Li Fuchun

Revolutionary Career and Early PRC

Li Fuchun was born in Changsha, Hunan, in 1900. He travelled to France under the work-study scheme and joined the Chinese Communist Party while in Europe, moving in the same political circles as Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. After returning to China he participated in the Land Revolution, the Long March, and the War of Resistance. After 1949 he served as Chairman of the Northeast People's Government and helped oversee the development of the Northeast's heavy industrial base — experience that directly informed his later direction of national economic planning.

Principal Architect and Administrator of the First Five-Year Plan

In 1952 Li Fuchun was appointed Vice Chairman of the State Planning Commission and became its Chairman the following year, making him the principal architect and institutional head responsible for the First Five-Year Plan. He coordinated the 156 Soviet-aided key projects, working closely with Soviet technical personnel and domestic industrial ministries to bring steel, machinery, and energy projects into production. In July 1955 he delivered the Report on the First Five-Year Plan for Development of the National Economy to the Second Session of the First NPC — one of the most authoritative policy texts associated with the plan. From 1956 he served as Vice Premier and was elected to the CCP Politburo, continuing to oversee national economic planning until he came under attack during the Cultural Revolution. He died in Beijing in 1975.