Wei Jinshui

Wei was born in May 1906 into a poor peasant family in Tiaowei Township, Xichen District, Longyan County, Fujian Province. In March 1928, he participated in a peasant armed uprising in Houtian Township, Longyan. By May 1929, he was appointed Chairman of the Soviet Government of Tiaowei Township. That July, he joined the Longyan County Red Guard Corps as a messenger and became a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in October 1929.^[1]

During the Chinese Civil War, Wei served in a variety of key roles, including adjutant of the 100th Regiment of the Chinese Red Army, political commissar of the Longyan Independent Third Regiment, political commissar of the 170th Regiment of the 19th Army, political commissar of the Second Branch of the Fujian Military Region Hospital, director of the political department of the Second Combat Sub-region in Fujian, and deputy political commissar and political department director of the 8th Regiment.^[2] After the main force of the Central Red Army embarked on the Long March in October 1934, he remained in Western Fujian and led guerrilla warfare for three years. During this period, he served as a member of the Southwest Fujian Military and Political Committee, Chairman of the Longyan County Military and Political Committee, and Chairman of the Yan’nan-Zhang Military and Political Committee.^[3][4]

In June 1937, as a representative of the Southwest Fujian Military and Political Committee, Wei negotiated with Wu Qi (Chinese: 吴琪), a battalion commander of the Kuomintang's 157th Division stationed in Longyan, leading to an agreement to halt the civil war and unite in resistance against Japan. In the spring of 1938, Red Army guerrilla units from Western and Southern Fujian, Tingrui, and Southern Zhejiang were reorganized into the New Fourth Army's 2nd Detachment, which headed to the front in Southern Anhui. Wei stayed behind and was appointed deputy director of the unit's rear office in Baitu, Longyan. In the autumn of 1939, he became Secretary of the CCP Longyan County Committee, and in January 1941, he was appointed Head of the Organization Department of the CCP Western Fujian Special Committee [zh], later serving as its Special Commissioner.^[5]

During the Second Kuomintang-Communist Civil War, Wei served as Special Commissioner of the CCP Min-Yue (Fujian-Guangdong) Border Regional Committee, Secretary of the CCP Fujian-Guangdong-Jiangxi Border Regional Committee, and Political Commissar of the Fujian-Guangdong-Jiangxi Border Column, cooperating with the southward advance of the People's Liberation Army to liberate Eastern Guangdong and Southwestern Fujian.^[6]

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Wei held several important positions, including Member and Standing Committee Member of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Second Secretary of the CCP Longyan Prefectural Committee, Second Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, Secretary of the Secretariat of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the CCP and Vice Governor, and Director of the Provincial Agricultural Office.^[7] From December 1962, he served as Secretary of the CCP Fujian Provincial Committee Secretariat and Governor of Fujian.^[8] He was also vice chairman of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the Central Advisory Commission, a delegate to the 8th National Congress of the CCP, and a deputy to the 5th National People's Congress.^[9] Wei Jinshui died in Fuzhou on August 11, 1992, at the age of 86.^[10]