Gao Gang
Gao Gang | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
高岗 | |||||||||
| Vice Chairman of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China | |||||||||
| In office September 1949 – August 1954 | |||||||||
| President | Mao Zedong | ||||||||
| Preceded by | Position established | ||||||||
| Succeeded by | Position abolished | ||||||||
| Chairman of the State Planning Commission | |||||||||
| In office November 1952 – February 1954 | |||||||||
| Preceded by | Position established | ||||||||
| Succeeded by | Li Fuchun | ||||||||
| Chairman of the Northeast People's Government of the People's Republic of China | |||||||||
| In office April 1949 – January 1953 | |||||||||
| Preceded by | Position established | ||||||||
| Succeeded by | Position abolished | ||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||
| Born | Gao Chongde (高崇德) October 25, 1905 Mizhi County, Shaanxi, Qing China | ||||||||
| Died | August 17, 1954 (aged 48) Beijing, China | ||||||||
| Political party | Chinese Communist Party (posthumously expelled in 1955) | ||||||||
| Spouses | Yang Zhifang
(m. 1925; div. 1938)Li Liqun (1940–1954) | ||||||||
| Children | 1 (son) | ||||||||
| Alma mater | Yulin Middle School | ||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 高崗 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 高岗 | ||||||||
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Gao Gang (Chinese: 高岗; Wade–Giles: Kao Kang; 1905 – August 1954) was a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader during the Chinese Civil War and the early years of the People's Republic of China (PRC) before he became the victim of the first major purge within the party since before 1949. The events surrounding Gao's purge, the so-called "Gao Gang Affair", are still the subject of debate: a limited amount of research has been done on the topic, partly because of the relatively small amount of information available.
Born in rural Shaanxi province in 1905, Gao Gang joined the party in 1926 and led a revolutionary guerrilla base there during the Chinese Civil War. He was of peasant background with a low level of education: he is said to have not been very literate. Among his colleagues in the party, he gained a reputation as having great confidence and ambition, as well as of being a womanizer. Trusted by Mao Zedong, Gao was dramatically promoted in the final years of the civil war to become the party state and military head of Manchuria, the key Northeast area of China. In 1952, he was ordered to Beijing to become head of the State Planning Commission of China (SPC), where he later attempted a leadership challenge against Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai. His attempt failed and he committed suicide in August 1954.