In 1951, the Tibetan local government sent a negotiation team represented by Apai Awang Jinmei and others to negotiate with representatives sent by the Central People's Government. Finally, the two sides signed the "17-Article Agreement", Tibet's peaceful liberation . In this negotiation, the chief plenipotentiary representative sent by the Central People's Government was named Li Weihan. He served as Minister of the United Front Work Department of our country at that time and was a great contributor to the peaceful liberation of Tibet. So, what stories do Li Weihan have?
Li Weihan was born in an intellectual family in Hunan. He received a good education since he was a child. When he grew up, Li Weihan was admitted to Hunan Provincial No. 1 Normal School. It was also during the process of studying that Li Weihan's national consciousness gradually awakened and began to actively explore the path of saving the country and the people. In 1918, Li Weihan, Chairman Mao and others planned to establish the New Ministries Society , and made extensive friends with progressive young people and promoted the idea of saving the country.
1919, Li Weihan went to France to work and study. During that period, influenced by Cai Hesen, he developed a strong interest in Marxism-Leninism and gradually strengthened his belief in Marxism-Leninism. At the end of 1922, Li Weihan returned to China and, under the introduction of Chairman Mao and others, he officially became a party member.
From the time of Li Weihan's joining the party, we can see that he was an early member of our party and made indelible contributions to the early development and growth of our party. At that time, Li Weihan was at a high level and performed very actively after joining the party. He gradually became a senior cadre of our party. In 1927, he became one of the Standing Committee members of the Provisional Central Committee. According to the rank of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was a national-level cadre.
In 1931, Li Weihan went to Moscow to continue his studies. In 1933, Li Weihan returned to the country. He was assigned to the central base area and experienced the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" battle. After the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression", he followed the large troops of the Red Army to participate in the Long March . After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Li Weihan mainly stayed in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government and served as the principal of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. During that period, Li Weihan was committed to studying ethnic minorities issues and wrote many research reports related to the development of ethnic minorities, laying the foundation for his subsequent united front work. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Li Weihan participated in the famous Chongqing negotiations . Since then, he began to stay in the city and served as the deputy minister of the Urban Work Department, assisting Premier Zhou in handling united front and intelligence work. In May 1948, Li Weihan replaced Premier Zhou and became the Minister of the Urban Work Department. In October, the Urban Work Department was changed to the United Front Work Department, and Li Weihan also became the first minister of the United Front Work Department.
After the founding of New China, Li Weihan continued to contribute to the country in his own field. For example, the peaceful liberation of Tibet we mentioned earlier is behind Li Weihan's contribution. In 1954, Li Weihan was promoted to Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and became a vice-state-level cadre of New China. Since then, he continued to do a lot of work in ethnic minorities and religions, such as the policy of regional ethnic autonomy, freedom of religious belief, , etc., which were proposed by Li Weihan during his tenure.
However, since 1962, Li Weihan has been criticized continuously. The reason for his criticism is that the theoretical views on united front work and ethnic work are incorrect. In 1964, Li Weihan was removed from his post. Not long after, the ten-year special period began. Li Weihan was constantly persecuted and even sent to , Xianning, Hubei, and worked until the end of the ten-year special period. After that, Li Weihan was rehabilitated and successively served as vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and deputy director of the Central Advisory Committee. He died of illness in 1984.
It is worth mentioning that Li Weihan also trained two outstanding sons. His eldest son died young and his second son was Li Tieying. He served as vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and was promoted to the vice-national level like his father. The third son is named Li Tielin. He once served as the director of the Office of the Central Institutional and Staffing Committee and is a ministerial-level cadre in our country.
