Wang Zida

Wang Zida (July 1913 – 1995; ) was a Chinese politician and revolutionary who served in a number of senior positions in Zhejiang Province, including Mayor of Hangzhou, Communist Party Secretary of Hangzhou, and a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Zhejiang Provincial Committee. He participated in the Chinese Communist revolutionary movement during the Second Sino-Japanese War, later held leading positions in eastern China after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, and was removed from all Party and government positions in 1983 after being found responsible for serious mistakes committed during the Cultural Revolution.

Biography

Wang was born in July 1913 in Zhenhai, Zhejiang. Orphaned at an early age, he worked as an apprentice in a grain and grocery shop. Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937, he organized local youth in eastern Zhejiang to conduct anti-Japanese publicity activities. In November 1937, he was introduced by the Eighth Route Army Office in Hankou to an Eighth Route Army cadet training unit in Linfen, Shanxi. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in February 1938.

Later in 1938, Wang was assigned by the Hankou Office of the Eighth Route Army to organize anti-Japanese guerrilla forces in Songyang County, Zhejiang. During the war, he successively served as Communist Party secretary of Wuxing, Anji, Yixing, and Wujin, and also held leadership positions in the Communist organizations of western Zhejiang. Between 1939 and 1941, he was one of the principal leaders of the Zhejiang Provincial Political Work Corps' Second Detachment, directing anti-Japanese mobilization and propaganda campaigns in areas including Wukang, Fatou, Houwu, and Luoshe.

During the Chinese Civil War, Wang served as secretary of the Lunan Sub-district Committee on the Jiangsu–Zhejiang–Anhui border. Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he became Secretary of the Huzhou Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. He subsequently served as Deputy Secretary and Commissioner of the Jiaxing Prefectural Committee and later as head of the Industrial Department of the Hangzhou Municipal Committee.

In 1953, Wang was appointed Mayor of Hangzhou and later became Deputy Secretary of the Hangzhou Municipal Committee. During the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1975, he served concurrently as a member of the Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Vice Chairman of the Zhejiang Revolutionary Committee, First Secretary of the CCP Hangzhou Municipal Committee, and Director of the Hangzhou Revolutionary Committee.

Wang was transferred out of Zhejiang in 1975. In 1977, he became Deputy Secretary of the Wuzhou Municipal Committee and Vice Chairman of the Wuzhou Revolutionary Committee in Guangxi. In September 1983, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party removed Wang from all Party and government positions after concluding that he had committed serious errors during the Cultural Revolution. He retired to Hangzhou in July 1984 and remained there until his death in 1995.