangrao County, Shandong Province, in 1901. He studied at local private schools and later at Shandong Provincial No.10 Middle School in Qingzhou. In October 1923, he joined the Socialist Youth League of China, and in the winter of 1924, under the introduction of Wang Jinmei and Wang Xiangqian, he joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During his student years, Liu read progressive literature such as The Communist Manifesto and organized the Socialist Research Society and the People's Society.^[2]

After joining the revolution, Liu was active in the labor and peasant movements in Jinan, Zibo, and Qingdao, serving as secretary of the “Branch Federation,” head of the provincial peasant movement department, and member of the CCP Shandong Committee. In 1926, he represented the Jiaoji Railway workers at the Third National Labor Congress in Guangzhou. Between 1927 and 1928, he helped organize peasant associations in Weixian and surrounding areas and led the Weihe uprising.

From 1929 onward, Liu carried out underground work in northern Henan, southern Hebei, Zhangjiakou, Datong, Suihua, and Beiping, serving as a CCP inspector and special commissioner.^[3] Arrested in 1931, he was imprisoned in Beiping and subjected to severe torture, but continued to resist. He was released after the Xi'an Incident in 1936 and resumed underground work in Kaifeng, Henan.^[4]

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Liu held several key posts: secretary of the Henan Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, head of its publicity department, secretary of the Western Henan Committee, and director of the Eighth Route Army's office in Luoyang.^[5][6] He attended the CCP's enlarged Sixth Plenary Session in Yan'an in 1938. In 1941, he collaborated with Peng Xuefeng to resist Nationalist forces in central China, later serving as secretary of the CCP Yu-Wan-Su Border Region Committee, the Huaibei–Suwan Border Region Committee, and other regional organs.^[7][8] He worked alongside leaders such as Deng Zihui to mobilize peasants, reduce rents and interest, and consolidate the anti-Japanese united front. In 1944, he entered the Central Party School in Yan’an before returning to Henan to direct guerrilla warfare.^[9] After Japan's surrender, he became secretary of the Tongbai District Party Committee and political commissar of the military district.^[10]

Following the founding of the People's Republic of China, Liu attended the 7th CPC Central Committee plenary sessions in Xibaipo and Beijing. He served as head of the Cultural and Educational Department of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), director of its Policy Research Office, secretary of its Secretariat, and acting chairman of the Education Union. In 1955, he was appointed Vice Minister of Labour and a member of its Party Leadership Group.

During the Cultural Revolution, Liu was denounced as part of the "61 Renegades Group," expelled from the CCP in 1974, and sent down to work in rural Shaanxi. In 1978, he was politically rehabilitated and later served as an adviser to the State Labour Bureau. He retired in 1982 but continued to study and provide suggestions on economic reform and policy. Liu died in Beijing on August 28, 1988, at the age of 87.^[11]