Min Ganghou was born in 1904 in Beicai Town, Nanhui County, Jiangsu Province, an area that is now part of Shanghai. He received higher education in law and graduated in 1932 from the law department of Soochow University. The following year he went to Japan to continue his studies at Kyushu Imperial University, where he specialized in legal studies.[2]
After returning to China, Min began practicing law in Shanghai in 1937. In the same year he joined the China National Salvation Association, an organization that brought together intellectuals and political activists advocating resistance against Japanese aggression. He was elected to the association's standing committee and became involved in its public advocacy and organizational work.[3]
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Min relocated to Chongqing, which served as the wartime capital of the Republic of China. There he continued to participate in the work of the National Salvation movement. During this period he also served as deputy director of the Chongqing Wartime Book and Periodical Supply Office and later taught as a professor at Chaoyang University.[4]
After the end of the war in 1945, Min returned to Shanghai and resumed his legal practice. In the same year he joined the China Democratic League and became a member of the East China Executive Committee of the organization. As a democratic activist he participated in political efforts advocating constitutional government and political reform during the final years of the Chinese Civil War.[5]
In 1949 Min traveled to Beijing to attend the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which laid the institutional foundation for the new state. On October 1 of the same year he was present at the proclamation ceremony of the People's Republic of China in Tiananmen Square.[6]
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Min held several important posts in the national judicial and political system. He served as Secretary-General of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China and later as Vice Minister of Justice.[7] Within the China Democratic League he served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Third Central Committee, as head of the Organization Department, and as Secretary-General.[8]
Min was also active in national representative bodies.[9] He served as a delegate to the first and second sessions of the National People's Congress, as a member of the second Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and as a standing member of the third and fourth CPPCC National Committees.[10]
Min Ganghou died of illness on August 18, 1971.[11]
