Total catalogue of Rival of China

Transcription

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2 Acknowledgement This book is a translation of a book written in Chinese. The original book in Chinese is Volume 3 of the book entitled The revival of China written by the author. The book The revival of China has many versions, all available at websites and 1

3 Total catalogue of Rival of China Primer Part 1 National revolution Part 2 The red bases Part 3 The long march Part 4 The anti-japanese war Part 5 The decisive battles between CCP and GMD Part 6 New China's first seventeen years Part 7 The Cultural Revolution.Page 8 Part 8 Reform and Opening Up...Page 409 2

4 Contents Part 7 Cultural Revolution Chapter 7.1 The start of the Cultural Revolution (Critique of historical drama "HAI Rui dismissed from office". Please of "God, the respected". LUO Rui-qing criticized. PENG Zhen criticized. LU Ding-yi criticized. YANG Shang-kun criticized. The 5-16 Notice),.Page 8 Chapter 7.2 Critique on the Road of LIU and DENG (Working groups. The 11th plenary session of the Eighth Central Committee. The central working conference. Encounters of Marshal HE Long. ZHOU En-lai protected democratic personage. ZHOU En-lai protected old cadres.)..page 34 Chapter 7.3 Red Guards (The rise of Red Guards. LIU Shao-ji denounced. DENG Xiao-ping denounced. Minister ZHANG Lin-zhi died. Marshal PENG De-huai ribs broken. "Pulling out traitors". The Cultural Revolution in the Army.)..Page 57 Chapter 7.4 Seize power of provinces (The Anting Incident. Seize power of Newspaper Wenweipo. Seizes powers of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Party. Seize power nationwide. Fights by force nationwide. The Wuhan Incident. Fight by force in Shanghai.)...Page 102 Chapter 7.5 Some struggles (Struggle of TAO Zhu. Struggle in the Jingxi Hotel. Struggle in the Huairentang Hall.)..Page 128 Chapter 7.6 Hit on some extreme leftists (Check of the 5-16 Corps. WANG Li, GUAN Feng and QI Ben-yu was overthrown. The Red Guards got out from history.). Page 149 Chapter 7.7 LIU, DENG and TAO s situation (LIU Shao-ji was seriously ill. LIU Shao-ji was designated as a traitor. Border conflict in Zhengpao Island. Leaders were evacuated out of Beijing. The death of LIU Shao-ji. Situation of DENG Xiao-ping. TAO Zhu died. PENG De-huai died. The death of HE Long.). Page 164 Chapter 7.8 The formation of the LIN Biao s Group (YANG, YU and FU s event. Contradiction between the administrative group of Central Military Commission and the Central Cultural 3

5 Revolution Group. The ninth congress of the Party. Conflicts within the Political Bureau.).Page 194 Chapter 7.9 Lushan Meeting in the year of 1970 (Debate in pre-conference on the constitutional amendment. Another Lushan Meeting. Critique on CHEN Bo-da.) Page 226 Chapter 7.10 LIN Biao fled (LIN Li-guo s activities. MAO Ze-dong's southern tour. LIN Li-guo plans to kill MAO Ze-dong. LIN Biao s escape. MAO Ze-dong after LIN Biao fled. A letter of MAO to JIANG Qing at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.) Page 266 Chapter 7.11 Liberation of veteran cadres (Redress for the February Adverse Current. DENG Xiao-ping came back. Liberation of a large number of old cadres. JIANG Qing made troubles.).page 309 Chapter 7.12 Who to succeed (WANG Hong-wen become a vice chairman of the Party. DENG Xiao-ping presided the State Council. Critique of the "Gang of four" by MAO Ze-dong. ZHOU Enlai died. The Tiananmen Incident. Death of MAO Zedong.)...Page 327 Chapter 7.13 Economic achievements of the MAO era (Economic data of 1976; China oil discovery; Nuclear bombs, missiles and satellites; Meritorious scientist QIAN Xue-sheng; Meritorious scientist DENG Jia-xian; Gezhouba hydropower station; YUAN Long-ping developed hybrid rice; Synthetic insulin; Artemisinin; CHEN Jing-run and the Goldbach conjecture; Nixon's visit to China)...Page 355 Part 8 Reform and Opening Up Chapter 8.1 Chapter 8.2 HUA Gang-feng became the top leader of China (HUA Guofeng caught the Gang of Four; HUA Guo-feng holds high the banner of MAO Ze-dong; DENG Xiao-ping s comeback; The trial of the Gang of Four)... Page 409 DENG Xiao-ping became the core of the leadership (Debate on the proposition that "practice is the sole criterion for testing truth"; the Third Plenary Session of Eleventh Central Committee of CCP; WANG Dong-xing, WU De, CHEN Xilian and JI Deng-kui quitting Politburo; HUA Guo-feng stepped down; The resolution on a number of historical issues 4

6 since the founding of the New China; The border war with Vietnam)......Page 441 Chapter 8.3 Vindication of unjust, false and wrong cases (Launch of vindication; Vindication record; Celebrities committed suicide during the Cultural Revolution because of unbearable persecution; Celebrities severely suffered mentally and physically during the Cultural Revolution and died due to illness)......page 473 Chapter 8.4 The beginning of Reform and Opening Up (The Household Responsibility System; The private sector; Special economic zones, The socialist road with Chinese characteristics)...page 488 Chapter 8.5 DENG Xiao-ping upholding the Four Cardinal Principles (Cleaning-up spiritual pollution; Against Bourgeois Liberalization; Student protests; HU Yao-bang stepped down).....page 510 Chapter 8.6 Continuation of the Reform and Opening Up (ZHAO Zi-yang began hosting the central works; The 13th Party Congress; New initiatives of Reform and Opening Up).....Page 528 Chapter 8.7 The June 4 th Incident (Trends on the society; Student unrest broke out again; Preparations for the establishment of new leadership; Cleared through Tiananmen Square; How many people died? ZHAO Zi-yang stepped down; ZHAO Zi-yang was examined in isolation; DENG Xiao-ping retired).page 540 Chapter 8.8 DENG Xiao-ping adhered to Reform and Opening Up (Debate after the June 4 th Incident; The collapse of international communist camp; DENG Xiao-ping's southern tour began; In Shenzhen; In Zhuhai, In Shanghai; The new round of Reform and Opening Up)..Page 587 Chapter 8.9 The period of JIANG Ze-min (MFN status of trade with USA; Entering the World Trade Organization; Hong Kong and Macao's return to China; The Taiwan issue; The Three Gorges Dam; The Qinghai-Tibet Railway; The Xiamen Yuanhua smuggling group; JIANG Ze-min retired)... Page 612 Chapter 8.10 The period of HU Jin-tao (SARS; The Wenchuan earthquake; A new situation across the Taiwan Strait; Corruption officials; HU Jin-tao s strict constraints on his family members; Examples of economic success; The world's second largest economy)...page 647 5

7 Chapter 7.1 The start of the Cultural Revolution Critique of historical drama "HAI Rui dismissed from office" In November 10, 1965, the newspaper "Wenheibo" in Shanghai published an article written by YAO Wen-yuan and entitled On the new historical drama HAI Rui dismissed from office. This opened the prelude to the Great Cultural Revolution. The drama was written in 1959 by WU Han, is a famous Ming Dynasty expert and vice mayor of Beijing City. At that time, MAO Ze-dong had advocated learning the Ming Dynasty official HAI Rui s spirit of "daring to upright and outspoken". He asked cadres to speak the truth. To follow MAO s advocating, WU Han went into action without delay by publishing the historical drama HAI Rui dismissed from office. In addition, he also published articles entitled "HAI Rui scolded the emperor", "On Hai Rui", etc. In 1962, the script "HAI Rui dismissed from office" staged. MAO Ze-dong s wife JIANG Qing watched the show and claimed that this drama has big problems. She went to the Culture Department and the Propaganda Department, and had a meeting with the ministers and deputy ministers of the two Departments, asking them to criticize the staged drama. But the four ministers did not take her advice seriously and took no action at all. The prime minister ZHOU En-lai learned this and told WU Han that some people said "Hai Rui dismissed from office" insinuates. WU replied that I didn't insinuate. ZHOU let WU to write a report to explain what happened. The Beijing party secretary and mayor PENG Zhen tried to protect WU and, as the result, the critique on WU did not really happen, for this time. In 1964, JIANG Qing once again suggested to MAO that the drama "HAI Rui dismissed from office" should be criticized, and got the support from MAO. She began looking for someone to write a critique article in Beijing. She talked to three writers, but all of them were afraid of writing an article to criticize WU since WU is a famous historian and therefore untouchable. Seeing failure in Beijing, JIANG plans to go to Shanghai to promote it because the first Secretary of the Party in Shanghai, KE Qing-shi, had always been very closely following Chairman MAO. In the spring of 1965, with MAO's support, JIANG went to Shanghai and talked with KE. In KE s arrangements, there formed a writing team including JIANG Qing, ZHANG Chun-qiao who is the Party secretary for education in Shanghai, YAO Wen-yuan who is a member of the editorial committee of Shanghai newspaper "Liberation Daily" and previously wrote critique articles against famous writers HU Feng, DING Ling, BA Jin and others. YAO was 6

8 the one who would compose an article of criticism against the historical drama "HAI Rui dismissed from office". In the following six months, YAO was working hard in a house in Kangping Road. In the meantime, JIANG often came to Shanghai, in the name of discussing the revolutionary model operas (Note: These are Beijing operas, but the theme is modern) she led, including "Harbor" and "Fight in Mountain Weihushan". But in fact, she was coming to discuss the article YAO was composing. According to JIANG's intentions, YAO s article states that WU s drama is to associate the history with the issues at the present times. WU Han After YAO finished his writing of the essays entitled "On the new historical drama HAI Rui dismissed from office ", ZHANG Chun-qiao invited academic celebrities in Shanghai to discuss YAO s essays, to seek their comments. ZHANG said to the academics: "I am honored to have you, the experts and professors here today. The presented article of Comrade YAO Wen-yuan is only a draft, that is, it is still very immature and only for soliciting opinions. Please feel free to let us know your comments so that we can make further changes." The deputy director of the Shanghai Institute of History Studies, ZHOU Yu-tong, said: "WU Han is my old friend and I know that he is a good man. He was a brave fighter for democracy against the Guomindang fascist rule before the Liberation, faithfully followed the Party and won the trust of Chairman MAO. How can it be said that he is anti-party and anti-socialism? Does it put the academic problem with political issues and trapping people in sin?" Then, Professor LI 7

9 Ping-xin of Department of History of the East China Normal University and the Party secretary of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, LI Pei-nan, also spoke one after another, against YAO s essays. These opinions, however, were not accepted in modifying the essays. YAO's article was published in Shanghai newspaper "Wenheibo" in November 10, Please of "God the respected" In January 21, 1966, MAO Ze-dong let JIANG Qing go to Suzhou City to talk with LIN Biao about a convening of a literary officials in the Army. JIANG then went to Suzhou, and said to LIN: "I want to please the 'God, the respected', i.e. the People's Liberation Army, to support me." LIN said okay to her. LIN then let his wife YE Qun call the vice director of the Army s General Political Department, LIU Zhi-jian. After reporting to the director of the General Political Department, XIAO Hua, LIU led the vice culture minister of the Department, XIE Tang-zhong, the propaganda minister CHEN Ya-ding and the vice propaganda minister LI Man-cun attend the proposed forum. Soon after, YE called LIU again to convey LIN's words, and then reads slowly every single word of LIN as follows: "Comrade JIANG Qing came to Suzhou yesterday and talked to me. In the aspect of literary work, she is very strong politically and an expert in the arts. She has a lot of valuable advice, and you should pay high attention to her advice and implement her advice. In the future, you should provide her all documents and news on literary aspects in the Army so that she knows the situation of the Army s literary works, and you should ask for her opinions so that the Army s literary work can be improved." In early February, LIU Zhi-jian s team arrived at Yanan Hotel in Shanghai. When the convening began, JIANG Qing declared: "No record and no unauthorized leaking, and not let Beijing know." Then, she briefed on her own experiences, saying that she was form Zhucheng City of Shandong Province, and in her teens moved from Jinan City to Qingdao City and then to Shanghai City. She said that she became an assistant of Chairman MAO after married with him in Yanan and then a "literary sentry" after entering Beijing. She then told the participants that she buy tickets for theaters, "wearing a mask... Found that the monsters and freaks of all descriptions, emperor, gifted scholars and beautiful ladies rule our stage. It is a complete mess. I reported this to Chairman MAO, so there were his Two instructions on literature and arts.... Twenty-four years have passed after Chairman MAO published his 8

10 "Speech on literature and arts at Yanan Forum", but his words have not been implemented in the literary and art circles, and the stage still dominated by the emperor, gifted scholars and beautiful ladies, dead people and foreigners. Chairman MAO has repeatedly criticized, but they would basically not listen to him but instead listen to ZHOU Yang, LIN Mo-han and XIA Yan (Note: these are officials in the literature and arts), etc... Why is this so? I thought for a long time and now understand that there is, in the opposite side of Chairman MAO s, an anti-party and anti-socialism black line. In the past seventeen years (Note: refers to the years after the foundation of the new China in 1949), they have been ruling us." At nights, she and all others got together watching movies. While watching, she continuously gave her comments, saying this movie does not write along the correct political line but the wrong line, that film beautifies the enemy and sing for the praises of a traitor; this movie demonizes the working people and the people's army, that film glorifies war misery and preached pacifism; this one focuses on love and romance and is vulgar, that one does not write the hero but middle character; this film artificially create a tragic ending by shaping a hero first and then letting him die, and that film is to alive a niche in the temple of fame. After watched dozens of films in this way, JIANG summarized that "there is not even one being satisfactory". In addition to watching together with and listening to JIANG, the participants also have discussions either in groups or in an individual conversation with JIANG though there was only one person, i.e. JIANG, who was talking. On February 19, JIANG finally said: "I have no more to say. You can go now." After the forum ended, LIU Zhi-jian and other three people got together and let CHEN Ya-ding write down JIANG s words and prepared a document entitled "Summary of the symposium on Army s literary work summoned by Comrade JIANG Qing". The summary was then sent to JIANG for review. Subsequently, LIU flied, bringing the summary with him, from Shanghai to Jinan City and reported to LIN Biao who lived in the Nanjiao Hotel in Jinan City. After reviewing the summary, LIN said: "This material does a good work and is an important achievement. The symposium led by Comrade JIANG Qing is in a right direction. After returning to your post, you should communicate it rapidly, study it hard and implement it seriously." In the morning of the second day, LIU flies from Jinan City back to Beijing. Just when arrived at the Beijing airport, LIU unexpectedly received a call from JIANG's secretary, conveying JIANG s words that the summary "distorted my original intention.... It gives 9

11 me a big trouble.... Don't convey, don't send the summary." She also said that she has told Chairman MAO about it, and Chairman MAO lets CHEN Boda participate in the modification of the summary. CHEN Bo-da, JIANG Qing, LIU Zhi-jian, et al had a meeting. CHEN said: "Seventeen years of dictatorship by the black line in literary field is a very important issue, but the summary does not clarify where the black line came from.... It should be clearly stated that this black line in arts is actually the continuation of the WANG Min s Right Opportunism Line in the 1930s.... The opera revolution personally led by Comrade JIANG Qing has made modern operas available, such as "Shajiabang", "Story of a red light" and "Taking of Weihushan", and the ballet "Red women army" etc. These are our proletarian things. These have to be written in the summary, so to make clear what should be broken and what should be established." JIANG was very happy for CHEN s words and said: "This helps us to improve, hits the nail on the head, and is very powerful. Some people will not feel comfortable!" After the meeting, CHEN Ya-ding revised the summary accordingly. In this revision, the wording of "Comrade JIANG Qing s extremely important advice" were changed to "common understanding" or "discussion results" of the symposium participants. JIANG delivered the revised Summary to MAO for review and approval. MAO makes eleven changes. Accordingly modified version of the Summary was once again sent to MAO by JIANG. MAO made changes in more than ten places and wrote an instruction: "I have reviewed this twice and it seems okay now. I changed a little. I ask you to consider the changes. I suggest sending this, in the name of the Central Military Commission, to some comrades in charge for soliciting opinions, pointing out errors and modifying. Of course, the first ones it should be sent to solicit opinions are comrades in the CMC." Later, MAO added words "Comrade LIN Biao commissioned" to the title of the Summary. Finally, the Summary was issued on April 10, 1966 as a document from the Party s Central Committee. After that, a large number of films had been criticized national wide and a large number of artists were called a "black gang", the "representatives of the Bourgeoisie" and "counter revolutionary revisionists", including HU Feng, FENG Xue-feng, DING Ling, AI Qing, QIN Zhaoyang, LIN Mo-han, TIAN Han, XIA Yan, YANG Han-sheng, QI Yanming, CHEN Huang-mei, SHAO Quan-lin, et al. Later, YAO Wenyuan published another article entitled "On anti-revolutionary double- 10

12 faced ZHOU Yang", calling ZHOU as the general leader of the black line of anti-party and anti-socialist literature and arts". At the time, ZHOU was a secretary of the Party in the Central Propaganda Department, and Vice Minister and the party secretary of the Ministry of Culture. In November 28, Premier ZHOU En-lai delivered a speech at a conference in the literature and arts circle. He said: "Let me introduce people sitting here. They are Comrade CHEN Bo-da, Comrade KANG Sheng and Comrade JIANG Qing (Note: JIANG had no official position at the time), all of them firmly support and execute Chairman MAO s proletarian revolutionary line. All the achievements in literary revolution, as stated above, are inseparable from Comrade JIANG Qing's guidance.... Comrade JIANG Qing personally took part in the practice of struggle and art practice. Although the tough fight circumstance had damaged Comrade JIANG Qing's physical health, but spiritual comfort and encouragement will certainly be able to compensate for these losses. I am a layman in arts and an unsuccessful supporter. In principle, I insisted revolutionization, popularization, combatization and nationalization, but in practice, often make errors. For example, I am a layman in music.... In this issue, Comrade JIANG Qing directly helped me, and I has gotten a profound experience in the practice of learning revolutionary songs." LUO Rui-qing criticized After the Lushan Meeting in 1959, LIN Biao replace PENG De-huai and became the minister of the Defense Ministry. He nominated LUO Rui-qing as the chief of general staff of the People s Liberation Army (PLA) and the chief secretary of the Central Military Commission, succeeding HUANG Kecheng. After 1965, however, LUO said on many public occasions that he does not agree with some of LIN's arguments. LIN said in a military commission meeting in 1965 that army should highlight the politics and that "the military training is now too prominent and used too much time so that it impacts the politics in some degree." LUO replied by saying: "1965 is the best year in military training since the founding of the PRC. This is also what Chairman MAO said." LIN then said: Military training should not impact politics. In the opposite, politics can impact all others. LUO replies: But it should not be a random impact. LIN explains: "When politics being out, all others washed away, including military training. If politics is not highlighted, even a good training would be no use and then everything else, including 11

13 military training, can not be successful. Without good political work, even good training would have no use if solders go backward but not forward." LUO said: " Red (Note: meaning good political accomplishment) and Expert (Note: meaning good training accomplishment in the case of Army) should have a dialectical relationship. When political accomplishment becomes good, other works should also be done. Political work is to ensure the completion of the task of training. Otherwise, if only promoting politics every day, but training is always not good and no raise, then it is an armchair politician, as Chairman MAO said. Solders could also run backward if military training is not good enough. In other occasions, LUO disagree with LIN s "Peak theory" (Note: Refers to LIN s words of "MAO Ze-dong s Thought is the peak of the Marx-Leninism) and said: "Will Marx-Leninism and MAO Ze-dong s Thought no longer develop?" In review of a script to be appear in the newspaper "Liberation Army Daily, LUO deleted all words of "peak" and "the highest and the most live " (Note: Refers to LIN s words of "MAO Ze-dong s Thought is the highest and most live Marx-Leninism.") He wrote an instruction beside: "Chairman MAO won't agree with such words if he knows." After learned from MAO Ze-dong's secretary TIAN Jia-ying, LUO said at the end of June, 1965, to personnel at the "Liberation Army Daily : " I have asked Comrade Jia-ying, our theorist, and he said: It is better not to use the wording of 'the highest and most live'. 'Highest'? Is there a one just lower than the 'highest'? 'Most live'? Is there a one just lower than most live? Are Marx s and Lenin s books dead and not moving forward? " When someone reminded LUO that these are LIN Biao s words, he said: "LIN s words are not necessarily always right. We listen to who has truth, rather than who s rank is higher." At the end of November, 1965, LIN Biao s wife YE Qun went from Suzhou City to Hangzhou City to visit MAO Ze-dong. She reported to him LIN s opnion on LUO Rui-qing, with some materials presented. After listening to her, MAO let her return to Suzhou City at the night and tell LIN: I need to consider what to do about it. Ask LIN Biao pay more attention to safety in Suzhou. A few days later, MAO decided to convene an enlarged meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee in Shanghai to criticize LUO, but not face-toface. In December 8, the standing committee members LIU Shao-ji, ZHOU En-lai, ZHU De and DENG Xiao-ping flied, each in a plane separately, from Beijing to Shanghai. The major persons in charge of the Central Military 12

14 Commission, Army and the State Departments flied in four aircrafts, to Shanghai. The total number of attendants was close to one hundred. All of them lived in the Jinjiang Hotel. In the Hotel, YE Qun privately told the Air Force commander WU Fa-xian: "Since you do not know the situation, here I tell you a little bit of materials to be used for exposure and critics at the meeting. First, LUO Tall (Note: the nick name of LUO Rui-qing as he is very tall) is against LIN Biao s point of outstanding politics, and said that we should highlight both politics and military training, and both are important. That is, he takes eclecticism. Second, LUO had not reported to LIN for a long period of time. He did not discuss and ventilate with LIN a number of important issues. For example, the military contest held in the area of the Ming Dynasty Tombs in Beijing, LUO did not report to LIN though he was not in Beijing. LIN completely disagrees with LUO s approach. Third, LUO asked LIN to hand the power he has to someone better. Once, LUO came to our residence and reported to LIN, but LIN let him leave earlier since LIN felt not well. LUO then loudly said in the hallway: A sick man (Note: i.e. LIN Biao whose health is not good) still tries to control everything? A patient should make way for others and don't be on the way.' LIN was almost fainted. Fourth, LUO Rui-qing had told LIU Ya-lou four points, including the suggestion that LIN is relegated to the 'second tier', or just working at the Central but letting LUO to take care of works in the Central Military Commission. In addition, when LIN letting me go to the Four Cleanups movement so that he can get first hand information, LUO opposed by saying that 'why do you go to Four Cleanups, while your main job being to protect LIN s health.' Nobody knows these information except YANG Cheng-wu, XIAO Hua, LEI Ying-fu and you. You and others should speak out at the meeting and poke the materials out." In the morning of December 18, the Politburo Standing Committee meeting began, chaired by DENG Xiao-ping and assisted by ZHOU En-lai. The participants were divided into three groups, led by LIU Shao-ji, ZHOU En-lai and DENG Xiao-ping respectively. MAO Ze-dong and LIN Biao didn't show up at the meeting, but MAO called a meeting of the Standing Committee at night every day, listening to the report and make decisions. 13

15 In the second group led by ZHOU En-lai, YE Qun spoke for several hours, accusing LUO Rui-qing s ambition. She said that, after 1964, LUO began to push LIN Biao down, shouting "the sick get out of the way to make a way for a better man." She said LUO let LIU Ya-lou tell her four suggestions: First, LIN will be out of the central political arena sooner or later. If it is not now, it will be some time later. Second, protect LIN s health. Third, LIN should not interfere the military affairs any more. Fourth, let LUO do the Central Military Commission s works." She said that, after she heard LIU Ya-lou conveyed LUO s four points, she told LIU: "LIN Biao's honor is already very high and he has no intention to have more." She said, after coming home, she spoke to LIN about this matter and LIN said: "LUO Rui-qing is a careerist." In the third group led by DENG Xiaoping, nobody really knew what the LUO Rui-qin s problems are, and therefore nobody spoke. DENG then said: "Some people say that WU Fa-xian knows something. Do you want to speak first?" So, WU spoke, repeating what YE Qun told him. When he finished, DENG asked: "That s it?" WU answered: Yes, that is what I know. So, the meeting was in silence again. Later under the repeated inspirations of DENG, somebody spoke, but only for a few words. Just at 11 AM, DENG declared the meeting closed. On December 19, the meeting disclosed a letter of WU Fa-xian to LIN Biao: "Vice Chairman LIN: I have talked on LUO Rui-qing s problems in a group discussion of the central conference. There are two issues that need a written report for your attention: (1) In September, 1964 (I do not remember the date, but it was not far after Comrade LIU Ya-lou returned back from a visit to Romania), comrade LIU Ya-lou said that Comrade LUO Rui-qing had said to him that comrade LIN Biao had talked to Comrade LUO Rui-qing: Comrade LIN Biao is not in a good health condition and therefore LUO should independently work on military affairs in the future and be bold in dealing with problems independently, and do not to go around and ask for instructions (Note: This implied not asking for instructions from Marshal HE Long anymore). Comrade LIN also asked Comrade LUO spend more time on national battlefield terrain, go there to have a personal look because, once there is a war, the Army will depend on his command. This passage of Comrade LIU Ya-lou to me may fully demonstrate that Comrade LUO Ruiqing s ambitions to seize the military power. (2) In the late April of this year, Comrade LIU Ya-lou s illness became very serious. I went to Shanghai on the evening of April 23 rd and in the 14

16 morning of the next day visited him by the bedside in the hospital. (Note: at the time, LIU is the commander and WU the political commissar of the Air Force). At that time, Comrade LIU was taking a blood transfusion. He waved the nurse to walk away and then said to me, on and off: "LUO wrote me a letter, I do not know what his purpose is. He insulted me. I was fooled. I'm sorry to Comrade LIN Biao and Comrade xx. You should pay attention to avoid being fooled in the future." When he spoke, he was very weak, his sound was very low, his tongue a little stiff and his eyes becoming red while continuing to speak. LIU did not show me LUO's letter nor speak the contents of the letter. (Note: Later, in LIU Ya-lou's relics, there found a letter to him from LUO, asking him not control the Air Force s affairs too much and let them go a bit.) That night, ZHOU En-lai talked to WU and asked: "How did LUO Rui-qing against LIN Biao?" WU was a little bit surprised and asked: "You don't know that?" ZHOU said he didn't know the situation. So, WU repeated what YE Qun told him and added: "I heard that the Navy has some materials related to it." In the morning of the second day, LIU Shao-ji talked to WU, WU told him YE s words once again. By the noon, LIU invited WU for lunch together. In the evening of December 20, ZHOU En-lai asked WU Fa-xian to arrange an aircraft, with the best equipment and the most reliable crew, to take LUO Rui-qing to Shanghai City from Kunming City in Yunnan Province. In particularly, he asked WU to have a good grasp of the aircraft, prepare contingency measures, and make sure "the aircraft only fly eastward, but not allowed to fly westward", meaning to prevent LUO flying to Burma or India. ZHOU also said that, after the plane arrived at Shanghai airport, only three men can meet LUO there: CHEN Pei-xian as the host who is the mayor of Shanghai, XIE Fu-zhi who is the Minister of the Department of Public Security, and WU himself who is the controller of the aircraft. And no one else can ever go to the airport. ZHOU repeatedly stressed that LUO s coming to Shanghai should be strictly confidential and should not tell anybody. When WU was going to leave the room, his secretary came in, telling him that PENG Zhen is calling you from Beijing. WU was going to pick up the phone, but immediately stopped by ZHOU. ZHOU said to the secretary: "Just say that we could not find WU. PENG may want to find out what is going on in the meeting." In the afternoon of December 21, LUO s plane arrived at Shanghai, together with QIN Ji-wei who was the commander of the Kunming Military 15

17 Region. LUO s face was very bad, he was very nervous and seemed to be aware of what is happening. Mayor CHEN took LUO to a house within Jinjiang Hotel. ZHOU En-lai and DENG Xiao-ping et al were waiting there, ready to talk with LUO. The participants of the meeting continue to criticize LUO, still not face-toface. They spoke up this time. On the afternoon of December 23, there was a general assembly held in the Hotel s restaurant on the Hotel s top floor. LIU Shao-qi, ZHU De, ZHOU En-lai, DENG Xiao-ping and other leaders attended the meeting, but MAO Ze-dong and LIN Biao didn't show up. ZHOU En-lai presided the assembly and DENG Xiao-ping made a concluding statement. DENG s conclusion had five points: (1) The conference has tentatively revealed some problems of LUO Ruiqing, and now comes to an end temporarily. (2) LUO s major problem is not to resolutely implement Comrade LIN Biao s instruction of Highlight politics and it is an eclectic error. (3) LUO s problems exposed and criticized in the meeting will be conveyed to him and will give him some time to recognize his problems and errors. (4) LUO s problems should be known only by the participants and not be spread. (5) The question of what to do next will be answered by the Central after returning to Beijing. The meeting was dismissed after DENG s conclusion. After the Shanghai meeting, MAO Ze-dong called a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission. The meeting decided to repeal LUO Rui-qing's duties as Secretary of the Military Commission and the chief of staff. It was also decided that Vice Chairman of the Military Commission YE Jian-ying appointed as the secretary of the Military Commission, and YANG Cheng-wu as acting chief of the general staff. From then on, LUO Rui-qing was sidelined. At the beginning of March 1966, DENG Xiao-ping convened a small meeting in Huairentang Hall in the Zhongnanhai District, with only thirty people attended. On the meeting, DENG said: "On LUO Rui-qing s problems, the Shanghai meeting has lifted the lid, now Chairman MAO decided to continue the meeting in Beijing. It is still a small meeting, mainly of the Central Military Commission, absorbing main officials of the Military 16

18 Regions, of the various Departments of the central authority, and of the State Council's relevant Departments. The total number of participants will not be more than one hundred. In the Army side, the CMC vice chairman and the secretary YE Jian-ying, and YANG Cheng-wu and XIAO Hua will form a leading group to preside over the meeting and lead a face-to-face struggle against LUO. The meeting place is the Jingxi Hotel in order to secure." In March 4, a meeting denouncing LUO Rui-qing started at the Jingxi Hotel. In the first day of the meeting, YE Jian-ying explained the purpose of the meeting and requirements first. No member of the Politburo Standing Committee showed up in the meeting. When LUO arrived at the meeting, no one stepped forward to greet him. Since then, every time LUO came to the meeting, he is a lonely man holding a pen and a notebook, sitting behind a table and recording something. On the first day of the discussion, Xu Guangda exposed some words and deeds of LUO when in Yanan. LUO seemed surprised and very angry, but did not say anything. In the second day of the meeting, YE Qun made a phone call from Suzhou to WU Fa-xian, asking if he had spoken out. He told her that he did not. She then asked him to speak, and repeated what she said during the Shanghai meeting. In addition, she told him that, when she visited LIU Ya-lou to verify LUO s four points, LIU's wife ZHAI Yun-ying was present. Therefore, she asked WU to visit ZHAI immediately together with a secretarial who should record what ZHAI would say. She also told WU that ZHAI should sign in the record and that the record should immediately be sent to LIN Biao in Suzhou. In accordance to YE s requirements, WU and his secretary visited ZHAI. At the end of the visit, ZHAI wrote a statement, which she signed: "Ya-lou was sick and in the hospital at 922 Huashan Road, Shanghai. Once Comrade YE Qun and comrade LIN Dou-dou (LIN Biao s daughter) visited him in the bedside. I was not there when they talk. Later, I entered the room to ask Ya-lou to take medicine and saw Ya-lou was sitting in the couch and heard Ya-lou said: Okay, I'm tired now. I have four points and let us talk about it next time.' (He repeated this sentence three times.) I do not know what these four points are. Ya-lou hadn't told me." WU send the statement to LIN Biao immediately. One week after the meeting started, YE Qun in Suzhou City called WU Fa-xin again and said: "LIU Ya-lou was the commander of the Air Force. Who will speak if you don't? Only you are the most suitable speaker. You must speak in hurry and tell YU Lijin (Note: the political commissar of the Air Force) also to speak. What do 17

19 you afraid of, as I had already spoke on the four points when reporting to Chairman MAO and when at the meeting in Shanghai?" WU told YANG Cheng-wu about YE s call and YANG said: What can you say to LIN Biao if you do not speak on it? In the next day, YE called WU again and said: I have asked YANG Cheng-wu and he told me you have still not spoken out. LIN Biao said that we must ask WU Fat (WU Fa-xian s nickname) to speak on the 'four points' at the meeting. It is already late and you would be more passive if you don't speak now. LIN also said you must think over whom you will follow, LIN or LUO? LIN also asked me to tell you that LUO Tall reached out in the party and wanted to seize military power, and that Chairman MAO had personally presided and mastered over the meeting to solve LUO s problem. I want you to think carefully as you posted words of LUO Tall everywhere in the Air Force, you have lifted him up so high, why? LIN Biao said that you are very close to LUO and that you must thoroughly expose LUO s problems and keep away from him." WU hurriedly replied: "Of course, I follow LIN. How can I follow LUO s heel?" YE said: "Good. You should speak at the meeting tomorrow morning. You are the most appropriate person to tell what LIU Ya-lou said. Both you and YU Li-jin should speak out at the meeting. I have already talked to YANG Chengwu and he and others will follow after you and YU speak." In the second day, WU and YU spoke at the meeting, exposed LUO words of the "four points". After their speech, other participants overwhelmingly criticized LUO, especially on his "four points". In the morning of March 18, LUO left a note to his wife in their home: "Zhiping: I didn t tell you about the meeting for the sake of discipline. Good bye, please ask our children to listen to the party forever and listen to the words of Chairman MAO forever. Our party is always glorious, right and great. You must continue to correct yourself and be a revolutionary." Then, he jumped from the second floor and, as the result, one of his legs was broken and he was sent to the Beijing Hospital for treatment. In the second day s meeting, YE Jian-ying announced LUO s jump off building with an intention of suicide. At the end of March, the conference held a general meeting. On the meeting, PENG Zhen, YE Jian-ying, YANG Cheng-wu and XIAO Hua have spoken. At last, YE announced that critic on LUO Rui-qing comes to an end. 18

20 PENG Zhen criticized PENG Zhen is a member of the Political Bureau of the Party, and the mayor and party s first secretary of Beijing City. He was angry for that JIANG Qing had not let him know before criticizing Beijing s vice mayor WU Han. He said: "I have watched the drama HAI Rui dismissed from office and not seen a big problem of it... In Shanghai, ZHOU Xin-fang also played in the same drama. Is ZHANG Chun-qiao (the secretary for culture and arts of the Shanghai municipals committee of the Party) responsible to it?" The persons in charge of the Propaganda Department and the Xinhua News Agency also thought that it is very reluctant for YAO article to relate the drama to the tide of anti-collectivization and verdict. PENG told local newspapers in Beijing: Do not re-publish YAO s article. Two weeks later, MAO Zedong said to JIANG Qing: Beijing newspapers do not reprint YAO s article. Let us reprint it as a booklet. In November 24, 1965, the Xinhua Bookstore branch in Shanghai inquired orders of Yao s article booklet from other branches of the Xinhua Bookstores throughout the country. To this inquiry, PENG asked the Beijing branch of the Bookstore not to reply even if Shanghai calls. PENG had done so until the 29th day of the month when he had to let the "Beijing Daily" fully re-publish YAO s articles, but added a note written by himself, which emphasized equality and persuading through reasoning. After that, in accordance with ZHOU En-lai and PENG Zhen s opinion of forming an atmosphere of academic discussion, some long articles written by DENG Tuo, ZHOU Yang and LI Qi, et al appeared in newspapers "Beijing Daily", "People's Daily" et al. Among them, some academic articles criticized the exaggerated approach in YAO s article. In February 3, 1966, PENG called a meeting of the five members of the Cultural Revolution Group. The group was founded, under a suggestion of MAO Ze-dong, in July of 1964, with PENG as the group leader, LU Ding-yi (the minister of the Central Propaganda Department of the Party) as his deputy, and KANG Sheng, ZHOU Yang and WU Leng-xi as group member. This meeting was enlarged to include XU Li-qun, HU Sheng, YAO Zhen, WANG Li, FAN Ruo-yu, LIU Ren and ZHENG Tian-xiang et al. PENG said at the meeting: "WU Han's problem is an academic problem, not related to PENG De-huai (i.e., not related to the reversingverdict tide) and therefore not related to the Lushan Meeting in Academic criticism should not overly doen and, if it does, it would fire back." The other participants were in favor of his view, except KANG 19

21 Sheng who said WU Han's problem is a problem of politics and is related with the Lushan Meeting in Finally, PENG summarized. According to his summary, the meeting prepared a document entitled "Outlined report on the current academic discussion", often referred to as the "February Outline". The outline wrote: In discussions on academic problems, one should stick on principles of seeking truth from facts, and everyone being equal in front of the truth. One needs to convince others by reasoning, but not arbitrarily flinging his weight around as a scholar tyrant would do. On the 8th day of the month, PENG, LU and KANG went to Wuhan City to report to MAO Ze-dong there. After listening their report, MAO said: The key to WU Han's HAI Rui dismissed from office is dismissed from office related to PENG De-huai who dismissed from office in the Lushan meeting. He asked PENG twice: "Is WU Han anti-party and anti-socialism?" PENG did not answer the question directly. In March 17th, an enlarged meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee held. MAO said at the meeting: All local authorities should pay attention to the question of whether or not the newspapers, magazines and presses are in our hands, and should criticize bourgeois academic authority. The magazine "The Front" is in the hands of WU Han, LIAO Mo-sha and DENG Tuo, and the magazine is anti-party and anti-socialism. He proposed that we should have a Culture Revolution in the firlds of literature, history, philosophy, law science and economics, and we must ask how much they are Marx-Leninist? We need to train our own young academic authority, and be not afraid of young men who are against the authorities. In the 28th to 30 th day of the month, MAO talked to KANG Sheng, JIANG Qing and ZHANG Chun-qiao for several times. He said to them: The Outlined report of the Cultural Revolution Group confused the class boundaries, did not distinguish right and wrong, and therefore is wrong. He stressed the need to support the leftists and build a team to start the Cultural Revolution. He also said: If the Beijing municipal Party committee and the Central Propaganda Department continue to cover up bad guys, then the Central Propaganda Department should be disbanded and the Beijing municipal Party committee should be disbanded. And the Group of five (i.e. the Cultural Revolution Group headed by PENG Zhen) should be disbanded. KANG Sheng conveyed MAO s words in the meeting of the Party s Secretariat on April 9. In addition, KANG listed a series of wrong doings of PENG Zhen after criticism of WU Han. CHEN Bo-da went further by revealing a series of PENG s crimes committed from the period of 20

