Li Dequan

Name in Chinese
李德全
Name in Wade-Giles
Li Te-ch'uan
Related People

Biography in English

Li Te-ch'uan (1 July 1896-), the wife of Feng Yü-hsiang (q.v.), became prominent in Chinese women's organizations during the Sino-Japanese war. From October 1949 to December 1964 she served the Central People's Government as minister of health.

Fuhsingchuang, Chihli (Hopei), a community of Chinese Christian survivors of the Boxer Rebellion, was the birthplace of Li Te-ch'uan. Her father was a well-to-do peasant w-ho became a Christian minister, and she was baptized at the age of three months. Li is known to have had one brother and two younger sisters. After receiving her primary education at the Goodrich Fu Yü Girls School, she went to Peking about 1912 and enrolled at the Bridgman Girls Middle School, an institution run by American Congregational missionaries. Upon graduation, she received a loan from Bridgman that enabled her to enroll at North China Union Women's College.

After completing her studies, Li Te-ch'uan returned to the Bridgman Girls Middle School to teach biology. She later was employed on a part-time basis by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and was given responsibility for women's activities at the Tengshihk'ou Church. In addition, she worked part-time as secretary of the students department of the Peking YWCA. Her YWCA responsibilities increased steadily in the next few years. In 1923 Robert Gailey, an Ail- American football center from Princeton who was serving as secretary of the Peking YMCA, introduced Li to the man known as the Christian General, Feng Yü-hsiang (q.v.). She and Feng were married on 19 February 1924.

When Feng Yü-hsiang agreed in 1925 to permit Kuomintang political work in his Kuominchün in return for Russian instructors and military aid, Li Te-ch'uan helped draw up the programs for troop education and indoctrination. The resulting programs emphasized Christian teachings and devoted comparatively little time or attention to political matters. Li accompanied Feng to Urga (Ulan Bator) and Moscow in 1926. Upon their return to China, he issued a long statement on 16 September 1926 declaring allegiance to the Kuomintang. After the so-called enlarged conference movement [see Yen Hsi-shan; Wang Ching-wei) against Chiang Kai-shek collapsed in the autumn of 1930, Feng went into retirement. He and Li lived in Kalgan until mid- 1933 and in Shantung on the sacred mountain T'ai-shan until 1936, when they went to Nanking. After the Sino-Japanese war broke out and the National Government moved to Chungking, Feng held office as minister of water conservancy and a member of the Supreme National Defense Council. Li Te-ch'uan soon became a leading figure in women's organizations. She was active in the Chinese National Women's Association for War Relief, and she later became president of that body and of the Chinese Women's Christian Temperance Union, as well as executive directorof the women's section of the Chungking Sino-Soviet Cultural Association. At war's end, she helped organize the Chinese Society for the Advancement of Cultural Welfare.

In January 1946 Li Te-ch'uan w^as elected to the military studies committee of the Political Consultative Conference. She also was elected to the National Assembly, but before it convened, the National Government announced that Feng Yü-hsiang would head a mission to the United States to study conservation and irrigation facilities. Feng and Li sailed from Shanghai in late September. Li attended the meetings of the International Assembly of Women in New- York in October. She, Feng, and their two sons and three daughters established residence in California, and Feng followed about a third of the itinerary planned for him by the United States government before discontinuing his tour of conservation projects. In 1947 he made speeches attacking Chiang Kai-shek and the National Government. He was recalled to China in December, but he refused to go, explaining publicly that his life would be forfeit if he returned to Chinese Nationalist territory. In January 1948 he was expelled from the Kuomintang for disloyalty. He soon became a registered agent of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang, founded by Li Chi-shen (q.v.) and other dissidents at Hong Kong. In July 1948 Li Te-ch'uan and Feng Yühsiang boarded the Russian ship Pobeda for a trip to Odessa. Feng died on 1 September when a fire broke out on the ship in the Black Sea. After the ship landed at Odessa, Li Tech'uan traveled through the Soviet Union to Manchuria. In February 1949 she went to Peiping, which had been occupied by the Chinese Communists. She became vice president of the All-China Federation of Democratic Women in April and served as a delegate to the Congress of the Partisans of Peace at Prague. Upon her return to China, she became a member of the preparatory committee for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a central committee member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang. In September, she served as a delegate from the All-China Federation of Democratic ^Vomen to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and as a member of the conference's National Committee.

With the establishment of the Central People's Government on 1 October 1949, Li Te-ch'uan became minister of health. She received membership in the culture and education committee of the Government Administration Council, the national committee of the China Committee To Defend ^Vorld Peace (later the China Peace Committee), and the executive board of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Association. In 1950 she became vice president of the People's Relief Administration and president of the Chinese Red Cross Society, and in 1951 she became a vice chairman of the Chinese People's Committee for the Protection of Children. In these capacities, she traveled extensively throughout the 1950's, representing the People's Republic of China at conferences of the International Red Cross and other health organizations and at meetings of the World Peace Council. She also led Chinese women's delegations to Pakistan, Italy, and Yugoslavia and to international women's conferences. In addition, she was a member of the Chinese delegation to the funeral of Josef Stalin in March 1953.

