An Ziwen

An was born in September 1909 in Zizhou County, Shaanxi province. In 1925, he joined the Chinese Communist Youth League, and in 1927 was inducted into the Chinese Communist Party. He participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. In 1949, An was appointed as head of the Personnel Ministry, and was elected as a CPPCC Standing Committee member. He served as vice minister of the Central Organization Department, and was appointed as the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and deputy secretary. In 1956, at the Eighth CCP National Congress, he was elected as head of the CCP Central Organization Department.

In his 1964 article Fostering Revolutionary Successors as a Strategic Task for the Party, An wrote about the threat posed by the peaceful evolution theory propounded by John Foster Dulles.[1] In particular, An focused on Dulles's statement at an October 28, 1958 press conference that peaceful evolution was "absolutely possible in a few hundred years, but perhaps just a matter of a few decades."[1]

In 1966, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, he was persecuted as one of the 61 Renegades and expelled from his posts. In 1978 under Deng Xiaoping, he was rehabilitated and appointed as vice president of the Central Party School, the latter co-opted to the Central Committee. On 25 June 1980, he died in Beijing.

An Ziwen married Liu Jingxiong, come from Shanxi province. They have three children. Specific information are as follows:[2]

• 61 Renegades (zh:六十一人叛徒集团案)