22 democratic revolution to the period of socialist revolution. The meeting decided: Thoroughly criticize errors in the "February outline". From April 16 to 20, MAO called an enlarged meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee again, criticizing PENG s "crimes against the party". The meeting decided to cancel the "February Outline" and disband the Cultural Revolution Group of five persons. MAO said: Beijing municipal Party committee did not allowed even a needle to insert, not even a drop of water to pour in. PENG Zhen wanted to transform the party in accordance of his own view, which, however, prepared the fall of his own. If there are people in the central playing tricks, I will call the local together against them, just as what SUN Wu-kong did: Call havoc in heaven against those who protect the Jade Emperor. Phenomenon is visible but the essence is hidden. The essence will be revealed through the phenomenon. The essence of PENG Zhen had hidden for thirty years. Peng Zhen's position has not been formally revoked, but he "stood aside", that is, not involving in the works. LU Ding-yi criticized LU Ding-yi is the Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Party s Central committee. LU and the Department showed indifference to YAO Wen-yuan's article "On the new historical drama HAI Rui dismissed from office ". In March 1966, MAO at the meeting in Hangzhou warned the Department: Do not become the Rural Work Department. (Note: The Rural Work Department headed by DENG Zi-hui was revoked in 1962 for making rightist mistakes.) Soon after, MAO declared that the Central Propaganda Department is the "Palace of Hell", and called "down with the Palace of Hell and liberate the imps." It happened that LU Ding-yi's wife YAN Wei-bing had written many anonymous slander letters to YE Qun (LIN Biao s wife) in a long period of time. In the Yanan Rectification Movement in 1942, when YAN heard that YE has problems of hiding to the Party her own history and falsely report years of her party membership. YAN then reported these to the Party organization of the Institute of Marx-Leninism where YE works. But the Institute did not take attention to her report. In 1943, YE were in "Central Hospital" in Yanan to give birth to her first child, while YAN was 21

23 hospitalized also in this hospital. YE often ate chicken, while the living condition in Yanan at the time was difficult. Sometimes chicken cannot be found, YE clamored. In this regard, words went around among the medical staff, and the sick and wounded patients. YAN was also very dismissive of YE s style. After the founding of New China, YE Qun became the manager of the LIN Biao s office and looked herself higher and higher. YAN saw it and became angry. Once, YAN went to Harbin Institute of Military Engineering to visit her son there. A daughter of LIN Biao and his ex-wife was also in the Institute. YAN learned that LIN s daughter was discriminated by YE: YE did not allow her to go home in Beijing in holidays and vocations. In this regard, YAN was in deep indignation. After returning to Beijing, she wrote an anonymous letter denouncing YE. From the later 1950s, LIN s family constantly received anonymous letters, in which the main content is to abuse YE by saying about her life before and after living in Yanan. LIN s daughter Dou-dou also received an anonymous letter, telling her that she is actually not a biological child of LIN. Many of these letters are signed as "WANG Guangx mailed from a nursery, while mothor of WANG Guang-mei (Note: LIU Shao-ji s wife) was working. Some of the letters were in the postcard form, and therefore are tantamount to publicly leaflets. LIN and YE were very angry after receiving such anonymous letters one after another, and started to secretly investigate, but not successfully. The Ministry of Public Security and the Military Security Department had also involved in the investigation but also with no results. By early 1966, YAN once shopped in a store for the inner-circle of high-rank official s families. Just when entering the store gate, she was collided by a woman who was just going to leave the store. It happens that the woman were YE! The two women quarreled. Afterwards, YAN went to the General Political Department of the Army, denouncing YE riding roughshod over others. YAN spoke Mandarin with strong Wuxi accent, and the officer YAN was talked to spoke Mandarin with the Jiangxi accent. As the result, they could not really understand to each other well and therefore have to communicate by writing. So, YAN wrote down the story. Bringing YAN s writing, the officer reported to LIN. Looking at the handwriting, LIN felt the writing is so familiar and finally recognized it is somehow similar to those of the anonymous letters. He had told his doubts to the Ministry of Public Security. The Ministry immediately sent somebody to the Central Propaganda Department where YAN works, took her file, check the handwriting and identify all those anonymous letter are actually from YAN s handwriting. 22

24 The Ministry of Public Security reported the matter to the Party s central committee. LIU Shao-ji et al. believed that LU Ding-yi was not involved in the matter and therefore commissioned PENG Zhen (Note: He had not yet been criticized at that time.) to tell LU the detail story. At the beginning of Feburary, 1966, PENG asked LU to come into his house. PENG showed LU the photocopy of the anonymous letters. Being startled, LU said to PENG: "I don t know YAN had written anonymous letters. I even do not know how many children LIN has and what are their names until now after I see the anonymous letter. I could not imagine how could she write these anonymous letters. It is unthinkable. Some handwriting was written by YAN, but there are some that I am not sure. In order to make sure, I can go to get her handwriting, and you please pass them to the Ministry of Public Security to check them." PENG said: "The Ministry has checked the handwritings, and it is for sure that the anonymous letters are written by YAN. The Party s Central Committee has discussed the matter and though that YAN is dangerous, but also decided to protect you and want you to leave YAN by living in a hospital." So, LU was admitted to the Beijing Hospital. This did not cause YAN to doubt because LU actually had problems in his digestive system. She often went to the hospital to visit her husband. In April 28, YAN was put into a jail and later was transferred to the famous Qincheng Prison. Soon after, LU himself was under "isolation and selfreview". In May 1966, the Political Bureau held an enlarged meeting. One day, before the meeting officially started, LIN put his calligraphy on the rostrum table that say: I proved that: (1) YE is pure and virginal when marrying me, and always decent afterwards. (2) YE Qun had never fallen on love with WANG Shi-wei or xxx. (3) Tiger and Dou-dou (Note: Nicknames of LIN's children LIN Li-guo and LIN Li-heng) are biological children of YE and me. (4) All words YAN countered in her anti-revolutionary letters are rumos she made. ZHOU En-lai saw this and felt very surprised. Later, NIE Rongzhen saw it and said: "Why put this? Remove it!" Then, LIN s calligraphy was removed away. YANG Shang-kun criticized YANG Shang-kun is the director of the General Office of the Party s central committee. He was dismissed for a bugging incident occurred in the late 23

25 1965. At that time, MAO Ze-dong's special train was stopped in the platform of the Changsha railway station. When a communication soldier talking with MAO s female secretary ZHANG Yu-feng, he imitated the private talks between MAO and her in the carriage. ZHANG immediately told MAO the event. MAO then immediately questioned the communication solder and learned that his compartment is bugged! He further traced the matter and soon learned that the bugging equipment was set in his carriage by YANG Shang-kun in accordence to a resolution of the Party s Political Buereau. LUO Rui-qing showed the resolution to MAO. The resolution states that the Politburo decides to set bugging equipment in MAO s carriage in order to help the Politburo members to understand MAO's instructions and carry out the instructions in practices, in a timely manner. MAO had never liked recording his speech or even taking notes, not to mention being bugged. Even for recording of his speech, his consent must be obtained in advance. Usually, when he is ready to speak at a meeting, YANG would ask him if he allows to record. If MAO said "yes", YANG then arranges recording. In November 1959, in a central working meeting held in Hangzhou City, MAO had told the participants do not record. Then HU Qiao-mu said that somebody is even making tape-recording! MAO was so angry and said: "Who lets you record? Those who would do it again in the future will be dismissed from the Party!" Arguments became even bigger in an event in April, At that time, MAO received foreign guests in Changsha City and WANG Dongxing (Deputy director of the General Office of the Party s Central Committee then) arranged for someone to take photos and sound record. After knowing it, MAO was very unhappy and asked who approved recording. So, WANG called KANG Yi-min (vice director of the confidential room) and LAI Kui (the chief of the meeting section under the confidential room) in, and said to them that Chairman MAO entrusted me to talk to you and asked us to take a picture as an evidence for the event. Then, WANG let the captain of the guards write "Violation of instructions and illegal recording" on a piece of paper, put it in the front of the recorder, and let a photographer to take four photos. The first photo is of five persons, i.e. WANG, KANG, LAI, XU Ye-fu (MAO's confidential secretary) and LIU Ji-shun (Full time recorder of the confidential room), the second one is of KANG, LAI and LIU, the third one is of LIU alone and the fourth one is of the recorder. These photos were sent to MAO. Later, the responsible persons in the confidential room, YE Zi-long, KANG Yi-min and WU Zhen-ying together wrote a report 24

26 to acknowledge their errors and were subjected to disciplinary punishment within the party. Soon after, the Central Secretariat held a special meeting, auspiced by DENG Xiao-ping, to discuss the recording issues. The meeting made a resolution entitled "On sound recording and paper recording" that states: Only the important ones among the central official meetings can be recorded if approved in advance by Party s Secretariat for. In all other occasions, recording is not allowed, including talks between central leading comrades, talks between a central leading comrade with foreign guests. These requirements are valid not only to the central but also to the locals. In this context, the bugging equipments were installed on MAO s train! In November, 1965, YANG was removed from the post of director of the Central General Office and sent to Guangdong province and became a party secretary there and, later, further decreased to vice party secretary in a region within the province. The four high-ranking officials who had been criticized. From left: PENG Zhen, LUO Rui-qing (who is much taller than the soldier on right in the photo), LU Ding-yi and YANG Shang-kun. The 5-16 Notice From May 4 to 26, 1966, the Political Bureau of the Party s Central Committee held a meeting, to criticize and review the cases of PENG Zhen, LUO Rui-qing, LU Ding-yi and YANG Shang-kun. Finally, the meeting passed a resolution that revoked all positions of the four. (Note: In August, the eleventh assembly of the Party s Eighth Central Committee held a meeting and agreed the resolution on the four persons. The assembly also decided to establish a special committee whose purpose is to examine the four comrades anti-party activities and the abnormal relationship among them.) 25

27 In May 16th, the meeting, presided by MAO, passed the resolution of the "Notice of Communist Party of China Central Committee", referred to as the "5-16 Notice". This notice devoted much to the criticism of PENG Zhen s "February Outline". The notice further claimed: "The representatives of the bourgeoisie are a group of counter revolutionary revisionists and have snaked into our party, government, army and various cultural circles. Once the time is right, they will try to seize power and change the proletariat dictatorship into the bourgeoisie dictatorship. Among these figures, some have been caught, some have not yet and still obtained our trust, trained as our successors, and some are sleeping in our side like a Khrushchev. Party committees at all levels must give full attention to this." The 5-16 Notice is a symbol of the start of the Cultural Revolution. The meeting confirmed the repeal of PENG Zhen as head of the "Group of Five for Cultural Revolution" and, instead, formed a new group called "Central Cultural Revolution Group", with CHEN Bo-da as leader, KANG Sheng as a consultant, JIANG Qing as the first deputy leader, and ZHANG Chunqiao and YAO Wen-yuan as members. The new group is directly affiliated to the standing committee of the Political Bureau of the Party s Central Committee, which means the new group is at the same level as the Central Political Bureau, the State Council and the Central Military Commission. In May 18, LIN Biao gave a long speech at the meeting. According to MAO's suggestion, he mainly talk about coup. He said: It would be better for other members of the Standing Committee to speak, but they let me speak first, so I speak a little now. I didn't write a script, but just say what I think while reading some materials... The fundamental problem in a revolution is the problem of political power. With the power, the proletariat and the working people have everything. Without the power, everything lost. Though the production relation is the foundation, but it can be changed only after the seizure of power, and it can be consolidated and developed after seizure of power. Otherwise, it is an economic nationalism, and a beggar doctrine and begging for mercy. After the proletariat got power, millionaires and billionaires can be defeated all of a sudden, and then the proletariat has everything. So, no matter how a multitude of things happened, don't forget the direction and the center. Never forget power. Forgetting power is to forget the politics and the fundamental view of the Marxism, and 26

28 became economist, anarchist and idealist. It is a fool whose head was cut off but still do not know how.... What is power? SUN Zhong-san said it is management of all people. But he did not understand that the power is actually a tool for a class to suppress another class. Either revolutionaries or counter revolutionaries are as such. I want to use my habit of using language and say that power is repressive authority. Of course, functions of a power are not only to suppress. The political power of the proletariat also has functions of the transformation of peasants and small private owners, of engaging in economic development, and against external aggression. Power s functions are various, but main one is repression. Both the reactionaries in the society and the representatives of the exploiting classes snaked into the Party have to be suppressed. They could be killed, sentenced, controlled and forced to do laboring, expelled from the party, or dismissed form the position. Otherwise, we cannot understand the Marx doctrine s fundamental view about power and lose power, and are foolish.... In recent years, especially the last year, Chairman MAO put forward to prevent revisionism problem in all area and all fronts, both inside and outside the party, both the upper and lower levels. As I know it, it mainly refers to the leading organs. In recent months, Chairman MAO pays particular attention to the prevention of counter revolutionary coup and has taken a lot of measures. He talked about it after LUO Rui-qing s problem occurred. After PENG Zhens problem occurred, Chairman MAO talked about this problem once again. He deploys forces, to prevent the counter revolutionary coup and their occupation of vital parts such as our radio stations and broadcasting stations. He arranged the army system and the police system. In these few months, these were what Chairman MAO was doing. This is an article that is not entirely written down. This is an article that is not printed. We have to learn this article that has not been printed yet. For these actions, Chairman MAO did not sleep well for many days. This is a very deep and very serious problem. Now, coup becomes a trend and is all over the world. Presumably, there are two kinds of regime changes. The first one is a people's revolution, which comes from the underground rebels, such as CHEN Sheng and WU Guang, the Taipingtianguao and our communist party. The second kind is a counter revolutionary coup. It mostly is a palace coup, from the regime internally. They could be a combination of upside and downside in a country, one combined with foreign subversive activities or armed attack from foreign enemy, or one combined with scourge. It is with big bang, big noisy and big chaos. It is so in history, and now. 27

29 Talking about coups in the capitalist countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America since 1960, there are 61 coups, among which 56 were successful. In these coups, 8 leaders were killed, 11 deposed and 7 became a puppet. These 61 coups occurred in six years, i.e. 11 coups annually on average... Looking at our country, there are many examples that 10, 20, 30 or 50 years after a dynasty was founded, a coup occurred and power lost.... (Note: He then spoke on coups in each dynasty of China, from Zhou Dynasty, Warring States of the Chunqiuzhanguo Period, Dynasties of Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing and the Republic of China, one dynasty by one dynasty.) Sixteen years have been passed since we obtained the political power. Will our proletariat power not be subverted and usurped? It will be if we do not pay attention. Khrushchev subverted the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia has been changed even earlier. Hungary was also subverted after Nagy s appearance and engaging in more than ten days of disaster. There are many auch things. Now Chairman MAO pays attention to this counter revolutionary coup problem and talked to us who do not pay attention to it. Is it the case that there are no such things but we say it much with no reason at all? No, there are a lot of signs and, just as the old saying goes, 'the storm is coming and we fell it in the house'. Through the fights of anti LUO Rui-qing, anti PENG Zhen, anti LU Ding-yi and his wife, and anti YANG Shang-kun, you can smell a little, the smell of gunpowder.... LUO controlled the military. PENG caught a lot of power in the Secretariat of the Central Committee. LUO s hands are long and PENG s even longer. LU is one of the commanders in the cultural front and ideology. YANG engaged in confidential information and contacts.... Chairman MAO said: Over the past sixteen years (i.e. after the establishment of New China), we have not occupied the ideological front. If it goes on, people will not vote for us and not for Chairman MAO, but for them. If there would have been a battle, people will go with them by picking up the gun and hitting us. Pen and gun are what one depends on in seizure of power... Chairman MAO was the founder of our party and of Chinese revolution, and is our great leader of Party and country, and the greatest contemporary Marx-Leninist. Chairman MAO has genuinely, creatively and comprehensively inherited, defended and developed the Marx-Lenin doctrine, and raised the Marx-Lenin doctrine to a new stage... Chairman MAO s experiences are far more than Marx, Engel and Lenin.... Chairman Mao is a genius. What are we different from Chairman MAO? We struggle 28

30 together with him and some of us are older than him. We are younger than him, but also experienced a lot of things. We also read books, but we do not understand the books, or do not really understand, but he understands what he reads. A lot of people put a lot of little circle on the book when reading, and made the book full of circles, which, as I see it, proves that he did not understand the book, do not know what is the center of the book, and what is the primary and what is secondary. A few decades ago, Chairman MAO has understood the kernel of dialectics already, but we do not. He not only understands, but also is skilled to use. There is a great distance between understanding a theory and using it in practice. You understand it, but not necessarily know how to use it. On playing table tennis, you know the rules, but you still cannot beat ZHUANG Ze-dong or XU Yin-sheng (Note: they are table tennis world champions, and very famous in China). It is the same as to the war: you have a little of military knowledge from books, but not necessarily win a battle. MAO Ze-dong s Thought is full of materialism. Chairman MAO has widely used and developed the Marx- Lenin s theory and there is no second person in the contemporary world does so. The geniuses in the 19th Century were Marx and Engel, and in the 20th Century Lenin and Comrade MAO Ze-dong. Don't defy and you are not as good as him. We support Chairman MAO now, will support him when he would go away, and MAO Ze-dong s Thought would last forever.... MAO Ze-dong s Thought is lighthouse of human being, is the most sharp weapon in the world revolution and is the truth universally applicable.... Living as long as ninety years or more than a hundred years, Chairman MAO is the supreme leader of our party and his words are criterion for our action. Whoever should oppose him, the whole country will criticize them and the whole party will put them to death. Anyone doing a secret report, after Chairman MAO would go away, as Khrushchev did after Stalin s death, must be ambitious or bad, and the whole country will criticize them and the whole party will put them to death. MAO Ze-dong s Thought is always the universal truth and our guide to action forever, is the common wealth of Chinese people and the revolutionary people of the whole world revolution, and is forever shining. The people's Liberation Army takes Chairman MAO's works as textbook for cadres and soldiers of the whole Army. This is not because I am clever, but must do so. Using MAO Zedong s Thought to unite the whole Army and the whole Party, then whatever problems can be solved. Every sentence of Chairman MAO is the truth, and one sentence of him is actually more than ten thousand of our sentences

31 In May 23rd, there held a meeting specifically to criticize ZHU De s negative attitude to criticism of PENG, LUO, LU and YANG. The meeting was under the auspices of LIU Shao-qi, while MAO Ze-dong did not attend. The meeting was of a small range. On the meeting, ZHU De made a self-criticism by saying: "My mistakes in the past have been examined two times. The first time was after the occurrence of GAO and RAO, and I made a review on my mistakes in the meeting. The second one was after the PENG De-huai s problem occurred and I made a review on my mistakes in the enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission...." ZHU then reviewed his mistakes in history, namely the split with MAO during the Jinggangshan period. After ZHU s review, a lot of people spoke. Among them, CHEN Yi's speech is very fierce, and he asked: "ZHU De, I want to ask you: Do you plan a coup?" ZHU replied: "I don't have neither the power nor the guts." CHEN said: "As I see it, you want to be an emperor. You also praised Khrushchev and have a very big ambition." At this time, Ulav chimed in: "What is more strange is that he said that conclusion can not be made even after one has died. We said that Khrushchev against Stalin is wrong and revisionist. But he said that we still have to have a good relation with the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union also cannot live without us." ZHU said: "As to the question if I have ambition, I am eighty years old and need others to pull when climbing, also need help when walking, and do not mention about working. I have not managed anything, and don't even talk about being a king. However, I am always care of our team and always hope the team will be forever." ZHOU En-lai said: "Talking about the fight between Comrade ZHU De and ZHANG Guo-tao, in the first half of the time it should promote thanks to Comrade LIU Bai-cheng: Without him, you would probably become a king there. In the second half, you wanted to go north only after the push by Comrade HE Long, Comrade RENG Bi-shi and Comrade GUAN Xiang-ying. Without these comrades, you may even slip to the Hexi area. After the liberation in 1949, your mistakes were even more. Chairman MAO often said that you were edged to both the GAO-RAO event and the PENG-HUANG event. That you speak everywhere is a dangerous thing and we worry. There is a time bomb in the Politburo Standing Committee, which Chairman MAO also worried about. You speak everywhere. If you want to talk, you need write a draft and consult with us. So, you are not reliable and we cannot trust you." DENG Xiao-ping did not speak. LIN Biao said: "The problem was exposed in the Lushan Meeting, and solved there, which was a great victory. It destroyed one of the biggest hidden troubles of the Party. Chairman 30

32 MAO talked several times about the possibility of Party s split, and it actually points PENG De-huai and ZHU De. In the Lushan Meeting, it had been considered whether to expose the problem and, after weighting the pros and cons, it was believed that the hidden danger should be resolutely opened and eliminated, and thought otherwise it will continue to develop and become even a greater problem in case of Chairman MAO passed away. ZHU De, you are ambitious, your review of mistakes is by far not enough. Some people thought it is himself who wants to have an own review. No, it is not the case! It is the Party s Central Committee decided to let him take your pants off, and you have to do so. You (Note: Refers to attendants of the meeting) probably don't know, but CHEN Yi s critique is actually not too much. He does not admire Chairman MAO much, and he wants to be the leader. About GAO Kang s event, he also advocated presiding the Politburo by turns. Wanting to be the Chairman, do you have the ability for it? You have never been the commander in chief, even for a single day. After Nanchang Uprising, there is no governing in the troops, just walking randomly, and it was CHEN Yi who commanded the troops going to Jinggangshan. Before the Zunyi Conference, the Red Army was commanded by LI De and, after the Zunyi Conference, by Chairman MAO. After that, Chairman MAO has commanded. During the Anti Japanese war, you are in war front (Note: Meaning ZHU did not command the whole war but only in the frontier). The war of liberation was under Chairman MAO s command. You do not have the ability, but you think your ability is okay. When you were not under Chairman MAO s command, i.e. you left Jinggangshan and went southward, the result was the loss of two battalions out of total of three, and it was Chairman MAO who took you back to the base.... In the last year, after LUO Ru-qing s problem occurred, he spoke at the Shanghai conference: We should not say that MAO Zedong s Thought is the pinnacle of Marx-Leninism in the world because, if it is already in the top, how it can develop further? Probably, who is in the top is not Chairman MAO, but ZHU De yourself, or Khrushchev." In fact, before this time of criticism, ZHU De had been under siege in an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau early on. It was on May 12th. When ZHU said: It is necessary to read thirty-two books on Marx-Leninism that were designated by Chairman MAO. I plan to spend one to two years to read all of them. Chairman MAO accepted the Marx-Leninism...."At this point, LIN Biao interrupted him and said: "Does Chairman MAO only accept it? He develops it to the highest peak!" LIN Biao added that ZHU already said 31

33 at the end of the Political Bureau meeting: We should not say that Mao Zedong s Thought is the pinnacle of contemporary Marx-Leninism, because it would not develop if it is already in the peak." LIN Biao then continued to say: "See how he evaluates MAO Ze-dong s Thought!" At this point, KANG Sheng chimed in: "Objecting the words of MAO Ze-dong Thought is the highest and most living Marx-Leninism and is the pinnacle of' contemporary Marx-Leninism (as LIN Biao put it) is opposed to Chairman MAO s thought, and is the same as PENG Zhen in this respect." ZHU De explained: "I do not oppose Chairman MAO...." KANG did not let him continue, and interrupted and said: "I hope you study all these LIN Biao s talks. It will be much better than you study thirty-two books. As I see it, although you are a party member in procedure, but your thoughts did not join the Party and still a person outside the party... You want to be over Chairman MAO." Some other people also spoke. One of them said ZHU De is "the party's most dangerous man" and "a time bomb in the Party." Note: As seen from what happened later, MAO Ze-dong defends ZHU De. After LIU Shao-ji was down, ZHU once said in a meeting: "During the Cultural Revolution, I feel that we should not relax in the production but ensure that industrial and agricultural production greatly increased.... Now people are all up, I'm afraid... Afraid of troubles, especially troubles in production." Soon after, the Cultural Revolution Group member QI Benyu displayed a big character post that requests down of ZHU De. Overnight, there emerged many big character posters all over the Beijing s streets, describing ZHU De as "the big warlords", "Ambitious man" and "Black commander", and request to throw ZHU De "out of Zhongnanhai District" and to "criticize him and make him bad smelly". The news spread to MAO. MAO said: "It is not so. In the past, the Guomindang requested to 'kill pig (Note: The word pig in Chinese has the same pronunciation as ZHU) and pull hair (Note: The word hair in Chinese has the same pronunciation as MAO) off '. Now you say he is black commander. ZHU MAO (Note: Guomindang called the Red Army as ZHU-MAO Red Army ), ZHU-MAO, if the commander is black, how can the political commissar is red? ZHU De should not be criticized. He is the red commander!" After MAO s words went out, the wave of criticizing ZHU took off immediately. 32

34 Chapter 7.2 Critique of the LIU-DENG Line The working groups Ten days after the Party s Central Committee issued the "5-16 Notice" in May 16, 1966, seven teachers of the Department of Philosophy at Beijing University, led by NIE Yuan-zi, put up a big character poster on the east wall of the school s Big Dining Room, entitled "What have SONG Shuo, LU Ping and PENG Pei-yun done during the Cultural Revolution? " The three people named here were responsible persons of the Party committee at Beijing University. The poster criticize them trying to tie the hands of the masses, not allowing mass meetings nor big character posters, but only allowing small meetings or small character posters. After the big character poster by NIE and others posted, other people also put up big character posters, asked them: Why are you against the leadership of the Party? The magazine "Red Flag", with CHEN Bo-da as the chief editor, published the poster of NIE et al. in their bulletin "Briefing on Cultural Revolution". The "Liberation Army Daily" of the Central Military Commissioner led by LIN Biao published an article entitled "Stripping evildoer's disguise of authority and open fire onto them", with an editor's comment supporting NIE Yuan-zi et al. In May 29, LIU Shao-qi, ZHOU En-lai and DENG Xiao-ping et al. had a small meeting and envisaged to send a working group led by the party secretary ZHANG Cheng-xian of the Ministry of Education to Beijing University; and to send another working group led by CHEN Bo-da going to the People's Daily. During the meeting, ZHOU called MAO Zedong who was in Hangzhou City, and got okay from MAO. In the next day, LIU, ZHOU and DENG formally wrote a letter to MAO in order to get MAO s instruction. The letter stated: "In the passed two months, People's Daily s prestige decreased greatly, resulting in adverse effects on the Party and the State. The newspaper editors cannot change the present situation, and many of them asked the Party s Central sending a working group there. We held a meeting today to discuss the issue and thought to send a temporary working group under the direct leadership of CHEN Bo-da to control the newspaper s publication and to direct Xinhua News Agency and radio stations in the field of foreign news." On the same day, MAO replied: "Agree to do that." In the second day, CHEN Bo-da led a working group and controlled the People's Daily. 33

35 On June 1, MAO wrote an instruction on the poster of NIE Yuan-zi et al: "Comrade KANG Sheng and CHEN Bo-da: This article could be broadcasted by Xinhua News Agency and published in various newspapers across the country, which is necessary. Beijing University, the reactionary fortress, may then begin to be broken. Please consider and implement." In the evening, the Central People's Broadcasting Station broadcasted NIE's poster. On the same day, People's Daily published an editorial entitled "Sweeping out all the monsters and freaks", which was inspired, modified and validated by CHEN Bo-da. The editorial wrote: Within the passed few months, hundreds of millions of peasants, workers and soldiers, the masses of revolutionary cadres and the revolutionary intellectuals, responding to the calls from the Party s Central Committee and Chairman MAO, armed with MAO Zedong s Thought, swept out a lot of the monsters and freaks in the ideological and cultural fields. It was like a strong wind and storm, swift and violent, break spiritual shackles imposed upon them for many years. The so-called bourgeois 'experts', 'scholars', 'authority ' and 'ancestors' have been down and completely discredited." In the next day, People's Daily published the full text of the poster of NIE Yuan-zi et al. with a commentator's article entitled "Cheer a big character poster from Beijing University". After publishing these editorials and commentator's article, there emerge more than 700 big character posters at Qinghua University, criticizing the university s president JIANG Nan-xiang, but immediately there were more than 10,000 big character posters defending the president, with slogan that reads "Defend president JIANG! Defend the Party committee of the university!" In Shanghai City, Tongji University, Jiaotong University, Fudan University and Shanghai University of Science and Technology had put up many big character posters, exposing problems of the university s party committee. In the Nanjing University, there also arose big character posters criticizing the university s party committee secretary and the president, KUANG Ya-ming. On June 3, LIU Shao-qi held a Political Bureau Standing Committee meeting and issued an instruction of eight points: (1) Recognize the difference between inside and outside the country, and protect confidentiality; (2) Do not post big character posters in streets; 34

36 (3) Hold all meeting within the school and do not hold massive meeting denouncing someone; (4) Don't hold demonstrations in streets; (5) Don't go to other universities; (6) Do not surround residence of black gang members ; (7) Don't beat or insult anyone; and (8) prevent destruction by bad guys. The meeting also agreed with proposal of LI Xue-feng, the first Secretary of the North China Bureau, and decided to send a working group to every college and middle school in Beijing to help leading the Cultural Revolution there. LIU Shao-qi said: We need make all colleges and middle schools in Beijing in a good order, organize all students there and make the movement on the right track. DENG Xiao-ping added: The eight points in the instruction should be conveyed faster. Let us hold a big meeting of one hundred thousand people and let the instruction go directly to the mass! In the second day, LIU and DENG flew to Hangzhou City to report to Chairman MAO and to please MAO return to Beijing to have the leadship. MAO commissioned LIU dealing the emerging issues. Since then, local Party committees all over the whole country sent working groups to the local schools, implementing the Eight Point Instruction. On the June 4, the Party s Central Committee reconstructed Beijing Municipal Committee: LI Xue-feng became the first Secretary of the Party s Beijing Committee (former first secretary PENG Zhen has been down earlier) and WU De served as Second Secretary of the committee. Then, the new Beijing Party committee decided revoking LU Ping from the post of secretary of Party committee in Beijing University, and PENG Pei-yun from deputy secretary post. During the re-organization period, the working group headed by ZHANG Cheng-xian took the power of the Party committee in the University. On the second day, however, People's Daily published an editorial entitled "Be a proletarian revolutionary or a bourgeois royalist? " The editorial criticized LU Ping and a handful of people, who desperately resist the socialist education movement and carried out all kinds of mercilessly struggle against a group of activists for as long as seven months. The editorial said that this is an extremely serious counter-revolutionary incident. In the next day, KANG Sheng went to Beijing University to have a look at big character posters, and talked to the students and teachers around there in the front of the third canteen of the University: "Students! After seeing your poster, I am very happy. With you revolutionary students, any monsters 35

37 and freaks and any PENG Zhen, LU Ding-yi, LUO Rui-qing and alike, and any LU Ping, PENG Pei-yun and alike will all be knocked down!" On the June 8, some students of Xi'an Jiaotong University opposed the working group there by saying that the working group is with the black line, and so is the provincial Party committee. At that night, the working group held a meeting and considered this is a group of outliners "floating out" and they are a group of ghosts and monsters escaped from the cages. The working group decided to trace them immediately. In the following two days, all outliners were take to large or small meetings, and criticized and struggled with. The student leader LI Shi-ying and others were put on high hat and shown to public within the university. At the noon of the next day, LI tired suicide but unsuccessfully. On June 10, ten young teachers of the Finance Department of the Beijing Finance Institute, together with some students, rallied and exposed the problems of the Institute and the Department, and pointed the fight direction to the working group there. The Institute s Party committee and the working group designated the event as a "rampant attack to the Party and an anti-revolutionary event. The ten young teachers became counter-revolutionaries. In June 13, Students of universities and middle schools in Nanjing City who had views different from an article published in Xinhua Daily went to the newspaper building and put up big character posters. Police and the newspaper workers sieged them. On June 17, a female student of the First Middle School affiliated to Beijing Normal University, LI Li-li and thirteen others put a big character poster entitled "At what position does the working group stand?" They were identified by the working group as rightist and were denounced. On the morning of June 18, some students in Beijing University took more than 40 black monsters to the campus and openly criticized them, without approval of the working group. The working group believed that this is a new tendency of the class struggle and, with an agreement of LIU Shao-qi, caught many rightists. On June 20, students of the First Middle School affiliated to Beijing Normal University put up a big character poster entitled "Ferret out monsters snaked into our liver!" On the same day, LIU Shao-qi talked to the working group, indicating that we need to criticize the rightists. Also on the same day, the standing member of Beijing College of Geology s party committee, LI Gui, together with some cadres and teachers, wrote to the Party s Central Committee and the State Council, exposing mistakes of the working group. In return, the working group, according to the instructions of BO Yi-bo, put LI Gui and others as rightists and counter- 36

38 revolutionaries. Also on this day, TAN Hou-lan of Beijing Normal University and seventeen other students put up a big character poster entitled "Where does SUN You-yu put the movement to?" The poster got a lot of support from teachers and students. TAN Hou-lan and other students were, however, identified as "rightist" and "anti-party and counter-revolutionary" by the working group, with black materials prepared very quickly. Also on the same day, BO Yi-bo and the Beijing s new party committee identified the big character posters written by students of Beijing Forestry College as "counter revolutionary black creeds" and "poisonous weeds". The poster s authors were identified as of "anti-party small group" and subjected to merciless struggle. Over one hundreds of students who copied the poster were branded as counter-revolutionaries, four of them suicide successfully. On June 20, LIU Shao-qi talked to members of the working group of the middle school affiliated to Beijing Normal University and requested them to initiate the teachers and students to support the working group, and said that they have to fight the battle well. On the next day, LIU said: In some schools, someone tried to catch the power of the school and push the working group out of the school, someone even tried to catch archives, guns, broadcasting facilities et al, which should not be allowed. It is not allowed to seize power at their owns will. If a working group is not good, it can be removed from the school, but it is not good to remove or interrupt party s leadership. On June 28, LIU and DENG called an enlarged meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, and said in the meeting that the movement needs to have steps and to formulate specific policies that is helpful in implementation. Facing increasingly serious situations, LIU decided to convey the 9 th issue of the "Beijing University Cultural Revolution Bulletin" to the whole country. He also prepared a draft of a comment on behalf of the Central Committee, which stated: "The Central thought that the approach the working group at Beijing University took in dealing with chaotic fighting in the university is correct and timely. All unit elsewhere can refer it in case similar phenomena occur." In the afternoon of July 11, LIU listened to the report given by the working group in the middle school affiliated to Beijing Normal University and said: For those young students who made mistakes, we welcome you to correct your mistakes. If you had made mistakes and not correct them, then we could debate with you using the facts and reasoning." For the older teachers, he said: "We could criticize them a bit. They might correct a bit and we would still use them." 37

39 In July 18, MAO Ze-dong returned to Beijing after eight months of patrol over southern China. On the same day, he listened to the report given by CHEN Bo-da and other members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group and read materials they submitted. On the second day, LIU Shao-ji chaired an enlarged meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau. At the meeting, CHEN proposed revocation of the working groups by saying: "The working groups are not cleverer than students... Some working groups attack students." DENG Xiao-ping immediately retorted: "We should treat working groups correctly. We have no experience of such movement, so are they. The bad working groups can be removed as the first step, the good ones stay and proxy party s duty in the school." The meeting chair LIU said: "Among the working groups, some are good and some bad. They are in the forefront and there are their hard works. We should not place too high a demand." After the meeting, CHEN put various criticism publicly on the working groups. So, the students saw the Central has different opinions, and they splited in many schools into two factions: one supports and the other oppose the working group. There were many events of driving the working group out the school. On July 22, LIU once again hosted a meeting, discussing the preliminary planning of Culture Revolution in higher learning institutions in Beijing. On the meeting, the members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group criticized the working groups sent by municipal Party Committee that they were afraid of the masses, suppressed democracy and pour cold water onto the mass movement. LIU said: We have materials that prove that someone had incited the masses to struggle to each other. KANG Sheng patted his bag and said: We also have materials. CHEN then requested to withdraw the working group from the Beijing University. DENG stood up quickly, with one of his hand on waist and a finger of the other hand pointing at CHEN, and said sternly: You said we were afraid of the crowd, so you go ahead and try! He clearly stated: "I do not agree to withdraw the working group." LIU also said clearly: "Most of the working groups are good and therefore we should help and educate them to correct mistakes they made. On withdrawing working groups from schools, I think some of them should not withdraw." In July 24 and 25, MAO talked to members of the Politburo Standing Committee, members of the Central Secretariat and members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, severely criticizing the working groups. He said: There were a period of time when the movement was cold and cheerless. That is, after June 20th or so, there are many places being 38

40 desolating. The working groups do not know how to fight and how to make change, but only can serve to impede the movement. Therefore, we should take them out. To MAO s critiques, LIU did not disagree. Two days later, he chaired a enlarged meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee and the meeting decided to withdraw all working groups. On July 29, more than teachers and students in Beijing held a meeting in the Great Hall of the People, and LIU Shao-qi, ZHOU Enlai, DENG Xiao-ping and LI Xue-feng attended the meeting, and made speeches. LIU said in his speech: "We had once sent working groups. Just as Comrade Xue-feng, Comrade Xiao-ping and Comrade En-lai said in their speeches, sending work groups is a decision or with consent of the Central. Now we found that the method of sending working groups doesn't fit in with the current movement of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and therefore the Central decides to withdraw the working groups." He added: "As to how to carry out the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, you do not know. You might ask us how we do the Revolution and I honestly answer you: I also don't know. I think that so are many members of the party s Central, many other comrades and members of working groups. It will mainly depend on the majority of the teachers, students and staff in each school to learn the revolution in practice of the revolution. I want to say one word of truth now: we, including me, now can only learn from you, can only listen to you, but not advice you since we do not understand the situation.... How to do the revolution? I can only speak one phrase, mobilize the masses... On more specific methods, you don't know, and so am I.... Now you have a meal to eat and eat enough, but with no need to attend a class since the Central Committee of the Party had decided that you do not attend classes for half a year. What to do while there are no classes for half year? Do revolution and be specialized in doing revolution." Actually, MAO was in the background of the meeting when LIU and others spoke. After LIU s speech, MAO showed up from the background. At this time, the audience applause, and should slogans "Long live Chairman MAO! Long long live!" Slogans resounded through the audience. ZHOU Enlai stood up on a stool in a front corner of the podium, commanded the audience singing the song entitled "Sailing on the sea depends on the helm". The song reads: "Sailing on the sea depends on the helm, things growing depends on the sun, plants growing depends on rain and revolution depends on MAO Ze-dong s Thought...." ZHOU s left arm was injured in the war 39