Li Te-ch'uan was elected to the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference^ in 1953 and 1959. She participated in the National People's Congress of 1954 as a delegate from Hopei and as a member of the presidium. That year, she also was appointed a director of the Chinese People's Association for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries and vice chairman of the Sino- Soviet Friendship Association. In 1956 she became vice chairman of the Asian Solidarity Committee of China (later the Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee), a member of the State Council's scientific planning committee, and a member of the presidium of the National Conference of Advanced ^Vorkers. She became head of the Sino-Korean Association when it was organized in 1958, and in December 1958 she joined the Chinese Communist party. In May 1962 Li Te-ch'uan was accorded the unusual honor of being appointed honorary president of the Cuban Red Cross. She continued to work with great energy and success in the field of public health in China until December 1964, when she was retired from the ministry of health. She then became one of the t^•enty-two vice chairmen of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Biography in Chinese

李德全

李徳全(1896.7.1—)冯玉祥夫人,中日战争期间中国妇女界的重要人物。1949年10月到1964年12月,任中央人民政府卫生部长。

李徳全生在河北的一个义和团后残存的基督教家庭,他父亲是一个富裕农民后来成了基督教士,李德全出生三个月后就受洗入教。她有一个兄弟,两个
妹妹,1912年到北京进美国公理会办的贝满女校,毕业后,获贝满奖金进汇文女校。

她从汇文毕业后,到贝满女校教生物,并兼任美国传道会灯市口教堂的妇女工作,和北京基督教女青年会学生部秘书,此后工作日有增加。1923年北京基督教青年会秘书普林斯顿全美足球会干事盖莱把她介绍给基督将军冯玉祥,他们于1924年2月19日结婚。

为了报谢俄国教官及其军事援助,冯玉祥于1925年同意国民党在国民军中进行政治工作,李德全代为拟定部队教育计划,着重基督教义而少注意政治训练。1926年,李德全陪同冯玉祥去库伦,莫斯科。他们回国时,于1926年9月16日发表长篇声明,表示效忠国民党。

1930年,所谓反蒋的扩大会议失败后,冯玉祥退隐,1933年他和李德全住在张家口,1936年前住山东泰山,后去南京,任水利部长,最高国防委员,李德全则在妇女组织中居首领人物,在全国妇女教济会中极为活跃,后任该会和基督教妇女节约会主席,重庆中苏协会归女部主任。战后,她协同组成中国文化福利促进会。

1946年,李德全任政治协商会议军事部委员,后又选入国民大会,但在国大开会前,国民政府派冯玉祥率代表团去美国考察水利灌溉,9月底,他们两人离开上海。李徳全于2月在纽约出席国际妇女大会,她与冯玉祥,两个儿子,三个女儿住在加里福尼亚州。在完成水利考察之前,他完成了美国政府为他安排的巡回游览的三分之一。1947年,他发表演讲抨击蒋介石及国民政府。12月,国民政府召他回国,他公开拒绝回国,他说回到国民党统治地区将丧失生命。1948年1月,冯玉祥因反对国民党而被开除出国民党。不久,他成了在香港由李济深发起组成的国民党革命委员会的成员。

1948年7月,李徳全和冯玉祥趁俄国船“胜利”号去奥德赛。9月1日,该船在里海航行时船仓起火,冯玉祥身死。该船于奥德赛靠岸后,李德全由苏联回东北,1949年2月到已为共产党占领的北平,任全国民主妇联副主席,又出席在布拉格召开的保卫和平大会。回国后,任中国人民政治协商会议筹备委员,国民党革命委员会中央常委。9月,代表妇联出席人民政洽协商会议,
任全国委员。

1949年10月1日,中央人民政府成立,任卫生部长,政务院文教委员保卫世界和平委员会委员,中苏友好协会理事。1950年任人民救济会副主席,中国红十字会主席。1951年,任中国人民保卫儿童委员会主席。在五十年代中,她代表上述机构,出席国际红十字会及其他卫生机构,并出席世界和平理事会。她又率领中国妇女代表团去巴基斯坦、意大利、南斯拉夫等地出席国际妇女大会。她又是中国代表团成员,参加1953年3月斯大林的丧礼。

1953年,1959年,她被选为政协常委,1964年以河北代表出席全国人民代表大会,同年,任中国人民对外文化协会理事,1956年任亚非团第委员会副主席,科学规划委员,先进工作代表会议主席团成员。1958年任中朝友好协会会长,同年12月,加入中国共产党。1962年5月,被选为古巴红十字会名誉会长。1964年12月免去卫生部部长之职。她为公共卫生事业尽了很大力,作出了成绩。她是中国人民政治协商会议21名副主席之一。

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