TNAG-1464-FCO40-1991-Visits-by-Chinese-officials-to-the-UK--including-visit-by-Hu-1986 — Page 86

CONFIDENTIAL

FEI XIAOTONG

President of the Chinese Society of Sociology.

A Vice-Chairman of the China Democratic League.

A Vice-Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

A Vice-Chairman of the Committee for Drafting the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

After graduating Fei is a distinguished anthropologist. in social science from Peking's Yanjing University, and continuing his studies at Qinghua University, (also in Peking) he came to London. After two years under Professors Malinowski and Firth, he completed a PhD in anthropology in 1938. When Fei left London Professor Malinowski suggested that he investigate the rural community in the interior of China.

Yanjing University was captured by the Japanese in 1937 and its research group established headquarters in the

Fei became a National Yunnan University in Kunming.

In 1940 Professor of Social Anthropology there in 1939. the university was bombed, and the group continued itss

There Fei collected research in a village nearby. material for his book, "Earthbound China". at the invitation of the State Department, Fei went to the USA (Harvard and Chicago Universities) to prepare an

He then spent a English translation of this work. further period in London, at the LSE.

In 1943-44,

Since 1949, Fei has made an extensive study of China's national minorities. He joined the State Commission for Nationalities Affairs in 1951, becoming a Vice-Chairman in 1957. In 1983, he was appointed adviser to the Commission.

Fei has long been involved with the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). This body, which provides a formal platform for distinguished figures and important secular interests (particularly those of interlectuals outside the Party, is the nearest

Fei attended the in Chinese terms to a second chamber.

first plenary conference of the CPPCC in 1949 and has since 1978 been a Vice-Chairman.

In 1946, when in

Fei has been persecuted several times. danger of assassination by Chiang Kai-shek's supporters, the British Council arranged for him a travelling fellowship to Britain.

In 1957, during the Hundred

/Flowers

CONFIDENTIAL