41 time and could not be straightened, but it still struggled to go with the vigorously waving of his right arm. The eleventh session of the Eighth Central Committee From August 1 to 12, 1966, MAO Ze-dong hosted the eleventh session of the Eighth Central Committee in Beijing. Presented at the meeting were the 74 members and 67 alternate members of the Central Committee, and responsible persons of provinces and central departments. NIE Yuan-zi of Beijing University and other representatives of teachers and students also attended the meeting. In August 1, DENG Xiao-ping announced opening of the meeting, said that the duration of the meeting will be five days, and there are four items in the meeting s agenda: Discuss and pass the decision on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution decision; Discuss and prove the major measures at the national and international issues approved by the Central since the Tenth Plenary Session; Pass the conference Bulletin; and Compensate the personnel change decision made in the enlarged meeting of the Central Political Bureau held in May. Then, LIU Shao-qi reported to the plenary session the major initiatives taken by the Politburo since the last plenary session. In his speech, he took the responsibility of sending the working groups and said: "During period of the Cultural Revolution, we have reported the situation in Beijing to Chairman MAO once a week. During this period of time, I was in Beijing and there are mistakes in the Great Cultural Revolution, especially the problem on working groups. I take the main responsibility.... Comrade CHEN Bo-da has proposed not to send or withdraw working groups and he mentioned it three times.... In the first time he mentioned, not much discussion was made. In the second time, after he wrote suggestions with two points, the majority of the comrades in the discussion still support the working groups, and I also spoke for the working groups, considering the working groups is convenient, that is, send if you want sending working group and withdraw if you want withdrawal." At this point, MAO said sternly: "At that time, the only thing is sending." LIU explained: "At that time the problem was withdrawal already. I said that this is relatively simple, i.e. order to withdraw if we want." Once again, MAO jumped in and retorted: "CHEN Boda wanted to withdrew, but you did not." LIU explained once again: "At the time I was considering that a part of the organizations in each college in Beijing have been paralyzed in such a big movement and thinking 40

42 interruption of the leadership of the party is not good." MAO asked: "How can it be interrupted?" LIU continued: "I asked to myself at the time: Is it right to decide withdrawal or just taking a look? At the third time, Comrade Boda raised the question again, and we discussed it one more time, but the majority of the comrades did not advocate for withdrawal. I still have the previous view of point. I think that this method is mobile, and not determined to withdraw and wanted to have a further look. Furthermore, Chairman MAO was about to return to Beijing at the time and I thought we could ask for his advice and make decision after he comes back. On the second day after Chairman MAO came back, we had a meeting again and felt the working group is a problem. At the time, Chairman MAO came back and we sought advice from him. Chairman MAO was determined and the working groups should be revoked. Chairman MAO had talked to some comrades about the withdrawal one day earlier. Comrades TAO Zhu and LI Xuefeng talked to me about it." Once again, MAO interrupted LIU's speech and said: "Less than 10% of working groups are good, more than 90% of them are completely wrong. No matter what, the working groups have done bad things: They can not fight, criticize nor change things, but repress and hinder people, playing a bad role. Generally speaking, 90% of the working groups did very bad things. Sending working groups is in wrong direction and along a wrong line, and actually stands in the bourgeois side to oppose the proletarian revolution." The meeting lasted for two hours and the atmosphere of the meeting was tense for the two hours. On the next day, there was another meeting. In the meeting, ZHOU Enlai, CHEN Yi and LI Xue-feng spoke and reviewed own mistakes on sending the working groups. ZHOU said: "For the problem of sending working groups, I think the standing committee members of the politburo, especially those presiding over the jobs in Beijing, i.e. we a few persons, are responsible.... Even after Chairman MAO came back and listen to our reports, we still advocated no withdrawal of the working groups, which is even a bigger mistake." At 5 PM, LI Xue-feng secretary received a phone call from LIU s secretary, saying that Comrade Shao-qi asks LI to go to the Construction Work College together with him. The phone was immediately hung up and LI did not have a chance to reply a word. LI returned the call and got the words: "Comrade Shao-qi has gone already to pick you up." LIU also ask the Central Cultural Revolution Group to send someone to participate and they sent QI Ben-yu. In the college, LIU et al attended the debate between two factions of students. At last, LIU spoke to 41

43 the students. He said: "It seems that the working group in your school made mistakes. Of these mistakes, not only the working group is responsible, but also the Central Committee of our party and the new Beijing municipal Party committee. The Central Committee agreed to send working groups and then the Beijing s party committee came up. Therefore, it is better not to send working groups and sending working groups is wrong. Which part of what the working group did in your school was right and which part was wrong? You know the answer, but we don't know yet.... Let us not call the meeting a debate, but a discussion. Is it better? That is, there are different views and let us discuss them! Let us correct mistakes, insist the right and unite. I will be very happy if I can help you to unite." On the second day, LIU came to the college again, called in the leaders of the two opposing mass organization, called the "8-1 Group" and "Revolutionary Group" respectively. Later he also called in ordinary students of the two organizations. He listened to their views, persuade them patiently and hope that the two fractions of students not to oppose to each other but to unite, and work together for the better going of the revolution. In August 4, the eleventh session of the Eighth Central Committee continued. LIU attended the discussions in the Zhongnan Group and said: "When Chairman MAO was not in Beijing, I chaired the Central s duties. I would never shirk from the responsibility. The central problem is against the mass movement with the bourgeois stand. The comrades in the Politburo Standing Committee, in the secretariat and in the Beijing municipal Party committee agreed and approved to send working groups when the vigor and vitality movement came up. In this Cultural Revolution, the masses came up for democracy and the Chairman supported them so strongly. So we were caught in the middle, as squeezed under the pressure from both upside and downside, which checks if you support the masses or not. While a revolution against some other people may be okay, but how about a revolution against our own? This is a big question. We need to be determined. The worst scenario is for us to step down in a revolution against us. We can step down, but you might not step down if you are determined to let others against you. If you don't allow people against you, then you will be forced to go down." On the afternoon of August 4, MAO called a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, criticized LIU anonymously: "Form the era of Qing Dynasty, then the Northern Warlords period, to the Guomindang era, the 42

44 governments suppressed the student movements. Now, the Communist Party also suppresses the student movement. The Central itself was against its own previous orders. The Central ordered to close schools for half year, specially for participating in the Cultural Revolution, but suppress them when the students came up.... This meeting has to solve this problem, otherwise it is dangerous. The so-called following the mass line, the socalled faith in the masses, the so-called Marx-Leninism and so on, all are false. It has been in this way for many years and it busted out whenever this kind of thing occurs. It is absolutely clear that they are against the proletariat while standing in the bourgeoisie side. They said against the new municipal Party committee is anti-party. Why cannot the new municipal Party committee be opposed while they suppress the student movement? I did not go to the ordinary mass to investigate while some others did but became more bourgeoisies and against the proletariat more. Prohibiting contacts between class and class, between department and department, and between the school and the school is a suppression and a horror, and the horror come from the Central.... The poster by NIE Yuan-zi and others of Beijing University is the 1960s' version of the Paris Commune Declaration --- the Beijing Commune. Putting up big character posters is a very good thing, because it can be known by the people of the whole world! But Xue-feng s report said the party has its discipline, the state has its laws and we should differentiate inside and outside of the country. The Central of the Communist Youth League not only did not support the youth students to participate the movement, but suppress it. They should be strictly dealt with." The more MAO speak, the more angry he is, and it seems that it will implicate in other people. LIU volunteered to take responsibility and said: "In this period of time, Chairman MAO was not in Beijing and I actually presided over the Central s works in Beijing. I am the main person who should be responsible...." MAO snapped and said: "You took dictatorship in Beijing. And you dictate well!" LIU again took the responsibility of sending working groups and said: The worst thing is nothing more than to step down, and I do not afraid to step down. There are five things I do not afraid of. YIE Jian-ying chipped in and said: "We have millions of troops and are not afraid of monsters and freaks." MAO snapped: "The monsters and freaks are sitting here!" The entire hall was suddenly frozen. On August 5, MAO wrote a big character poster entitled "Bombard the headquarters --- a big character poster of mine". It stated: "The first Marx- Leninist big character poster (Note: Refers to the poster by NIE Yuan-zi et 43

45 al.) and the People's Daily s commentator are written very well! Comrades, please re-read this poster and the commentator. However, in the passed more than 50 days, some leading comrades from the Central to locals acted in a diametrically opposite way by standing in the reactionary bourgeois stand, implemented a bourgeoisie dictatorship, suppress down the vigor and vital proletarian movement of the 'Cultural Revolution' movement, confused truth and false, turned things upside down, suppressed the revolutionaries, suppressed dissents, implemented the white terror, thought themselves proudly, helped bourgeois portliness and destroyed proletariat spirit: how poisonous it is! Linking it to the 1962 s rightist (Note: The year is the last year of the difficult period of three years, when LIU adjusted economics and supported the rural Household Responsibility System) and 1964 leftist-shaped rightist (Note: In the year the Four Cleanups Movement began, and LIU s wife WANG Guang-mei s Taoyuan experience was popularized), should it make you think about in depth?" On the day, LIU was meeting with foreign guests. After returned home, LIU got a call from ZHOU En-lai, asking him do not appear in public events nor meet a foreigner. On the August 7, MAO s big character poster was available for all participants of the meeting. On the next day, the plenary session passed a document entitled "Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. It contains 16 provisions and declared the purpose of the Culture Revolution is to "fight and clack down the powerful officers taking the capitalist road". After that, the meeting transferred to the discussion of MAO s poster, i.e. criticize LIU Shao-qi and DENG Xiaoping et al. In the meeting, LIU frequently reviewed his mistakes. During the period for group discussions, vice chairman of the All China Federation of Trade Unions, CHEN Shao-min (female), met LIU in a break time. She said to LIU: "Comrade Shao-qi, I would like to report to you on the work of women workers when you have time." She meant to say that I still trust and respect you LIU Shao-qi. LIU replied quietly: "The mistakes are independent on other comrades. Only I myself is responsible for the mistakes. Please do not worry." On the August 8, MAO called ZHOU En-lai in and said: "It seems that LIU Shao-qi could not be the next leader. I have observed him for twentyone years and now am completely disappointed. I have also observed DENG Xiao-ping for seven years and am also disappointed. After putting LIU Shaoqi down, what can we do now?" ZHOU replied: "Only LIN Biao is the most appropriate person to replace LIU Shao-qi." MAO nodded and said: "Good. 44

46 Let us take LIN Biao to Beijing." After ZHOU left, MAO wrote a list of new leaders, in which LIN Biao and ZHOU EN-lai were listed as Vice chairmen of the Party s Central (Note: later, ZHOU crossed out his name in the list so that LIN became the only vice chairman of the Central Committee). On the same day, ZHOU let WU Fa-xian sent a special plane to Dalian City where LIN Biao lived at the time, and took LIN and his wife to Beijing. At 10:30 in the morning of the next day, the plane landed at the airport in the western suburb of Beijing. ZHOU was waiting there. After the cabin door was opened, ZHOU immediately boarded to see LIN. At this time, WANG Dongxing hurried to the airport and also entered the cabin. WANG was the director of the General Central Office of the Central Committee and now was MAO s representative to meet LIN. ZHOU and WANG talked to LIN for half an hour in the cabin. After they got off the plane, ZHOU accompanied LIN to see MAO. When seeing MAO, LIN immediately made a bow with hands folded in front and repeatedly talked about his illness, and expressed that he does not wish to take up the new post. MAO was angry and said: "You want to be Emperor MIN Shizong!" (Note: the emperor of the Ming Dynasty who was piety Taoist and had no interest in politics.) He berated LIN by saying: "That you don't want to be involved in the movement is false!" Seeing MAO s angry, LIN finally accepted the new job. In the evening of the day, ZHOU called in Generals YANG Chengwu, ZHANG Ai-ping, XIAO Hua, XU Guang-da, XIAO Jin-guang, SU Zhenhua and WU Fa-xian, and responsible personnel in various central departments, a total of more than twenty people. He pulled out a piece of paper from his coat pocket and said: "This is a big character poster written by Chairman MAO on August 5. This is his handwriting manuscript. Now I read it to you." Then ZHOU read it two times in a row. He said after reading the poster: "As you seen now, years of facts prove that LIU Shao-qi can no longer preside over the Central s works. Originally Chairman MAO wanted to cultivate LIU Shao-qi as his successor, but LIU failed to live up to the hopes of Chairman MAO. The Central has now decided to take comrade LIN Biao back to Beijing to replace LIU Shao-qi and serve as first vice chairman of the Central. Now I am letting you know the information, but you should temporarily not pass it downward and you just keep yourselves knowing it. The Central will let you know when it decides to convey the information." 45

47 At that time, the eleventh session of the Eighth Central Committee was going to end soon. Before the end of the session, MAO temporary proposed to restructure central leadership, which was not in the original agenda. According to his suggestion, the plenary session decide to add CHEN Bo-da, KANG Sheng, TAO Zhu, Xu Xiang-qian, NIE Rong-zhen and Ye Jian-ying as members of the Politburo, add LI Xue-feng, SONG Renqiong and XIE Fu-zhi as alternate members of the Politburo; and reorganize the central secretariat. The session also decided to revoke PENG Zhen, LUO Rui-qing and LU Ding-yi from the Secretariat and YANG Shang-kun from alternate membership of the secretariat, and add XIE Fu-zhi and LIU Ning-yi as member of secretariat, and make TAO Zhu as the executive secretary of the secretariat. MAO also puts forward to re-elect the Politburo Standing Committee, which was also not scheduled on the agenda. He showed a list of eleven candidates. (Note: In the past, the list of candidates were the result of a prior and repeated consultation and brewing, but not like this time that an individual suddenly provides the list by his own.) They are MAO Zedong, LIN Biao, ZHOU En-lai, LIU Shao-qi, ZHU De, CHEN Yun, CHEN Bo-da, KANG Sheng, LI Fu-chun, DENG Xiao-ping and TAO Zhu. The Communist Party of China practices an election with candidates of equal number, so the result was that these eleven people were elected to the Politburo Standing Committee. The next thing is in what order the names should be listed. The order provided by MAO is as follows: MAO, LIN, ZHOU, DENG, CHEN, KANG, LIU, ZHU, CHEN, LI and TAO. He put DENG in the fourth place because DENG got full votes in the election for the Politburo Standing Committee (i.e. 73 tickets, Mao and LIN too). But JIANG Qing commented to persons around her: "DENG Xiaoping ranked the last previously (Note: the previous Standing Committee members were liste in the order of: MAO, LIU, ZHOU, ZHU, CHEN, LIN and DENG), how can he be raised to the fourth after making mistakes together with LIU? No, this is not good." She then told LIN her view. Then, LIN suggested to MAO that swich DENG and CHEN Bo-da in the order. But JIANG was still not satisfied and talked to MAO directly: "CHEN Confucius (Note: this is CHEN Boda's nickname because he is a scholar) is only an intellectual, and not able to suppress DENG. TAO Zhu is strong and should be moved up." Finally, MAO decided the order as: MAO (Chairman), LIN (vice chairman), ZHOU, TAO, CHEN Boda, DENG, KANG, LIU, ZHU, Li Fu-chun and CHEN Yun. 46

48 In August 12, the eleventh plenary session of the Eighth Central Committee ended. At the end of the session, LIU Shao-qi made a simple speech: "For the wrong line that the Central made during the Cultural Revolution, I take the main responsibility.... I shall obey the Party discipline at least, and I will not be duplicitous and not engage in underground activities. If I have opinions, I shall put them on the table." He also requested to resign from the posts of a Politburo Standing Committee member and the State s President, but his request was not discussed. The central working conference In October 1966, MAO Ze-dong decided to convene a central working conference to let LIU Shao-qi and DENG Xiao-ping review their own mistakes. Before the meeting, LIU and DENG wrote their own review, and submitted to MAO for inspection. MAO made comments on their reviews. The comment to LIU s review reads: "Comrade Shao-qi: It is basically well-written, very serious and good, especially the second half is even better. Suggest printing it and issue it, on the draft form, to comrades in the Politburo, the Secretariat, the working groups (leading cadres), Beijing municipal Party committee and the Central Cultural Revolution Group, for discussion and providing their opinions. In this way, you may have some harvest, and then modify the draft and re-report, which way may be sober and please weigh." On DENG s review, MAO wrote: "Comrade Xiao-ping: You may speak as this.... Is it better that you add a few active and encouraging words, for example, with my own efforts and active help from comrades, I believe my mistakes will be corrected in a timely manner. I will stand up again. Please give me time? Are you unable to get up after doing revolution for first half of your life? Also, the word 'primary' in the title should be removed." After obtained MAO's comments, LIU wrote a letter to ZHOU En-lai: "Chairman Mao has seen my review s outline, written a segment of words and returned it to me. Now I send it to you, please have a look. I agree with the views of Chairman MAO.... Please print and issue them. Please give me opinions of comrades in a few days, which will help me. Should the comment from Chairman MAO also be printed? You please discrete." ZHOU then printed both LIU s self-review and MAO s comment, and issued them to the appropriate personnel. In October 9, the central working conference held in the West Beijing Hotel. At the beginning of the meeting, the members of the Central Cultural 47

49 Revolution Group, CHEN Bo-da, JIANG Qing, KANG Sheng et al were very active. They walked around in each big group, accused leaders of various provinces, cities and autonomous regions, and the persons in charge of various Departments of the Central Committee, the State Council and the People's Liberation Army, axxusing them that they are lack of understanding of the Cultural Revolution, and suppressed students and young red guards and destructed everywhere. But other participants spoke very shortly with only a few words, just to show that they are along the right line. In this way, the meeting continued for ten days, the situation did not open up as wished. According the proposal raised by the Cultural Revolution Group, ZHOU En-lai ordered WU Fa-xian to arrange aircrafts to pick up the heads of the rebel organizations country-wide to Beijing to attend the meeting and expose the problems of the working groups. When a leader of a rebel organization in Guizhou Province arrived at Beijing airport, he went to West Beijing Hotel directly by a car sent by the Central Office, and looked great. He spoke for three hours in the Northeast China group, exposing how the first secretary of Guizhou provincial Party Committee, ZHOU Zheng-lin, deconstructed the Culture Revolution, how he suppressed the student movement and how he arrested the red guards. ZHOU En-lai attended the meeting when WU spoke, and had been nodding to show his agreement. For the rebel organization s heads to attend and ignite in the meeting worked very well. While they attending, the meeting gradually set to a climax. Especially on the issue of sending working groups, there are more and more opinions against LIU and DENG. A lot of people said that sending working groups was wrong because the working groups put down the vigor and vital Cultural Revolution and desolated the movement. They expressed their support to MAO s decision of repealing the working groups. Then, MAO convened a plenary session and spoke for about ten minutes. He talked about the importance of the Cultural Revolution, and required Party committees at all levels and responsible people not afraid of the masses and going to the masses, to be a student first and then a teacher, and draw fire against oneself. In the evening on October 23, a plenary session held in the conference room on the second floor of West Beijing Hotel. After the meeting started, MAO Ze-dong asked LIN Biao to preside over the meeting. LIN immediately announced: "The meeting tonight is for comrades LIU Shao-qi and DENG xiao-ping to make their self-reviews." LIU immediately began to 48

50 read the manuscript he had already written: "My review of mistakes is divided into three parts. The first part talks about errors in the 50 or so days. The mistakes I made in the 50 days after June 1 of this year in guiding the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is about route and direction. I am fully responsible for these mistakes.... The second part is to say that my mistakes this time are not accidental. Actually, in the history I also made some mistakes on principle and route. For example, in 1946 I made mistakes in guiding the war in the Northeast China and the guidance to LIN Biao was not enough; In the 1949, my speech in Tianjin City had a right-deviated mistake; In 1962, I made right-deviated mistakes; And in 1964, I made the left-shaped but actually right-deviated mistakes, etc.. In the third part, I talk about the reasons for me to have mistakes. The first reason is that I did not understand that the Culture Revolution is the more thorough and more extensive stage in the development of the socialist revolution, and that I did not understand the method of the Cultural Revolution but feared of disorder and was afraid of counter-revolutionaries coming to catch the power. The second reason for my mistakes is the errorous estimate of the situation and my worldview had not transformed. The third reason, which is the most fundamental reason, is that I had not well learned MAO Ze-dong s Thought.... DENG Xiao-ping's self-review of his own mistakes was very short. He said: "Among the central leading comrades country-wide, those who represent the bourgeois reactionary line during the Cultural Revolution are Comrade Shao-qi and myself.... It must be made clear that the vast majority of the working groups, except countable few of them, are good comrades and mainly not responsible for the mistakes made during the period of time. The main responsibility should be beared by comrade Shao-qi and myself." After LIU and DENG finished their self-reviews, LIN asked MAO if he has any instruction. MAO then stood up and said a few words. He said he himself also bears responsibility while LIU and DENG made mistakes. Then, LIN Biao, CHEN Bo-da and KANG Sheng spoke and criticize the serious mistakes LIU and DENG made. On October 25, MAO spoke in the meeting: "In the past, I trusted someone too much and we engaged in the front group (Note: That is LIU and DENG) and the back group (Note: That is MAO) in the Central. As a result of it, there emerged a considerable number of baronies and my opinion cannot be practiced in Beijing." On the rise of the Cultural Revolution, he said: "It came in a short period of time and was very fierce. I did not expect that the broadcasting of a poster caused the whole nation sensate.... You were dashed 49

51 awfully after a pounce of the Red Guards.... The fire of the Cultural Revolution was set by me." He continued to say that we should allow someone to make mistakes and allow them to correct the mistakes. He told the attendees: "I am not intend to hit you down, and so are the Red Guards as I see it. I also worry while you can't pass. You could be forgiven because the time is too short and you made the wrong route not deliberately. We should not completely blame Comrades LIU Shao-qi and DENG Xiao-ping, and they made mistakes with reasons.... It is not good to put big character posters against LIU and DENG on the streets! We should allow them to make mistakes and allow correcting. Let the Red Guards to have a look at the book The formal story of Ah Q. LIU and DENG were engaged openly, not secretly. We should let LIU and DENG to do revolution." The central working conference ended on October 28. After the meeting, the Red Guards set off countrywide a new upsurge of criticism to the bourgeois reactionary line of LIU and DENG. On December 16, they held a general assembly "Ceremony of swearing of Beijing s middle school students criticizing the bourgeois reactionary line" in the Capital Worker's Stadium. At the end of the general assembly, the Central s leaders were arranged to walk around the stadium. At the time, ZHOU Enlai escorted JIANG Qin, MAO s wife, stepping down from the podium and went round the field. ZHOU let JIANG go in front of him and he himself behind her. JIANG kept walking in the front. In daily life, ZHOU responded and granted whatever JIANG requested, and arranged them personally. Once JIANG wanted to move to the No. 10 Building of the Diaoyudai State Guesthouse and asked her secretary YANG Ying-lu to call ZHOU on this matter. ZHOU immediately answered the phone and said: "Comrade JIANG Qing's idea is right and I agree. I will now give comrade WANG Dong-xing a call and ask him to prepare it ready for Comrade JIANG Qing. Are there any other requirements by Comrade JIANG Qing?" YANG said: "Comrade JIANG Qing said that the security situation needs to be checked and the rooms should be sterilized by ultraviolet, and she did not mention any other requirements." ZHOU said: "That's all right. I will ask Comrade WANG Dong-xing to deal with them." Soon after, everything was available in accordance to JIANG's request. One day in the summer of 1967, the Central held a "get together meeting". In the middle of the meeting, a nurse came and gave JIANG medicine with a cup of water. After drinking a bit and probably feeling the water a little bit too hot, LIANG hurtled the cup into the ground and shouted: "A-ya-ya! The nurse wants to 50

52 burn me with boiling water and murder me!" WANG Dong-xing let another person to provide another cup of water. When the second cup of water came, ZHOU immediately stood up, quickly took the cup, touched the cup with his hands, felt it was not so hot, and then personally handed it to JIANG and said: "The boiled water is not hot now. Please, Comrade JIANG, take the medicine." HE Long's fate Marshal HE Long suffered during the Cultural Revolution. As early as in May 1966, when the Culture Revolution began, someone in the Beijing University posted a big character poster stating that a Liberation Army s troop came to the school at the beginning of the year and asked for renting houses. The poster said this was to get a mutiny. In fact, renting houses was approved by the Central Military Commission (Note: HE Long chaired the Commission whenever LIN Biao would be sick) and the houses were for a newly formed regiment that was also approved by the Commission, and the regiment s duties are militia training and maintenance of public order. The Beijing Garrison had assumed that this regiment to live in universities in Beijing and therefore sent, in February, somebody to the Beijing University and the People s University of China to discuss possibility of renting houses there. Later, they thought it probably is not appropriate for a troop to live in a school and decided that the regiment is going to live in a shooting range in the suburb. On this event, KANG Sheng said: "HE Long privately mobilized troops, engaged in 'February mutiny' and constructed bunkers in Beijing suburb." He also said: "HE Long provided guns and cannons to Physical Culture and Sports Commission (Note: The Commission was chaired by HE Long). The cannons were set in Shichahai and aimed at Zhongnanhai District (where the Central is located)." In June 1966, the Air Force held its Eleventh Plenary Session of the Party, which involved HE Long again. Soon after the session opened, deputy commanders of the Air Force, LIU Zhen, CAO Li-huai, XU Shen-ji, CHANG Qian-kun, CHENG Jun and TAN Jia-shu, immediately launched an attack on WU Fa-xian (the commander of the Air Force) and YU Li-jin (the political commissar of the Air Force). Their leader LIU Zhen is admiral (Note: the Air Force has only two admirals, himself and the late LIU Ya-lou, the former commander of the Air Force) and an alternate member of the party s Eighth 51

53 Central Committee, while WU Fa-xian rank is only lieutenant general and was not a member of the Central Committee but, after the former command LIU Yalou died, took over the commander position of the Air Force. To this, LIU Zhen has been very dissatisfied. Other deputy commanders were also angry in their hearts because the former commander LIU Ya-lou was of an overlord style and often embarrassed them. For example, CHANG Qiankun, although a deputy commander, was often criticized by LIU. He once told someone: "I often wear smaller shoes in the Air Force, so that my feet of 'three inch' became that of two and a half inches." Another deputy commander prepared a document and submitted it to LIU. After reading it, LIU was not satisfied, and pointed to him with a finger and said: "What kind of stuff you have prepared! It can only be used as bathroom tissue paper!" Now, LIU has passed away, and they put their angry on WU, the new commander of the Air Force. In early July, LIU Zhen formally submitted a letter to the Central Military Commission and LIN Biao, which lists 25 points of their view, 10 of them pointing to LIU Ya-lou and 15 to WU Fa-xian. YIE Jian-ying reported to LIN Biao the situation of the Party Plenum of the Air Force. LIN Biao then said: "The situation of the Air Force is abnormal. LIU Ya-lou and WU Fa-xian have faults and mistakes that should be criticized, but the way they attck LIU and WU isn't right. Someone tries to dismiss others from office to seize power by the chance given by the Cultural Revolution." LIN Biao's view was transferred to LIU Shao-qi (Note: LIU had not affected by the impact of the revolution as yet at the time) on July 19. LIU Shaoqi then held a Politburo Standing Committee meeting. He said in the meeting: "Without letting the main leaders of the Air Force s Party committee know, somebody had done illegal activities for a small section. We may also call it underground activities. It is absolutely wrong for someone to dismiss some others from office to seize power by them. This kind of activities should be stopped at the very beginning. We must get a clear understanding of the problems." DENG Xiao-ping said: "Wherever CAO Li-huai goes, there will be a mess." So, LIU Zhen and others had to review their own mistakes. In his self-review, CHENG Jun said: In a night meeting during the Air Force s Plenary Session, I, FU Chuan-zuo and other two went to HE Long s place to report on the situation of the Air Force s Party Plenum. HE listened and said: "Both WU Fa-xian and YU Li- jin should no longer preside over the meeting. You yourselves could organize the meeting. You guys keep talking about your opinion! You continue to criticize WU and YU since they have wrong doings." WU Fa-xian immediately reported to LIN Biao about what CHENG Jun said. After listening, LIN said: "On this, you should write a 52

54 material and sent it to me." So, WU found CHENG Jun and others, prepared a document and send it to LIN with a note that reads: "Chairman Mao, vice Chairman LIN: We are sending a material prepared by CHENG Jun, HUANG Li-qing, FU Chuan-zuo and LIAO Guan-xian. Please read. It now appears that the reason for eleventh plenary session of the Air Force Party Committee to become as such is that there are two lines manipulating the meeting. One of them is a red line headed by Vice Chairman LIN and runs through the eleven plenary session throughout; and the another is a black line headed by Marshal HE Long." In August 28, LIN Biao asked WU Fa-xian to come and said to him: "They are ambitious and intervene everywhere, including the headquarters of the General Staff, the Navy, the Air Force and the Political College. The Air Force is a piece of rich meat and all want to take it. You have to be alerted on possibility for them to rob your power." LIN let WU prepare a document on how HE Long put a hand to the Air Force. In September 2, LIN Biao phoned LI Zuo-peng: "You should pay attention to HE Long. Actually, HE Long supported LUO Rui-qing. HE pulled up a large number of people against me. The Central Military Commission will soon solve his problem." He let LI prepare a document on how HE Long stepped in to the Navy. After receiving all these materials form the Air Force and the Navy, LIN sent them to MAO Ze-dong. In the morning of September 5, MAO called HE Long in to the Swimming Pool Lounge of the Zhongnanhai District and handed these materials to him. After reading them, HE asked: "Should I talk to WU Fa-xian?" MAO replied: "There is nothing to talk about." And he added: "You should not be afraid, I will protect you.... I know you well, and as I told you in the past: you are loyal to the party, loyal to the people, and strongly struggle enemies and well contact with the masses. " A few days later, MAO asked his secretary XU Ye-fu to call HE Long: "After talking with LIN Biao and several other old comrades, the problems have been solved. You may now visit the relevant comrades and try to solicit their opinions on you." At the morning of the next day, HE went to LIN Biao's residence to solicit his views. After HE stated the purppose of the visit, LIN said: "Commander HE Long, I do not have any opinion against you." HE said: "No, no, Commander LIN. There should always be a little." After a pause, LIN said: "If you say there is, then there is only a little bit. Your problem can be big or small, and the main thing is that in the future you should pay attention to a problem on whom you support and whom against." HE smiled and said: "Commander LIN Biao, how can I, after being 53

55 in revolution for so many years, do not know whom I should support and whom oppose! I oppose anyone who opposes the Party s Central and Chairman MAO, and I support anyone who supports the Party s Central and Chairman MAO." While they talking, YE Qun let several guards lurk behind the scenes and said it was to prevent HE to assassinate vice Chairman LIN. (Note: HE always carried a gun). Later, LIN Biao said in a meeting that HE Long "tries seize power everywhere" and is a "swordsman", and an important issue now is to show out HE Long s problems. LIN summed up several events to show how HE attempted to seize power: The first event is in the Air Force, i.e. in the 11 th plenary session of the Party committee there. The second event is in the Navy, i.e. SU Zhen-hua against LI Zuo-peng. The third event is in the headquarters of the General Staff, i.e. WANG Shang-rong and LEI Ying-fu against YANG Cheng-wu (who is the acting Chief of Staff). The fourth event is in the People's Liberation Army Institute of Politics, i.e. CAI Shun-li opposed MO Wen-hua. Approved by MAO, LIN Biao spoke in a meeting of the Central Military Commission: "HE Long has a problem." In October, the scope of meeting was expanded to responsible persons in various headquarters of the People's Liberation Army and leaders of various Military Regions. In December, JIANG Qing spoke in Qinghua University and Beijing University: "HE Long has a problem. You should oppose him." She also told HE Long's son HE Peng-fei: "Your father has made a serious mistake and we have the supporting materials. You tell him that I will have some actions against him." At the end of the year, ZHOU En-lai said to HE Long: "Your health is not good. If you stay at your home then the revolutionaries come every day and you cannot get a good rest. The Party has decided that you temporarily moved to the 'New Six Complex' (Note: the complexes are all located in the Western Hills of Beijing) and live there." Not long after HE moved there, the revolutionaries for the PLA Political Academy claimed that they will try to catch HE there. HE s wife XUE Ming made urgent calls to ZHOU En-lai for three times, but got no response. HE and his wife decided to directly go to ZHOU s residence in order to tell him that they will move back home to live. When they arrived, ZHOU wasn't back home from work yet but let his secretary to tell HEs: "The prime minister lets you rest here temporarily and don't go home." The secretary prepared a bed for them. So, HEs started to live at ZHOU s residence. 54

56 In January 1967, MAO and ZHOU discuss in Zhongnanhai District on HE s problem. Finally, MAO decided to take an isolation measure on HE, implemented by ZHOU personally. In the afternoon of January 19, ZHOU, together with LI Fu-chun, on behalf of the Political Bureau, talked to HE who lived at ZHOU s residence. ZHOU told HE with flat tone: Vice Chairman LIN said that you spread words saying he had problem in history, that you put your hands everywhere including the headquarters of the General Staff, the Navy, the Air Force, Armor troop and Signalmen troop, that you did not propaganda MAO Ze-dong s Thought, and that he has worries about what woud happen after Chairman MAO passed away. In addition, he said that you, XIA Xi and GUAN Xiang-ying had responsibility for over-expansion of Anti- Revolutionist Elimination Movement in the Honghu Red Base in history. When ZHOU talking, HE was angry and wanted to say something for several times, but ZHOU did not let him speak. Finally, ZHOU said: "You don't say anything. Chairman MAO protects you, as you know. I protect you too. We have found a place for you to live. I will pick you back in the coming fall.... You should study and transform yourself continuously when you become older and older." HE and his wife were sent to the West Hills Area in Beijing and lived in a separate house there. He is in isolation performed by a team of soldiers. 55

57 Chapter 7.3 The Red Guards The rise of the Red Guards Seven middle school students first established the organization Red Guard. That was in May 1966, some students of the secondary school affiliated to Qinghua University accused the school for not actively guiding the criticism on the "HAI Rui dismissed from office". The school leaders, however, declared: Who continue to target at the school and who is against the school s Party branch are all anti party activists.... Please don't forget that some of rightists in 1957 were students. The school also published rules: All students have to return to dormitory immediately every night, and it is not allowed to have a party or a get-together on the issue. But the students continued to secretly gather together for discussions. In the evening of May 29, BU Da-hua and other six students of the middle school quietly gathered at the ruins of Yuanminyuan Garden, a loyal summer palace near the school. They decided to be organized like the Soviet Union s "Young Guards" existed during the Great Patriotic War. Proposing a name of the new organization, some wanted to name the team "Sunny" and some others suggested "Protect the East", but most students finally agreed with the name of "Red Guards". After the name was determined, they together read the "Red Guards Oath": "We are the guards defending the red regime, our patron is the Party s Central and Chairman MAO, our bounden duty is the liberation of all mankind, and our supreme instructions for all our action come from MAO Ze-dong s Thought. We pledge: We will firmly spread the last drop of our blood to defend the Party s Central and to defend the great leader Chairman MAO." Among them, the oldest student was 19 years old and the youngest 13. Then, the Red Guard organizations appeared at every middle school in Beijing. Soon after the working group, sent by LIU Shao-qi and DENG Xiaoping, arrived at schools, contradictions appear between the red guards and the working group, and constantly upgraded. Red guards of the middle school affiliated to Qinghua University posted a pig character poster entitled Long live the rebel spirit of proletarian revolutionists. The working group criticized the poster. They asked: " How can you explain the word rebels as the working group is under the leadership of the Communist Party?" But the Red Guards were well prepared and they read aloud a quotation from 56

58 Chairman MAO: "Marx doctrine has many sentences, but the most fundamental sentence is rebel is rational.... According to this principle, we began to resist, to fight and to implement socialism." After MAO decided to withdraw the working group from all schools, Red Guards of this middle school wrote a letter to MAO directly. In August 3, WANG Ren-zhong met the students and brought a letter from MAO to the students that said: Your two posters, written respectively in June 24 and July 4, express your anger to and denounce of the landlord class, the bourgeoisie, imperialism, revisionism and their lackeys who against workers, peasants, revolutionary intellectuals and the revolutionary party. Your posters also explain why rebel is rational and I warmly support you. Here, I want to say that my revolutionary comrades and I all take the same attitude. Whether in Beijing or in other parts of the country, we always give warm support in the Cultural Revolution to those who take the same attitude as you do. Since then, the Red Guard organizations appear nation-wide magically in each college and middle school, just like bamboo shoots grow after a spring rain. In August 18, 1966, i.e. six days after the end of the 11th session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Party, there held in Tiananmen Square a mass gathering called Rally to celebrate the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution". Millions of Red Guards from around the country attended. On the day, from 1 AM in the very early morning, millions of Red Guards and the crowd started to enter the Square, and more than one thousand representatives of the Red Guards boarded at the rostrum of Tiananmen and tens of thousands of Red Guards at the rostrum on both sides of Jinshui Bridge. At about 9:30 AM, MAO, LIN and other leaders boarded the rostrum of Tiananmen Gate. MAO wore a new grass green military uniform and a new cap with a red star. In the Tiananmen gate lounge waiting for the start of the general assembly, MAO together with LIN Biao, ZHOU En-lai, CHEN Bo-da, reviewed and revised the drafts of the conference speeches. LIU Shao-qi was also in the room, but sitting alone in a cane chair and smoked in silence. At 10 AM, the celebration rally started with the music "The East is red". The head of the Cultural Revolution Group, CHEN Bo-da, announced the beginning of the meeting and delivers a speech. In his speech, he put very eyecatching title of "great leader", "great teacher" and "the great helmsman" for MAO. Then, LIN Biao spoke with a voice sounded a little like shouting and hoarse. He said: For the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the Supreme Commander is our Chairman MAO. Chairman Mao 57

