| Ren Jianxin | |
| Office: | President of the Supreme People's Court |
| Term Start: | 1988 |
| Term End: | 1998 |
| Predecessor: | Zheng Tianxiang |
| Successor: | Xiao Yang |
| Order1: | 4th Secretary of CCP Central Political and Legislative Committee |
| Term Start1: | 1992 |
| Term End1: | 1998 |
| 1Blankname1: | General Secretary |
| 1Namedata1: | Jiang Zemin |
| Predecessor1: | Qiao Shi |
| Successor1: | Luo Gan |
| Birth Place: | Xiangfen County, Shanxi, China |
| Party: | Chinese Communist Party |
| Spouse: | Niu Lizhi (牛立志) |
Ren Jianxin (; born August 1925) is a high-ranking Chinese official, judge, and politician. He most notably served as President of the Supreme People's Court from 1988 to 1998, after having held the position of Vice President since 1983, and as Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission from 1992 to 1998, overseeing all police, intelligence, and judicial agencies.[1]
Ren Jianxin was born in Xiangfen County, Shanxi, in 1925. He studied chemical engineering at Peking University, graduating in 1948. During his studies, he was an underground communist activist, and officially joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in June 1948. After the CCP victory in the Chinese Civil War and the subsequent establishment of the People's Republic of China, Ren was recruited to work in the "political-legal front", which included supervision of police, security and intelligence organizations, as well as the judicial and legislative systems, on behalf of the party.
He thus served, from 1949 to 1959, as an administrative employee in the Legislative Bureau of the Central People's Government, the Political and Legal Commission of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the State Council Bureau of Legislative Affairs, as well as the State Council's General Office.[2]
In 1959 Ren Jianxin left the political-legal apparatus and was named Secretary-General of the Foreign Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, where he stayed until 1966. That year, the Cultural Revolution broke out, and he was persecuted and imprisoned.
Restored to his position in 1971, from that year to 1981 he was the Director of Legal Affairs in the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, and, importantly, Secretary-General in its Maritime Arbitration Commission. This position became very important with the start of the Chinese economic reform, and Ren dealt with globally important maritime players, such as Greek ship-owners.
In 1983, Ren entered the Supreme People's Court of China as Executive Vice President for 5 years until 1988, and then President for the next 10 years from 1988 to 1998. It was during this time that he also advanced in the CCP, serving as a full member of the CCP's 13th and 14th Central Committees (1987–1997) and was chosen to become a member of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party (1983–1992) and later also the Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, from 1992 to 1998.
Finally, from 1998 to 2003 he was a Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.