Bo Yibo

Bo Yibo
Bo Yibo, aged 38, c. 1946
Executive Vice Chairman of the Central Advisory Commission
In office 12 September 1982 – 18 October 1992 Serving with Xu Shiyou Tan Zhenlin Li Weihan Song Renqiong
Director of the National Machinery Industry Commission
In office February 1980 – May 1982
Preceded by	New title
Succeeded by	Zou Jiahua
Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China
In office 16 November 1956 – 16 March 1966
Premier	Zhou Enlai
In office 1 July 1979 – 20 June 1983
Premier	Hua Guofeng Zhao Ziyang
Director of the National Economic Commission
In office May 1956 – September 1968
Preceded by	New title
Succeeded by	Su Jing [zh]
Director of the National Basic Construction Commission
In office November 1954 – August 1956
Preceded by	New title
Succeeded by	Wang Heshou [zh]
Director of the National Organization Committee
In office March 1950 – 1954
Preceded by	New title
Succeeded by	Position revoked
1st Minister of Finance
In office 19 October 1949 – 18 September 1953
Preceded by	New title
Succeeded by	Deng Xiaoping
First Secretary of the North China Bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
In office 1949–1954
Preceded by	Liu Shaoqi
Succeeded by	Li Xuefeng
Personal details
Born	Bo Shucun (薄書存) (1908-02-17)17 February 1908 Dingxiang County, Shanxi, Qing Empire
Died	15 January 2007(2007-01-15) (aged 98) Beijing, China
Political party	Chinese Communist
Relations	Bo Guagua (grandson)
Children	7, including Bo Xilai
Alma mater	Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party
Chinese name
Chinese	薄一波
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Bó Yībō
Bo Shucun
Simplified Chinese	薄书存
Traditional Chinese	薄書存
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin BóShūcún

Bo Yibo (Chinese: 薄一波; pinyin: Bó Yībō; Wade–Giles: Po² I¹-po¹; 17 February 1908 – 15 January 2007) was a Chinese politician. He was one of the most senior political figures in China during the 1980s and 1990s.

After joining the Chinese Communist Party when he was 17, he worked as a Communist Party organizer in his native city of Taiyuan, Shanxi. He was promoted to organize Communist guerrilla movements in northern China from a headquarters in Tianjin in 1928, but he was arrested and imprisoned by Kuomintang police in 1931. In 1936, with the tacit support of the Communist Party, Bo signed an anti-communist confession to secure his release. After his release Bo returned to Shanxi, rejoined the communists, and fought both the Kuomintang and the Japanese Empire in northern China until the Communists completed their unification of mainland China in 1949.

During Bo's career he held successive posts as Communist China's inaugural Minister of Finance, a member of the Communist Party's Politburo, Vice-Premier, chairman of State Economic Commission, and vice-chairman of the party's Central Advisory Commission. Bo was purged in 1966 by the Mao-backed Gang of Four, but he was brought back to power by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s, after Mao's death.

Bo was one of a select group of powerful veterans centred on Deng who were informally known as the "Eight Immortals" for their political longevity and for the vast influence they commanded during the 1980s and 1990s. After returning to power Bo supported economic liberalization, but was a moderate conservative politically. He initially supported both Hu Yaobang and the 1989 Tiananmen protesters, but he was eventually persuaded by hardliners to support both Hu's dismissal in 1987 and the use of violence against protesters in 1989. Bo's political involvement declined in the 1990s, but he used his influence to support both Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, and to promote the career of his son, Bo Xilai. He was the last remaining, and longest-lived, of the Eight Elders at the time of his death on 15 January 2007, just a little over a month short of his 99th birthday.