59 is our great commander. In this way, LIN put fourth title great commander to Chairman MAO. (Note: Soon after, People's Daily published the inscription handwritten by LIN: "Long live the great leader, great teacher, great helmsman and great commander Chairman MAO!") LIN Biao spoke at the mass asambly for MAO Ze-dong to receive Red Guards. From left: KANG Sheng, JIANG Qing, ZHOU En-lai, LIN Biao and MAO Ze-dong. Then, ZHOU En-lai spoke. And the next speaker was NIE Yuan-zi on behalf of all Red Guards. In the celebration assembly, a student of the Girls Middle School affiliated to Beijing Normal University, SONG Bin-bin, put a Red Guard armband on MAO's left arm. On the Tiananmen rostrum, MAO talked to Red Guard representatives from the middle school affiliated to Qingha University, Beijing University, the Beijing fourth middle school and the middle school affiliated to Beijing University. He also received individually 40 representatives of teachers and students led by NIE Yuan-zi of the Beijing University. SONG Bin-bin put a Red Guard armband for MAO Ze-dong. 58

60 Then, MAO Ze-dong stood on the rostrum of Tiananmen and paraded millions of Red Guards. He was pleased and told LIN Biao who was standing on the side: "This movement is of large scale. It indicates that the mass have been really launched and has great significance for all people nationwide to be ideologically revolutionized." When the parade procession was through Tiananmen, MAO and LIN et al walked in the rostrum, from east to west, and then from west to east. MAO kept waving his hat in the hand to pay tribute to Red Guards in the parade and the balcony. This action of MAO made the mass in the rostrum and the square boiling up. On both sides of the rostrum of Tiananmen, tens of thousands of Red Guards held the little red book "Quotations from Chairman MAO" and shouted: "We want to see Chairman MAO!" The sound was so roar that it could deafen ear. On the square, the demonstrators were desperately shouting, "Long lives Chairman MAO!" Young students were in tears. This scene, through radio, infected the people of the whole country. On the second day, each big newspaper everywhere in the nation reported this grand event by a significant amount of coverage. After MAO received the Red Guards, schoolteachers and students all over the country have arrived in Beijing and required to be received by MAO. As so, MAO received Red Guards for the second time on August 31. That day, five hundred thousands of Red Guards from all over the country including Beijing gathered in Tiananmen Square. The gathering was started at 3 p.m.. At the beginning of the gathering, ZHOU En-lai was the first to speak on behalf of the Party Central. He called the Red Guards to "hold high the great flag of MAO Zedong s Thought, read Chairman MAO's books, listen to the words of Chairman MAO, act according to the instructions of Chairman MAO and apply Chairman Mao's Thought, and always be a good student and a good soldier of Chairman MAO." After ZHOU s speech, LIN Biao, wearing an armband of "Red Guards of the Capital, Xicheng Pickets", delivered a speech. He asked the Red Guards "to distinguish who are our enemies and who are our friends. Attention should be paid to unite the majority and concentrated force against the handful of bourgeois rightists. The fight focus is those authorities going along the bourgeois road who snaked into the Party. We have to grasp this direction of the struggle. "At 5 PM, MAO and other leaders went down the Tiananmen gate and rode the reviewing cars, ready to enter the square to review Red Guard there. According to ZHOU En-lai s arrangement, the first car was for MAO and HE Long, the 59

61 second car LIN Biao, and the third car ZHOU, CHEN Bo-da and KANG Sheng. When MAO's parade car just out of Jinshui bridge, the fanatical Red Guards broken the man wall of soldiers. They rushed to MAO's car and squeeze to each other. In order to avoid the danger, ZHOU and WANG Dongxing emergently organized teams of soldiers, one team by one team, rushing out from the Tiananmen gates to protect MAO. At the same time, leaders of the Beijing Military Region and the Beijing Garrison worked unceasingly, advising the red guards backward. Finally, MAO was scramble out. It was getting dark when the review cars finished parade and be back to the Jinshui bridge. The Red Guards still do not want to leave the square, but required to see MAO. Seeing this situation, MAO stayed in the Tiananmen gate for some more time, until the night came completely and then the receipt ended. MAO Ze-dong reviewed the red guards. After the second receipt of the Red Guards, MAO required certainty to provide the Red Guards need in "meal, living and transportation". The Central then sent a notification requiring that riding trains should be free for the students, faculty and staff of schools nationwide coming to Beijing, that the state finance pays expenditure for living allowance and transportation costs, and that Beijing City is responsible for arrangement of students needs after arriving at Beijing including meals, accommodation, and the food costs will be paid by national finance. After this notification was publicized, students, faculty and staff of Universities, middle schools across the nation began a nationwide "Big Series" action. The primary destination of the Big Series is Beijing, with a hope that they could see MAO. In September 15, MAO received the Red Guards for the third time. The Red Guards taking train were of a large number, making the trains seriously overloaded. The trains were full of people sitting on the coffee table and 60

62 chair s tops, or lying down in the aisle and even under the chairs. The luggage rack was commonly fractured, the equipments often broken. In October, MAO received red guards for the 4 th and the 5 th times. After that, more Red Guards flocked to Beijing, the transportation sector has been completely unbearable. In this case, ZHOU proposed and MAO approved to promote Big Foot Series, i.e. walking to replace taking trains. After this, Red Guard tandem teams named Long March Team appear everywhere. Many of them walked to the sacred place of the revolution, such as Jinggangshan and Yanan. These places, however, lack the condition of receiving a large number of visitors. For example, Jinggangshan is originally a mountain area with only a few native residents but now receiving hundreds of thousands of students. The result was that there was nothing to eat. After knowing this, ZHOU En-lai was very worried and immediately mobilize the cities of Wuhan, Nanchang, Hangzhou and other large cities to make buns, bread, biscuits, snacks and so on, and these foods were airdropped by the Air Force aircrafts. The airdrops continued for more than half a month. However, there were still a few people eventually starved to death and some other people of hunger died after eating too much. Foods and housing of so many Red Guards became big problems in Beijing. There is really no way for ZHOU to solve the problems but asked MAO: "Now the railway, automobiles and ships are very seriously overloaded, food and housing problems are very serious. Can we make a restriction on the number of Big Tandem?" MAO replied: "We have now received only six or seven millions. The number is still little and should be doubled. Furthermore, we should still make sure for their foods, housing and transportation needs." ZHOU can t say anything more. After came back from MAO s place, ZHOU called the responsible persons in the State Council, Beijing City and the military departments, and discussed the issues. He then held a mass meeting of tens of thousands people to mobilize Beijing people, asking the soldiers and civilians to put one's heart and soul into welcoming the quest of Chairman MAO. He required the departments to prepare food, readiness of the housing and do a good job of transportation. All hotels and hostels of the schools, organs, factories and mines were emptied and ready to receive the Red Guards. So, MAO continued to receive Red Guards. 61

63 In November 10, MAO received the Red Guards for the seventh time. There are one and half millions Red Guards ready to be received, and the Tiananmen Square was not big enough. ZHOU proposed to receive the Red Guards in Changan Street, which is in the front of the Tiananmen Square, and in the Loop No. 2 of Beijing. In the 118 th room of the Great Hall of the People, ZHOU told MAO about the parade route. On the carpet there laid a map of Beijing city, and ZHOU kneeled down in front of the map, explaining the route to MAO who stood beside the map, smoking and listening to ZHOU. In November 25 and 26, MAO received Red Guards for the eighth time, in two consecutive days, and in the Tiananmen Square and the Western Suburbs Airport, respectively. The total number of Red Guards received was two and half millions. Before the receipt, the airport was reconstructed overnight under ZHOU s arrangement: The areas at both sides of the runway were extended 250 meters each, and new roads and bridges inside and outside of the airport were made so that the Red Guards can pass through smoothly. During the receipt, all roads of the airport were full of people and it is really a sea of people. Due to having too many people, dozens of people were extruded when the reciept was ending and people left from the airport. They were sent to hospitals of the Air Force and the Navy. ZHOU led WU Fa-xian and LI Zuo-peng, and went to the hospitals to visit the injured Red Guards. Each time after receiving the Red Guards, MAO, at the age of 74, always felt very tired and it is a bit too much. After this receipt, the overexhausted MAO finally said: "Should not do it anymore." Having these words of MAO, ZHOU issued, in the name of the State Council, the Central Military Commission and the Central Cultural Revolution Group, a notice requiring students and teachers of colleges and middle schools to stop coming to Beijing. The total number of Red Guards received by MAO was close to eleven millions. In the Universities in Beijing, there are five most famous leaders of the Red Guards, known as the "Five Leaders". They are NIE Yuan-zi of the Beijing University, KUAI Tai-fu of Qinghua University, HAN Ai-jing of the Beijing Institute of Aeronautics, TAN Hou-lan of the Beijing Normal University and WANG Da-bing of the Beijing Geological Institute. All these five leaders got full support of MAO and the Central Cultural Revolution Group. They acted whenever an instruction came from the Central Cultural Revolution Group and stopped whenever the instruction said No. 62

64 Five Leaders of University Red Guards in Beijing, from left: NIE Yuan-zi, KUAI Tai-fu, HAN Ai-jing, TAN Hou-lan and WANG Da-bing. Rebels Criticizing LIU Shao-qi In December 18, 1966, the Central Cultural Revolution Group s office suddenly called the Red Guard organization "Jinggangshan Corps" of Qinghua University and named the organization head KUAI Da-fu to be at the west gate of Zhongnanhai District at 2 PM, as the Culture revolution Group wanted talk to him. KUAI was a student of the Chemical Engineering Department at Qinghua University. He revolted in the early days of the Cultural Revolution, and was criticized by the working group and designated as a rightist. Then KUAI announced a hunger strike and CHEN Bo-da sent a representative to express condolences and support to KUAI. Since then, KUAI became famous, pulled up a team and established the Jinggangshan Corps. In September 24, 1966, he took over the leadership of the Qinghua University. He resolutely acted in accordance with the command from the Central Cultural Revolution Group. Now, KUAI arrived on the west gate of Zhongnanhai District and was guided into a room. In the room, ZHANG Chun-qiao said to KUAI: "The one or two person in the Central who proposed the bourgeois reactionary line (Note: Refers to LIU Shao-1i and DENG Xiao-ping), still do not surrender.... You young leaders should join together to carry forward thoroughly revolutionary spirit. You should hit a dog even it is already falling to water and make them stink, and don't give up on halfway.... KUAI repeatedly said: "Chief, please be assured. I promise I'll do it." In the next day, KUAI hosted the swearing in ceremony at the Qinghua University and called on "thoroughly smash the bourgeois counter-revolutionary headquarter led by LIU and DENG". In December 25, KUAI led more than 5000 people of Jinggangshan Corps matching to the urban area of Beijing. Led by a radio car, they held a variety 63

65 of banners and flags. In Tiananmen Square, KUAI hosted a "Swearing ceremony for down with the bourgeois reactionary line represented by LIU Shao-qji and DENG Xiao-ping". Then, the people were divided to five teams going to several business areas of Beijing, such as Xidan and Wangfujing Districts. In there, they posted everywhere big character posters, slogans and leaflets "Down with LIU Shao-qi!" "Down with DENG Xiao-ping!" On December 27, mass organizations of Beijing universities held, in the Capital Workers Stadium, a mass gathering named Assembly for thoroughly criticizing the LIU and DENG s reactionary bourgeois line". In the assembly, NIE Yuan-zi and others attacked LIU and DENG with violent language. This was echoed throughout mass organizations all over the nation. As such, there launched a great wave against LIU and DENG nationwide. On the evening of December 30, JIANG Qing, YAO Wen-yuan and others of the Central Cultural Revolution Group came to Qinghua University to express their strong support for KUAI Da-fu. On the New Year's day in 1967, the rebel organization "Red Rebel Group" of the Zhongnanhai District posted a banna "Down with Chinese Khrushchev, LIU Shao-qi" and other slogans on walls of LIU Shao-qi's residence. In January 6, 1967, the Red Guards of Qinghua University designed a trap: Call WANG Guang-mei and falsely tell her that her daughter LIU Pingping got an trafic accident, so to lure WANG out and to catch her up to criticize. Near the dinnertime of the day, phone at LIU Shao-qi s residence rang. WANG heard a hurried voice: "Is it home of LIU Pingping? A car hit LIU Ping-ping and her thigh fractured. We are in the hospital. Please come at once!" WANG let her another daughter LIU Ting-ting went, together with a guard, to the hospital by bike. When they just went out, WANG sent, in addition, her son LIU Yuan also go to the hospital for a look at the situation. After a while, LIU Ting-ting called in: "My sister was said comminuted a bone fracture." WANG said to LIU Shao-qi: "Premier ZHOU did not allow us to leave our residence (Note: This was for their safety)." LIU Shao-qi said: "I'll go if you don't, our daughter was rammed the car because I am criticized." WANG said: "Then I'll go with you." So, LIU and his wife went to the hospital. When they just entered the hospital gate, LIU Yuan shouted: "Dad and Mom, they lied to you. They cheated and their purppose is to catch Mom and send her to Qinghua University and criticize her there." WANG resolutely put her husband behind her while LIU Shao-qi stood there. WANG said: "All of you leave if you are not WANG Guang-mei." And she then hardly pushed or pulled LIU 64

66 Shao-qi and their children for letting them go away. At the last, LIU Shaoqi s bodyguard carried him away. The bodyguard promptly reported the event to his superior and got an answer: "LIU Shao-qi should immediately be back to the Zhongnanhai District and WANG Guang-mei could go to Qinghua University." In this way, WANG Guang-mei fell into the hands of the Red Guards and was under fight that night in Qinghua University. Immediately after returning to his residence in the Zhongnanhai District, LIU called ZHOU En-lai. ZHOU immediately ordered Red Guards of the Jinggangshan Corps of Qinghua University: In any case, you must let WANG Guang-mei back to Zhongnanhai before 5 AM tomorrow!" In LIU Shao-qi's residence, his two daughters began to cry. LIU Shao-qi said: "It should not blame on you. It was due to my mistakes that your mother has to criticize herself. I must think of a way to bring your mother back." In the second day, the Red Guards sent WANG back home, in accordance of ZHOU En-lai s order. At the same time, Beijing appeared a big character poster entitled "Smartly catching of WANG Guang-mei" and it immediately spread throughout the whole country. In January 11, the party s Political Bureau decided to cancel the right of attending any Politburo meeting for LIU Shao-qi, DENG Xiao-ping, TAO Zhu, CHEN Yun and HE Long. Previously, Central Cultural Revolution Group members had accused TAO Zhu of the Largest loyalist and LIN Biao designated HE Long as a bandit. On the night of January 13, MAO called LIU Shao-qi in the Great Hall of the People. LIU said: "The Chairman, I made a big mistake this time. The mistakes are in route and of my full responsibility, and the cadres are good, especially a lot of old cadres are the precious fortune of the Party. The main responsibility should be on me. Please librate the cadres as soon as possible so that the party can suffer less. I want to resign from the posts of the State s President, Politburo s standing member and Director of the Editorial Board of "The selected works of MAO Ze-dong". I would go, with my wife and children, to Yanan County or the farm field where I was born, so that the Cultural Revolution could be ended as early as possible and the country loss could be less." MAO avoided LIU s topics and, instead, suggested LIU to read a few books and specially introduced to him the French scholar Heigl s work "Mechanical Materialism" and Diderot's work "Robot". When LIU departing, MAO sent LIU to the door and said: "Study hard and take care of your heath." 65

67 In March 21, the Politburo Standing Committee had a meeting and decided to transfer the materials about LIU s historical problems to the task force for WANG Guang-mei, which had been established previously, for further investigation. Public Security Minister XIE Fu-zhi wrote a comment on a report prepared by the task force: "Main works on traitor LIU Shaoqi s case were done by Comrade JIANG Qing personally. All important reports in the future should be directed and reported first to Comrade JIANG Qing." In April 1, each big newspaper in Beijing published an article written by QI Ben-yu, a member of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, entitled "Patriot or traitor? --- On the reactionary film Palace s secret history. The article was pointing to LIU Shao-qi and it stated: "You are not an 'old revolutionary' as you put it! You are false revolutionary and a counter-revolutionary and a Khrushchev who is sleeping in our side!" After reading it, LIU ruthlessly put the newspaper down on the table and said: "False, this article has many lies. When did I say that the film is patriot? When did I say that I want to be a 'red comprador'? Not true! Inner-party struggle has never been so unserious. I'm not a counter revolutionary, I do not oppose Chairman MAO, and the fact is that it was me who brought up MAO Ze-dong s Thought at the Seventh Central Committee and I publicize MAO Ze-dong Thought not less than others.... We can debate if these people are fearless, openly and above board! The debate could be in the Central Committee or among the ordinary people! I want to say a few words for the country, the people, our party and cadres!" In April 6, rebels in Zhongnanhai District entered the residence of LIU Shaoqi, the President of People's Republic of China, while shouting slogans. They "ordered" the President that you have to do the cooking, cleaning and washing clothes yourself, and change the daily schedule. (Note: LIU used to work at night and sleep in the morning.) The rebels surrounded LIU Shao-qi and use the little red book (Note: i.e. a pocket edition of the "Quotations from Chairman MAO", and every Red Guard had a copy of it and waved it when they are excited) in their hands and pointing at LIU. They raised the eight questions listed by QI Ben-yu in his article. When the rebels asked the question about the "Group of the 61 traitors", LIU suddenly became angry and said: "This is nonsense. The Party Central had approved to let the sixty-one people out of the prisons. At that time, the Japanese aggressors were attacking Northern China, we must protect these cadres and should not let the Japanese invaders killing them. They are precious fortune of the Party! 66

68 Many leading comrades in the Party Central knew it, and there was a conclusion on this already!" Sitting in front of the home, Xiao-xiao (Liu Shaoji's youngest daughter) saw her parents were beaten and was very afraid. She cried loudly with bitter tears. Yuan-yuan (another daughter of LIU) saw the situation and hurrily went in to protect her little sister but was stopped by the rebels. Yuan-yuan glared angrily and said: "Don t you see a little child is crying?" Then, the special tean for WANG Guang-mei s problems searched LIU's house and taken away 188 notebooks of LIU and WANG. In the second day, LIU handed over a reply to the eight questions raised in QI s article. Members of his crew sent the original of the reply to the Central, and copy it as a big character poster and posted in the Zhongnanhai District. But the poster was tom to pieced after a few hours. In Wuhan, WANG Dong-xing learned of the struggle in the Zhongnanhai district against LIU Shao-qi and immediately reported to MAO. MAO said: "I do not agree to do that way because it will inevitably cause physical fighting. Criticizing back-to-back is better than face-to-face. " He let WANG convoy his opinion to LIN Biao who presided over the Central in Beijing. In fact, before leaving Beijing for Wuhan, MAO called ZHOU En-lai and some veteran cadres and members of the Cultural Revolution Group together at the 118th room in the Great Hall of the People, and talked about arrangement after he leaves and said: On denouncing against LIU and DENG, using the back-on-back method is okay. Don't do face-to-face." The Red Guards wanted to organize an assembly of three hundred thousand people to denounce WANG Guang-mei and got consent of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. LIU Shao-qi learned it and said: "I had the wrong doing and I take the responsibility. It is the Central who sent the working groups to schools, not Guang-mei. Why should she bear the blame for me? If they want someone to be refuted, I will go! I will go to see the crowd because I am a member of the Communist Party. How can I afraid of the masses while I am not afraid of death? Are others always right? Every thing should be divided into two parts, the right part and the wrong part. Why not allow others to show opinion different from the Central Cultural Revolution Group? Why lock them up if they have different opinions? " When saying this, he suddenly dropped his spoon on the table. He then tried to control his mood, called several children together and said slowly: "After I die in the future, you have to put my ashes in the sea, like Engels did. The sea connects to the five oceans and I want to see the 67

69 realization of communism all over the world. You have to remember that this is my will to you. You must go on living in the masses, to withstand the grievance, receive training in a practical work. People do not understand me and therefore may be overdone some actions against you, but you have to understand the people. The Chinese people are the best people. Your father is the son of the people and you must also be fine sons and daughters of the people. Forever follow the Party and work for the people. In this unusual situation, you must hold on and must not have antagonism with the masses.... As I told you many times, the trust of the people is my biggest happiness in my life. But I want to say more to you today: People's misunderstanding is the biggest pain in my life." Before the opening of the mass assembly of three hundred thousand, the Red Guards of Qinghua University interrogated WANG Guang-mei for three times. The first time was on April 10 at 6:30 AM. They prepared a very thin cheongsam and a "necklace" made by a string of ping-pong balls. (Note: In the past, WANG accompanied LIU to visit Indonesia, while wearing cheongsam and a necklace, which was considered by the Red Guards as "bourgeois dressing".) They requested WANG to wear the cheongsam first but were refused by WANG. The Red Guards said: "You must wear this clothes!" WANG said: "I don't!" The Red Guards said: "You must, no matter you want or not." WANG said: "I will not. You can't invade my personal freedom anyway. The Red Guards laughed loudly and said: "You are the wife of the person with three anti (i.e. anti-party, antirevolution and anti-socialism), a reactionary bourgeois and one from the other class. Therefore, we will not give you democracy even a little bit, a small drop of it or even a half drop of it. Today, we dictate you and there is no freedom for you." WANG said: "It's made of silk, and too cold." The Red Guards replied: It is not strange for a fly to die due to cool (Note: This is a sentence in a poem of MAO Ze-dong). No! Put on. WANG said: "You don't have that right." The Red Guards replied: "We do have the right! Today is to fight against you, we are going to fight in whatever the way we want, and there is no freedom for you. Forget your bad-smell theory that everybody is even before the truth. We are the revolutionary mass, you are counter revolutionary bitch, and you cannot confuse the class line." At this time, the "ghost catcher" of the Red Guards went on, put the ghost cloth on WANG. WANG protested: "You do a physical fight. You violated Chairman MAO s instructions." The Red Guards replied: " Revolution is not a dinner party (Note: This is a quotation from MAO s work)...." WANG said: "You 68

70 use a coercion." The Red Guards replied: "You wore this dress when going to Indonesia and flirt with Sukarno (Note: The president of Indonesia), which disgrace and insult all Chinese people. You want to make unfounded countercharges? It is justified to dictate you, a bourgeois, the number one pocket-picker in Qinghua campus." Then, the red guards began formal interrogation: "WANG Guang-mei, you tell us what you think of the words LIU Shao-qi is the top party person in authority taking the capitalist road." WANG replied: "I have not reach that level yet. Anyway, the fact is that before the 11 th session of the Eighth Central Committee, the Chairman entrusted LIU Shao-qi and the Secretariat for dealing a lot of things and he should be responsible for what happened. But now he was sidelined, not in a responsible position with power. He was through a section of the capitalist road during the period of practicing the reactionary line." The Red Guards responded: "According to your statement, tell us what he did through the capitalist road?" WANG answered: "He wrote a comment on the report on the cooperative groups in the revolution base of Shanxi Province, which is wrong. He thought the cooperative groups were developed too fast and wanted it slow down because he wanted to play it safe. In 1962, he excessively rated the difficulty our country faced. He opposed the fallacy of 'Three selves and one contract' and 'Four freedoms', and he was not in favor for a peasant to work alone. He was still insisting on socialism in many occasions. The Red Guards asked: "LIU Shao-qi preached 'Red capitalists' and said that exploitation is good. Is what he said going subjectively along the socialist road?" WANG replied: "LIU Shao-qi spoke a lot of wrong words. What you are referring to is his 1950 speech in Tianjing. I was there at the time and know that there are many words are very wrong. At that time, there was a 'leftist' mood in Tianjing city and a lot of people wanted to destroy the exploiting classes. He was sent by Chairman MAO to correct the wrong direction there, and some of his words were trying to correct the wrong direction. There is discrepancy between the posters now and what he actually said then." The Red Guards said: "As you said, are his words 'workers will have to be exploited' correct?" WANG replied: "Some of them are wrong, some are right and some others not good. This cannot be separated from the environment then. For example, in a forum with capitalists, if he said that exploitation is evil, then opening a factory is a sin and opening a big factory is even a greater sin. What LIU Shao-qi said was as long as it is good for country s stength and people s wealth, opening a factory as well as such exploitation are needed. The words that workers also need such exploitation were said under the specific conditions. But now his words are 69

71 beheaded and tailless." The Red Guards asked: "Then who did advocate to the New Stage of Peace and Democracy and spread superstition to JIANG Jieshi?" WANG replied: "He was not alone. According to the reports on newspapers, this is not a personal responsibility. For example, the Armistice Agreement (Resolution) had words of 'peace and democracy'. He now take the responsibility to bear up and dares to undertake the responsibility." The Red Guards laugh: "So he is a hero?" Then, the Red Guards asked: "Tell us why you wear necklace while Comrade JIANG Qing asked you do not wear?" WANG replied: "Comrade JIANG Qing asked me don't use pins, not necklace, though the problem is the same." The Red Guards forced to put on her table tennis string (as necklace) and dressed her up, and took a photo. WANG said: "You should not insult me." The Red Guards ignored her. Then, the Red Guards asked: " WANG Guang-mei, how do you think about the questions raised by Comrade QI Ben-yu in his article?" WANG then answered successively the eleven questions. Finally, the Red Guards asked: "WANG Guang-mei, are you afraid of?" WANG replied: "I'm afraid of what? I'm not afraid. "(Note: WANG was prepared to go to prison and brought with her towels and toothbrush, etc.) The Red Guards questioned WANG two more times on the same day, at 1 PM and 5:30 PM respectively. The State President's wife WANG Guang-mei (middle) was denounced. In July 18, hundreds of thousands of people belong to more than 100 mass organizations in Beijing held a Swearing ceremony for struggle against LIU Shao-qi outside of the west gate of the Zhongnanhai District. They camped there to siege Zhongnanhai District and shouted "LIU Shao-qi out of Zhongnanhai!". The rebel organizations prepared a meeting interrogating LIU s couple in the evening. After learnng it, LIU 70

72 silently watched his wife and said calmly: "Fortunately, history is written by people." At the night, LIU and his wife were separately dragged to two dining halls and interrogated by the rebels. The president of the People's Republic of China LIU Shao-qi s head was pushed down and stooped. His shoes were off, wearing only socks. The criticizing process lasted nearly two hours. On the face of LIU, who was over 70 years old, beads of sweat were constantly rolling down. When he took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat, the rebels nearby hit the handkerchief out of his hard. In Wuhan, WANG Dong-xing reported this event to MAO. MAO let WANG call ZHOU En-lai to ask him telling those organizations of the masses: On LIU, DENG, TAO et al, don't make a face-to-face criticizing. After listening to WANG s conveying, ZHOU replied: "I now know the instruction of the Chairman, but you'd better to call QI Ben-yu directly. (Note: QI was a member of the Central Cultural Revolution Group.)" WANG then called QI and told him what MAO said. August 5 was the first anniversary of MAO s big character poster "Bombard the headquarters --- One of my big character posters". On this day, hundreds of millions of people participated in a general assembly at Tiananmen Square in Beijing to condemn "crimes" of LIU Shao-qi and DENG Xiaoping. In order to support and echo the assembly in Tiananmen Square, rebel organizations in Zhongnanhai District, under a direct command from QI Benyu, separately denounced LIU s couples, DENG s couple and TAO s couple. The criticizing were held inside the residences of these three. In LIU s yard, the rebels strongly pressed LIU s head down and put his arms twisted behind his body so that his body is in the shape of a "jet airplane". They push LIU s couple into a corner of the yard and pull their heads down and body bowed to the image of Red Guards in the two giant posters. Suddenly, WANG Guang-mei broke away from the rebels clinching her and jumped to catch LIU s hands. LIU held WANG's hands too. The rebels fiercely broke their hands out, and WANG struggled to break loose and hold LIU s clothes, and wouldn't let it go. After LIU was denounced, the rebels forced him to go back to his office in his residence. LIU immediately buzzed to call the confidential secretary in, took the "Constitution of the People's Republic of China" and protested: "I am the president of the People's Republic of China. How do you do to me personally is not that important, but I will defend dignity of a president of our country. Who dismissed my presidency? Judgment should be through the People's Congress. What you did is in the insult to our country. I 71

73 personally am a citizen, why do not let me talk?" The confidential secretary wrote a report immediately at the night, but LIU had not received any reply. In August 7, LIU wrote to Mao that he resign from his posts and stated "I have lost freedom". But he didn't get any response. President of the People s Republic of China, LIU Shao-qi, was criticized fiercely. In September 13, Wang Guang-mei was formally arrested and then transferredto the Qincheng Prison in November. LIU's children were forced to leave the residence, some of them went to the schools to accept criticism and some of them even lived in streets. LIU was now alone and kept in the forecourt of his residence Fuluju Garden in the Zhongnanhai District. Mental pain, sudden change of daily life schedule and limitation of hypnotic dosage made LIU sleep only for one ar two hours in a night. He became weaker and weaker. Criticizing DENG Xiao-ping In July 19, 1967, rebel organizes in Zhongnanhai District took the DENG s couple and said they have some questions to ask DENG. After DENGs left from the home, the rebels searched DENG's home, but found nothing. In fact, DENG s habit is not to record in meetings, and usually do not write an outline for a speech except several digital numbers written on a small piece of paper. For alldocuments received in a day, he processed them in the same day by signing or writing a comment on then, and then let his secretary take the documenta away for achieving and left no file in his office. His office is clean and simple, and there is almost nothing except books. The rebels searched 72

74 the property, and were somewhat disappointed and said angrily: "No note at all. How did the General Secretary do his job? In the morning of July 29, some rebels in Zhongnanhai District held a meeting, in the name of Party branch meeting, and asked DENG to attend. In the meeting, the rebels criticized DENG, announced to DENG s couple restrictions on freedom of action from now on, and requested DENG to hand over an "Apology statement" within three days. After the meeting, DENG wrote a letter to WANG Dong-xing: "I guess you have already known the situation of the Party branch meeting this morning. P.S. the College of Foreign Languages also requested me to write confession before the 30th days of this month while the deadline set by the party branch is three days. Surely, I need to consult the Chairman and the Central about how I should deal with this kind of things. A phone call is inconvenience and therefore I write a letter to the Chairman. Please turn the letter to him." In the attached letter to MAO, DENG wrote: "When I saw you in May, You the Chairman had allowed me to contact you if needed, such as writing to you directly. I am once again writing to get allowance of seeing you personally, and very sincerely hope to be able to consult in front of you. I am conscious that this request may not be necessarily appropriate, but I have no other way, but to pour out my feelings to the Chairman. If the Chairman is too busy, could some other comrades talk to me?" But he got no response from MAO. More than one month before DENG wrote this letter, he had some contact with MAO. In a day in May, WANG Dong-xing came to DENG s residence and said to him: "The Chairman lets me come to convey his three points: First, you must endure and don't worry; Second, LIU and DENG can be separated; Third, you can write to him if needed." After listening, DENG immediately asked WANG to convey his request for visiting MAO. A few days later, in nighttime, DENG who was sleeping was waked to see MAO. DENG came back home until dawn. He told his wife ZHUO Lin that the Chairman mainly asked him about his history in the 30's, i.e. he left the 7th Red Army and went to Shanghai. (Note: At that time, the 7th Red Army established in the Guangxi province was suppressed by Guomingdang army so that it was forced to transfer to Jinggangshan area in Jianxi Province. On the way, the 7th Red Army was broken up, and DENG left the battle field and go to Shanghai by his own to report to the Party Central there.) In addition, DENG told his wife that the Chairman also criticized him of sending working groups to schools, but with a moderate attitude. 73

75 In August 1, DENG s secretary and bodyguard were changed. The new secretary came and the first thing he did was to call DENG s wife ZHUO to his office, where there was a slogan "Leniency to those who confess and strict to those who resist". He severely requested ZHUO to expose DENG s errors. ZHUO calmly replied: "Comrade Xiao-ping has never told the family members about his work and the organization, and therefore I know nothing. As for the files, after reading them, he dealt with them in the same day, and then the files were sent to the confidential office. You could try to find them if you want!" In August 5, millions of people attended a mass assembly in Tiananmen Square to celebrate an anniversary of publication of MAO s big character poster "Bombard the headquarters -- one of my big character poster". On that day, the rebel organizations in Zhongnanhai District came to DENG s residence to interrogate DENG s couple. They took DENG s couples out from the house and surrounded them in the middle of the yard. After shouting a slogan "Down with DENG Xiaoping", they criticized DENG, not one by one but many rebels blame DENG at the same time. Just after DENG said a few words to excuse some of what he did, he was rudely interrupted and criticized that he was desperate for defense. The mass organizations set loud speakers in the yard to convey what was going on in the Tiananmen Square alive. After the meeting ended, ZHUO helped DENG to walk back to the house and saw his face was pale, and then immediately poured a cup of water for him and helped him to lie down and rest. MAO took DENG s case different from LIU Shao-qi s case. He said to WANG Li on July 14, 1967: "I don't agree with the slogan for down with LIU and DENG parallelly.... Xiao-ping can be compared with Shao-qi or En-lai in political carrier; or compare with LIN Biao or PENG De-huai in military carrier. The only person who commanded two field armies is DENG Xiaoping. If LIN Biao s health becomes bad, I still want Xiao-ping comes out to work. No matter who is at the helm, I, LIU Shao-qi, LIN Biao or DENG Xiaoping, all of us cannot do the work without ZHOU En-lai." The heads of the rebel organizations also knew that DENG is special in MAO s eyes and therefore denouncing DENG had been not as hard as denouncing LIU. 74

76 The tragic death of Minister ZHANG Lin-zhi ZHANG Lin-zhi was the Minister of the Ministry of Coal Industry. When debating with MAO at the beginning of 1965, LIU Shao-qi asked MAO: "Who is the capitalist roader in, say, the Ministry of Coal Industry or Ministry of Metallurgical Industry?" MAO immediately replied: "Why not? ZHANG Lin-zhi is." In December 1966, JIANG Qing was named ZHANG Lin-zhi a "PENG Zhen s core friend". So, the Central Cultural Revolution Group member QI Ben-yu encouraged rebels of China Mining College to arrest ZHANG and interrogate him. One day in January 1967, a daughter of ZHANG Lin-zhi came to the China Mining Institute to visit his father. When waiting her father in the corridor, she heard shouts from downstairs and therefore hurried to the top of the stairs to meet her dad. She saw that her father was escorted up, his hair was shaved off in a large area in the middle, a large wooden bar hung in front and in the back of his chest, and his hands held up signs "Three-anti person ZHANG Lin-zhi" and "PENG Zhen's core friend ZHANG Lin-zhi", in which the name ZHANG Lin-zhi was written upside down and with a red X. In his room, his daughter asked him: "Dad, do you still have some food stamps?" But the rebels immediately stopped her rudely. She ceased to speak and he kept silent too. The rebels found an iron stove, wrapped with ZHANG's blanket on the outside, and then hanged it around his neck by using a steal coarse wire that made a line of blood on ZHANG s neck. The rebels forced him to stand on a chair and his hands held high with a wood bar. ZHANG could not insist like this, and fell down. The rebels pulled him up. Then, several people from Fenxi Mining Bureau brought a steal bell-shaped hat weighting 30 kg and put it on ZHANG's head as a high hat. ZHANG's head and neck could not afford such weight, and was overwhelmed and laid on the floor unconsiously. On January 21, ZHANG was pulled to parade on the streets. At this time, ZHANG s head could not hold up already and was always down. After coming back, the rebels made him stand on a stool then kicked the stool to make ZHANG fell to the ground. He sat on the floor and could not get up. In the evening, the army officers who were sent to the school for military training held a meeting. Someone said in the meeting that ZHANG showed a sign of suicide. Everyone in the meeting was asked to note "two points: First, raise vigilance and prevent for ZHANG to 75

77 suicide; Second, Take off the Army s straps in the washing room for clothes drying, otherwise it would have bad influence if ZHANG would use the straps to hang himself." In the morning of the next day, the guards found ZHANG hung in his room. He was 58 years old. The rebels said: ZHANG Lin-zhi was committed a suicide, "separating from the people" by himself. The minister ZHANG Lin-zhi was under fire. ZHOU En-lai tore after learned the news. He brought pictures of ZHANG with cuts and bruises all over his body, and said to rebels: "You seized Minister ZHANG Lin-zhi for more than 40 days and didn't allowed him to go home, and you did not report to me. You criticized and tortured him for dozens of times to extract confessions. Who gave you such right? He is a Minister, and even to an ordinary person you should not do such things! If safety of even a minister's life is not guaranteed, does the country have any hope? The laws are nothing in your eyes! " He directed the Ministry of Public Security to do autopsy and investigation. The postmortem persons went to a small room and saw ZHANG s body was on the cement floor, and he was shirtless, wearing cotton trousers and shoes but no socks. Their report said that body was bruising, mouth slightly open, there were more than 30 scar on the back, ligature marks on the neck, a blood hole behind the head, blood on the forehead, the left part of fore head collapsed. Autopsy was not processed. The postmortem report concluded that his dead was due to "hanging". As to the question if he is homicide or suicide, the report said: "It is not included in this survey." 76

