Friday, October 17, 2008

Long Yun

Long Yun was governor and warlord of the province of Yunnan from 1927 to near the end of the Chinese Civil War, when he was removed by Du Yuming under the order of Chiang Kai-shek in October, 1945.

Long Yun first joined the local warlord's army in 1911 and was gradually promoted to the rank of corps commander. In February 1927, he launched a coup and seized power. After being removed from his reign of 18 years, he was eventually exiled to Hong Kong at the end of 1948 and went back to China after the establishment of the People's Republic in January 1950. As result, he was awarded several high ranking positions such as the one in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

During the Anti-Rightist Movement, however, Long Yun was named as a rightist because of his criticism on the Chinese foreign aide policy, claiming that if the living standard in the Soviet Union was much higher that many ordinary workers could own their cars, then the responsibility of foreign aide should fall on Soviet Union, not China, when the Chinese economy was much less advanced that of the Soviet Union because it was still recovering from wars.

Long Yun refused to change his view and openly complainted his treatment for telling the truth, and the next day after his death, the Chinese government formally declared that he was not a rightist and thus partially 'rehabilitated' by the communists. In July, 1980, nearly two decades after his death, he was finally fully 'rehabilitated' in accordance to the Chinese government's admittance of the Anti-Rightist Movement being wrong.

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