Soong Ch’ing-ling (traditional Chinese: 宋慶齡) (27 January 1893 –
29 May 1981), was one of China's most significant political figures of the
early 20th century. She was a leader in the 1911 revolution which overthrew the
monarchy and established the Republic of China. She was part of the
Kuomingtang's Central Executive Committee. During the Chinese Civil War
and the Anti-Japanese War she broke with the leadership of the Kuomingtang and
supported the communists, founding the China Defense League and organizing aid
for the liberated areas. In 1949 she attended the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference as a representative of the Revolutionary Committee of
the Kuomingtang and was present at the founding of the People's Republic of
China.
Soong was the first non-royal woman to officially become head of state of China, acting as Co-Chairman of the Republic from 1968 until 1972. She again became head of state as President of China, in 1981, briefly before her death.
From 1948 onward, Soong was director of the China Welfare Fund, later named the China Welfare Institute, which –since 1952– published the monthly China Reconstructs.
Documents
1952: Welfare Work and World Peace
1954: Friendship of the Peoples and Peace
1958: Oppose the Military Provocations of U.S. Imperialism
1959: China's Liberation - Sino-Soviet Friendship - Man's Great Leap into the Future
1966: Sixteen Years of Liberation
1972: The Beginning of a New Era
1973: Ho Hsiang-ning — A Staunch Revolutionary
1975: Confucianism and Modern China
1976: A Great New Movement
1978: The China Welfare Institute: Forty Years in the People's Service
1979: China's Women in Our New Long March
1981: In Equality, For Peace: Speech upon receiving Honorary Doctorate from the University of Victoria