78 At a meeting of the State Council, ZHOU En-lai bitterly said: "Comrade Lin- ZHI died without clear a reason or cause. He was a minister of the State Council and an alternate member of the Central Committee. How should I account for the Party Central!" Since then, ZHOU took emergency measures to protect responsible persons in various ministries. He held a meeting in the name of the production, and called in ministers of various ministries to Zhongnanhai District and commanded to arrange rooms for them to take a rest. He also set a rule that criticizing a minister shall be approved by the State Council and such a meeting should not exceed two hours. The minister of the Department of Water and Power, LIU Lan-bo, lamented: "Comrade Lin-zhi s death saves us all." When the minister of the Seventh Machine Ministry, WANG Bingzhang, reported to LIN Biao, talking the chaos of the Culturure Revolution and the death of ZHANG Lin-zhi. LIN replied: "ZHANG Lin-zhi was a good comrade. QI Ben-yu murdered him. QI was a murder!" Note: At the end of July, 1970, after QI Ben-yu had been down, Premier ZHOU En-lai presided a business group meeting of the State Council. The meeting made a decision On the problem of ZHANG Lin-zhi s death that stated: "Everybody in the meeting thinks consistently that Comrade ZHANG Lin-zhi's history is clear. When Comrade Zhang Lin-zhi heard antirevolutionary QI Ben-yu s speech with threat and provocative language, broadcasted in the Mining Institute, and, in addition, he was seriously injured, he naturally fell into extreme tension leading to his death in the physical fight, torture and chaos. It is decided that Comrade ZHANG Lin-zhi's death should be dealt in the way for a contradiction inside the people, and Comrade ZHANG Lin-zhi's family and his children should not be involved and they should be treated as family members of a revolutionary cadre." In the winter of 1973, ZHANG s wife LI Yun-hua visited DENG Xiao-ping at his home. After describing the whole process of how ZHANG was framed and persecuted, and the tragic death, she said: "Six or seven years have passed after Comrade Lin-zhi died, there still has no fair conclusion. I worry about the long process and no conclusion finally." DENG replied: "Comrade Lin-zhi is a good comrade and we will never forget him. I will intervene and there will be a conclusion. Do not worry. The fair conclusion will come naturally." In October 8, 1975, when DENG has resurfaced, Ministry of Coal Industry submitted to the Party Central and the State Council a document 77

79 entitled Report on restoring the reputation of Comrade ZHANG Linzhi, which denied the charges imposed on ZHANG, demanded the restoration of political reputation for him, and stated the cause of death was due to "deliberate killing". On this report, DENG wrote a comment: "Agree. Publicize it as is. I will attend the memorial service." On the afternoon of October 28, a ceremony held and ZHANG's ash box was laced at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery Hall. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party was held in 1978, it was decided that a memorial will hold for ZHANG Lin-zhi and seven other cadres. In the beginning of 1979, the memorial service held in the National Political Consultative Conference Hall, hosted by DENG. By the end of 1992, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a "Revolutionary martyr certificate to the ZHANG Lin-zhi s family". ZHANG s wife, LI Yun-hua, said: "Our family s long-term adherence was to win martyrs honor for Comrade Lin-zhi, to make his sacrifice be fully and correctly evaluated, and to make his spirit in the haven comfort. I have retired and the state will take care of me. Our children all support one selves and do not need the national care. Therefore, we only accept a martyr certificate, but not martyrs pension." One of the guards in duty in the night ZHANG died was assigned to work at Fengfeng Mining Bureau Machinery Factory in Hebei Province. Once he heard someone is coming to investigate ZHANG s death, he always shuddered. Later, he became mentally ill and died finally. PENG De-huai s ribs broken In July 19, 1967, PENG De-huai was taken to the Beijing Aviation Institute to be interrogated. The head of the school s Red Guard Organization was HAN Ai-jing, one of the "Big Five Leaders" of the Red Guards. Participating in the interrogation were dozens of Red Guards who repeatedly berated: "PENG Dehuai, explain your problems!" "Why do you want to start the big battles of hundred regiments?" PENG replied: "To beat the Japanese evils!" The Red Guards said: "You did not get approval of Chairman MAO and was criticized by Chairman MAO!" PENG defended: "Hey, it is not true. We cabled! Chairman MAO and the Central Military Commission sent a telegram for congratulations to the victory." HAN snapped: "PENG De-huai, explain your anti-party and anti-chairman MAO crime in the Lushang Meeting!" PENG said: "I have no crime, but errors only. I reserve my opinion about the Lushan Meeting." All participants were boiling and shouting: "Down with PENG De-huai!" HAN hit down PENG, a marshal 78

80 of 69 year old, to the ground, and the Red Guards under HAN s control rushed forward to cuff and kick PENG. PENG's face was covered with blood, he raised his head, just wanting to say something, but was blunted by a Red Guard s punch on chest. PENG fell down again, his head hit on a desk and then on cement ground causing a heavy noise. PENG resisted the pain and shouted: "How can you do this to a nearly seventy year old man!" PENG was pulled up and then down, and up and then down again, for seven times in a row. A big Red Guard wearing boots flied one foot and kicked the right chest of PENG who lie on the ground. PENG snorted and was in a coma. Half conscious PENG was frame back to the cell at 5:50 PM, and was ordered to write a confession. In the second day, PENG could not get out of bed and was sent to the 267 th Hospital. His illness record states: "Chest X-ray findings in the positive phase: (1) The middle of the right fifth rib fractured; (2) The end of the right tenth rib incomplete fracture suspected; (3) The right phrenic angle with a small amount of effusion; and (4) The right lower lobe partial atelectasis." Marshal PENG was under fire. Beginning from July 26, PENG, who was seriously injured, was sent to Beijing Aviation College, Qinghua University, Beijing Normal University, and the direct organs and colleges of the Armed Forces. In there PENG was under fire continuously. Among these criticizing meetings, seven times were in mass meeting of tens of thousand people and seven times were 79

81 in "parade". PENG was in a coma in some degree during such " parades". His right body became in hemi-anesthesia after the criticizing meeting at the Beijing Normal University. Beginning from August 16, PENG was again continuously "criticized" for twelve times, at the Beijing Military Region, the headquarters of the Second Artillery Corps, the General Staff, the General Political Department, the Navy, the Beijing Garrison Headquarter, Communications Troops, Anti-Chemical Warfare Troops, Armored Troops, Railway Corps, Engineering Corps, National Defense Science and Technology Commission and National Defense Industry Office, and the PLA Political Academy, Logistics College, Higher Military Academy, the Sixth Research Institute, and other units. Started from the end of 1967, PENG was examined in isolation and was not beaten. Pulling "traitors" out At the request of KANG Sheng and JIANG Qing, organizations of "pulling traitors" formed all over the country starting from August 1966 onwards. KANG ordered these organizations to search the old newspapers during the Guomindang period, looking for the "traitor" cues. He and others also approved for these organizations to act in the name of "Task force of the Central" and "Specially allowed by the Central", and allowed them to access the secret files all over the country. In the course of this action of "pulling traitors", the first to bear the brunt is BO Yi-bo (then a Vice Premier of the State Council and Director of the State Economic Commission), LIU Lantao (then the First Secretary of the Northwest Bureau of the Party), AN Ziwen (then the Minister of the Organization Department of the Party Central) and other old cadres. They are considered the key members of the "traitor group of 61 persons led by BO Yi-bo". In September 16, KANG wrote to MAO: "I have long suspected of the decision made by Comrade (LIU) Shao-qi, which allowed AN Zi-wen, BO Yi-bo and others out of the jails by surrendering.... Recently, I let someone to read the Beijing newspapers in August and September, 1936, and found their published 'Anti-communist notice' that prove the decision was completely wrong and anti-communist." Enclosed was the photocopy of these newspapers. The history of the so-called "Traitor group of 61 persons led by BO Yi-bo" is as follows: In 1931, BO Yi-bo, LIU Lan-tao, AN Ziwen and other communist cadres were arrested by Guomingdang 80

82 and imprisoned in the "Beiping Military House of Correction". In the prisons, they struggled with the enemy in an organized way for a long term. In 1936, Japanese invaded North China. If the Japanese occupies Beiping, this batch of imprisoned cadres will be killed. KE Qing-shi, the minister of the Organization Department of the Party s Northern Bureau, said to LIU Shao-qi who presiding over the Bureau s work: These dozens of cadres could not get out of the prisons because they adhered not to sign on the form of 'Anticommunism notice'. LIU believe these cadres had through the long-term test and were proven good comrades and may use a false surrender way to get out of jail. So, LIU and KE sent a suggestion to the Party s Central that we should let these comrades get out of jail by using a false surrender way, namely, following the formalities set by the Guomingdang and implemented by the jail, and sign in the "Anti-communism notice". The Party s Central Committee approved the suggestion of the Northern Bureau. So, BO and other 60 cadres, according to this decision, signed the "Anti-communism Notice" and got out of the jails. These cadres were all senior cadres in the anti-japanese war and in the following liberation war. Now in November 1966, the Red Guard organization Weidong at Nankai University went to Xi'an City. Together with the local organization "Combat team for bombarding the headquarter", they exposed LIU Lan-tao s problem of surrendering to enemy for getting out of the jail in To this issue, the Party s Northwest Bureau cabled to the Central on September 23, asking how to deal with it. ZHOU En-lai drafted a reply in the name of the Central: "Please explain to the Wei-dong Red Guards of Nankai University and students of Xi'an s Combat team of bombard the headquarter that the Central knew the problem of how Comrade LIU Lan-tao got out of jail. If they have new materials, they may send representative and bring the materials to the Central. Do not release or trace it at mass meetings." He submitted the draft to MAO for approval and attached a short note: "The collective surrendering case involves many people. Surely, it is decided by Comrade (LIU) Shao-qi on behalf of the Central Committee, and has been examined in the Seventh and Eighth Central Committees. Therefore the Central must admit knowing it. Otherwise, the influence will be too big." ZHOU also wrote some words on the envelope: "Comrade Xu Ye-fu (a secretary of MAO), please submit it to the Chairman in person. Specially urgent!" MAO draw a circle on the word "Chairman" and a line out, and wrote: "Do it as it says." 81

83 Three months later, however, MAO changed his view. In February 3, 1967, he met foreign guests and said: "Someone was a Communist Party member in the past and caught by the Guomindang government, and then published in newspapers an anti-communism notice and became a traitor. At that time, we don't know that they are anti-communist and what fulfill the formalities', as they call it, really means. Now it has been checked out that it was supporting the Guomindang and opposing the Communist Party." Accordingly to these words of MAO, the Party Central issued, in March 16, a document entitled "Materials on surrenders BO Yi-bo, LIU Lan-tao, AN Zi-wen, YANG Xian-zhen and other fifty-seven" that designated the sixty-one people led by BO as "group of traitors". JIANG Qing was very happy. In April 12, she said jubilantly in an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission: "Be bold to use revolutionary Red Guards. Without them, how can we find the group of traitors? There are more than sixty people. They occupy important positions of leadership. This contribution of the teenager Red Guards is great! " Cultural Revolution in the Army For the question as to how the Army should develop its Cultural Revolution, LIN Biao said at a meeting of the Central Military Commission: I hope the Army can be relatively stable, at least not as mess as civilian. Otherwise, if an enemy invades, we can not perform the duty of defending this country nor to account to the Party s Central and the people. Based on LIN s words, the Military Commission made a provision on how the Army s colleges and universities should develop the Culture Revolution: Only provide positive education, and only practice the Big four (i.e. big character poster, big debate, big criticizing and big opening) within a unit and do not allow to engage in tandems. Since MAO Zedong received the Red Guards on August 18, 1966, however, many students of military colleges have flocked to Beijing, and went to the Central Cultural Revolution Group requiring allowance for the students to go to the capital and be received by MAO. They also required the same right as the local colleges and universities of allowing them to have a tandem across the country. The Culture Revolution Group in a Central meeting raised this issue. They asked: While local students can do tandem, why not military students? We should let them come to Beijing and be received by Chairman MAO." LIN Biao let YIE Jian-ying hold an enlarged meeting of the Military Commission to discuss what to do. At the meeting, the participants said completely positively 82

84 about the request of the students and teachers of the army colleges for allowing them into Beijing to see Chairman MAO but, they said, the students and teachers must return to the original unit immediately after being received by MAO, and they should not have serious connection with local students and can not interfere with local Cultural Revolution. LIN agreed with what the meeting participants said, and accordingly made three rules: First, students and teachers of the military colleges may come to Beijing to be received by Chairman MAO but must return to their original units immediately after the receiving; Second, when in Beijing, they must play an exemplary role in the implementation of "The three main rules of discipline and the eight notes", and they must listen to the command in all actions, to be organized and come under a leadership team; Third, after arrived at Beijing, the Army should be responsible for their reception, and are not allowed to go outside for serious connection. Since then, a large number of military college teachers and students went into Beijing. They refused to go back, however. Those stranded in Beijing soon involved in serious connection with local college students and began doing revolution in Beijing. They first shocked the Department of Defense. The Department is in the Beihai Park area and so are the headquarters of the General Staff, the General Political Department, the Defense Science and Technology Commission and other military units. One day in early November, 1966, at 3 AM, students of the Army colleges and universities suddenly surrounded these military organs, shouting to ferret out the deputy chief of staff LI Tian-you since, as they claimed, he carried out "the bourgeois reactionary line". After beating the guarding soldiers, they rushed into the courtyard of the headquarter of the General Staff and insisted to stay there unless LI being pulled out. Faced with this situation, Director XIAO Hua and Deputy Director LIU Zhi-jiant of the General Political Department wrote to LIN Biao: Since the problem is serious, we must treat it seriously and decisively, otherwise it will cause unimaginable consequences to security of the Commander-inchief Authority and readiness of our combat. We propose a command that the students who entered into the ministry compound withdraw immediately, otherwise they will be punished for violation of order. We also proposed to grasp one or two riot leaders and that every student should write a self-review of their wrongdoing and ensure that they will not repeat it again. LIN Biao did not accept the proposal, instead he required the implementation of the policy: "Don't strike back to those who striked and don t shout to those 83

85 who shouted, and don't catch a person and don't shoot". He said that we should, under these policies, do a good job in the ideological and political work to the students, and mobilize them withdraw from the compound. As instructed by LIN, the Army s Cultural Revolution Group member Xie Tangzhong and others talked to students to mobilize them to leave. When they said only a few words, their voice was under students shouting. Finally, the Central Cultural Revolution Group member ZHANG Chun-qiao and QI Benyu came to the scene and read a note written by CHEN Bo-da: "I heard that you ran into the Department of Defense and am very uncomfortable. The Department of Defense is a place personally led by Chairman MAO and his dear comrade vice Chairman LIN, and therefore you rushed to there is not good. Your revolutionary enthusiasm is very good, but your little reasons must obey the big reasons. I hope you soon evacuated from the Department." Listen to the words of CHEN, no student dare objection though surprised and very dissatisfied. Soon after, they left from the compound. Beginning from the winter of 1966, students and teachers of the Army s colleges in Beijing, under the support of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, rampaged almost all military units in Beijing, at all level. When blunting a military leading organ, they first entered the office building, occupied all offices, auditoriums and dining rooms, and then took the leading cadres to be criticized in meetings, day and night. In addition, they put on big character posters all over the military agencies, put up big character posters to "cannon" and "fire" the leading cadres, and grab the secrete files. So, they paralyzed almost all the leading military bodies in Beijing. After getting LIN Biao s agreement, the Central Military Commission held, on the afternoon of November 13, 1966, a mass assembly of one hundred thousand people in Beijing Workers Stadium, to mobilize withdrawing of military college students, going back to their original units and doing Cultural Revolution there. The director XIAO Hua and the deputy director LIU Zhi-jian of the General Political Department chaired the assembly. XIAO asked Marshal CHEN Yi to speak first. CHEN said: "Some students rushed to Zhongnanhai District and the Department of Defense, and I strongly disagree with it.... Your unit might be important, but can it be more important than the safety of the Zhongnanhai District and the Defense Department? Don't exaggerate the importance of your unit and your part. You 84

86 beat solders and cadres of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Both are PLA members, and I had never seen PLA beats PLA, and nothing can make me as sad as this.... It is completely correct for Chairman MAO to launch the Cultural Revolution, but you understand Chairman MAO s instructions only one-sidedly and your action is completely contrary to the original intention of Chairman MAO." After CHEN finished his speech, Marshals HE Long, XU Xiang-qian and YE Jian-ying spoke. About a thousand of meeting participants were not satisfied with these old Marshals and shouted. Seeing this situation, XIAO and LIU immediately declared the meeting closed. In November 29, the General Political Department of the Army once again held a mass assembly of students of military academies who came to Beijing, still at the Workers Stadium. Before the mass assembly officially started, ZHOU En-lai came and walked around the field to meet the participants of the general assembly. As in the first such assembly, CHEN Yi spoke first. He said: "I have come into contact with some comrades, but disagree with their way of rebellion because they misfire and actually hit a comrade. Their approach is simplified and overly enlarged. I said to them: If you do not correct your wrongdoing, I will not transfer power to you. You are already so fierce, even though you have not graduated from university. If you get authority in the future, could not you make other people dead? It will be dangerous! I always speak in this way that stimulates others. I could not change my old habits, but my words is honest and based on facts." After CHEN finished his speech, YE Jian-ying spoke: "The supreme commander of us is Chairman MAO who is also the chairman of the Central Military Commission. But a handful of people incited the masses to dash vigorously to the places where Chairman MAO and Vice Chairman LIN are. How can it be? If you do not change, you are the waste and useless in the future. Some people might say that I'm stirring among the masses to struggle to each other. No! I do not dare to provoke struggle among the masses. Such persons are not the people, but wastes, and should be washed out! Some people dashed to our Department of Defense, and this is a big mistake and, strictly speaking, a counter revolutionary action. Is there any mistake more serious than this?" Soon after the assembly, big character posters "Down with CHEN Yi" and "Down with YE Jian-ying" were all over the East and West Changan Avenues. The Central Cultural Revolution Group considered the old Marshals speeches were wrong. Via the Army s Cultural Revolution Group leader LIU Zhi-jian, they requested again and again CHEN and YE to 85

87 make a self-criticism. A few days later, they plan to hold, still in the Capital Workers' Stadium, a mass assembly of a hundred of thousand people, mainly local student rebels, and requested Marshals CHEN Yi, YE Jian-ying, XU Xiang-qian and NIE Rong-zhen, together with Generals of Army, Navy and the Air Force, to attend the assembly. To this issue, YE Jian-ying called the Generals to his residence to discuss whether or not to attend the assembly. YE said he himself thinks all should attend. The others advised the old Marshals do not go to the assembly, because it is obvious that the rebels purpose is to criticize and denounce the old Marshals, possibly with corporal punishment and personal insult. The Generals suggested they themselves, instead, go to the assembly. However, YE did not agree with for the Generals to replace them being under fire. The meeting did not obtain any conclusion until midnight. YE then suggested reporting to LIN Biao and ZHOU Enlai for advice. At the late night, LIN had already been in sleep after taking sleeping pills. What ZHOU En-lai did was reporting to MAO. MAO quickly rejected the request for the old Marshals to go the mass assembly and said: "Do not go. Such meeting should not be allowed." He also accused JIANG Qing: "This approach is wrong." JIANG had no choice but sending a notice to cancel the mass assembly. When the canceling notice reached the Workers' Stadium, the students had already bore hungry for the whole day and were immediately angry and rage. After returning to their schools, they wrote many big character posters requesting to cannon, fire and down with the old Marshals. The Central Cultural Revolution Group still insisted that YE should make self-criticism and said: "The general assembly may not hold, but he (YE) must make self-criticism in a certain (smaller) meeting." They asked LIU Zhijian to prepare a manuscript that YE should read at such a meeting. They then hold a meeting of two thousands people in the New Year's Eve of 1966, at the hall of the West Beijing Hotel, for YE to make self-criticism. When YE were making his self-criticism in the meeting, some students banged up: A row of students held posters and rushed to the podium, and was ready to make an action on YE. Seeing this, LIU Zhi-jian hurried to protect YE and let him leave from a back door. The meeting was closed. A report on the event in the meeting was immediately sent to LIN Biao. LIN immediately reported to MAO: "YE Jian-ying has made selfcriticism but was still under siege by students." MAO replied that he didn't know there is such a meeting, "we should trace back this event." In tracking down, the Central Cultural Revolution Group and JIANG Qin said: It is LIU Zhi-jian who made the meeting. In January 4, 1967, LIU Zhi-jian was revoked, 86

88 under JIANG Qing command, from his posts of the deputy director of the General Political Department of the Army and the leader of the Army s Cultural Revolution Revolution Group. And soon after, he was examined in isolation. After LIU was down, the Army s Cultural Revolution Group had no head, coupled with that some of its members were also sidelined. Therefore, the Army s Cultural Revolution Group was paralyzed. For this issue, JIANG said to LIN Biao: The Army s Culture Revolution Group is very important and it now has no leader. We must find a reputable person who has the ability to control the Revolution. She then suggested Martial XU Xiang-qian to replace LIU Zhi-jian. She also told LIN that this proposal has been agreed with MAO. In addition, JIANG proposed GUAN Feng, a member of the Central Cultural Revolution Group to become deputy director of Army s General Political Department. LIN answered: "OK." Afterwards, he directly asked MAO about these personnel arrangements, MAO replied, as expected: "You can." Events of impacting military organs and taking army leaders under fire occurred continuously in all parts of the country. Some military operations rooms were closed by rebels, some Generals were force to hang a big card in front of their chest and their faces painted. In mid January, CHEN Bo-da met with representatives of the mass organizations and said: "XIAO Hua does not like a solder but a gentleman." Soon, the big character posters Down with XIAO Hua were all over the building of the Army s General Political Department. CHEN Bo-da also said in a meeting of the Military Commission: "The People's Liberation Army had fallen to the edge of the revisionists." Many Army cadres were taken to be criticized. Eight Generals of the Nanjing Military Region have been taken away, and forced to kneel down. The commander of the Military Region, XU Shi-you, went to a military base in the Dabie Mountains to avoid being taken away. He warned that, if anyone dares to take him away, he'll shoot. The commander of the Fuzhou Military Region, HAN Xian-chu, said: "The student organization Capital s Sansi came to Fuzhou City to make mischief, which made the defense readiness works could not be conducted. I will go mountains and do guerrilla warfare if they continue to do this to me." Facing this situation, the leadership of the Central Military Commission (CMC) proposed to call Generals responsible for military work all over the country into Beijing, in the name of participating meetings, for the purpose of protecting them in the Capital. They propose this to LIN Biao for instructions 87

89 and got agreement of LIN. In early January 1967, the Central Military Commission held, agreed by MAO, the enlarged meeting of the Military Commission at the Jingxi Hotel in Beijing. LIN set a rule that no one can leave the meeting and return to his original unit unless got approval of LIN Biao, YE Jian-ying and XU Xiang-qian. The meeting had lasted for three months and passed a total of seventeen resolutions. All these resolutions were embodied a spirit: the stability of the Army. The first resolution was entitled "The Party Central notice on that no one should point their struggle to the Army". The resolution read: "The People's Liberation Army is the main tool of the proletariat dictatorship, it shoulders the great task to be ready to defend the nation and defend the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. In the future, no person and no organization may impact any organ of the People's Liberation Army." After approved by MAO, this document was issued, in the name of the Party Central, to the whole country on January 14, The second document was "The order of the Central Military Commission" that has a total of eight items. This order commanded: The Culture Revolution in all units whose rank are lower than the army level, as well as those units specialized by Military Commission, should only insist on the positive education, but not movement itself, and "all officers and political staff, service, medical and scientific research and confidential work personnel should stick to their posts and shall not be absent." In units carrying out the cultural revolution, one should "strictly distinguish between two kinds of contradictions, and not allow to adopt an approach for enemy to dealing with people's internal contradiction, not allow to arrest person without approval, not allow any raid or door block on anyone s home, not allow corporal punishment or corporal punishment in disguised form." In addition, it also set rules: All persons of the Army who left from their original units and are trying to connect with others for the revolution, should quickly return to the original area to struggle, criticize and modify in the original unit but not in Beijing or any other places. In the future, no one is allowed to impact the military leading organs, the military system for combat readiness and the security system. LIN Biao proposed the contents of this document. It was on the night of January 24 when XU Xiangqian came to LIN's residence, reporting the chaotic situation in the Army and said: "The Army s disorder should not last any longer. We should put rules and regulations as soon as possible." LIN nodded in agreement. He then dictated immediately his opinions on military stability, a total of nine items. Later, LIN asked YE Jian-ying and NIE Rong-zhen came to his residence to discuss the nine items further and, as a result, the nine items were 88

90 re-arranged into seven items. The document was discussed in an enlarged meeting of the Military Commission. JIANG Qing and other Central Cultural Revolution Group members attended the meeting and disagreed with the document, and argued with YE Jian-ying very badly. After the meeting, YE called LIN and said: Should we think of a new way? Talk to Chairman MAO? So, LIN immediately took XU together and went to see MAO. MAO agreed to all the seven items and suggested adding a new item, i.e. "Strengthen the education of their children". When MAO finished writing his instruction of "All eight items are very good. Go forward and issue it", LIN said: "Chairman, you signed it, to which one should say Long live, long live, long long live! " After this document was issued in the name of CMC, the trend of impacting on the Army was stopped, which played a considerable role in guaranteeing the stability of the whole Army. Among the many documents passed in this enlarged CMC meeting, there was an exception that is "Decision on the People's Liberation Army s firmly supporting to the masses of the revolutionary leftists". One of the principles previously set by LIN on the Army s Cultural Revolution was that the Army does not intervene local Culture Revolution. But MAO wrote, in January 21, 1967, an instruction: "Comrade LIN Biao: People's Liberation Army should support leftist masses. The Army should always do so whenever true revolutionaries seeking for military support and assistance. Not involved is a false statement. The Army has been involved since a long time before. To this issue, the previous command should be void and a new order should be issued. Please consider." In the second day, the enlarged CMC meeting made a decision that stated: The PLA supports the revolutionary leftists, i.e. PLA is officially involved in the local Culture Revolution. Since then, PLA s task of "supporting the leftists" was extended to "supporting the leftists, supporting agriculture and supporting industry, and providing military control and providing military training", and the Army was fully involved in the local Culture Revolution. ZHOU En-lai protected democratic personage The words of Democratic personage refer to famous people outside the communist party. ZHANG Shi-zhao is one of them. He took part in the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, and served as Minister of education and Minister of Judicial in the DUAN Qi-rui s government. In 1949, he was a member of the Nanjing national government s peace talks delegation. After the founding of new China, he served as a member of 89

91 National People's Congress Standing Committee, a member of the CPPCC Standing Committee and the curator of Central Museum. When serving as Minister of education in the DUAN Qi-rui s government, he had rented MAO Ze-dong hundreds of silver dollars to support MAO Ze-dong s activity. After the founding of the new China, two or three days before the Spring Festival every year, MAO always took 2000 Yuan from the loyalty of his writing, and let his secretary send it to the ZHANG s house. MAO did so until the death of ZHANG. ZHANG Shi-zhao and his handwriting. At 10 PM of August 29, 1966, at ZHANG s home came a group of twenty to thirty Red Guards, all dressing in military uniform style clothing and wearing the armband "Red Guards of the new Beijing University". They headed to the living room, a female Red Guard ordered ZHANG to go to the yard. The family members asked for talking in the room and not going outside, because there is wind at late night and ZHANG is old. But the Red Guards did not allow them to finish their words and grabbed ZHANG to the yard. In the yard, the Red Guards recited ZHANG s crimals counts and said he is a dog in water in LU Xun's articles and an old bastard, and ordered him to plead guilty. ZHANG refused to bow his head and the Red Guards pushed his head down. Then, a few Red Guards took the little red book "Quotations from Chairman MAO" and read several passages, and announced the indictment. ZHANG did not speak. After both sides stalemated for a while, a Red Guard ordered him to stay where he was. Then the Red Guards went back to the living room, started the "Break the four olds " action. (Note: Refers to the movement of "Getting rid of old ideas, old customs, old culture and old habits".) They rummaged around and put a lot of precious cultural relics and ancient books thrown all over the ground. Finally, they picked up the things they thought important, such 90

92 as letters, and withdrew. Prior to departure, they put a lot of seals, and posted, near the gate, many insulting couplets and banners, which they warned the family members not to tear down. After the Red Guards left, ZHANG 哇塞 very tired and went back into the room, lying in bed to have a rest. Half an hour later, he got up and wrote a letter to MAO Ze-dong, reporting that Red Guards had come to his home to criticize him and searched the home. He asked MAO to provide some help if possible. After reading the letter, MAO wrote an instruction on it: "Prime Minister, they should be protected." After getting the instruction, ZHOU En-lai immediately took three measures: The first was to request the Red Guards to return everything gotten from ZHANG s home; The second was to send two PLA soldiers to the ZHANG s house, responsible for security work and to discourage possible raid by Red Guards again; The third was to secretly send ZHANG to the 301 st Hospital of PLA in order to protect his personal safety. A few days later, ZHANG received a reply from MAO: "Mr. Xin-Yan (Note: This is another given name of ZHANG): I have received your letter and am very worried. I have asked the Prime Minister to deal with it. Please do not worry! I wish you healthy! " Since MAO said ZHANG "should be protected", ZHOU En-lai seized the opportunity to make A list of cadres who should be protected : SONG Qing-ling, GUO Mo-ruo, ZHANG Shi-zhao, CHENG Qian, HE Xiang-ning, FU Zuo-yi, ZHANG Zhi-zhong, SHAO Li-zi, JIANG Guang-nai, CAI Ting-kai, SHA Qian-li, ZHANg Xi-ruo. (Note: All of them are Democratic personage ) (1) NPC: Vice chairmen of NPC Standing Committee, (National) vice president; (2) Ministers and vice ministers; (3) CPPCC: Vice Chairmen; (4) Vice Premier of the State Council; (5) Responsible persons of all the democratic parties; (6) The chairman of the Supreme People's Court and of the Supreme People's Procuratorate. (LI Zong-ren.) And then, ZHOU began the implementation of the specific measures to protect these people in the list. In September 1, ZHOU directed the PLA s 301st Hospital: Be ready to receive a special group of "patients". He then arranged the persons to be protected picked out from their homes and admitted to the Hospital with a false name. In the hospital, the PLA soldiers are 91

93 responsible for their security, and received special care of their daily life provided by hospital staff. ZHANG Zhi-zhong, ZHANG Shi-zhao, CHENG Qian, CAI Ting-kai, LI Zong-ren and so on were protected in this way. However, FU Zuo-yi, SHAO Li-zi, JIANG Guang-nai, SHA Qian-li and others cannot leave from their homes for various reasons. In this regard, ZHOU En-lai sent PLA soldiers or public security officers, dressed in plain clothes and with a Red Guards armband, taking duty in the homes to protect those who need protection, and preventing the possible raid from Red Guards. ZHOU En-lai also let the local police station to cooperate and contact the units where the protected person originally works. To Vice President SONG Qing-ling living in Shanghai, ZHOU personally called and advised her to live in Beijing. SONG then moved to Beijing and lived, arranged by ZHOU, in 46 North River Road, which was a palace of the Qing dynasty. ZHOU sent his own service men that can be trusted to SONG's new residence to direct everything there in order to ensure her safety. Later, SONG s address was revealed to Red Guards by the local police station and, as a result, Red Guards went to shock her house s door. After learning this, ZHOU immediately requested taking the address bar of the palace off, increased the number of the PLA soldiers defending there, and sent a cadre with higher rank to be in charge there. ZHOU also personally converse with the Red Guards, telling them the revolutionary achievements of SUN Zhong-shan (SONG s husband), and SONG s own contribution of decade long in cooperation with the Communist Party of China in history. He persuaded and educated Red Guards to respect SONG and not to be insolent. Through ZHOU s work, the storm of Red Guards impacts on SONG s residences in Beijing and Shanghai were finally vanished. But soon after, the staff for SONG also rose in revolt: Her security secretary asked her to have meals in the dining hall for masses and requested her to be in the line to buy a meal; They proposed to cut off her hair bow, saying that this is a feudal remnant. (Note: SONG has been combing his hair knot, following her mother's testament, and she and her two sisters all were combing a hair knot lifelong.) After knowing it, the Guard Bureau lifted the security secretary s position immediately, and gradually replaced all SONG s servants. After that, SONG Qing-ling s residence was in peace. Three months after ZHANG Shi-zhao started to live in the Hospital, climax of the Red Guards "Destroy the four olds " campaign was over. So he returned to home and lived his leisure life as before: Reading and writing, and reorganizing the manuscript of his work "Guide to LIU Zhong-yuan s 92

94 articles". After the Spring Festival in 1967, there emerged big character posters "Down with LIU Shao-qi" on the streets in Beijing. To this, ZHANG felt very uneasy. He wrote a letter to LIU: " President Shou-qi:... Since the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, everything was down wherever violence goes. Recently it gathered momentum to put you on a hard position. After reading carefully Chairman Ze-dong s talks in meetings, I believe he tried to help you. For example, he said: Comrade Shao-qi has the responsibility, but I also have the responsibility, Comrade Shao-qi should not be denied completely. You made mistakes, but it will be okay after you state it clearly and correct the errors, and I have no intention to overthrow anyone. As seen by every one, all these mean to save those who made mistakes just as proving treatments to a patient to cure the illness. Your book "Self-cultivation of a Communist" said that some people do not understand the Marx-Leninism, but assume in a feigned manner as a self styled leader and issue orders so paternalisticly in the party. This is obviously accusing someone like CHEN Du-xiu. But someone said it is accusing Ze-dong. Is it strange? This is If you want to condemn somebody, you could always find a reason. They have an ulterior motive and therefore one shall not discuss about them. Rising of the Communist Party and reuniting the country in more than 40 years were not easy. Two of you worked together and tried hard to reach the success. How precious the friendship is!... Regardless of how the outside says on you, true or false, you should follow General LIAN Po, in the history, who bared flesh and sincerely said apology to Premier LIN Xiang-ru; And you should follow him, and go and say apology to Ze-dong. Correct mistakes if you have committed them and work even harder if you have not. Afterwards, implement the proletariat route under the unified command of Zedong without reservation. Notes that anyone is not saint and could have mistakes, and it will be great if he could correct the mistakes. I dare to believe that Ze-dong will be glad to see this and immediately convey your sincere to the masses, and then hold a cordial meeting, both of you attended. Wish you do it first for the benefits of the country But it is unknown if LIU actually received ZHANG s letter. ZHANG also wrote a letter to MAO stating that national prosperity after the founding of the New China all rely on the wise leadership of the Communist Party, and unity of MAO and LIU ensured strong core leadership of the Party. Then he said: "If Comrade Shao-qi truly made a mistake, I wish the two leaders can be in an honest partnership. LIU could self-review, but must not be down with Shao-qi. After three or four days, he receive MAO s 93

95 reply: "Mr. Yan-yan (Note: Another given name of ZHANG): Your letter has been received. Both you and I are thinking about the big picture of the country. A special person s situation could be complex and difficult to ascertain. Your proposed plan may not be implement right now. Later, MAO sent materials for LIU s problems, which should be considered as secret for the Party, to ZHANG for his reference. After reading the materials, ZHANG said to his family members: "The crime put onto Comrade Shaoqi is trying to deliberately put him to death. The country will be in trouble. I am old and my advice is useless, and am just worry about the country!" After that, he concentrated on authorship and no longer talked about politics. ZHOU En-lai protected old cadres In December 2, 1966, ZHOU En-lai reviewed a news draft prepared by Xinhua News Agency s and entitled "Conference of the literary and art circles on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution". In the draft, there were three places where many people were named and designated as "counter revolutionary revisionists" and condemned, including PENG Zhen, LIU Ren, ZHENG Tian-xiang, WAN Li, DENG Tuo, CHEN Ke-han, LI Qi, ZHAO Ding-xin, LU Ding-yi, ZHOU Yang, XIA Yan, QI Yanming,TIAN Han, YANG Han-sheng et al. In these three places, ZHOU Enlai drew double lines, then sent the draft to MAO for approval, together with a letter: "This news report has been passed by the Cultural Revolution Group and approved by Comrade LIN Biao. In pages 7, 9 and 13, there are three places where some people are named and criticized. Chairman, please let us know if it is appropriate." Reviewing the news draft, MAO crossed out all the names and returned the draft with a note: "Return to the Premier. I have revised it. Please re-consider." After reading the draft revised by MAO, ZHOU wrote a note to CHEN Bo-da, KANG Sheng and JIANG Qing: "Please read it as soon as possible and then give it to Comrade TANG Ping-zhu to take action, i.e. issue the news report revised and approved by Chairman MAO." In December 4, ZHOU En-lai learned that rebels followed the words of JIANG Qing and QI Ben-yu, and pulled away many old cadres, including PENG Zhen, LIU Ren, WAN Li, LIN Mo-han, XIA Yan, TIAN Han, XU Liqun et al. ZHOU immediately pointed out that "we cannot open this precedent. People should not casually take away." He instructed the Beijing Garrison, the Ministry of Public Security to find these cadres and take them 94

96 back immediately. He also sent Secretary of State Council, ZHOU Rongxin, to talk to the Red Guard organizations to inquire about the whereabouts of the cadres. After the investigation was done, ZHOU En-lai severely criticized the kidnapping acts, and required the rebels not to parade the cadres in streets anymore and return them back immediately. Then, he instructed the Beijing Garrison set a protection scheme to guard these cadres safety. As directed by ZHOU, Beijing Garrison escorted these cadres to safe places, such as the PLA garrisons, West Beijing Hotel, hospitals and other safe places. In December 24, ZHOU learned that Red Guards of Beijing Aviation Institute and other schools will go to Sichuan Province to take Marshal PENG De-huai, who has be there as a deputy director of the Development Commission of the the third line area, back to the capital. ZHOU immediately telegraphed the Party s Southwest Bureau and the Chengdu Military Region stating that: (a) The Chengdu Military Region send a troop, together with the Red Guards, to convoy Comrade PENG De-huai to Beijing. Along the way, the troop should not allow anyone to intercept, not allow any words or action violating PENG s indignity and absolutely, and guarantee PENG s safety. (b) Do not travel by plane, but by train arranged by the Chengdu Military Region. (c) The Beijing Garrison should sent a troop waiting in the Beijing Railway Station, and responsible for the arrangement of Comrade PENG's living and learning in Beijing. In December 30, ZHOU learned that Red Guards of the State Economic and Trade Commission plan to go to Guangzhou City to take BO Yi-bo back to Beijing. He telegraphed the Party s Guangdong provincial committee that a military troop should follow the three points for escorting PENG De-huai, and escort BO Yi-bo to Beijing by train. In January 3 and 4, 1967, ZHOU talked to the rebels of military colleges and rebels of art units for three consecutive times. In the conversations, he tried to persuade the rebels to cancel the mass assembly "Criticism of the bourgeois reactionary line" that will be held on January 5 and pointing to Marshals YE Jian-ying and CHEN Yi. He seriously pointed out that to consider YE and CHEN as representatives of the bourgeois reactionary line in the Army is wrong and not in accordence with the facts, and the assembly should not be held. Thus, the rebels had to put the assembly off. In early morning of January 8, ZHOU received a report that the rebels attacked various doors of Zhongnanhai District, requesting some of the 95

