Yu Qiuli

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Yu Qiuli (

Yu was born in Ji'an, Jiangxi, in 1914, three years after the collapse of China's last imperial dynasty, into a poor peasant family. By the age of 14 he had taken part in a peasant uprising. At 16 he joined the Chinese Communist Party. Yu was among the tens of thousands of guerrillas and their supporters who from 1934 joined the Long March in an effort to break through the Kuomintang blockades around the Communist base in the south. In 1936, he was injured in the arm during a skirmish with pursuing nationalist forces. He continued on the journey north over treacherous terrain. Nine months later, after he had completed a journey of thousands of miles in terrible pain, his arm was amputated. "I am a man who has gone through nine deaths," Yu told the American journalist Harrison Salisbury in 1984.

From November 1936 to August 1937, he received advanced military and political training at the Counter-Japanese Military and Political University.^[1]

During the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945, he served as Director of the Political Department of the 358th Brigade and in the subsequent Chinese Civil War, as Commander and Political Commissar of the 1st Division of the 1st Field Army, he played a leading role in the capture of Qinghai.^[1]

After the Communist victory in 1949, Yu Qiuli was transferred to the

Yu was in charge of the development of the Daqing oil field.^[3]: 52 During its 1960 construction as part of the Great Leap Forward, Yu mobilized workers building the Daqing oil field through ideological motivation instead of material incentives, focusing enthusiasm, energy, and resources to complete a rapid industrialization project.^{[3]: 52–53} Yu read Mao Zedong's writing to workers, urging them to engage in the hard labor at hand out of commitment to the building of Chinese socialism.^[3]: 52 In April 1960, Yu stated that Mao's texts On Contradiction and with On Practice would be the ideological core of the campaign to develop the oil field.^[2]: 150 The Petroleum Ministry shipped thousands of copies by plane so that every Daqing oil worker would have copies and for work units to each set up their own study groups.^[2]: 150

Under Yu's direction, the mosquito-infested marshland - in winter, an expanse of ice^[3]: 52 - was transformed into China's biggest oil production centre. The economic benefits of the project were critical because without the production of the Daqing oil field, crude oil would have been severely limited after the Soviet Union cut off supplies as a result of the Sino-Soviet split.^[3]: 53

The successful construction of the Daqing oil field despite harsh weather conditions and supply limitations became a model held up by the Communist Party as an example during subsequent industrialization campaigns.^{[3]: 52–54} On February 5, 1964, the central Party promoted Daqing oil field to other industrial enterprises, instructing them to follow the "all-out battle" tactics of Daqing oil field.^[3]: 53 Shortly afterwards, Mao Zedong praised the Daqing oil field at an education work conference, stating that with a "little investment" in a "short period of time" a "great achievement" had been finished.^[3]: 54 Daqing oil field produced the famous Maoist icon Iron Man Wang, who, in order to stop a blow-out, leapt into a pool of liquid concrete to mix it using his own body. Yu chose Wang as the first model worker from Daqing oil field.^{[2]: 137–138}

After his success in Daqing, Yu went on to establish several more major production centres. In 1964, China declared itself self-sufficient in oil. That year, Yu was moved into the most important government ministry related to the economy, the

In 1965, Mao made Yu the top drafter of the Third Five Year Plan and put him in charge of relocating major industries to the remote hinterland of south-western China.^[2]: 104 Yu had a major role in the Third Front Construction.^[4]: 249

Yu was involved in the

However, Yu also became a frequent target of Red Guards in Beijing and was subjected to numerous denunciation sessions.^[2]: 154 At one point, radical students confined him to the Beijing Oil Institute until Zhou Enlai contacted the Cultural Revolution Group to intercede with the students and allow Yu to return to work.^[2]: 154

Also during the Cultural Revolution, Petroleum Minister Kang Shi'en was told to denounce Yu.^[2]: 154 Kang refused and was forced out of his position as a result.^[2]: 154

In 1975, Yu was appointed Vice Premier.^[5]

After the death of Mao in 1976, Yu was promoted to the Politburo. He was a member of what is commonly referred to as the "petroleum faction" or "petroleum group," a group of senior officials who advocated using the profits from petroleum exports to finance high technology imports from the West and Japan. These officials were essentially Stalinists in their economic thinking, favoring central planning and heavy industry - a strategy that clashed with that of the ascendant Deng. As Deng's political fortunes rose in the late 1970s, those of the petroleum faction waned. Yu was forced to make a self-criticism after the collapse of a Japanese-made oil rig in the

During the First Plenary Session of the 12th Central Committee, Yu was elected as a Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee.^[7]