Wan Shaofen

Wan Shaofen
万绍芬
Communist Party Secretary of Jiangxi
In office June 1985 – June 1988
Preceded by	Bai Dongcai
Succeeded by	Mao Zhiyong
Personal details
Born	August 1930 (age 86) Nanchang, Jiangxi, China
Political party	Communist Party of China
Alma mater	National Chung Cheng University
Profession	Politician

Wan Shaofen (Chinese: 万绍芬; born August 1930) is a retired Chinese politician who served as Communist Party Secretary of Jiangxi Province from 1985 to 1988. She is best known as the first female provincial-level party chief of the People's Republic of China. Her career was closely tied to that of Hu Yaobang. She was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution because of her association with Hu, rose to prominence after Hu became General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in 1982, and lost her position as party chief of Jiangxi after Hu's downfall in 1987.

Wan was born in August 1930 in a village near Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province. Her parents were primary school teachers, and she is said to have descended from a Song dynasty defense minister.

Wan studied economics at National Chung Cheng University (now Nanchang University), where she participated in underground Communist activities in 1948. She formally joined the Communist Party (CPC) in 1952, after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and became a local leader in the Communist Youth League of China (CYL) and the official trade union. Besides Nanchang, she also worked in Shaanxi Province under the CYL leader Hu Yaobang, whom she befriended.

During the Cultural Revolution, she was persecuted for her association with Hu Yaobang, and was incarcerated and physically abused. She was denounced as a capitalist roader and a follower of the fallen leaders Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, and Hu. She was politically rehabilitated in 1974 and returned to work in Jiangxi.

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