97 central leaders out to be criticized. He called the rebels into the Great Hall of the People and persuaded them not to take such an action. He seriously pointed out that the Party s Central does not agree with doing so; those whom you requested to take out of Zhongnanhai District, TAN Zhen-lin, CHEN Yi, LI Fu-chun, LI Xian-nian, YU Qiu-li and other comrades, are working in the forefront for our party and government, doing practical works in Chairman MAO's side, and participating in dealing with important issues of the party and the country every day. At the same day, ZHOU attended the "Assembly of National Petroleum System for criticizing the bourgeois reactionary line". When some rebels shouted slogans "Down with LIU Shao-qi and Down with DENG Xiao-ping", ZHOU immediately turned his body back in protest, and solemnly pointed out that LIU and DENG are still members of the Politburo Standing Committee as elected in the 11 th plenary session of the Eighth Central Committee. He added that you might be criticize them back to back, but not take them out and fight face to face. In January 1967, ZHOU learned that rebels were ready to search CHEN Yun's home. He immediately sent the director of the Office for Premier, TONG Xiao-peng, to stop the rebels. And he let the deputy director of the Central Guard Bureau, YANG De-zhong transfer CHEN from the New Six Houses to a safe place. In January 24, the rebellion organizations in provinces of Anhui and Guizhou requested that QIAN Ying (a former Party s provincial committee secretary of Anhui and Guizhou, and now working in the Standing Committee of the National Assembly of People s Representatives) be taken from Beijing back to the provinces to be condemned. To this request, ZHOU wrote an instruction: "Temporarily, it is not necessary to take him to Anhui or Guizhou." In the next day, ZHOU received representatives of the rebels in the financial system. He emphasized: Not all cadres in charge should be abandoned, some of them should stay to ensure the business going smoothly. Otherwise, you are going to the opposite direction. Some ones are catching other people freely without informing us and take ministers away casually. This is not what we have advocated. MU Xin cannot be a counter-revolutionary revisionist. You said that YE Jizhuang has relationship with gangs, but we do not have this aspect of material. In the next day, when meeting with rebels of the Industry and Transportation System, ZHOU emphasized that one should not consider all cardres in charge at various levels being the bourgeois cadre in charge. He said: YU Qiu-li grew up from a little red soldier. He was in Da-qing oil field for hard establishment of the business, and was successful after working in the 96

98 "Small Planning Commission". His problem is a contradiction among the people, the Party Central needs him and the Chairman said on many occasions that he protects YU Qiu-li. Every time when YU Qiu-li was taken by rebels to be denounced, ZHOU always sent a liaison officer to follow, and let the liaison officer set rules with the rebels in advance: The denounce should be limited in two hours and YU should be released afterwards; Not to engage in corporal punishment; Not to allow anyone to take YU away. In January 28, ZHOU met with representatives of rebels in Zhejiang Province, and talked about the cadre issue and said: Zhejiang provincial party committee s work was good before the Culture Revolution and the achievements are primary. JIANG Hua (Note: The Party s provincial secretary) is a senior comrade with carrier started as early as the period of revolution in Jinggangshan. He is a minority. He is one whom the Chairman has repeatedly said to protect. In the next day, the rebels of the Second Machinery Department detained ZHOU's liaison officer LIU Xi-yao. ZHOU let his secretary call the rebels leader that LIU Xi-yao should not be detained because he is needed to deal with business of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In January 31, ZHOU wrote an instruction: Tell YE Jian-ying, I am in favor of escorting QIN Ji-wei (Note: Commander of Kunming Military Region, he was ill at the time) to Beijing. In February 1, ZHOU met with representatives of rebels in the Industry and Transportation Systems, and criticized them for their disguised corporal punishment onto leading cadres, such as putting high hats and parading. He seriously pointed out that not all persons in charge of the various ministries, provinces and cities are an authority or a representative taking the capitalist road. He asked that, if all the provinces and cities are Black gangs, how is the decades of Chairman MAO's red line reflected in there? He clearly indicated that GU Mu is not a "gang", and he should work at the State Department and should not take here and there to be denounced. ZHOU also said on the Daqing oil field: It is recently very messy there, and they are denouncing YU Qiu-li and Iron man WANG. I am very anxious and could not wait but fly to there. In February 19, ZHOU received a letter from an organization called Western preparatory office for "Struggle against the anti revolutionary revisionism group composing PENG (Zhen), LU (Ding-yi), LUO (Rui-qing) and YANG (Shang-kun) ", which composed of rebel organizations of the "Commune of New Beijing University", "Jinggangshan Corps" of Qinghua University, "Red Guard Headquarter" of People s University of China and "Revolutionary Rebel Mission" of China Academy of 97

99 Sciences. The letter requested to allow them to hold in February 26 and 27 a mass assembly to denounce PENG, LU, LUO and YANG. The letter also listed 28 people to be "pulled out and shown to the public". After reading the letter, ZHOU drew a line under the names of the 28 people and then sent the letter to CHEN Bo-da, KANG Sheng and JIANG Qin with a note: "Please send an inquiry. The Preparatory Office wants to catch so many people. Is it beneficial for struggle and criticism?" ZHOU assigned FU Chong-bi (the commander of the Beijing Garrison) to protect the personal safety of PENG Zhen and other cadres in the name list. Later, FU recalled: "The mass assembly the rebels requested was one with ten thousands or twenty thousands people. The Premier didn't give the cadres to the rebels at the beginning. But JIANG Qing criticized us, saying that you (Note: Refers to ZHOU En-lai) want to protect them, and open only the red light but no green light (for a mass assembly)? The Premier did not have any other means but said to me: Give the cadres to them, but you must protect the cadres. How to protect? Premier ZHOU said: You should arrange a helicopter stationed in a place outside the Stadium and covered by a cloth. Everything should be ready, and the pilot should sit on the front of porch. In case the ten thousands people run to the cadres and you can not stop them, you take PENG and others onto the helicopter and fly away." Many senior cadres of the Party, Government and Army in many parts of the country were siege and denounced, and the situation became more and more serious. After discussed the issue with LI Fu-chun, CHEN Yi, LI Xiannian, TAN Zhen-lin et al, ZHOU prepared a name list of provincial leaders to be protected, and submitted it to MAO Ze-dong and got his approval. So, LIAO Cheng-zhi, WANG Zhen, YU Qiu-li, GU Mu, FANG Yi, YAO Yi-lin and other more than twenty ministries and commissionors of the State Council were transferred to live in Zhongnanhai District. In addition, the party secretaries of some Big Military Regions and some provincial party secretaries in trouble were moved to Beijing and confidentially live in safe places such as the West Beijing Hotel, the 301st Hospital, the station of Fourth Division at Nanyuan etc. Additional troops were used to strengthen the guard force there. The protected cadres include SONG Ren-qiong, LI Jing-quan, WANG Ren-zhong, YE Fei, JIANG Hua, HUANG Huo-qing, WANG He-shou, TAN Qi-long, JIANG Weiqing, YANG Shang-kui, JIANG Hua, etc. In the same way, many other cadres were protected later, including XU Shi-you, CHEN Zai-dao, PI Dingjun, SONG Ren-qiong, HUANG Ke-cheng, YU Qiu-li, WANG Zhen, LI 98

100 Da, LUO Rui-qing, LIU Zhi-jian and other old cadres. In February 1967, CHEN Yi, LI Xian-nian and TAN Zhen-lin respectively visited TAN Qi-long, JIANG Wei-qing, YANG Shang-kui, JIANG Hua and several other people living in the West Beijing Hotel. These veteran cadres were all heavyhearted for the country. LI Xian-nian angrily pacing back and forth in the room, and said: "It is class revenge! Class revenge!" TAN Zhen-lin said more directly: "The Great Cultural Revolution became a movement to ruin old cadres." He also said that the Great Cultural Revolution is "ruined" and "screwed up". ZHOU En-lai is clearly suffered. ZHOU clearly became tinner. His health condition worried many. In February 3, 1967, his secretary and the guards posted a big character poster on the door of ZHOU's office: "Comrade ZHOU En-lai: We are making a little rebellion on you, i.e., requesting you to change the present way of working and living habits, so to adapt the changes in your health condition and make you working for the Party longer and more. This is the highest and long-term interest of the party and the revolution. So, we strongly please you to accept our request." After the poster was posted, more than 20 other people also signed on it. They include the central leaders who visit ZHOU quite often, such as CHEN Yi, NIE Rong-zhen and YE Jian-ying, as well as his staff and other staff in the Zhongnanhai District and medical staff. Later, his wife DENG Ying-chao affixed a small poster with some practical suggestions for ZHOU. ZHOU wrote on the top of the poster: "Sincerely accept. Please look for practice." Confidentially, he once said: "I cannot rest. You see, so many documents are waiting for my comment or approval, and so many things waiting for me to do. Can I rest?" ZHOU once said to his doctor: "Cultural Revolution makes my life ten years shorter." In the summer of 1967, his health declined significantly, but he still adhered to work all night. In September 24, he said to his wife: "At 8:00 AM every morning, I am 99

101 always very tired and my hands tremble." At a time, ZHOU told an old cadre: "Who would go to the hell if I don t? Who would enter the tiger's den if I don t? Who would go to the bit sea if I don t? " 100

102 Chapter 7.4 Seize power in provinces The Anting event Seizing power in provinces and big cities started from Shanghai. The bigest rebel organization in Shanghai was named "Revolutionary Rebel Headquarter of Shanghai Workers", abbreviated as Gongzongsi, founded in November 9, Gongzongsi ordered the Shanghai mayor CAO Di-qiu to attend a meeting to be denounced, but was refused. CAO said: All leaders of Gongzongsi have serious problems and are the dregs of the society. I can't go to the conference. At 9:00 PM that night, a head of the Gongzongsi, WANG Hong-wen, and others launched a parade, requesting Mayor CAO to interview them, but was rejected again. So, WANG and others led a group of rebels rushed to the Shanghai North Train Station and claimed that they are going to the Capital to see the national leaders. Mayor CAO still ignored them. In the next morning, hundreds of rebels boarded a passenger train at the train station and commanded the station control office to transport them northward. The Railway Ministry in Beijing ordered the Shanghai Railway Bureau: Dump the rebels in train stations at Anting town (near Shanghai), Suzhou city and Nanjing city. The train that WANG and other rebels rode arrived at the Anting station, and was stopped there and could no longer going northward. So, the rebels were left in Anting town. ZHOU En-lai let CHEN Bo-da advise the Secretary of the Party s East China Bureau, HAN Zhe-yi: East China Bureau and Shanghai municipal committee of the Party should resist, and can't admit that Gongzongsi is a legitimate organization. Furthermore, ZHOU asked CHEN Bo-da to advise Gongzongsi rebels in Anting Town that your actions "not only influence the production of your original units, but also greatly affected the national transport system". Accordingly, CHEN sent an urgent telegram to rebels in Anting town: "This is a very big event. I hope you correct your wrong doing immediately now, and immediately return to Shanghai and solve the problems there. The Central Cultural Revolution Group will send Comrade ZHANG Chun-qiao to meet you immediately. You can discuss with him face to face. This telegram is the result after we considered the issue several times and we warmly hope you take our advice." But Gongzongsi rebels did not accept this advice. On the contrary, WANG Hong-wen said: "If we want to stop a train, then we should take a train that can affect within the country and abroad. The Central may solve the problem only if the event 101

103 becomes bigger." So, they decided to stop the No. 14 train, which is the express passenger train from Shanghai to Beijing. They sent some ones standing on the rail track and waving their arms to signal the train to stop. They also sent some others lying down on the rail track. At 12 o clock noon, the express train was blocked in Anting station. The railway between Shanghai and Nanjing was interrupted, and 36 other passenger trains in the Shanghai Station could not sent and nearly a hundred freight trains were forced to stop at stations along the line in between. Shanghai municipal Party committee sent cadres to persuade workers back to Shanghai, but failed. They also sent fifteen thousands of pieces of breads, cotton coats and cotton quilts. They let Anting station staff prepared boiled water and cook for the rebel workers. But the rebel workers insisted not to return to Shanghai. In the evening of November 11, ZHANG Chun-qiao flew to Shanghai. In the Shanghai airport, HAN Zhe-yi was waiting him. But ZHANG did not ride the car prepared by the Shanghai municipal Party committee, but the car provided by the Red Guards that had been modified for propaganda use, and went to Anting Town directly. What happened when he arrived at Anting town was, as he described at a later time: "I got off the plane, arrived at the (Anting) train station, and talked with some workers representatives. The talk started at 12 o clock midnight and ended till dawn, but had no results. I advised them to go back to Shanghai and talk there, but they said NO and there was no agreement. They said they have to go to Beijing. I saw that there is no chance for me to continue the talk with these representatives, and I thought: Okay, I can directly talk to the masses. In the station square, there are a mass of ten thousands people. I talk to them from the morning till 4 p.m. before they were convinced. So, the meeting continued for 16 hours while I did not eat nor drink water. Workers words were fierce and they have a lot of people, while I am only one person, and don't know any of them, and not recognize if he is ZHANG Three of LI Four. I just listened. When I left from Beijing, I sent a telegram, in the name of Comrade CHEN Bo-da, to request them returning to Shanghai and I will talk to them in Shanghai. Now, they said the telegram is a big poisonous weed and revisionist, and that I am trying to deceive them so that they would go to Shanghai, which, as they say, is a big conspiracy. They also said I colluded with the East China Bureau and the Shanghai municipal Party committee, and want to cheat them so that they would go back Shanghai. Making a long story short, I was attacked for 16 hours. I spoke for an hour at most, that is, they attacked me for 15 hours. If you were irritated, the talk would fall out soon. It is true that I thought about 102

104 some of these people: Who are they, revolutionists, nonrevolutionists or counter-revolutionists? Some times I felt something was wrong: How can they scold CHEN Bo-da so badly? Why can they scold me and point their fingers to my nose, while we met for the first time, I came with a warm heart and I'm really sent by the Central? Why do they attack me so badly? But I was calm that time, because I have a little bit experience in dealing with such problems. I also did not get angry nor catch them, and did not blame them too much. After listening to their opinions, I felt, and told them, what they said makes sense and these things can be solved after back to Shanghai. In this way, they went back to Shanghai at 4 PM." In the morning of November 13, the head of rebels in the Shanghai municipal administration, XU Jing-xian, found ZHANG Chun-qiao and told him that Gongzongsi rebels had gathered in the Cultural Square and requested to negotiate with ZHANG. ZHANG agreed to go there for negotiation. Before he went for the negotiation, the standing committee of Shanghai Municipal Party Committee held a meeting first, with ZHANG also participated. On the meeting, everyone was in agreement: Can't admit such kind of cross-industry organization and such a mass organization citywide; Cannot recognize that the forcibly boarding and lying on rail track are revolutionary actions. ZHANG didn't disagree. During the meeting, mayor CAO Di-qiu called TAO Zhu who was then presided the Central secretariat of the Party, telling him the consensus of everyone in the meeting, and got TAO s affirmation. While listening to the phone, CAO wrote down what TAO said and specifically asked ZHANG to listen. ZHANG said to TAO over the phone: We will do according to the municipal Party committee's opinion. At 2:00 PM in the afternoon, ZHANG came to the Cultural Square and negotiated with the Gongzongsi s heads, PAN Guo-ping and WANG Hongwen, and representatives of Red Guards from Beijing and from Shanghai Jiaotong University, a total of a dozen people. ZHANG said to them: I have come to Shanghai and the Anting station, and contacted a large number of rebel workers and personally listened their complaints, and saw the event site at the Anting station. Thereafter I understand the overall situation. Surely, I will tell CHEN Bo-da what I saw here after returning to Beijing. I believe that they will be agree with me. PAN Guo-ping et al proposed ZHANG to admit the requirements of five points, one of them was that Gongzongsi is a revolutionary organization. ZHANG agreed and signed for all the five points. PAN wanted him to see the crowd, ZHANG also agreed. 103

105 ZHANG came to the Square. After PAN reading out the five requirements, ZHANG talked on the five requirements, one by one. He said: "I just talked with comrades of your headquarter and I explain the five points now. (1) Is Gongzongsi a revolutionary and lawful organization? I think it is. (2) After the general assembly in November 4, someone was going to Beijing. What kind of action is it? I say this is a revolutionary act. On this issue, I would also speak a little bit of my advice: In the future, when you, both the workers and peasants, have some problems, you should send representatives, not a mass of several hundred people, going to Beijing, because otherwise such a collective action will affect production. (3) On the consequences of this event, you said the responsibility shall be of the Party s municipal committee of Shanghai and the East China Bureau, I also agree with this opinion. I declare that the municipal Party committee has issued a notice yesterday.... Your salary will be paid and it will be wrong if one makes things difficult for you. Now you know this notice, but it does not guarantee that you will not be besieged by some others. I think those who want to engage in the revolution will not be afraid of it. By taking this attitude, the problem will be solved easier. (4) You request comrade CAO Di-qiu to make a self-criticism, openly to the masses. I agree with your request. Some comrades concerned about my safety. But I came here without any doubt on you, I didn't consider you as bad men. If I believe you are bad men, then I would not go to Anting Town by my own. On the security of Comrade CAO Di-qiu, I hope that the criticism will be based on rational reasoning. If you do not accept comrade CAO s self-criticism, you may ask him to do it for the second time. (5) You request to provide convenience to Gongzongsi. I agree with this one. Here I want to offer a point of my view: We must carry forward the fine tradition of hard working and plain living of our workers, and not like those organizations asking for automobile, recorder, camera, etc. We should use such things as little as possible and bear the tradition of hard working and plain living...." After the meeting, ZHANG reported to the Central and enclosed the Gongzongsi s requirement of the five points, which he has signed. On this issue, the Political Bureau held an enlarged meeting. On the meeting, TAO Zhu said: "How can he sign first and then report?" The Party s secretary of East China Bureau, CHEN Pei-xian, who was on sick leave, was very angry after heard that ZHANG Chun-qiao has signed Gongzongsi s requirement of five points. He came to Shanghai Xijiao Hotel, where CAO Di-qiu, WEI Wen-bo and other party leaders were in a meeting. In front of these cadres, CHEN Pei-xian made a phone call to CHEN 104

106 Bo-da, inquiring the Central s attitude. WANG Li, a member of the Central Cultural Revolution group, received the call. (Note: WANG Li usually answer phone for CHEN Bo-da because CHEN Bo-da has a very strong Fujian accent that is not understandable to many people.) CHEN Pei-xian said to WANG Li: I am also from Fujian Province and don't need your translation. You let Comrade CHEN Bo-da take the phone. He then talked with CHEN Bo-da over the phone, reporting the events in Anting town and its aftermath. He specially mentioned that ZHANG Chun-qiao has signed Gongzongsi requirement without a discussion with the Party s municipal committee. The more he talks, the angrier he is. He raised his voice and said: "How can the Central Cultural Revolution Group said not to recognize such a city-wide organization of workers previously but now suddenly admit? How can ZHANG Chun-qiao not discuss with Party s East China Bureau and the Shanghai municipal committee before signing? How much power does he get from the Central Cultural Revolution Group? Why should the East China Bureau and Shanghai municipal committee undertake all the consequences?" To so many questions CHEN Pei-xian raised, CHEN Bo-da did not know what to say for quite a while and then said: "Our initial thought was to let ZHANG Chun-qiao to have chance of exercise. How about that you take some responsibility since the events happened in Shanghai?" CHEN Pei-xian then called TAO Zhu. TAO said clearly on the phone: "For ZHANG Chun-qiao to sign the 'Five demands' is wrong!" After learned that CHEN Pei-xian has phoned TAO, CHEN Bo-da worried that TAO would talk to MAO Ze-dong about it and therefore immediately went, together with WANG Li, to see JIANG Qing. JIANG said: "We should see the Chairman before TAO goes!" They immediately went to see MAO. Shortly after talking with CHEN Bo-da and WANG LI, MAO called a meeting of some members of the Politburo Standing Committee and the Cultural Revolution Group, in Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. In the meeting, MAO said: "There is a fact first, then the concept. How can there be a concept if there is no fact? How can there be a theory if there is no practice? Sometimes the theory goes first, but practice is always the first thing. Where do the few rules come out if the workers did not do the revolution first?" The meeting s participants knew that MAO is supporting ZHANG Chun-qiao. In the evening of November 15, ZHANG Chun-qiao asked HAN Zhe-yi and CAO Di-qiu to go with him to Suzhou City for persuading GENG Jin-zhang, another head of the Gongzongsi, back to Shanghai. ZHANG talked with 105

107 GENG and quickly agreed with another Five requirements proposed by GENG. ZHANG asked Mayor CAO Di-qiu to sign it, but was refused. ZHANG then said: "You do not sign. I sign! I sign on behalf of the Central Cultural Revolution Group!" CAO muttered: "I obey the decision made by the Party, but will reserve my opinion!" Later, ZHANG Chun-qiao talked about the Anting event in an enlarged meeting of the Military Commission: "In November 11, I went to Anting to deal with the matter. TAO Zhu s policy is to push the workers back to Shanghai without recognizing or supporting their organization. I arrived at Anting, talked with workers' representatives, persuading them to go back to Shanghai for the reason as nothing is more important than the production, railroad transportation should not be broken, and so on. These general principles are right of course, but no use. So, I just kept calm, listened to them and learned what the matters are. After the daybreak, I attended the mass meeting, until 4 p.m., total of 16 hours, and finally the workers agreed to return to Shanghai. From the negotiation, I learned that many workers in the factories had been identified as 'counter-revolutionary' and the most of the people came to Anting were so identified. They wanted to rebel the municipal committee and therefore organized the Gongzongsi. For celebration of the founding of the organization, they held a mass assembly and invited the municipal Party committee to attend but were refused. After the celebration assembly, they requested to be received by the municipal Party committee but were, once again, refused. Really feeling helpless, they got on the train to Beijing to complain. While on the train, they were dumped in the small station, and the municipal committee sent nobody to there for three days and nights. Workers became increasingly angry. In this situation, if we would carry on the policy of TAO Zhu, the workers won't return to Shanghai because there will be repression after being pushed back. Is it very 'adequate ' to impose a white terror and repression on this group of people who have been identified as 'counter-revolutionary' and now have committed the crime of 'disrupting traffic'? It is the masses of workers who educated me and it is Chairman MAO's teachings that supported me, which made me avoid a big mistake in the critical time. They were persuaded to go back to Shanghai after I promised to them that I will solve their problems in a serious and responsible way. After returned to Shanghai in 13 th day of the month, I continued talks with their representatives. The matter became clear: Traffic accident is a phenomenon and is the result, and that the workers forwarded up revolution is the essence and is the root of the matter. Therefore I decided 106

108 to admit that their organization is a revolutionary and legal organization, and just tell them that the interruption of train is not good and should not take this kind of means in the future. I did not blame them too much. To my treatment, the Party s municipal committee firmly opposed and said that I did not adhere to the principle. CAO Di-qiu called TAO Zhu, and got an immediate support. I also made a call, to comrade CHEN Bo-da, for a directive from the Central. With TAO Zhu s support, CHEN Pei-xian also called comrade CHEN Bo-da and asked why you did it? Why do you admit Gongzongsi as a revolutionary organization while previously not allowing establishment of neither a rebellion organization in factory nor a city-wide rebellion organization? How much power did you give to ZHANG Chun-qiao? He was very fierce and asked several why s. TAO, CHEN, CAO and so on have suppressed student movements, and now the workers movements. On the bourgeois reactionary stand, they cannot understand that it is inevitable that the workers' movement will rise. The complete victory of the Cultural Revolution is not possible if there are only student movements but no workers' movement nor peasant movement. These were the law given in the previous revolutionary movements. TAO, CHEN and CAO s policy did not get the support of the Central, of course. The Central Cultural Revolution Group and the Politburo Standing Committee reported to Chairman MAO, and Chairman MAO supported Shanghai's masses of workers. There were several leaders in Gongzongsi. Among them, there were two "commanders" with the highest reputation: Commander WANG Hongwen and Commander PAN Guo-ping. At the beginning, Commander PAN has even higher reputation than Commander WANG since he is good in speaking and always goes in front. He was the first person who laid down on the rail track in Anting station. After ZHANG Chun-qiao arrived at Anting Town, the person negotiating with ZHANG was him at most times. And finally returned to Shanghai, the one signed the five-point requirement in the Shanghai Cultural Square was, onece again, him. Now, as the Anting event has been ended and Gongzongsi had been recognized by the Central Cultural Revolution Group, ranking the leaders became important in Gongzongsi internally. A dozen of influential people in Gongzongsi got together for a meeting, to formally choose a leader. WANG Hong-wen suggested: "Each of us should show his own qualification. The one with the reddest root should be the person in charge." When he saw there was no objection, he began to show his own qualifications first: "I was born in a tenant family, grew up in a suburb rural village near Changchun City in Jilin Province while taking care 107

109 of pigs and herd cattle. Later, I became a soldier of Chinese People's Volunteer Army and went to North Korea during the Korean War. After the war, I was transferred to the Shanghai Seventeen Cotton Factory as a staff in the security unit. I am a member of the Communist party." His qualification put PAN Guo-ping down as PAN just became a full time worker, let alone to be a Communist party member. He was even not a member of the Communist Youth League. Finally, the meeting agreed to let WANG Hong-wen be the commander in chief, PAN Guo-ping as deputy commander in chief. In the process of choosing the commander in chief, ZHANG Chun-qiao also played a role. He thought PAN is not stable enough; and WANG is more reliable and born in a poor family. So, he had suggested that WANG is better to be the highest leader of Gongzongsi. Seize power of the Newspaper Wenweibao In the evening of January 3, 1967, Shanghai newspaper Wenweibao s rebel organization "Xinghuoliaoyuan" announced that it has taken the leadership of the newspaper s party branch and administration. In the next day, the newspaper published an article with the title in red, "Words to the readers" and it stated: "From today, the revolutionary rebel headquarter of our Xinghuoliaoyuan, has taken over the newspaper." In the following day, rebels of another newspaper in Shanghai Reberation Daily also declared they have taken the power of their newspaper. Then, ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wen-yuan, as investigators sent by the Central Cultural Revolution Group, flied from Beijing to Shanghai. They confirmed that seizing power of newspapers was in the right direction. Over the next few days, they met, for five times, the rebels of newspapers Wenweibao and Liberation Daily, and the Shanghai Radio Station, and said: "A newspaper will be smashed off within three days if it does not speak for the rebels.... Newspapers should be the tongue for the rebels.... The newspaper "People's Daily" has some difficulty for us to speak. You rebels may speak first.... You should do whatever you want. The fire should be stronger to make some people sleepless!" In January 5, newspaper Wenweibao headlined their second "Words to the readers". It was related to the present situation in Shanghai: Traffic in Shanghai paralyzed and economics was in a turmoil, and there were more than 70 cargo ships waiting for unloading. On the morning of the 1967 New Year's 108

110 Day, ZHOU En-lai called CHEN Pei-xian, the first Secretary of the Party s Shanghai Municipal Committee who had been in a long-term sick leave. He asked CHEN to negotiate with the mass organizations and work together to solve the dilemma in Shanghai. At that night, CHEN called the leaders of the mass organizations to hold an emergency meeting in the East Lake Hotel. The meeting agreed to draft a leaflet by two Red Guards. The leaflet was entitled "Grasp revolution and promote production to thoroughly smash the new attack of the bourgeois reactionary line with the subtitle of "the urgent words to the city's people". After revized and signed by Gongzongsi and other ten mass organizations, the leaflet was issued by CHEN and printed copies for distribution and posting. At the night of January 8, MAO Ze-dong called CHEN Bo-da and others for a meeting. He said in the meeting: "Power of the newspaper Wenweibao was seized by the leftists. This is in a good direction.... The newspaper s Words to Shanghai people on the 5 th day of the month can be reproduced and broadcasted.... After the rise of the Shanghai revolutional force, the whole county will have hope.... Don't believe that there will be no meat to eat after butcher ZHANG s death." According to MAO s words, two participants of the meeting, TANG Ping-zhu (a responsible person in the newspaer People s Daily ) and HU Chi (a responsible person in the newspaper Liberation Army Daily ), immediately wrote down an editor's note: " The Words to Shanghai people published in newspaper Wenweibao in January 5 is an extremely important document. It holds high the great red flag of the proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman MAO, and made horn of a fierce counter-attack against the bourgeois reactionary line. It also resolutely responds to Chairman MAO' great call for grasping revolution and promoting production, and puts forward the key problems in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The problems are not only those of Shanghai, but of the whole nation." MAO approved the editor's note on the spot. In January 9, newspaper "People's Daily" published the article "Words to Shanghai People" with the editor's note. After the article was published, the situation in Shanghai transportation had improved. But people were still jittery, so that various bank branches cash was squeezed to empty. The persons in charge of mass organizations such as "Honggehui", held a meeting in the Jinjiang Hotel. CHEN Pei-xian attended the meeting. After intense debate, the meeting finally decided to draft an emergency notice that will be drafted by Honggehui and the Contact Station of the City Administration. In January 9, the emergency 109

111 notice, signed by thirty-two rebel organizations, published in newspapers Wenweibao and Liberation Daily simultaneously. The notice opposed the bad behaviors, such as squandering national wealth, arbitrarily increasing wages, spamming various allowances and occupying public houses. The notice made a provision of nine items, for which it "orders the Municipal Public Security Bureau to execute accordingly". In the 10th day of the month, MAO Ze-dong wrote an instruction: "The Emergency notice is good." He also asked the Central Cultural Revolution Group to draft a congratulation telegraph to all revolutionary rebel groups in Shanghai. The congratulation notice was sent in the next day in the name of the Party s Central Committee, the State Council, the Central Military Commission and the Central Culture Revolution Group. Take the power of the Party s Shanghai Municipal Committee At the beginning of 1967, Gongzongsi and the Rebel s Liaison Station of the Municipal Administration, and other rebel organizations founded "The preparatory committee for down with Party s Shanghai municipal committee". ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wen-yuan hurried from Beijing to Shanghai. In Shanghai, they called XU Jing-xian, WANG Hong-wen et al in and talked with them. ZHANG said: "We should not have any more dream onto the municipal committee.... The basic problem is to take power back from the capitalist roaders.... Through a mass assembly for down with CHEN and CAO, let the people know CHEN and CAO have been defeated, and made people no longer recognize the old municipal committee leadership." In January 6, Gongzongsi, the Rebel s Liaison Station of the Municipal Administration and other 30 rebel organizations held a mass assembly "Hold high the great red flag of MAO Ze-dong s Thought and Down with Shanghai municipal committee headed by CHEN Pei-xian" in People's Square, with 369 branch fields in other places of Shanghai. Total of more than one hundred thousands people participated the assembly. In the central meeting venue, they took and denounced the main leaders of the Party s East China Bureau and Shanghai municipal Party committee, including CHEN Pei-xian, CAO Di-qiu, and WEI Wenbo etc. Hundreds of officers in the bureau level and above were also there for being criticized. Fourteen radio channels and the television broadcasted the progress of the meeting live. The General Assembly issued orders: (1) From now on, the Shanghai rebels no longer recognize CAO Di-qiu as mayor of Shanghai City, will instruct the assembly service group to report and suggest 110

112 to Chairman MAO and the Party Central to recall all CAO s positions inside and outside the party, and CAO is now handed over to the Shanghai revolutionary rebels and do labor under supervision of the rebels; (2) CHEN Pei-xian must admit his counter revolutionary crimes in seven days. After the meeting, XU Jing-xian submitted the meeting materials, such as the speeches and the order, to Chairman MAO and the Party Central. ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wen-yuan also reported to the Party Central: "The mass assemby is successful and well in order. The municipal Party committee has collapsed. The revolutionary situation is excellent. " On the 8th day of the month, about forty representatives of Gongzongsi, the Liaison Station of Rebels of the Municipal Administration and some of the Red Guard Organizations jointly formed a "Headquarter of Shanghai for revolution and production". ZHANG Chun-qiao said: the headquarter "is actually a kind of new form of political power.... It can be called the 'Economic Soviet' and replace the Shanghai municipal Party committee." From the 11 th day of the month onwards, the power seizing in Shanghai reached a climax. In three days, rebels seized powers of bureaulevel units in 49 districts and counties. On the 16th day of the month, MAO Ze-dong approved the power seize of the Party s Municipal Committee and the government of Shanghai. On the same day, the magazine "Red flag" published a commentator's article, announcing MAO's instructions: "Seizing power from the handful of persons within the party who take the capitalist road is a revolution for one class to overthrow another class under the proletariat dictatorship, i.e. the revolution for the proletariat to destroy the bourgeois." Since then, the rebels in the whole country began to seize political power at all levels. In January 19, ZHANG Chun-qiao instructed WANG Hong-wen to call responsible persons of rebel organizations for a meeting. In the meeting, ZHANG announced a plan to build a new power organization according to the principles of the Paris Commune and said the new organization can be called "New Shanghai Commune". In the early February, he discussed with CHEN Bo-da and WANG Li in Beijing, and decided to change the name to Shanghai People's commune. In February 5, Gongzongsi and other dozens of rebel groups jointly held, in the People's Square, a mass assembly to announce the establishment of "Shanghai People's Commune", with two hundred thousands people attended. In the assembly, ZHANG announced the establishment. The general assembly passed a declaration entitled Long live the victory of the January Revolution --- Declaration of the Shanghai People's 111

113 Commune, which stated: "The central task of all of our works is to seize power. To seize power, we must seize power thoroughly and one hundred percent.... We must take away all the power from those who hold the power but going along the capitalist road at all party and government organs at all levels, i.e. of the city, district and county, as well as factories, enterprises, institutions, rural people's communes, shops, schools, streets and so on, completely and thoroughly, all taken away! Reach the goal and do not stop! " In February 12, MAO Ze-dong called ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wen-yuan, and said: "You took the name of People's Commune'. Should we keep the name of the country People's Republic of China in the future? Should it be called 'People's Commune of China'? Will other country admit it?... I think it is better to be called Revolutionary Committee." In February 19, the Central issued a notice: Do not use the name People's commune for a new political organization. Four days later, Shanghai People's Commune was renamed as the "Revolutionary Committee of Shanghai City", with ZHANG Chun-qiao as the director, YAO Wenyuan, WANG Hong-wen and XU Jing-xian as deputy directors, representatives of rebel organizations participated in seizing power as members of the committee. Some members of the Revolutionary Committee of Shanghai City. From left: WANG Hong-wen, ZHANG Chun-qiao, YAO Wenyuan, XU Jing-xian, WANG Xiu-zhen. Throughout the process of seizing power, Gongzongsi excluded some of the other rebel organizations, such as the "Shangsansi", "Honggehui", "The Second Corp of Gongzongsi", etc. These excluded organizations were thus greatly dissatisfied. They began brewing activities for Gunning Zhang Chunqiao. At the end of January, Fudan University s "Sunwukong Battle Group" posted, in the downtown area of Shanghai, a big character banners "ZHANG Chun-qiao is not equal to the 112

114 Central Cultural Revolution Group!" and "Resolutely oppose the establishment of the Party s new committee headed by ZHANG Chunqiao!" They also posted a big character poster entitled "The first question to ZHANG Chun-qiao! ", followed by another poster entitled "Why Twenty questions to ZHANG Chun-qiao!" At the night of January 27, forty people from the rebel organization Honggehui held XU Jing-xian in the students' dormitory of Fudan University. After learning the news, ZHANG Chun-qiao let the Shanghai Garrison to trace. The Garrison sent the political commissar of a division with four motorcycle exhausts and an infantry company, fully armed, to the Fudan University. The students blocked the troops outside the university gate. In the coming dawn, ZHANG ordered the troops pulled out. The organization Honggehui immediately handed out leaflets in the whole city and posted big character banners "ZHANG Chunqiao is the arch-criminal for mobilizing PLA soldiers to suppress revolutionary rebels!" In that evening, leaders of Hongghui, Shangsansi and other rebel organizations gathered in the coffee room of the China and Russia Friendship Building. After learning it, ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wenyuan voluntarily attended the gathering. The students asked ZHANG why you send soldiers to suppress Red Guards. They siege ZHANG and YAO for six hours. In the evening of January 29, Honggehui and other rebel organizations jointly held an assembly, in the auditorium of Fudan University, "Pledging conference for gunning ZHANG Chun-qiao". They decided to hold, in the next day in the People's Square, a swearing ceremony of one hundred thousands people for gunning ZHANG Chun-qiao. ZHANG and YAO immediately called the Central Cultural Revolution Group to report the situation. Before dawn on the next day, WANG Li, on behalf of the Central Culture Revolution Group, called back and asked ZHANG and YAO to record the telephone conversation, which is actually based on the views of ZHANG and agreed by CHEN Bo-da and JIANG Qing. He spoke slowly, word by word and sentence by sentence: "Gonggehui s fighting against Comrade ZHANG Chun-qiao and Comrade YAO Wen-yuan, and pointing to the Central Cultural Revolution Group... is totally wrong.... Hope students of Honggehui to help some of their leaders to correct the mistakes immediately. If they insist on the errors, you should make a clear cut with them." ZHANG got the message and immediately sent an instruction: Reprint copies, post them everywhere and dispatch cars broadcasting them. At the same time, he let WANG Hong-wen send his workers to cover all big character posters and banners against ZHANG. In addition, he ordered to immediately close the People s Square to prevent the swearing ceremony 113

