This scene in history should be remembered by people: at the 12th Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in October 1968, the "Report on the Crimes of Liu Shaoqi, Traitor, and Worker Thieves" was approved. Immediately afterwards, I raised my hand to vote on the resolution to "excite forever" Liu Shaoqi's party membership. The way to vote was to raise my hand. When
started the vote, 131 of the 132 delegates attending the meeting raised their arms in unison to express their consent, but a female representative lay on the table and placed her right hand on her chest to express her objection in this way.
The next day, major newspapers and magazines published the announcement of the meeting in a red-collar manner, saying that the resolution was "unanimously passed" and did not mention the scene of the female representative not raising his hand. The female representative in her seventies said to the people around her after seeing the newspaper: "It's a big deal, I didn't raise my hand."
This awesome female representative is Chen Shaomin.
Who is Chen Shaomin?
Chen Shaomin was born in 1902 in a poor family in Sunjiaji Town, Shouguang County, Shandong Province. At the age of 13, he had to work as a child laborer at a Japanese yarn mill in Qingdao because his family was unable to make trouble. At the age of 19, his hometown encountered a famine, and his father and brother died of illness and starvation.
1923, 21-year-old Chen Shaomin was fired by the factory for participating in the strike of a secret trade union organization in Qingdao. After leaving the factory, she went to Weifang to study. While studying at Weifang Wenmeimei Middle School, she joined the Communist Youth League. In 1928, she joined the Communist Party of China on the order of the party organization to return to Qingdao to lead the workers' movement.
1930, the party organization sent Chen Shaomin to cover up the early revolutionary leader of our party, Ren Guozhen, and pretended to be a husband and wife to assist him in his work. Chen Shaomin works in the factory during the day and accompanys Ren Guozhen to engage in revolutionary activities at night. Later, the fake couple developed true feelings and they formed revolutionary partners.
In 1930, Chen Shaomin and her husband Ren Guozhen were transferred to Peking, and later to Tianjin, Tangshan and other places to engage in revolutionary work.
In October 1931, Ren Guozhen was betrayed by a traitor when he went to Shanxi to work as a special commissioner of the Hebei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China. More than a month later, Ren Guozhen was killed and was only 33 years old when he died.
When Ren Guozhen died, Chen Shaomin was pregnant. The organization was afraid that she would not be able to bear it. He did not tell her the unfortunate news. Chen Shaomin only learned that her husband had died after giving birth to a daughter. The strong Chen Shaomin quickly came out of her grief. After handing over her 8-month-old daughter to her mother in her hometown in Shandong, she returned to Tianjin to join the revolutionary work. A few months later, the bad news came again, and the mother wrote to Chen Shaomin that her one and a half years old daughter died of measles.
In 1932, Chen Shaomin was appointed as the Secretary-General of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Minister of Women. In October of that year, she was arrested and imprisoned and released in January 1933. After being released from prison, Chen Shaomin served as Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Tangshan Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, Minister of the Organization Department of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Special Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Special Committee, Minister of the Women's Department of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, Secretary of the Luoyang Special Committee of Henan Province, Minister of the Organization Department of the Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, Secretary of the Hubei-Central District Committee of the Communist Party of China, Political Commissar of the Hubei-Yuan Advance Detachment of the New Fourth Army.
1937, while studying at the Yan'an Central Party School, Chen Shaomin developed feelings for his classmate Tu Zhengkun, former secretary of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee, and began her second marriage. After they got married, the party organization sent them to the south to engage in anti-Japanese and national salvation work.
Jin Shaomin and Tu Zhengkun just arrived in the south. Tu Zhengkun's ex-wife, whose life and death were unknown when she was surrounded by enemies during the Long March, suddenly wrote a letter to Tu Zhengkun from Yan'an. It turned out that she had not sacrificed. She crawled out of the dead and moved to Yan'an.
After seeing the letter from Tu Zhengkun’s ex-wife, Chen Shaomin decided to divorce Tu Zhengkun after a day and night of ideological struggle. She said to Tu Zhengkun: "I should let her return to your side. I have already decided to go through the divorce procedures with you immediately. I will go back to Yan'an now. Please transfer her here by the organization."
Two years later, Tu Zhengkun died heroically in the Pingjiang tragedy at the age of 42.
After the "Southern Anhui Incident" in January 1941, Chen Shaomin was appointed as deputy political commissar of the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army.In January 1943, Chen Shaomin was appointed as deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the Communist Party of China Henan-Hui Border Region. He made great achievements in establishing a revolutionary base in the Henan-Hui Border Region and developing guerrilla struggle behind enemy lines in the Central Plains. He was one of the pioneers of the Central Plains Liberated Area and one of the few female leading cadres who have long presided over the comprehensive work of a region and directly led the armed struggle. Mao Zedong once praised Chen Shaomin as "a red-hearted female warrior in the white area and a good wife and mother of the proletariat."
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chen Shaomin served as chairman of the National Textile Trade Union and secretary of the Secretariat of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.
In the "Ten Years of Catastrophe", Chen Shaomin was persecuted, but she always defended the truth and maintained a righteous spirit.
When attending the 12th Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee, 66-year-old Chen Shaomin suffered from multiple diseases. The doctor said that she was terminally ill and she attended the meeting with a cane.
The political environment at that time was not tolerated by people. It took great courage to not raise your hand during the vote.
Afterwards, people said, "Only she dares not raise her hand."
Hu Yaobang once said excitedly: "On this issue, we all made mistakes and raised our hands, but Sister Chen did not raise her hands, and she did not make mistakes."
Chen Shaomin did not raise her hands when voting to express her approval, which caused her big trouble. After the meeting, Kang Sheng angrily found Chen Shaomin and asked her why she didn't raise her hands? Chen Shaomin replied, "This is my right."
These few short words are enough to be shocking!
After that, Chen Shaomin was subjected to even more cruel persecution. She was driven out of Beijing and sent to Luoshan, Henan to work. Behind Luoshan, Chen Shaomin had a heart attack and arthritis caused hemiplegia. Fortunately, she was taken care of by her original guard at Xinyang Railway Hospital and was safe.
On December 24, 1977, Chen Shaomin died of illness at the age of 75.
Chen Shaomin once said: "Every Communist Party member must uphold the truth and never surrender. His words and deeds must be responsible to the party, the masses, and the country to the end. We must not suffer from chondrotal disease!"
She said this and did this!
People should remember Chen Shaomin, remember the scene of her lying on the table and putting her right hand on her chest. A weak woman resolutely chose truth and conscience regardless of her personal safety in such a suffocating political environment. This is worthy of everyone's admiration!
