He Chengxiang

He Chengxiang
何成湘
Director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs
In office 1954–1961
Premier	Zhou Enlai
Preceded by	New title
Succeeded by	Xiao Xianfa
Personal details
Born	February 1900 Gong County, Sichuan, Qing China
Died	July 23, 1967(1967-07-23) (aged 67) Lanzhou, Gansu, People's Republic of China
Political party	Chinese Communist Party
Parent	He Lizhong
Alma mater	Yibin No. 1 High School Shanghai University
Chinese name
Chinese	何成湘
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Hé Chéngxiāng
Guzhou
Chinese	鼓洲
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Gǔzhōu
He Zhonghan
Traditional Chinese	何忠漢
Simplified Chinese	何忠汉
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Hé Zhōnghàn
He Xiang
Chinese	何湘
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Hé Xiāng

He Chengxiang (Chinese: 何成湘; February 1900 – 23 July 1967), courtesy name Guzhou (Chinese: 鼓洲), also known as He Zhonghan (Chinese: 何忠汉) and He Xiang (Chinese: 何湘), was a Chinese politician who served as director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs from 1954 to 1961.^[1]

He was born in Gong County, Sichuan, in February 1900, to a landlord family. He was the fourth of nine children. His father He Lizhong (Chinese: 何礼中) was a merchant. In 1917 he attended the Xuzhou Unity High School (now Yibin No. 1 High School). In 1923 he was accepted to the Shanghai University, where he joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the next year.^[2]

In May 1925 he participated in the May Thirtieth Movement. In June 1926, he was proposed as secretary-general of the All-China Students' Federation (ACSF), a student organization under the leadership of the CCP. In the winter of 1926, he was appointed secretary-general of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces of the Communist Youth League. In March 1927 he was transferred to Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, as director of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League. At the beginning of 1928, he was appointed secretary of Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League. In June 1928 he was imprisoned in Longhua Prison. At the beginning of 1929, he was appointed secretary of Shunzhi Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League. In September 1929, he was arrested by the Tianjin Gendarmerie Command. He was released in 1930. In 1931, he was sent to northeast China, where he was Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of Manzhou Province. In the spring of 1935, he became director of the CCP Organization Department. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he worked in the Southern Bureau of the CCP Central Committee. During the Chinese Civil War, he was involved in the Chongqing negotiations.^[2]

After the establishment of the Communist State, he was appointed director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs. In 1961 he was transferred to northwest China's Gansu province, where he was vice-governor there.^{[citation needed]}

In 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, Lin Biao and Kang Sheng slandered him as a "traitor". He was mistreated and tortured and then died in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, on September 23, 1967. He was rehabilitated in May 1979.^{[citation needed]}