115 planned by the rebels against him. Thus, Honggehui had to cancel the planned assembly and demonstration, and release XU Jing-xian. Since then, Honggehui was identified as reactionary who launched activities against the Central Cultural Revolution Group, and was suppressed. Seize power in various provinces and cities Shanghai rebels action of seizing power served as an incentive for the whole country. Full support from MAO Ze-dong and the Central Cultural Revolution Group indicated the direction to the country. A wave of seizing power of the local party and government organs quickly swept the whole country. In January 10, the rebels of Heilongjiang Province took over the provincial authorities. In the same day, the Shanxi General Headquarter of Rebels issued "No.1 notice", announcing they have taken the powere of the Party committees of the Shanxi Province and the Taiyuan City (the capital of the province). In January 16, Red Rebels and other 22 organizations of Harbing Military Technology Institute jointly announced the establishment of "Harbin Red Rebels Joint Headquarters", and published a document "Announcement of red rebels jointly taking over power" and seized all political and financial powers of the province and the city. On January 17, rebels of Changsha City in Hunan Province seized powers of the Party s municipal committee and the City Commission. In the next day, Beijing University's "New Beijing University Commune" led by NIE Yuan-zi sent a large number of personnel to the Department of Higher education, the Central Propaganda Department, the United Front Department, the Department of Security and Supervision, and various departments of the Beijing City Commission, and seized power there. In January19, rebels of the Ministry of Culture seized power. On the same day, the rebels of the capital publishing system issued an urgent appeal to all the rebels in all publishing system all over the country. The first item in the appeal was "immediately seizing the power of publicizing MAO Ze-dong s works, and seize every position for publication." The appeal was publicized by Xinhua News Agency in January 21 and re-printed in "People's Daily" in the following day. On the same day, rebels in Guangdong Province announced that they have taken the power of the Party s provincial committee and the People's Council, and the power of Guangzhou City s municipal Party committee and the City Commission. A notice on this action of seizing power was published in the newspaper "Southern Daily" in the next day. In the evening, the Central People's Broadcasting Station broadcasted an editorial of 114

116 People's Daily, which will appear in the newspaper on next day, entitled "Unite Proletarian revolutionaries and seize power taken by those who are in power and going along the capitalist road". The editorial declared: "Under the great call of our great leader Chairman MAO, a great revolutionary storm created by uniting proletarian revolutionaries and seizing power is sweeping across the whole country and shocking the world. It is an irresistible force, and will topple the mountains and overturn the seas.... This is a new leap of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution." This editorial confirmed the action of seizing power and further stoked the action. The newly formed government at all levels throughout the country after seizing power of previous government agencies was all called "Revolutionary committee". The committee was composed of three parts, called combination of three : Representatives of revolutionary cadres (Note: i.e. those recognized by the Central), representatives of the rebels and representatives of the Liberation Army. The way for the Central to admit and recognize the power seizing of a province is a publication of an editorial of the People's Daily alone, or combined with the Liberation Army Daily, which cheers the establishment of the Revolutionary Committee of the province. To September 1968, all twenty nine provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government had established their revolutionary committees. The governments below the provincial level had also set up revolutionary committees. Fights with force allover the country To obtain power of the previous government, the organizations of the masses were struggled to each other before, during and after the action of seizing power. At the beginning, the struggle was just by use of mouth and pen. Gradually, it evolved into the fight with force. The fighting weapons were also gradually upgraded: From fist, then wood stick and steel stick, then pistol, rifle, and finally even tank and artillery. In July 22, 1967, JIANG Qing received representatives of the rebel organization "2-7 Commune" of Henan Province and said: "I seem to remember that a revolutionary organization in Henan Province made a slogan of 'Attack with pen and defense with force'. This slogan is right! You should not be naivete and lay down your arms. I support this." On the second day, the slogan published in Shanghai s newspaper Wenweibao. In 115

117 September 5, JIANG Qing met with rebel representatives from Anhui Province and spoke on the slogan once again. In September 9, the General Office of the Party s Central Committee issued a notice, calling people to learn JIANG s speech. So, all localities all over the country have set up all kinds of 'Attack with pen and defense with force' organizations. The country plunged into chaos. Fight with force. Left: Rebels with arms. Middle: Rebels set fire. Right: Badges used on rebel s chest. Since JIANG called for Attack with pen and defense with force, fighting with force had lasted for about a year in the whole country. In the year of fighting, the death toll could not be accurately determined. It can only be briefly learned from some examples. One example was the fight in Mianxian County of Shanxi Province, where 85 people died, including 73 rebels (48 killed by gun or sticks, 13 by car accidents, 12 by other kinds of accidents such as electrocuting) and 12 innocent civilians. In Pucheng County of Shanxi Province, 34 people were killed, including the soldiers of the two fighting sides and the innocent civilians, and twenty thousands of houses in more than 10 streets were burned out. In Ankang County of Shanxi Province, the battle continued for one full year and destroyed more than 3300 houses and killed hundreds of people. In the area of Changzhi Region of the Shanxi Province, there were two groups of rebel organizations supported respectively by the local Military Partition and the Air Force Garrison there. The local partition called in the rebels they support and formed "Bandits Corps", and attacked and captured a coalmine. In the battle, about 200 of the opposition rebels of "LIU Ge-ping Branch" were captured, disarmed and retaliated. As described by a newspaper reporter ZHAO Yu, "cruelty and wide spreading of the revenge was unprecedented and unrepeatable, and hard to provide details. All the torture method used in ancient time were used now." In Luzhou Region of Sichuan Province, fights continued for a whole year and killed thousands of people. JIANG Qing once said: "The Sichuan fight with force is famous 116

118 nation-wide. Chongqing was smithereened and it made the front line clear. Well done. In Shengxian county of Zhejiang Province, the fighting killed 191 people. In Fuyang county of Zhejiang Province, 135 people were killed and 1200 houses destroyed. In the streets of Guangzhou City of Guangdong Province, as described by author QIN Mu, "With a dagger in the mouth, people paraded with lifted corpses in street,... In some school gates, one could see obituary for students died in fighting, on which there were words of 'at the age of seventeen years' and 'immortal '.... When going back to the newspaper agency, all the way I saw corpses hanging on tree at the roadside. For most of those bodies, skull is broken and blood gushed. In the short distance between Yide Road and People Road, I actually saw eight such bodies." Posters about the fighting with force. The Wuhan Incident When fighting for seizing power was intense around the country, MAO Zedong decided to have a tour in southern China in July Prior to departure, MAO called the Central Cultural Revolution Group for a meeting. In the meeting, he said that during the trip he would visit Wuhan City again and swim in the Changjiang River, and at the same time deal with problems in the Cultural Revolution in the city. MAO also said on Culture Revolution: "The first year for starting (Note: Refers to the year after the Party s Central Committee issued 5-16 Notice on May 16, 1966), the second year for foundation and the third year for ending --- this is called the Great Cultural Revolution." In the evening of July 13, MAO boarded the special train and left Beijing for the tour, accompanied by the director of the General Office of the Party s Central Committee, WANG Dong-xing, the chief of the General Staff of the Army, YANG Cheng-wu, and commander of the Beijing Military 117

119 Region, ZHENG Wei-shan. In the morning of the second day, ZHOU Enlai flied to Wuhan to make arrangements in advance for the arrival of MAO. There were two factions of mass organizations in Wuhan City. One is called "A Million Bold Warriors" and the other "The workers Headquarter". They fought to each other, accompanied by fighting with force, and bleeding events occurred frequently. A Million Bold Warriors got support from Wuhan Military Region s commander CHEN Zai-dao. The provincial military Independent Division even directly involved in the activities of A Million Bold Warriors. So, A Million Bold Warriors had the upper hand and grabbed some people of Workers Headquarter. The Central Cultural Revolution Group, however, tended to support "Workers Headquarter". In the evening of July 18, WANG Li and XIE Fu-zhi, both members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, delivered speeches at the Workers Headquarters. WANG said: "Chairman MAO, vice Chairman LIN, the Party s Central Committee and the Central Cultural Revolution Group strongly support you. It is not allowed for you to be suppressed. This kind of phenomenon should be overthrown and let it gone for ever." In his speech, WANG called A Million Bold Warriors a conservative organization. Workers Headquarter immediately sent broadcasting cars to broadcast WANG s speech in the streets. WANG Li also went to the meeting of military cadres above the division level, and said: "You do not understand the points of the Cultural Revolution.... You should be like a schoolboy, learning from the first lesson of the first grade...." These speeches by WANG provoked angry among the mass of A Million Bold Warriors and their supporters in military. In the morning of July 20, 1967, A Million Bold Warriors, and the cadres and soldiers of the provincial military Independent Division went into residence of XIE Fu-zhi and WANG Li. Some of them entered XIE's bedroom and saw CHEN Zai-dao (the commander of the Wuhan Military Region). CHEN patiently persuaded them to the living room and talk there. WANG Li was in the next room at the time, did not come out at the beginning, and finally came out after seeing the talk between CHEN and A Million Bold Warriors was quite harmonious. At that time, another group of A Million Bold Warriors entered the room and tried to catch WANG. Seeing the dange, WANG ran to another room. The mass of A Million Bold Warriors chased WANG, but was blocked by a group of Red Guards Beihang who followed WANG from Beijing to Wuhan City. The 118

120 two sides had a physical confrontation. A Million Bold Warriors had more people, and finally caught WANG and put him in to a car and drove away. WANG Li was taken to a military compound. He was pushed to the balcony on the fourth floor of a building to be shown to the mass, with his arms behind the body. In the military compound, there were a huge crowd of people shouting very loudly the slogan Down with WANG Li! They were trying to force WANG re-positioning on the Wuhan problems. But WANG only said: " A Million Bold Warriors in Wuhan is a large mass organization. Without their participation, the Wuhan problems are impossible to be solved. The Wuhan Military Region has shortcomings and errors, and they need to improve." At the time, Wuhan Military Region s political commissar ZHONG Han-hua rushed to the military compound, persuading A Million Bold Warriors people to release WANG. He even bowed down and said: "What are you doing?... Comrade WANG Li is from the Chairman MAO command headquarter!... You could bind me. " But he was ignored. He sat in a corner with his head down and rounded by his hands, and then hit his own body and said: "You can't do this, you can not!" Suddenly, he had a heart attack, and was taken away by soldiers. Under the order of other leaders of the Military Region, the political commissar of the 8199th Troop, ZHANG Zhao-jian, and the deputy commander ZHAO Fen led several squadrons of soldiers and controlled the corridor, the main door and the side door, so to separate WANG Li from the mass of A Million Bold Warriors. The officer of the guard battalion, LUAN Qing-xiang, ordered his soldiers: "Don't fire. If you shoot, the story will be very different." Following the order, the soldiers had to let their bodies bear the fists, sticks and butt stocks. In the afternoon, the deputy commander of the Military Region, KONG Qing-de, led the camp guards and arrived in the building. They first rescued ZHONG Han-hua and then negotiated with the rebels, and persuaded them to let WANG Li eat and rest first. An officer took a microphone and said: "Comrades of A Million Bold Warriors, let WANG Li to have a rest. He is very tired. There is no need to worry, he can't run away!... We have decided to put WANG Li to the 8201 st troop and will order him repositioning himself before 8:00 tomorrow morning, otherwise we'll be against him!" He ordered two soldiers taking WANG into his room. Then, KONG ordered to take WANG out of the military compound and entered into the station of the 8199 th troop. A Million Bold Warriors and the soldiers of the Independent Division found WANG Li has been taken away, 119

121 and immediately shouted loudly: "WANG Li has ran! Down with KONG Qing-de! " But they felt helpless. When WANG Li was detained by the rebels, XIE Fu-zhi immediately reported it to YANG Cheng-wu. YANG replied: "They made a big problem!" He meant that MAO Ze-dong was now not far from this trouble spot. YANG immediately called ZHOU En-lai who had returned to Beijing at the time. ZHOU replied: "You may, according the situation developed, transfer Chairman to a safe location at any time." At that night, ZHOU flied to Wuhan City once again. LIN Biao and JIANG Qing immediately knew what was happening in Wuhan City. LIN let his secretary record his words as a letter to MAO Ze-dong, and send QIU Hui-zuo immediately flying to Wuhan City to deliver the letter. On July 20 at 2 PM, QIU arrived at Wuhan City. MAO got the letter and called YANG Cheng-wu, WANG Dong-xing et al. in his residence, and said to them: "Make a plane ready and we leave Wuhan City." (Note: MAO usually does not fly for the sake of safety, instead he used train, namely the special train.) YANG Cheng-wu asked: "Prepare the special plane or an aircraft of the Air Force?" MAO answered: "Both." Guarded by the central security force, the car that MAO was sit in drove to the airport. When the car arrived at the airport, MAO told YANG Cheng-wu: "Use the Air Force s aircraft." In the front of the aircraft, there stood a dozen of PLA soldiers. YANG Cheng-wu walked down the car, went straight to the aircraft, and told the soldier to push the gangway to here immediately. But a PLA cadre answered toughly: "If there is no order from the commander and political commissar of the Wuhan Air Force, nobody is allowed to move the plane!" YANG said: "I am the acting Chief of Staff YANG Cheng-wu. It was me who issued the order to your commander and political commissar!" But the PLA cadre did not recognize YANG Cheng-wu and therefore still didn't listen to him. At this time, MAO had come out of the car and was walking toward the plane. YANG said to the PLA cadre: "You see, it is the great leader Chairman MAO who will take this plane!" The soldiers immediately released the plane. While MAO sitting on the plane, the captain came and asked YANG Cheng-wu: "Please tell to what direction we fly?" Before YANG could answer, MAO s Hunan accent sounded: "Fly up first!" The plane roared out of the earth, hovering over above Wuhan City. MAO asked YANG: "In which direction we are now flying?" YANG answered: "Still in 120

122 the sky above Wuhan City." MAO then said: "Tell the captain to fly to the east, to Shanghai." On July 21 at 11:00 AM, MAO arrived in Shanghai. In the morning of the second day, ZHOU En-lai called YANG Cheng-wu from Wuhan City: "I and the vice Chairman LIN are discussing what to do next. The results of discussion will be reported to the Chairman for instruction. Newspaper reports on the Wuhan event should be subtle, without naming anyone." YANG immediately reported to MAO the contents of ZHOU s phone call. MAO said: "On the Wuhan s problem, I think it should be treated as an error handling (Note: i.e. do not treat it as a contradiction between people and the enemy). If he (Note: Refers to CHEN Zai-dao) has a determination, then I, the Prime Minister and WANG Li could not get out. He did not issue an absolute command that nobody is allowed to enter or out of Wuhan City." At 12:30 PM, MAO called YANG Cheng-wu, YU Lijin, ZHANG Chun-qiao and WANG Dong-xing in, and said: "Premier ZHOU, XIE Fu-zhi, WANG Li et al. have no more to talk in Wuhan. A further talk, if needed, should be done in Beijing." He finally said: "Let the Prime Minister deal with the issues according to the true situation!" YANG Cheng-wu immediately called ZHOU En-lai to convey MAO s view. MAO asked YANG: "Do you know CHEN zai-dao? What kind of person is he? What is your view on the things in Wuhan? Will he be against me? " YANG replied: "Chairman, nobody will be against you. In the Army, all the old comrades are following you to do revolution." MAO said: "Yes, I think so. CHEN zai-dao also would not oppose me. If CHEN and ZHONG wanted to do something bad to me, we could not get out of Wuhan.... You go to tell the Premier that he should arrange CHEN Zai-dao, ZHONG Hanhua, and also NIU and CAI (Note: Refers to the division commander NIU Huai-long and the political commissar CAI Bing-chen of the 8201st Troop) come to Jingxi Hotel in Beijing. In addition, you tell CHEN Zai-dao the following three points: the first is that if there were errors, you should check them out, the second is to pay attention to learning, and the third is you should pay attention to own safety." In Wuhan City, ZHOU En-lai talked with CHEN Zai-dao and asked him to cooperate in the efforts of finding WANG Li, but CHEN replied that he has no such ability. ZHOU then appointed deputy commanders KONG Qing-de and YE Ming to be temporarily responsible (Note: i.e. replacing the current commander CHEN Zai-dao) for the Wuhan Military Region works and find WANG Li. But until dawn, there was still no news about WANG Li. On the 121

123 next morning, ZHOU decided to let the political commissar of Wuhan Air Force, LIU Feng, go to find WANG Li. LIU. Together with WANG Hui-min and YE Xi-hong of the Wuhai Air Force, LIU Feng drove a car to the 8199th Troop and successfully found WANG Li. Then. LIU Feng and WANG Li went by a car, escorted by a company of soldiers, and arrived at the command headquarter of the Wuhan Air Force. He immediately reported the development to Premier ZHOU. ZHOU ordered, via the Air Force s political commissar YU Li-jin, that the 15 th Army of the Air Force quickly entered the Wuhan City. ZHOU then let KONG Qing-de inform A Million Bold Warriors that they should send one hundred representatives to Beijing, and the army should also send representatives to Beijing by the same plane. At the night WANG Li et al flied back to Beijing, LIN Biao called a meeting of all members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. The first sentence he said in the meeting was: "Wuhan 7-20 Incident is a counterrevolutionary rebellion!" In July 25, LIN Biao, JIANG Qing, CHEN Bo-da et al. organized a mass assembly "Welcome XIE Fu-zhi and WANG Li returning home in triumph". A millions of people participated the assembly. In July 27, the Party s Central Committee, the Central Military Commission and the Central Cultural Revolution Group jointly issued "A letter to the city of Wuhan s revolutionary masses and the military officers and soldiers, calling all mass organizations to unite. On the same day, the Party Central revocated CHEN Zai-dao and ZHONG Han-hua s posts of Wuhan military region s commander and political commissar, respectively. The fight with force in Shanghai There usually were many workers organizations in an unit in Shanghai, among which Gongzongsi was the biggest or the second biggest. So was the Shanghai Diesel Engine Factory. The factory is a modern factory with about ten thousands workers. The factory is located in a riverside of Huangpu River, and in the other riverside is the the Shanghai Seventeen Cotton Factory where WANG Hong-wen started his revolt. The biggest rebel organization in the factory is called Liansi, not Gongzhongsi however. During Shanghai s "January storm of seizing power", Liansi fought with Gongzongsi for more than half year, and finally became the biggest rebel organization in the factory and the leading rebel organization among those against Gongzongsi in Shanghai. 122

124 In mid July, 1967, the two mass organizations, Gongzongsi and Liansi, had contradiction again in the factory. This time, it was about the posting of a large sign. After the two sides argued for quite a long time, they fought with force, using bricks, stones and sticks, and the fight continued to expand the scale so that more and more combatants were wounded. A Gongzongsi member JIE Fu-xi (the party secretary of the tool workshop section) was seriously injured and died afterwards. In the evening of July 21, the Gongzongsi leader WANG Hong-wen chaired a mass assembly, participated by hundreds of thousands of people, at the People's Square, to convey the important documents issued by the Party Central. When the meeting was about to start, the banner on the podium was changed to "Assembly to devote our lives and blood to defend Chairman MAO s proletarian revolutionary line and the Memorial service for Comrade JIE Fu-xi ", so the assembly was changed into a memorial attended by hundreds of thousands of people. WANG Hong-wen spoke: "JIE Fu-xi was dead after beating and torture by a few mobs of Liansi, and his body was too horrible to look at because there were severe injury, wound, scars, cuts and bruises all over his body!... JIE Fu-xi would not have died in vain, and it should not!... Mercy to the enemies is a crime against the people!" At the same time, Lainsi issued a memorandum to the Shanghai Revolutionary Committee: "The struggle and fight between the masses of opposition occurred continuously in the Diesel Factory. It was black handed by a handful of the Cadres going capitalist road in the Party s factory committee and persons supporting them. The fighting was initiated by Gongzongsi and was a planned political persecution on us. We, the Liansi's soldiers, suffered great tragedy and severe bleeding since May, especially in June 29 and July 18. We will never forget it. We strongly request punishment on the beating perpetrators and uncovering the mastermind behind it. JIE Fu-xi died of sudden illness or a heat stroke. We require the revolutionary rebels of the whole city to compose a special team to investigate the matter. We also require the Party Central quickly send persons to Shanghai to do an autopsy and analysis...." In July 29, 1967, WANG Hong-wen chaired a secret meeting of Gongzomgsi at the Office for supporting the leftist (with the code name "888") of the Shanghai Police Garrison. At the meeting, WANG conveyed ZHANG Chunqiao's instruction given over the phone, and decided to mobilize the various teams of Gongzongsi and take a massive attack on the Shanghai Diesel Engine Factory before August 5. Accordingly, a temporary 123

125 headquarter was set up, with WANG as the chief commander. After the meeting, WANG arranged the leader of the "Shanghai sports revolutionary rebellion headquarters" (abbreviated as "Shangtisi"), HU Yong-nian, known as "Commander HU", to lead the Fighting Corp of Shangtisi, which was the combat ace team with a great reputation, and to take the first action on the leaders of Liansi and the organization "Liansi support station". On the evening of July 31, Commander HU personally led the "Fighting Corp", captured 30 leaders of Liansi, who were having a meeting at Taian Road, Lane 120, house 32, and sent them to the Yangpu District Public Security Bureau and held them there. In August 3, the Shanghai Revolutionary Committee dispatched three propaganda vehicles hanging tweeters. Sitting in the vehicles were representatives of the Shanghai Revolutionary Committee and representatives of Shanghai Armed Forces, as well as journalists and photographers. The propaganda vehicles arrived at the gate of the Shanghai Diesel Engine Factory, the tweeters on the vehicles broadcasted repeatedly with "An open letter of the Shanghai Revolutionary Committee to revolutionary Liansi masses of the Shanghai Diesel Engine Factory". The leaders of Liansi in the factory sent their people to surround the three vehicles, smashed the tweeters on the them, took away the film camera from the reporters hands, and catched some of persons on the vehicles. Early in the morning of August 4, Gongzongsi, led by WANG Hongwen, mobilized more than 100 thousands people (240 thousands in propaganda), dispatched more than one thousand trucks and buses, some patrol boats and salvage ships surrounded the Diesel Engine Factory from both water and land, and two helicopters hovering in the air above the factory. At the time, there were only one thousand Liansi personnel in the factory area, and they piled numerous stones, iron and other obstacles behind the iron gate of the factory. At 5 PM, many large trucks full of "Death Squads" rebels and with big flags of Gongzongsi, began to arrive at the factory gate area. The "Death Squads" rebels jumped from the trucks. They held spears and were wearing worker uniform and helmet. At 8 PM, WANG Hong-wen gave the order and the assault began. But the big iron gate of the factory is closed, so Gongzongsi s attack was failed. They called a large crane in and the crane made the big iron gate down. Suddenly, the Gongzongsi workers were shouting and flooded into the factory. They immediately surrounded the forging workshop and the gascalcined workshop. Liansi workers weapons were slingshot (shooting screw nuts), stone, bricks, spears, iron bars and home-made petrol 124

126 bombs. Gongzongsi s attack was blocked again, and then they called seventeen fire trucks in and used the high-pressure water gun to shoot Liansi workers. The firefighters climbed up, along water pipes, to the roofs, and a large number of workers followed behind and forced Liansi workers there to surrender. After captured these two workshops, Gongzhongsi continued to to attack the large horsepower workshop and the pump workshop in turn, and succeded. They then began to attack the wood shop (where the Liansi headquarter was located) and the power workshop, but it was tenaciously resisted. Many Gongzongsi personnel were injured, the surrounding building and the power wires started to burn up, and the factory battlefield was full of smoke. At the time, the Gongzongsi was informed that peasantry in Counties of Qingpu and Jiading, and other places, will come after dark to support Liansi. Then WANG Hong-wen ordered that the factory have to be captured before dark in any case. The attacker finally reached on the wooden roof of the wood workshop, but was counter-punched by incendiaries, which made the roof in flame immediately, and the roof collapsed and dozens of the Gongzongsi attackers fell down to the ground. Using the high-pressure water gun and high-altitude ladders, Gongzongsi s team finally captured the last two workshops. The crowd rushed to go forward with great strength and vigor, attacked everywhere, and beat every one they saw and hit everything on their way. Almost every Liansi s captive was beaten and injured. At 6 PM, Gongzongsi workers occupied the whole of the Diesel Engine Factory, more than one thousand people were captured, including the Liansi s head YANG Zhong-chi in the basement. Every captive s hands had to be up for surrendering and should say repeatedly: "I am guilty and deserve to die!" But a young Liansi member said that he will never surrender, and was disorderly sticked down on the spot and die quickly. Gongzongsi commanded that all male captives should take their shirts off, while female captives shirts were already torn. All of them were pushed to a long line of buses parked outside of the factory. They were put in confinement at the Public Security Bureau, the rebel organization Shangtisi, the Youth Palace and the Sports Academy, while injured Liansi members were taken to hospitals. Along the Military Industry Road, there were full of traffic flow and dust. In the roadside, there were crowd of people watching. In this bucket, 18 people died, 983 injured, 121 disabled and 663 detained, including leaders of Liansi, Yang Zhongchi. 125

127 Photographers of the Shanghai Film Studio, who were in two helicopters and belong to Gongzongsi, shot live throughout the fighting process. The Shanghai TV station on the same day broadcasted their video. MAO Zedong who just withdrawn from the "7-20 Wuhan Incident" to Shanghai, watched the live broadcast in his residence in the western suburbs of Shanghai. In September 24, the Xinhua News Agency issued a telecommunication that stated: Our great leader Chairman MAO recently visited North, South and East China, and surveyed the Culture Revolution in the provinces of Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Zhejiang, and city of Shanghai. During the Shanghai visit, the great leader Chairman MAO issued a very important instruction: 'There is no conflict of fundamental interests within the working class. Within the working class under the proletariat dictatorship, there is no reason to split into two big groups of organizations irreconcilably opposed to each other.'" But the rebels fight with force for power continued for about a year. A team of armed rebels in Shanghai. 126

128 Chapter 7.5 Some protests in the high level Vast majority of Party seniors were not quite sure what MAO Ze-dong really wants in launching the Cultural Revolution, but still obeyed him and believed in him. Facing with the arrogance of MAO s wife, JIANG Qing, they had repeatedly been patient. But some of them were unable to restrain, and fight with JIANG and other members of the Cultural Revolution Group. TAO Zhu s protest Shortly after transferred to the Party s Central and became the fourth powerful man in leadership, TAO Zhu had conflict with JIANG Qing. The conflict was just after October 1, 1966, the National Day, about what photo should be published in the news on the National Day. In accordance with the provisions of the past, there must have a photo for Chairman MAO and the State President LIU to be together. Now LIU Shao-qi had been criticized, should the provision be still followed? For this issue, Xinhua News Agency consulted TAO who was in charge of propaganda works. TAO pondered slightly and then quickly made a decision: "Do it according to the provisions of the past!" In addition, when examining a group of photos that will be published in the newspaper, TAO found no photo for DENG Xiao-ping who, though criticized, was still a Politburo Standing Committee member of the Party. Actually, DENG s photo was not taken at all. TAO Zhu asked the Xinhua News Agency: "Is there any way to remedy it?" The answer was: "We could do a technical processing." YAO said:. "Okay, do it." So, Xinhua News Agency staff hided CHEN Yi in a photo and moved DENG s photo there, and so published. After learning this "head transplant", JIANG Qing was greatly discontent and sent CAO Yi-ou (KANG Sheng s wife) and LIU Shu-an (CHEN Bo-da s wife) to the Central Propaganda Department to work there. After returning home in the evening, TAO walked in the yard with rapid pace. Suddenly, a sentence jumped out from his teeth: "This bitch!" But the thing was not yet finished. In a brief meeting of the Central, JIANG launched an attack on TAO. Before the meeting officially started, JIANG said she was placed in a "remote" position in a photo appeared on the newspaper of the National Day. TAO looked at ZHOU En-lai and suggested: "As Comrade JIANG has no formal position in the party and government organs, she could serve as Deputy Minister of Culture so that she could, with a formal position, do liaison work or participate in activities." JIANG shouted immediately: 127

129 "You touch the ghost! " TAO turned his head and saw JIANG s angry face. JIANG patted the arm of the sofa and said: "How can I do this kind of thing!" (Note: She meant that the position of a deputy minister is far too low a position for her). The meeting venue was silent. After the meeting started, JIANG launched an attack again by saying: "TAO Zhu, why do you not announce that WU Chuan-qi is a revolutionary leftist?" Being a person with strong character, TAO was angry and with his cheeks protruded like ribs. He was about to counter-attack, but met eyes of ZHOU En-lai, therefore loosened the clenched teeth and drank two sips of tea, and then tried to use a calm tone and said: "WU Chuan-qi indeed has some problems. Have you read the materials about him?" JIANG replied: "I have read them." TAO frowned and asked: "Now you read them. How can I support such a person?" JIANG said insolently: "As long as he is a person who wrote the first big character poster, we must admit that he is the revolutionary leftist and must support him." TAO asked: " Without asking his motive and his political background in history?" JIANG replied: "As for the question of history, it is not a big deal. Were you a Guomingdang (GMD) member?" TAO s eyes suddenly open widely and roared (he is one with big voice): "Do you know at what time I was a GMD member? I was a GMD member during period of the First Cooperation between CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and GMD, and I became GMD member collectively in the army! At that time, even Chairman MAO was a GMD member! So was Premier ZHOU! And he was the director of the political department of the Wangpu Military Academy and the representative of GMD in the First Army! They were my boss and I was just a soldier! What do you want? You need to read history first! What kind of GMD member was WU Chuan-qi? How can you confuse his GMD membership with ours? " JIANG s face reddened, her finger pointed to TAO and screamed: "You have to go to the Faculty and support WU Chuan-qi. You must go!" TAO slapped his hand on the coffee table, and jumped up and said: "You interfere too much! And control too wide! This is an organization of the Communist Party, but you interfere every thing!" Somebody pulled TAO to sit down. JIANG s eyes open widely. Suddenly, she was in tears and wiped with handkerchief. KANG Sheng sat in his seat and was unmoved with eyes half closed. ZHANG Chunqiao stared at TAO coldly. CHEN Bo-da and YAO Wen-yuan approached JIANG and persuaded her, and JIANG began to cry and said: "I have never bullied so much at all my life! TAO Zhu, what do you want? Try to suppress me? You have to state it clerely! You bully me and you suppress me. You are nothing! What do you realy want at the end?" The meeting situation was so bad that ZHOU En-lai had to adjourn the meeting. TAO left immediately and 128

130 behind him was JIANG s cry. TAO frowned and boarded the car, and said to himself: "If letting her do thing in such a way, what would happen in the future?" Once he said to his acquaintance: "You do not know that JIANG often reprimands us as a grandson and always uses a tone of command. People really cannot stand! " TAO Zhu At another central brief meeting on December 24, JIANG asked TAO: "Why not allow criticism over YU Qiu-li and GU Mu? Who obstructed?" TAO answered: "It is me. The next year's economic plan needs to be prepared. (Note: YU and GU were in charge of production in the State Council.) JIANG then said: "The biggest royalist in the Party is you TAO Zhu!" TAO responded: "I am responsible for everything I've done." On December 29, MAO called TAO in and said: "JIANG Qing can not tolerate people and you should not mind her words. You are used not to pay much attention when you talk, and love to say big words. Working in the Central is different from working in locality, and you should always pay attention and be modest." On January 4, 1967, the Central Cultural Revolution Group members met representatives of the " Rebel group special for pulling WANG Ren-zhong" of Hubei Province, in a conference room of the Great Hall of the People. TAO was not attending because he had something else to do. CHEN Bo-da said to the rebels: "After coming to the Central, Comrade TAO Zhu did not execute on behalf of Chairman MAO's proletarian revolutionary line and has been, in fact, a determined implementer for the LIU and DENG route! He is related to implementation of the LIU-DENG route, which he wants to wash away but not successful. Later, he intensified the implementation!... He is an advisor to the Cultural Revolution Group, but had never discussed with us over the issues of the Cultural Revolution (in this time, JIANG interjected: 'He is 129

131 autocratic!') Yes, he is autocratic. He does thing without letting not only the Cultural Revolution Group but also the Central to know. He is a new representative of the bourgeois reactionary line in the Center and China's biggest royalist. " At that evening, the streets of Beijing appeared a large number of leaflets, big character posters and large banners that read: "Down with China's largest royalist TAO Zhu!" Thousands of Red Guards took to the streets, shouting "Down with China's biggest royalist TAO Zhu! " At 9 PM, they came to outside of the west gate of Zhongnanhai District and shouted slogan "Down with TAO Zhu!" and used loudspeakers to broadcast CHEN Bo-da s speech again and again. Meanwhile, Beijing rebels sent urgent telegrams on it to other parts of the country. Over the night, the rebels in all major cities brushed big slogans everywhere: "Urgent telegram from Beijing - Down with China's biggest royalist TAO Zhu!" After learning the event, ZHOU En-lai called TAO to his residence and told him: "About JIANG s and others words, I also did not know previously." TAO asked: "Does the Chairman know?" ZHOU replied: I do not know if he knows.... But I was with him yesterday and he talked about JIANG s words on TAO s suppression of the masses. He asked me what was about? I responded to the Chairman by saying that it was not a suppression of the masses, but only TAO s attitude was not that good. The Chairman said: Ah, it was about bad attitude. At the end of conversation, ZHOU said to TAO: "Take a rest at the moment and do not work." TAO was surprised, looked bleak and then left away. On January 7, CHEN Bo-da spoke in Xinhua News Agency: "After taking over the Central Propaganda Department, TAO Zhu took over the Xinhua News Agency. After this, the Agency did a lot of very bad things. They published some photos that are against the spirit of the Party s Eleventh Plenary Session. In the photos, they insisted to put some figure (Note: Refers to LIU Shao-ji) that was the representative of the bourgeois reactionary line and criticized by the Central, together with our great leader Chairman MAO. They did it several times.... A comrade just handed me a note that made me laugh: There is a photo of DENG Xiao-ping in which only the head is DENG s but the body is Comrade CHEN Yi s. (Laughter) So scrappy! They just manipulate in a variety of ways, in photos and movies Published by Xinhua News Agency, so to beautify LIU and DENG. What are these things? What is the nature of it? (Masses answered: Anti-Party! ) Should we let them to judge? (Masses shouting slogans Down with TAO Zhu! Dawn with the biggest royalist TAO Zhu! Long live Chairman MAO! Long long live! ) " 130

132 On January 8, MAO Ze-dong said in a central meeting: " TAO Zhu s problem is very serious. Deng Xiao-ping introduced him coming to the Central. This man is not honest. When I asked about TAO, DENG answered that TAO is okay. Before the eleventh plenary meeting of the Party s Central, TAO resolutely implemented LIU and DENG s route. The newspapers and televisions showed LIU s and DENG s photos in the situation that the Red Guards were received in Tiananmeng Square, and this were arranged by TAO. " Since then, TAO Zhu was suspended the right to read central documents, the use of red phone special for a Politburo member in his residence, and new guards were added and his freedom was limited. On February 6, MAO presided over an enlarged meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, with YE Jian-ying and JIANG Qing attended without voting right. In the meeting, MAO Ze-dong said to CHEN Bo-da,: "We should be open-minded to our cadres. Overthrowing cadres for a little mistake would hit you. Have you never made a mistake? But you disclosed TAO s issues without letting me know, nor Comrade LIN Biao and the Prime Minister." CHEN Bo-da s eyes glanced at JIANG. JIANG lowed her head and said nothing. A few days later, at an enlarged meeting of the Politburo, MAO said: "You CHEN Bo-da, as a Standing Committee member, downed with another Standing Committee member. In the past, you speculated between Comrade (LIU) Shao-qi and me. I and you were together for so many years, but you never talked to me unless the issue involves you personally. " After talking to CHEN Bo-da, MAO turned to JIANG Qing and said: "You JIANG Qing always take unrealistic expectations without acknowledging that your ability is limited. In your eyes, there is only one person that is you yourself. It is the two of you (Note: Refers to JIANG and CHEN) who knocked TAO Zhu down, and others were not involved.... As I see it, the situation now is still as in the past: Do not report to me and implement blockade, except the Prime Minister who reported all important issues to me. The Central Cultural Revolution Group has replaced the Secretary and now is an independent kingdom, denying the existence of the Politburo Standing Committee." Finally, MAO let the Central Cultural Revolution Group to have meetings to criticise CHEN and JIANG. On the February 14, the Central Cultural Revolution Group had a meeting as MAO requested, but JIANG took a sick leave so that CHEN became the only target of criticism. In the meeting, CHANG Chun-qiao said: "You CHEN Bo-da has been consistent in tying to be independent with the Chairman. Why did you, as the head of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, not report to the Chairman? You are autocratic." YAO Wen-yuan said: "The 131

133 nature of CHEN Bo-da s mistake is different from that of Comrade JIANG Qing. CHEN Bo-da s problem is a route problem while JIANG Qing s is a style problem of looking high but acting less." CHEN Bo-da tore. After the meeting, CHEN said to a friend of him: "I checked books and found that Marx's son in law, Lafargue, committed suicide but still commemorated by Lenin, which indicates that a communist is allowed to suicide." He added: "JIANG Qing forced me too much so that I cannot live any longer." After heard these words, JIANG called CHEN in and reprimanded him: "You go ahead to suicide! If you do so, you will be expelled from the Party and you will be designated as a traitor." The only way CHEN can go is to reply: "I will not commit suicide. Please do not expel me from the Party!" On September 8, the Central Radio Station broadcasted the full text of an article written by YAO Wen-yuan, entitled "Review of TAO Zhu's two books." The article says: TAO Zhu had written an article The sun is shining (published in the 1960s) that reads: The sun itself has black spots. Is this a naked cursing of our Party and our great leader? TAO Zhu also said that, when it comes to issues about artistic creation, one might look at the optimistic aspect, as well as the bad side.... We should allow to write drawback.... Do not give people an impression that, when singing the praises of the people's communes, all of a sudden the people's communes becomes very good. This is a theory of exposing the dark side." Soon after, the whole country launched a climax criticizing TAO Zhu, and the slogan of "Down with LIU and DENG" became the slogan of "Down with LIU, DENG and TAO". Storm at the Jingxi Hotel On February 19, 1967, the Central Military Commission, the Central Cultural Revolution Group and the Army s Cultural Revolution Group jointly held a small meeting at the Jingxi Hotel. Chaired by GUAN Feng, a member of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, the meeting focused on criticizing poor leadership of XIAO Hua in the Army s General Political Department. CHEN Bo-da spoke first, and he said: "XIAO Hua is a bourgeois politician and he directed the Army s political work along a bourgeoisie orbit. The Cultural Revolution in Army is desolated. The Army has embarked on the brink of revisionism. I was always angry when passing 'The three gates' (Note: This is the location of the Central Military Committee), where there's unpleasant atmosphere of bureaucracy and bad smell of politicians ethos, and 'The three 132

