Peng Peiyun

Peng was born in Liuyang, Hunan, on 25 December 1929.^[2] She was admitted to the National Southwestern Associated University at 15. She graduated from Qinghua University and joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1946. She held several positions in the CCP branches in public education institutions. She was assigned to the deputy secretary of the CCP committee in Beijing University before she was denounced by Nie Yuanzi, demoted and sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution.^[3][4]

She was rehabilitated near the end of the Cultural Revolution. She entered the Ministry of Education and became the vice minister before she was assigned the Minister of the National Family Planning Commission. In 1993 she became a member of the State Council. In 1998, she was elected the Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the Chairwoman of the All-China Women's Federation.^[5] In 1999, she was elected the Chairperson of the Red Cross Society of China. She was reelected to the same position in 2004.

Peng was elected as a delegate to the 12th and 13th CCP National Congresses and to the 14th and 15th CCP Central Committees.

Peng married Wang Hanbin, a PRC politician who was also elected the vice chairperson of the standing committee of the National People's Congress and CCP Central Committee. The couple had four children. She died in Beijing on 21 December 2025 at the age of 95.^[2][6] Immediately following her death, Peng was widely castigated on Chinese social media due to the long-term social effects of the one-child policy of which she was the co-creator.^[7]