MIA: Soong Ch'ing-ling

Soong Ch'ing-ling Internet Archive


Soong Ch’ing-ling (traditional Chinese: 宋慶齡) (27 January 1893 – 29 May 1981), was one of China's most significant political figures of the early 20th century. She was a leader in the 1911 revolution which overthrew the monarchy and established the Republic of China.  She was part of the Kuomingtang's  Central Executive Committee. During the Chinese Civil War and the Anti-Japanese War she broke with the leadership of the Kuomingtang and supported the communists, founding the China Defense League and organizing aid for the liberated areas. In 1949 she attended the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference as a representative of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomingtang and was present at the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Soong was the first non-royal woman to officially become head of state of China, acting as Co-Chairman of the Republic from 1968 until 1972. She again became head of state as President of China, in 1981, briefly before her death.

From 1948 onward, Soong was director of the China Welfare Fund, later named the China Welfare Institute, which –since 1952– published the monthly China Reconstructs.

 

Documents

 

1952: Welfare Work and World Peace

1954: Friendship of the Peoples and Peace

1958: Oppose the Military Provocations of U.S. Imperialism

1959: China's Liberation - Sino-Soviet Friendship - Man's Great Leap into the Future

1966: Sixteen Years of Liberation

1972: The Beginning of a New Era

1973: Ho Hsiang-ning — A Staunch Revolutionary

1975: Confucianism and Modern China

1976: A Great New Movement

1978: The China Welfare Institute: Forty Years in the People's Service

1979: China's Women in Our New Long March

1981: In Equality, For Peace: Speech upon receiving Honorary Doctorate from the University of Victoria