Liu Shao-ch'i (ca. 1899-ca. 1969) was a leading organizer of the Chinese Communist party. Named chairman of the People's Republic of China (1959) and recognized as heir apparent to Mao Tse-tung, he became a major target of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 and was expelled from the party.

Liu Shao-ch'i was born in Hunan Province, China, to a landowning peasant family. In 1916, after a traditional education, he entered the Provincial First Normal School, where he was a schoolmate of future revolutionaries Mao Tse-tung, Jen Pi-shih, and Li Li-san. The school was an important center of radical activities, and Liu became interested in political activism. In 1919, he may have worked with Mao in editing the radical magazine Hsiang River Review. He also studied French in hopes of going abroad for further education.

In 1920, Liu joined the Socialist Youth League, a Communist auxiliary organization, and began to study Russian. He was arrested in...