Wu Hongbin

Wu was admitted to the Faculty of Law at Peking University in 1924 and joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1926. During his time in Beijing, he served as Party branch secretary at the law faculty and later as secretary of the West District Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Beiping. After graduating in 1928, he was transferred to the Special Branch of the Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, where he engaged in intelligence and united front work.^[3]

In 1932, Wu was appointed secretary of the Gansu–Ningxia–Qinghai Special Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, based in Lanzhou. He organized anti-Japanese volunteer forces in northwest China and was involved in initiating the Shuibeimen Mutiny. After the organization was suppressed, he moved to Ningxia and later to Xi'an to continue underground work. From December 1933, he again served as secretary of the same special committee.^[4] During the Xi'an Incident in 1936, he worked as secretary to Yang Hucheng and used his position to help establish the Gansu–Ningxia–Qinghai Anti-Japanese National Salvation Association, mobilizing Hui communities in Xi'an to participate in resistance activities.^[5]

After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Wu was dispatched by Zhou Enlai, then Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, to Qinghai and the Hexi Corridor region of Gansu on multiple occasions to rescue captured or dispersed soldiers of the Red Army's West Route Army.^[6] During the war, he served as a member of the Gansu Provincial Working Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, where he was responsible for publicity and Hui affairs.^[7] He founded the Hui Education Promotion Association in Lanzhou, which served as a united front organization among Hui communities, promoting patriotism, religious tolerance, and resistance against Japan. He also helped recruit and develop Communist members among Hui youth and established the first special Party branch for Hui members in northwest China.^[8] In addition, he assisted in the establishment of the Lanzhou Office of the Eighth Route Army and worked with Xie Juezai to build united front relations with ethnic minority elites and democratic figures in the region.^[9]

In 1945, Wu joined the China Democratic League in Xi'an and became one of the founders of its Gansu organization, serving as a special representative of the Northwest General Branch.^[10] In 1946, he was elected chairman of the Gansu Provincial Committee of the League. He later served as a representative to the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and as a member of its first National Committee.^[11]

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Wu held several important positions, including member of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, member of the Northwest Military and Administrative Commission, and vice director of the Gansu Administrative Office.^[12] He also served as deputy director of the Lanzhou Military Control Commission. From 1950 to 1958, he was Mayor of Lanzhou. In later years, he served as chairman of the Gansu Provincial Committee of the China Democratic League across multiple terms and played a leading role in restoring the League's organization in Gansu after 1978.^[13][14]

Wu was elected as a standing committee member of the 2nd through 6th National Committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He died in Lanzhou on February 3, 1989, at the age of 86.^[15]