By Bo Zhiyue
Princelings are often talked about as a bloc, but in truth there are several different kinds.
The children of veteran communists who held high-ranking offices in China before 1966, the first year of the Cultural Revolution, are commonly called “princelings.” There are princelings by birth — sons and daughters of former high ranking officers and officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — and princelings by marriage.
Princelings by birth could also be further divided into subcategories: princeling politicians, princeling generals, and princeling entrepreneurs. President Xi Jinping, for instance, is a typical example of a princeling politician. Xi’s father, Xi Zhongxun, was a veteran communist who served as secretary general and vice premier of the State Council in the 1950s and the 1960s and as a Politburo member in the 1980s. Yu Zhengsheng, the No. 4 ranking Politburo Standing Committee member and chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, is also a princeling politician whose father, Huang Jing (Yu Qiwei), was the first communist mayor of Tianjin and the first minister of No. 1 Machine Building Industry. Huang was once married to Li Yunhe (i.e., Jiang Qing), who later married Mao Zedong.
Examples of princeling generals include General Zhang Youxia, director of the General Armaments Department; Admiral Wu Shengli, commander of the PLA Navy; and General Liu Yuan, political commissar of the General Logistics Department. Zhang’s father was General Zhang Zongxun, former deputy chief of staff and director of the General Logistics Department of the People’s Liberation Army. Wu’s father, Wu Xian, was former vice governor of Zhejiang. Liu’s father, Liu Shaoqi, was former president of the People’s Republic of China.
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