Xu Dixin

Xu Dixin (Chinese: 许涤新; October 25, 1906 – February 8, 1988), born Xu Shengwen, was a Chinese economist, educator, and political figure. A native of Mianhu Town, Jieyang, Guangdong, he was a leading scholar of political economy in the People’s Republic of China, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and an influential leader of the China Democratic National Construction Association (CDNCA). He also served as honorary president of Shantou University.^[1]

Xu Dixin was born on October 25, 1906, in Mianhu, Jieyang, Guangdong. He completed his early education locally before enrolling at Xiamen University and later at Shanghai Labor University.^[2] In the early 1930s, he became active in left-wing intellectual circles, serving as deputy director and head of publicity of the China Social Sciences League. In 1932, he joined the National Shanghai College of Commerce, from which he graduated in 1933, and in the same year became a member of the Chinese Communist Party.^[3]

During the mid-1930s, Xu was arrested by the Nationalist authorities and imprisoned for nearly two years. After his release, he devoted himself to revolutionary journalism and united front work, serving as an editor of Qunzhong and a member of the editorial board of the Xinhua Daily. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he worked in the Southern Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party, assisting Dong Biwu in propaganda and united front affairs. After the war, he held senior financial and economic posts within the CCP’s Shanghai and Hong Kong work committees.^[4]

Following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Xu joined the China National Democratic Construction Association and assumed a series of key posts in Shanghai and at the national level. He served as deputy director of the Shanghai Military Control Commission’s Financial and Economic Committee, director of the Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce, and deputy director of the East China Financial and Economic Commission. He was later appointed head of the Economic Research Institute at Fudan University.^[5] In the early 1950s, Xu became secretary-general of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government and subsequently deputy head of the United Front Work Department of the CCP Central Committee.^[6] He also served as director and party secretary of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.^[7]

In December 1955, Xu was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.^[8] After the Cultural Revolution, he returned to academic leadership, serving as director of the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences from 1977 and as vice president of the academy from 1978.^[9] In 1981, he was appointed president of Shantou University and later became its honorary president in 1986. Xu Dixin died in Beijing on February 8, 1988, at the age of 82.^[10][11]