Tianjin remembers its foreign friends

Sacred love

In the history of the foreigners who contributed to the CPC's development in Tianjin, one couple will never be forgotten because their belief and love crossed national boundaries.

Han We Geon was born in what is now the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Having adopted the Chinese name Li Tiefu, he was Party chief of Tianjin in 1936.

His wife Zhang Xiuyan was a CPC member and also a member of the Beijing Municipal Government Committee and a deputy to the National People's Congress.

According to Wang, Li was a student in Japan, where he organized a communism research association and studied Marxism deeply. In 1926, he was working for the cause of ethic liberation in Korea, but was exiled to China in 1928. He quickly learned Chinese and joined the CPC.

His life in China was turbulent because he was arrested by the Kuomintang and jailed for a time.

According to Cao Dongmei, a researcher with the Party History Research Department at the Party School of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the CPC, the Korean communist was later appointed Party chief of Tianjin.

He had a solid bond of trust with his predecessor, Liu Shaoqi, a CPC leader who set up the CPC North China Bureau in the city in 1936 and later made great efforts on behalf of the city and Hebei province.

Zhang, Li's wife, was praised by chairman Mao Zedong for "inspiring her 11 family members to join the revolutionary cause for the country".

In 1937, Li died in Yan'an. Zhang never remarried, and according to Cao's research into her memoirs, she believed their love crossed all national and ethnic considerations.

Zhang always kept Li's watch with her and he was in her dreams for the rest of her life, Cao said.

History will never forget these foreign friends and they will continue to inspire the Chinese and other people to unite and work for the CPC's vision - a community of a shared future for mankind.

As one of the first group of Chinese cities that were forced to open to foreign countries in the 19th century, the northern municipality of Tianjin is known for many fine examples of colonial era architecture and as "a museum of world architecture in China". Openness brought international communism to the city. It became a gathering place for many international communists and nurtured many of the CPC's former leaders, including former Premier Zhou Enlai and his wife, Deng Yingchao. In 1936, former CPC leader Liu Shaoqi set up the Party's North China Bureau in the city.