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Li Xiannian (81)
Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (a powerless but honorary body). Li was
President of the Peoples Republic until 1988 (he was the Queen's formal host in China). Li remains one of the most powerful of the Party veterans, partly because of his long connections with the government machine, where for many years he had been Zhoux Enlai's number two. Firmly opposed to the student demonstrations and other such manifestations of 'bourgeois liberalisation'.
Peng Zhen (88)
Wan Li's (q.v.) predecessor as Chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, which he did much to revive and used occasionally with some effect to put the brakes on reform. Now holds no official post, but is still very influential in the Chinese political system. hardliner, but one who possibly feels something of a rivalry with Deng Xiaoping.
Wan Li (74)
A
Chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (China's parliamentary body). Wan Li was abroad when Martial Law was declared. There was at that time an expectation (possibly shared by Zhao Ziyang) that he might return, summon the NPC and declare Martial Law illegal. He did come back early, but went into purdah in Shanghai for a few days, during which he seems to have made his peace with the new régime. He, with Zhao Ziyang, had been one of the pioneers of reform, particularly in agriculture.
Wang Zhen (82)
Vice-President Wang Zhen is one of the Party veterans who has been most antipathetic to Zhao Ziyang and to reform in general. He felt particularly insulted over the way Zhao Ziyang last year failed to support his criticism of an avant garde television series seen as calling for fundamental change in the Chinese system. Now busy getting his own back. He visited Britain in 1978.
E.
SENIOR FIGURES CONCERNED WITH HONG KONG
Ji Pengfei (81)
Member of the Standing Committee of the Central Advisory Commission. Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council. Chairman of the Basic Law
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