Xiong Xianghui

Born in Laizhou, Shandong, Xiong Xianghui came from a prominent family with roots in Fengyang County, Anhui. His father was a high-ranking judge who served as President of the High Court of both Hubei and Hunan provinces. In 1936, Xiong began studying at the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Tsinghua University, where he was secretly recruited to the Chinese Communist Party.

After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Xiong was ordered by the Communist Party to rush to Changsha in order to sign up for the Hunan Youth Battlefield Service Corps headed by Li Fanglan in General Hu Zongnan's First Army, in the hope of successfully penetrating the Nationalist military. Because of his strong family connections and his own skill and cleverness, Xiong caught the eye of Hu Zongnan who first sent him to study at the accelerated course of the Central Military Academy (which lasted a year) and, after his graduation as an infantry second lieutenant, named Xiong his private secretary (or mishu) and aide-de-camp. For the next 9 years, until 1947, Xiong would secretly pass countless top-secret documents to the Communist leadership.

His most critical contribution came in March 1947, when Hu Zongnan, under orders from Chiang Kai-Shek, moved to attack Yan'an. Although Hu was successful in the "lightning attack" operation to sack Yan'an, he was unable to capture or kill the CCP leadership, as Xiong Xianghui had secretly managed to warn the CCP leadership two weeks prior to the Nationalist assault. Xiong's warning gave the CCP leadership enough time to relocate to Zhangjiakou. Xiong had also provided the CCP with Hu's battle plans and elements of private conversations he had overheard with Chiang Kai-shek, which would cause immense damage to Hu's forces and to the wider Nationalist war effort thereafter.[2]

In late 1947, Hu Zongnan (still completely unaware of Xiong's secret Communist allegiance) sent Xiong to study abroad, at Western Reserve University in the United States, where Xiong stayed until 1949, earning a master's degree in Social Sciences. Xiong had a long diplomatic career after returning to China, ultimately serving in key posts and alongside Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, with whom he had a lifelong friendship. Most notably, he served as:

• Deputy Director of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1949–1962)
• Assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (1954–1971)
• Chargé d'affaires to the United Kingdom (1962–1967)
• Persecuted and criticized from 1967 to 1969, due to the Cultural Revolution
• Deputy Director of the 2nd Bureau (Intelligence) of the PLA General Staff (1970–1972), under General Zhang Ting
• Ambassador to Mexico (1972–1973)
• Deputy Director of the Central Investigation Department (1973–1982), under Luo Qingchang
• Vice Chairman and Party Secretary of the China International Trust Investment Corporation or CITIC (1982–1987)

Additionally, Xiong Xianghui served as a member of the Standing Committee of the 5th and 7th National Committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), secretary–general of the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs and member of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

Xiong died of cancer in Beijing in September 2005, at the age of 86, three years after his wife, Chen Xiaohua, with whom he had two children.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Xiong Xianghui.

• Guardian obituary
• China Daily Obituary
• (in Chinese) 熊向晖在周恩来总理的直接安排下，担任胡贴身副官、机要秘书长达十二年，并一直和周总理保持直接的单线联系。对于熊向晖在抗战中的作用，毛泽东称赞说：“他一人可以顶几个师”。