134 gates' is a palace of hell.... XIAO Hua, you are proud on yourself, and look down the Cultural Revolution Group. When the Cultural Revolution Group invited you to participate its meeting, you never came. But you attend every time the Politburo meeting presided by ZHOU En-lai. You did not notify the Central Culture Revolution Group when invited the four Marshals to attend the General Assembly of a hundred thousands of people in the capital to mobilize the military academies and students to leave the capital. This practice of you is rival against the Central Cultural Revolution Group, is resisting the Cultural Revolution and contrary to the decision of the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Party s Eighth Central Committee." XIAO Hua listened, his face changing colors, stood up and said: "Let me say a few words, okay?" CHEN Bo-da said: "We do not want to listen to you. If you want to talk, talk in an assembly for fighting at you." Hearing this, YE Jian-ying became furious and violently outraged, and hit his hand on the table very hard. (Note: His little finger was later found hairline fractured due to excessive force when the hand hit the table during the meeting.) He angrily denounced CHEN Bo-da: "CHEN Bo-da, your words are nonsense! Do you have any evidence when you charged XIAO Hua? What you did is slander of the People's Liberation Army. You people has messed up everywhere except the army, and now you want to do the same to the army. Who will be benefited when you do so? What do you really want to do? " The atmosphere in the meeting room was extremely tense. In this situation, XU Xiang-qian, as the head of the Army s Cultural Revolution Group, said: "You XIAO Hua had wrong doings. You have managed the military s political work to become in bad situation as it is now, which affected our whole army." The two Marshals openly conflicted on the issue of XIAO Hua s problem, which makes the participants not know what to do and the whole room was silent. The meeting ended soon after. YE Jian-ying spoke in a meeting. 133

135 At that night, rebels of the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Beijing Military Region raided XIAO Hua s residence, and robbed the documents and archives in his residence. The rebels had planned to pull XIAO away, but did not caught him successfully because he escaped too quickly: He went to the backyard, jumped over the fence wall, and went to YE Jian-ying s residence and hided there. YE were very angry and immediately made a call to MAO Ze-dong. MAO said: "Raiding Xiao Hua home and catching files are wrong." MAO also immediately called JIANG Qing, requiring her personally going to XIAO Hua s home to deal with this problem. JIANG went to XIAO s house and said to the army rebels there: "Who let you raid? Who let you pull XIAO Hua away? You must withdraw from here immediately! You must cover all big-character posters before dawn!" Her reprimand made the rebels leave very quickly. At 7:30 in the next morning, YANG Cheng-wu continued to preside the meeting in the Beijing West Hotel. He said that Chairman MAO has said that it is wrong to pull XIAO Hua away, raid his home and rob archives. He told everyone that JIANG Qing has asked him to announced that YANG Yong (Note: an Admiral) leaked the meeting information: After the meeting was over in the later night, YANG convey the speech of CHEN Bo-da to the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Beijing Military Region, and therefore YANG Yong is responsible for this matter. After the meeting, YE Jian-ying immediately went to LIN Biao s residence at Maojiawan and told LIN all the words of JIANG Qing and CHEN Bo-da in the recent period of time that attacked the Army. After listening to YE's report, LIN let his secretary call JIANG Qing to come to his residence. At 3 p.m., JIANG arrived. When LIN saw her, he was very very angry and, not awaiting for JIANG say any words, started to ask her, like a string of firecrackers: "You said the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has come to the edge of the revisionism and has been led by us to the bourgeois track. What is your evidence? PLA is personally founded and led by Chairman MAO and commanded by Chairman MAO. How do you explain your word of the army is at the edge of revisionism? You are so hostile to the Armed Forces, hostile to the leadership of the Central Military Commission, and therefore I cannot do the job and I quit my job now! I quit and it should be no problem. I want to report to Chairman MAO about this. Without consulting with me, you cursed XIAO Hua, encouraged the raid of his home and grab of the files there. Why 134

136 you do so? You avoided the Military Commission and intervened directly the military s affairs, and want to get rid of the Army s General Political Department. Are these consistent with Chairman MAO's instructions? I'm going to talk with Chairman MAO and ask Chairman MAO to remove all my duties." JIANG Qing had been trying to interrupt him, but got no chance. Finally, when LIN had a pause, JIANG Qing quickly jumped in: "Vice Chairman LIN, would you please calm down and allow me to say a few words? The words of the Army is at the edge of the revisionism were not mine and I didn't attend the meeting. CHEN Bo-da is the group leader, and I was only a deputy head. It is not in my power to stop his speech. " LIN said: "Everybody knows that you dominate the Central Cultural Revolution Group! In fact you have all power! You do not know that CHEN Bo-da will attend the Military Commission meeting? You do not know what he will talk about? Does he dare to say it without your consent?" LIN Biao repeatedly called the guard adjutant to prepare the car ready and said to JIANG: "The two of us immediately go to see Chairman MAO and make things clear. If it is my problem, I quit. I don't want to do the job." At this time, LIN's wife YE Qun entered the office. LIN shouted to her: "YE Qun, it is good that you come. I and JIANG Qing had a falling out, I will immediately go to see Chairman MAO and offer my resignation. I quit the job." YE Qun quickly stood in the middle of them, begging them not to quarrel while crying. YE Qun knelt down in front of LIN and hugged his legs in order to stop him going. She advised: "You and Comrade JIANG Qing are old friends, both burden with heavy duty. In such a difficult time, please do not fight and please say words in a nice way. You should understand each other, and avoid such a large impact because, if it leaked out, it will be very bad for both of you. How bad your fight is!" YE also advised JIANG: "Please, Comrade JIANG Qing, do not take it amiss. LIN s temper is bad, and now he is in his top. Discuss the issues after he calm down and make issues clear. Do not be eager to solve the problems now, nor go to see Chairman MAO because it will impact his rest and scatter his energy." Then JIANG said to LIN: "You are vice chairman of the Central Committee and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, and you can criticize me when I have an error. I may accept if you criticize me or even scold me. Why must we go and see the Chairman? I really did not say the words. Scolding XIAO Hua, grasping him and raiding his home are all wrong, but were absolutely not supported by me, though I could self-check. I have reported the matter to Chairman MAO. If it was my fault, I shall selfreview." YE advised LIN further: "Comrade JIANG Qing has already accepted your criticism. Please stop." LIN Biao finally fell silent and sat down 135

137 on the sofa. YE took JIANG's hands and sat down with her. YE said to JIANG a lot of good words, and then accompanied JIANG back to her residence. LIN Biao was angry. On February 21, LIN Biao asked XU Xiang-qian and YE Jian-ying to host a meeting of the Central Military Commission for conveying Chairman MAO s views on the XIAO Hua issue. He said that the meeting should be attended by CHEN Bo-da, JIANG Qing and KANG Sheng of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, as well as XIAO Hua. But, the Central Cultural Revolution Group sent only one person, GUAN Feng, to attend the meeting. GUAN explained in the meeting on behalf of the Central Cultural Revolution Group: "CHEN Bo-da spoke some wrong words last night after drinking a bit of wine, and therefore blathered, which resulted in adverse consequences. Comrade JIANG Qing has corrected it in a timely manner after getting advice from Chairman MAO. In a Central Cultural Revolution Group meeting, Comrade JIANG Qing criticized CHEN Bo-da, and CHEN Bo-da has made a selfreview and admitted that he did not consult with JIANG Qing beforehand." XU Xiang-qian went on to ask participants if you have any opinion. XIAO Hua stood up and said: "You said I opposed the Cultural Revolution. Is stabilizing the Army an action opposing the Cultural Revolution? How can the Army defend our motherland and safeguard the Cultural Revolution if it is in a mess?" After his speech, many participants were hurry to speak. The commander of the Guangzhou Military Region, HUANG Yong-sheng, spoke, severely reprimanding CHEN Bo-da, JIANG Qing, KANG Sheng et al for not performing according to Chairman MAO's instructions, indiscriminately criticize PLA, scuffled the PLA cadres and tried to seize the power of PLA. He asked the Central Cultural Revolution Group to make further self-review. 136

138 GUAN Feng interrupted his words and said: "As you say so, are you accuse Comrade JIANG Qing? Are you against Comrade JIANG Qing?" XU Xiangqian was a little bit nervous and said: "HUANG Yong-sheng spoke carelessly. You can make your comments, but should not blame Comrade JIANG Qing! Comrade JIANG Qing is a champion of Chairman MAO." Then YE Qun also said: "Comrade IANG Qing is a member of the proletariat headquarter. You should not speak carelessly." As a result, the atmosphere of the meeting eased. Participants continued to speak, requiring the Central Cultural Revolution Group to pay attention to the stability of of the PLA and don't mess PLA up. After the meeting, GUAN Feng reported to CHEN Bo-da, KANG Sheng and JIANG Qing. JIANG said: "That meeting is one against Chairman MAO, against the Central Cultural Revolution Group and against me. XU Xiang-qian, as the leader of the Army s Cultural Revolution Group, held such a meeting to fight all of us." After acknowledging this, XU Xiang-qian said: "Since it was HUANG Yong-sheng fired the gun, he should make a self-review." He urged HUANG Yong-sheng, for several times, to write a self-review that he will pass over to the Central Cultural Revolution Group. HUANG asked LIN Biao about what he should do. LIN said: "Absolutely, you should not write this self-review and resolutely resist it. I will go directly to Chairman MAO to talk about it." So, HUANG Yong-sheng did not write a self-review. Since then, JIANG Qing suggested, for several times, to LIN Biao replacing XU Xiang-qian as the leader of the Army s Cultural Revolution Group. LIN Biao replied to her: "If even Marshal XU is not suitable, then I could not find a suitable candidate and you could suggest one. Afterwards, LIN Biao said to WU Fa-xian: "Whoever is the leader of the Army s Cultural Revolution Group, he will be overthrown soon or later. If Marshal XU has to be replaced, then let the Army s Cultural Revolution Group exist in name only." This was what exactly happen later: After XU Xiang-qian stepped down, YANG Cheng-wu became the acting leader, and YANG later accompanied with MAO Ze-dong in a tour for several months, which reslted in the situation that the Army s Cultural Revolution Group exists in name only. After the shock, XIAO Hua lived in the Western Hills, where there are a lot of independent houses, all belong to the military, and used by some senior Marshals, including NIE Rong-zhen. One day, XIAO Hua went to NIE's house for a visit, but NIE was not at home. In a room, he met a young and beautiful waitress. XIAO could not control himself and immediately raped her 137

139 with high joy. Afterwards, the waitress accused XIAO Hua for raping her to higher authorities, and it finally went up to MAO Ze-dong. On August 14, 1967, MAO saw the waitress s letter written in blood accusing XIAO Hua and said: "XIAO Hua, XIAO Hua, XIAO Hua! You are the emperor A Dou whom nobody can help to become very powerful, and you are the mud which could not be attached to the fence!" On August 23, LI Na, daughter of MAO and JIANG Qing (then known as XIAO Li, and the head of the leading group of Liberation Army Daily that was equivalent to the editor in chief) posted a big character poster in the newspaper s headquarter that directly criticized XIAO Hua. As so, XIAO stepped down. He, however, did not bear any legal sanction for his rape crime. Storm in Huairen Hall After LIU Shao-ji sidelined, Politburo s meetings had seen chaired by ZHOU En-lai and attended also by the members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. Such meetings usually held in the Huairen Hall in the Zhongnanhai District. ZHOU sat in the center position, on one side of the table sat the old cadres including LI Fu-chun, TAN Zhen-lin, YE Jian-ying, XU Xiang-qian, NIE Rong-zhen, LI Xian-nian, YU Qiu-li, GU Mo, etc.; And on the other side sat members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group including CHEN Boda, KANG Sheng, JIANG Qing, ZHANG Chun-qiao, YAO Wen-yuan and WANG Li. The old cadres and the Culture Revolution Group members often disputed. Such a meeting was held in February 11, TAN Zhen-lin walked in and sat down, and saw ZHANG Chun-qiao carrying a bag came to the room. TAN stood and asked ZHANG: "Comrade CHEN Pei-xian grew up during the revolution and was a red child. What's his problem? What problem do the Big Region s secretaries and provincial secretaries of the Party have? Why you don't let them come to Beijing?" ZHANG was stunned for a moment and then said: "Because the masses do not agree! We will consult with the masses on if he should come to Beijing." TAN said sternly: "What 'the masses'! There is the party's leadership! Without the party's leadership, you always say, from morning till night, letting the masses liberate and educate them, and letting the cadres engage in their own revolution. What is this? This is metaphysics!" TAN became more and more excited, and continued: "What kind of person is KUAI Da-fu? (Note: KUAI was the head of Red Guards at Qinghua University.) He is just a counter-revolutionist! He engaged in a drawn of the 138

140 'Pictures of one hundred ugly persons' to make our party ugly. These guys want to bring the old cadres down!... The struggle at this time is the most brutal struggle in the history of our party, more brutal than any other time in the history!" XU Xiang-qian was also furious. He beated the table and said: "What kind of thing is Kuai Da-fu? A counter-revolutionist!" At this time, CHEN Bo-da, KANG Sheng, YAO Weny-uan, XIE Fu-zhi et al had already arrived. (JIANG Qing did not attend the meeting due to illness.) They just look at this scene and did not speak. TAN continued to question ZHANG: "As you told us, all cadres above the section chief level in Shanghai were knocked down. I don't know what crime they have committed! Are these cadres traitors and spies?" At this time, CHEN Bo-da said: "It is in line with the principle of Marxism." TAN stood up again and said: "I have indeed understand that your purpose is to get rid of all the old cadres and change the dynasty. You support KUAI Da-fu and other such people, and knocked down the old cadres one by one. A lot of old comrades have been doing the revolution for decades and, at the end, got family broken, wife divorced and children left!" TAN switched to another issue: "In December of the last year, I asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to issue a notice: During the fishing season, fishing reels can concentrate on fishing at the sea and do not need to come back to the port for participating the Culture Revolution. Just for this, JIANG Qing and CHEN Bo-da were going to label me as a counterrevolutionist. They forced me to self-criticize for four times, saying that I suppressed the mass movement, destructed the Cultural Revolution and against Chairman MAO s strategic plan. You JIANG Qing can look at my carrier from the Jinggangshan period until the present day, and find out when and where did I oppose Chairman MAO!" XIE Fu-zhi interfaced and said: Comrade JIANG Qing and the Central Cultural Revolution Group have protected you." TAN replied: "I do not need her protection, and I work for the Party, not for her." KANG Sheng coldly said: "The fishing problem was agreed by Chairman MAO. Hope Comrade TAN Zhen-lin dealing the issue in a correct way." TAN said: "I have been following the Chairman for more than forty years and never against him. If the things go as it is now, I quit and will not follow anymore, and let you do it!" He became more and more angry with voice louder and louder: "Cut my head off or expel me from the party! You do it since you have the reins!" He stood up and angrily said: "I rarely attend this kind of meeting, but I will speak a few words as I am here. I hate why I have lived for 65 years to see the messy situation now and the Communist Party being like this. I regret that I followed Chairman MAO in doing revolution. I 139

141 quit! I will go up the mountain as a guerrilla and fight again. I have and will keep my words." Wearing his coat and collecting his documents, TAN was going to leave the venue, while still continuing to talk: "Let you guys do and I quit! I will fight to the end even if cutting my head, sending me to prison or expelling me from the Party!" Seeing TAN going to leave, CHEN Yi said: "TAN Boss (Note: This is TAN's nickname)! Do not leave and fight with them! " And said angrily: "Although nobody selecting me as a representative of the old cadres, I have to say some words for them. These guys (Note: Refers to those suppressing old cadres) have been in the stage and engage in revisionism. During the period of the Yanan Rectification, some people suppressed the old cadres very fiercely and the ones punished were us. Was not our Prime Minister (Note: Refers to ZHOU En-lai) punished? Now, there are people suppressing old cadres so badly and I am suspicious that they will engage capitalism in the future! History has proved who oppose Chairman MAO! Later on, we will watch and it will prove once again. Is it true that Stalin chose Khrushchev as his successor and Khrushchev engaged in revisionism?" At this time, ZHOU Enlai said to TAN Zhen-lin: "Come back! Don't go. He then said to all participants: "The words all of you said at this meeting should be kept within us. It is not allowed to spread the words beyond." Gu Mu, the recording person appointed by ZHOU En-lai, followed ZHOU s instruction and did not record the arguments officially. In the next day, TAN wrote a letter to LIN Biao: "Comrade LIN Biao: The meeting yesterday is my third counter-attack. The first counter-attack was over the phone on the day before yesterday, and the second was a letter written in yesterday morning. I did so because enough is enough. They did not listen to the instructions of the Chairman, and they said that 'I will rebel you.' (Note: JIANG Qing once said that to MAO.) What position did they put the Chairman in? She is fiercer than WU Ze-tian (Note: A woman emperor in Chinese history). They don't make any class analysis and the means they have used is so sinister and never seen in the Party s history. Just one word from them can destroy a man's political life, and then they say they said that 'unthinkingly'. Did you criticize the mistakes made by a series of people (and let them have a chance to correct), such as TAO Zhu, LIU Zhi-jian and TANG Ping-zhu? Only criticized Shao-qi, not other people. And the time duration of criticism was very short, did not give them a chance to correct. Old cadres at the provincial level or above, except those in military or living 140

142 in Zhongnanhai District, almost all were bucketed, wore a tall hat, set in the jet-planes shape (Note: namely arms back and lifted, and making head forward so that the shape of the body is like an airplane), which collapsed their health, made their wives divorced and children left from home and ruined them. TAN Qi-long and JIANG Hua are the examples. Our Party has been demonized so badly. The ugly figure appeared in Beijing, and then followed in Shanghai and Xi'an. The real counter-revolutionaries and revisionists were protected, however. Nobody was care about these. They have been interested in suppressing the old cadres: As long as you have a fault, they seize it and kill you. I am the one the Chairman repeatedly said to protect, so they engage me once, twice, three times and four times. They knew that putting a counter-revolutionary hat would be too explicit, therefore charging me for political and economic losses. They will not stop until making me down.... Can they be in power? Can they be successors? I doubt. I thought about these for a long time, and finally made up my mind to sacrifice. But I will never suicide or treason, and will not allow them to be so foolhardy. The Prime Minister, though broad minded, has been persecuted by them and he beared. Bear and bear, bear until what time? until all the old cadres fall down? No, no, no for ten thousands times. I made the decision to rebel. I made up my mind and I am ready to die. I will continue to fight and compact. Please be assured that I will not commit suicide." He personally wrote on the envelope and handed the letter to his confidential secretary who will immediately send it to LIN Biao s office. After receiving the letter, LIN Biao re-sent it to MAO Ze-dong with a note: "Chairman: TAN Zhen-lin fell to ideological confusion to the extent of such a point recently, which is completely unexpected. Now I send his letter to you, please read. Sincere salute. LIN Biao. The 19 th day (of the month)." After reading the letter, MAO only wrote words of "Have read it" and sent the letter back to LIN. LIN tore TAN's letter and his own note to pieces, and through them into a trash can, which were found by his secretary who collected them and put into archive. After TAN Zhen-lin et al stormed Huairen Hall, ZHANG Chun-qiao, YAO Wen-yuan and WANG Li returned to Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. They had no time to eat, but hurried to record down what happened at the Huairen Hall. They sent the record to JIANG Qing who claimed being ill and therefore stayed at her home. They thought JIANG Qing would report this important issue to MAO Ze-dong. But JIANG wanted them reporting directly to MAO. So, she called the office of MAO Ze-dong, and sent a note: "Chairman: ZHANG and YAO have an important situation to report to you. Please receive 141

143 them as soon as possible." At 10 P.M., ZHANG Chun-qiao, YAO Wen-yuan and WANG Li arrived at MAO s residence. ZHANG briefly reported the main points. At the beginning, MAO did not seem surprised, but his face suddenly became very serious when heard the words of CHEN Yi on the Yanan Rectification punishing the old cadres and Stalin s handing over the power to Khrushchev. But he didn't say anything that night. Two days later, at 10 P.M., MAO called ZHOU En-lai, YE Qun (on behalf of LIN Biao), KANG Sheng, LI Fu-chun, YE Jian-ying, LI Xian-nian, XIE Fuzhi, et al to have a meeting in the People s Hall. After Ye Qun arrived, MAO talked with her alone. MAO said angrily: "YE Qun, I'm going to take you and LIN Biao going to the South." YE Qun stunned. MAO went on by saying: "CHEN Yi and TAN Zhen-lin, LI Fu-chun, XU Xiang-qian, NIE Rong-zhen, YE Jian-ying and LI Xian-nian opposed the Cultural Revolution. They do not listen to me and no longer follow me. They hate the movement of the masses, and they are not only not understanding the Cultural Revolution, but fundamentally opposing it. My determination will not change and I will surely continue the Cultural Revolution until the end. They will not go with me, but I still have LIN Biao and you, and I will take you two to the South. If the People's Liberation Army would not go with me, I and you both could go to the South to organize another PLA, and go to Jinggangshan and re-start all over again." YE Qun immediately said that LIN Biao will follow Chairman MAO until his death, and will be always loyal to the Chairman. When the talk continued, she started to cry. As a result, MAO in turn comforted her by saying that: "Don't be sad. You go back later and tell LIN Biao that CHEN Yi and TAN Zhen-lin are against the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and they said the Cultural Revolution is to overthrow the old cadres, and that now the eighty percent of veteran cadres have been dawn and so many people were down. They also said: Would the Cultural Revolution put all the old cadres down if it continues until the end? They spread a series of reactionary fallacy. They believe that the Cultural Revolution has no benefit, but putting the whole country in a mess and now it is unmanageable already. " YE said again that LIN Biao is and will be always loyal to Chairman MAO and that she will completely convey Chairman s words to LIN Biao; and that the Chairman please take care of yourself. MAO asked YE: "How is LIN Biao's health?" YE answered: "LIN Biao s health is not good, so he cannot come to attend meetings often." MAO then said: "Comrade LIN Biao's health is not good, he cannot often attend meetings, and 142

144 does not know some of the situations, which is not good. So, you come to attend the Politburo Standing Committee meetings and meetings of the Cultural Revolution Group, and you then report the situation to LIN Biao after you go home." Hearing these words, YE were very happy and immediately replied: "I will surely follow Chairman s instruction." Since then, YE, as well as JIANG Qing, started to attendmwwtings of the Politburo Standing Committee and meetings of the Cultural Revolution Group. From this time onward, these two women involved in the highest decision-makings of the party and the country. After MAO talked with YE Qun, the meeting began while all persons were already in the room. With a livid face, MAO said: "The Central Cultural Revolution Group performed according to the spirit of the Eleventh Plenary Session, the mistake it made is only one, two or three percent, and the other 97 percent are correct. Whoever oppose the Central Cultural Revolution Group, I will firmly oppose them! It is impossible to negate the Cultural Revolution, no way." He pointed to YE Qun who was recording, and said: Comrade YE Qun, you tell LIN Biao that his position is not stable and some people want to take his power. Ask him to aware of it." MAO continued: "Havocking in Huairen Hall is to restore capitalism, and let LIU and DENG be back to power. (If it is so,) I will go to the South, with Comrade LIN Biao and Comrade YE Qun, as a guerrilla in Jinggangshan again.... (You may) Shot down CHEN Bo-da and JIANG Qing, put KANG Sheng in exile, restructure the Central Cultural Revolution Group and let CHEN Yi become the head, TAN Zhen-lin deputy head and YU Qiu-li a member. If it is not enough, you may invite WANG Ming and ZHANG Guo-tao coming back. If the power is still not enough, you may invite the United States and the Soviet Union come together!... You CHEN Yi wants to turn over the Yanan Rectification case, the whole party will not agree! You TAN Zhen-lin should be counted as an old party member, why did you speak when standing in the bourgeoisie position?" MAO finally said: "The Politburo should discuss this issue. If one meeting is not enough then meet again. If the problem cannot be solved in a month, do it for two months. If the Politburo meeting cannot solve the problem, we may invite all party members to solve it!" MAO had finished and left immediately. After MAO left, the meeting continued but was chaired by ZHOU En-lai. At the end, the meeting decided: ZHOU En-lai should talk to CHEN Yi, LI Xiannian and XIE Fu-zhi should talk to TAN Zhen-lin, and YE Jian-ying, LI Xian- 143

145 nian and XIE Fu-zhi should have conversation with XU Xiang-qian, conveying the spirit of this meeting. It had also decided that the Politburo will hold meetings for criticism and self-criticism to criticize TAN Zhen-lin, CHEN Yi and XU Xiang-qian. Since then, the Politburo had held seven meetings, where TAN Zhen-lin, CHEN Yi criticized themselves again and again. Later on, the storm in the Huairen Hall had been known as the "February Adverse Current", and it is said that the trouble makers were "three old cadres (i.e. TAN Zhen-lin, LI Fu-chun and LI Xian-nian), four Marshals (i.e. CHEN Yi, XU Xiang-qian, YE Jian-ying and NIE Rong-zhen) and two accomplices (i.e. YU Qiu-li and GU Mu)". The cadres stormed the Huairen Hall: Three old cadres (top row, from left: TAN Zhen-lin, LI Fu-chun and LI Xian-nian), four Marshals (Middle row, from left: CHEN Yi, XU Xiang-qian, YE Jian-ying and NIE Rong-zhen) and two accomplices (bottom row, from left: YU Qiu-li and GU Mu). 144

146 After criticizing the Marshals and the Deputy Prime Ministers, MAO Ze-dong was still not assured that everything would be okay. As it happened, the rebels released the deputy commander of the Air Force, WANG Bing-zhang, whom they seized previously. (Note: Some time ago, WANG was paraded in a car along Beijing s streets and then collapsed. After knowing this, LIN Biao let YE Quan report to MAO Ze-dong that the Seventh Machine Department (with WANG was the minister at the time) is an important department and, if WANG is not in duty, the Department could not run. MAO then agreed to release WANG.) Before WANG was released, MAO called SU Yuan-liu in. (Note: SU was an actress of the Art Team of the Political Department of the Air Force. She had been repeatedly sent to the dancing party of the central leaders in the early 1950s. In the Cultural Revolution, she became the head of a mass organization and got support from MAO.) MAO let her telling YE Qun: Let YE send WANG to the Western Hills and live near the old Marshals, so to find out what the Marshals are doing and what they say, and let him report the results directly to MAO. Later, WANG reported to MAO, through WU Faxian (Commander of the Air Force) twice. In the reports, WANG clearly stated when, where and what Marshals XU Xiang-qian, NIE Rong-zhen and YE Jian-ying walk together and talk to each other. Both reports have said that the old Marshals, after being criticized, have learned a lesson, their attitude to the Cultural Revolution has changed and all agreed that the movement is done well and plays a significant role to oppose and prevent revisionism and to prevent restoration of capitalism". After reading the reports, MAO circulated them among LIN Biao, ZHOU En-lai and the members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. In the evening of April 30, 1967, MAO invited ZHOU En-lai, LI Fu-chun, XU Xiang-qian, NIE Rong-zhen, LI Xian-nian and others to his residence to have a meeting for solidarity, but TAN Zhen-lin, CHEN Yi and YE Jian-ying were not invited. After the meeting, ZHOU En-lai immediately prepared a list of leaders who will attend the general assembly for the May first labor day celebration in the capital. The participants of the meeting for solidarity were all included in the list. And MAO approved the list. On May 1, LI Fu-chun and others appeared on the Tiananmen gate. At that time, if someone participated in a major event or someone s face were exposed in newspapers, it means they have been "stood out" and "liberated". That night, YE Jianying s residence in West Hills were siege by thousands of rebels and students who came Beijing from other provinces and the rebels from the Academy of 145

147 Military Science. They came to West Hills by more than seventy trucks, set camps in there, put up dozens of red flags, shouted slogans, and called YE Jian-ying to answer their questions. LIN Biao reported the situation to MAO. In May 3, MAO commissioned HUANG Yong-sheng to go to West Hill as a representative of MAO himself. HUANG went and talked to the students and rebels for more than two hours, and finally persuaded the Red Guards and the rebels to gradually withdraw from West Hills. In August, MAO Ze-dong proposed that LI Xian-nian attends meetings of the Central Culture Revolution Group. Later, CHEN Yi, XU Xiang-qian, YE Jianying and NIE Rong-zhen were absorbed to attend the Politburo Standing Committee meetings. However, these Marshals and deputy prime ministers rarely spoke now in the meetings. In addition, in a meeting for MAO to receive Army cadres, these old cadres were also participated, and were placed in a quite front position. Then, LIN Biao suggested to MAO to stop the criticism by the party branches at the Marshal s homes. LIN said that this way of doing criticism should not conduct too much because it will ruin the Marshals health. MAO agreed and said that it has been carried out for a period of time already and it is time to stop. So, LIN asked HUANG Yongsheng and WU Fa-xian going, on behalf of MAO and himself, to the Marshals and the deputy prime ministers residences, and talked to the party branches there to "liberate" the Marshals and the deputy prime ministers. HUANG and WU went to YE Jian-ying s residence first, and then went to the residences of NIE Rong-zhen, XU Xiang-qian and LI Fu-chun, and talked with the staff there and announced MAO s and LIN s instructions. The last one they went was the residence of CHEN Yi. CHEN was listening radio when they arrived. After learned why they came, CHEN said happily: "Good, good. The comrades in the party branch said that I have a good self-review, and not criticized me for quite a period of time already. Now I have the 'sword', and should not afraid any more." MAO did not let HUANG and WU going to TAN Zhen-lin's residence, however. [Note: More than a year later, the Chinese Communist Party started to prepare its Ninth Congress, and therefore held the twelve plenary session of the Eight Central Committee first. During the period of the plenary session, at a meeting of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, CHEN Bo-da, JIANG Qing, KANG Sheng, ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wen-yuan suddenly proposed to ZHOU En-lai to criticize the February Adverse Current and, in addition, to criticize ZHU De. Their reasoning was that doing so could let them pass and be 146

148 qualified to attend the Ninth Congress of the Party. ZHOU En-lai asked JIANG Qing to talk to MAO for his instruction. Soon, JIANG came back and said: "Chairman MAO has been approved that we can criticize them for three days and, if three days are not enough, we can do it for a few days more. In short, the persons who participated in the February Adverse Current should make serious self-review." As so, ZHOU En-lai distributed these Marshals and deputy prime ministers among the discussion groups of the plenary session. But MAO did not allowed TAN Zhen-lin to attend any of such group discussion meetings. The Central Cultural Revolution Group provided to the various groups a number of "shells" (i.e. materials to be used in the planned criticism). These "shells" listed not only the "mistakes" made by the old cadres in the February Adverse Current, but also the older records of mistakes for decades in history, including the periods of the Jinggangsan, the Ruijin Central Base, the Long March, the Yan'an period and the period after the founding of the People's Republic of China. WU Fa-xian said in the North Region Group: "Marshal ZHU, you are the commander in chief for a lifetime but, in fact, it is the Chairman who commanded the war. The real commander in chief is Chairman MAO. Chairman MAO is the red commander. I heard that you wanted to ouster Chairman MAO in the Seventh Party Congress of Red Army during the Jinggangshan period. You should say something about it, which may teach us a thing! " ZHU did not get angry but said: "I have no objection to Chairman MAO." WU Fa-xian continued to criticized LI Xian-nian: "You think the Cultural Revolution did not protect the old cadres, as if only you want to protect the old cadres but Chairman MAO does not." On the eve of the opening of the Nineth Congress of the Party, KANG Sheng wrote a letter to MAO Ze-dong, suggesting to sort out the records of criticizing the February Adverse Current" in the twelve plenary session, so to prepare a document to be distributed to every representative of the Ninth Party Congress. JIANG Qing, ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wenyuan supported this proposal, while LIN Biao, ZHOU En-lai, HUANG Yongsheng, WANG Dong-xing, etc. opposed. MAO finally said: "Don't criticize any more." As so, the issue had come to an end. The criticism of the "February Adverse Current" was started from February 1967 and ended in April 1969, lasting for more than two years.] 147

149 Chapter 7.6 The hit on some extreme leftists More than a year after the start of the Cultural Revolution, LIU Shao-qi, DENG Xiao-ping and the "faction of cadres going along the capitalist road" at the central level had been overthrown, and power seize at all provinces and cities nationwide had been also completed. Then, MAO Ze-dong hit some of the most extreme leftists, including "5-16 Corps", which want to overthrow ZHOU En-lai, and three members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, WANG Li, GUAN Feng and QI Ben-yu. In addition, the Red Guards were sent to the countryside, factories or farms participating in production, and thus withdrawn from the stage of history since then. Clean-up of the 5-16 Corps After the old cadres stormed the Huairen Hall, a secret organization called "Capital 5-16 Red Guard Corps", abbreviated as 5-16 Corps, appeared in Beijing in March Its purpose was to "down with ZHOU En-lai and smash the old government (i.e. the State Council)", and its predecessor was the mass organization "Revolution and Rebellion Commune" at the Beijing Iron and Steel Institute. On March 22 and 23, 1967, the organization had a "symposium on the situation". In the symposium, a student of the Institute, ZHANG Jian-qi, made a long speech. He asserted that ZHOU En-lai is "the general root of the February Adverse Current ", "took the fire extinguisher role in the Cultural Revolution, a fire Extinguisher to the Central Cultural Revolution Group, performed a rightist opportunist line", was just "a fellow traveler of Chairman MAO" and a person "in the third command" Corps posted banners and posters against ZHOU En-lai in traffic spots and downtown of Beijing. In May 1967, the Red Guards at Nankai University in Tianjin City carried out an action of "pulling traitor". In accessing to Shanghai s old newspapers in 1932, they found the newspapers "News", "Shengbao", Newspaper for Current Affairs from February 18 to 21, all had published "The Notice of WU Hao etc quitting from the Communist party". (Note: WU Hao is the pseudonym that ZHOU En-lai had used.) The notice stated: "I believe that the Communist Party of China s present means of developing the Red Army is to contain the current government and therefore tantamount to the disinfections of Chinese anti-japanese forces, and resulting as the Japanese puppet and putting the Chinese nation in a destroyed position, which is contrary to my 148

150 original intention of the revolution. And the international line of the party is a self-serving policy of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union says they oppose imperialism but actually compromise with imperialism. Viewing the current situation of the Japanese invasion of China, the Soviet Union is not only not strictly neutral, but also let the Japanese troop to use the Zhongdong Rail Road (in Nroth-East China) to transport their solders and even established a non-aggression pact with Japan, which contributes to its aggressive arrogance. They usually called to help the weak nationals, but it is only a slogan to deceive people of the country. As conscience discovered, I hereby withdraw from the Communist Party that is guided by the International." In fact, this Notice was forged by the Guomindang secret service organization. (Note: in June 1953, the Chinese government captured HUANG Kai, an investigator in Shanghai of the GMD s Central Investigation Department. HUANG testified: " The Notice of WU Hao etc on quitting from the Communist Party was actually authored by ZHANG Chong who was then the director general of the GMD Central Investigation Department s intelligence unit. And I sent it to the Shanghai newspapers for publication.") As a matter of fact, ZHOU En-lai had left Shanghai and went to Central Soviet Area in Jiangxi Province in early December 1931, and therefore it is impossible, in the time frame, to publish this Notice in In addition, the Soviet Interim Central Government in the central revolutionary base in Jiangxi Province had issued a notice as a response to the rumor: "The false notice of 'WU Hao and two hundred and forty-three people' was published in the Shanghai New Times for Current Affairs, Shanghai Times and Shengbao, declaring that they withdraw from the Communist Part. Actually, Comrade WU Hao has been in a position at the Military Commission of the Soviet Central Government, therefore not only there is no fact that he withdraw from the Communist Party, but also it is impossible for him to publish the Notice with the absurd reactionary remarks. This is obviously a disinformation campaign of the Guomindang Party who kill peasants and soldiers and betrayed Chinese people and serve imperialism." During the period of the Yanan Rectification in 1943, ZHOU En-lai made a detailed elaboration on the matter. After getting "WU Hao s Notice" from the Red Guards, JIANG Qing wrote a letter on May 17 to LIN Biao, ZHOU En-lai and KANG Sheng: They found an anti-communism notice, headed by WU Hao (ZHOU En-lai). And they want to have an interview with me. ZHOU wrote a comment on JIANG's letter: "The anti-communist notice of WU Hao, etc. is a false. They said there are two hundred and forty-three people, but all without name except WU Hao, 149

151 which indicates it is a false without any doubt. I was in the Central Soviet Area already at the time. KANG Sheng, CHEN Yun and other comrades who were in Shanghai at the time knew that the enemy did it and therefore took measures at the time already. Details will be reported later." But Kang Sheng was silent and said nothing. (Note: It was KANG Sheng who wrote comments on "WU Hao s notice" twice in October 31, 1962, and December 27, 1963: "This is completely calumny and slander.... In fact, at that time Comrade ZHOU En-lai already went to the Soviet Area, and there is no such thing. The comrades in Shanghai at that time all know this matter.") ZHOU En-lai collected the old newspapers of Shanghai in 1931 and 1932, and compiled on May 1967 a "memorabilia" about the event. He sent it to MAO Ze-dong with a letter attached. MAO wrote an instruction: Send it to Comrade LIN Biao. After read by him, send to the comrades in the Cultural Culture Revolution Group for reading. Archive it." At the end of the year, a student in Beijing wrote a letter to MAO about "WU Hao Notice and MAO clearly instructed: "This matter has already made clear: It is a disinformation campaign of the Guomindang." MAO Zedong's comment on WU Hao s Notice. On May 29th, MAO Ze-dong wrote an instruction on a letter about the wave of attacking ZHOU En-lai: The extreme leftists point of view is wrong. Please let the comrades in the Cultural Revolution Group persuade them." KANG Sheng saw the instruction and immediately sent a letter to CHEN Boda and JIANG Qing, recommending the Central Cultural Revolution Group to convene a meeting of the relevant rebels to criticize the "extreme leftists point of view". CHEN Bo-da, in the name of the head of the Central Cultural 150

152 Revolution Group, spoke openly that there appeared, at present society, a serious situation for the rightists and the extreme leftists to shake the proletariat command headquarter, and we should be vigilant to this. He also said that Premier ZHOU is one in the Chairman MAO s command headquarter, and is the director of staff under Chairman MAO and Vice Chairman LIN, and that against Premier ZHOU is a serious political mistake. On June 3, CHEN Bo-da and JIANG Qing, in the names of the head and the deputy head of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, once again issued a warning: "Those targeting a person in the Chairman MAO s command headquarter are extremely wrong and must rein themselves in, otherwise it is very dangerous." Since then, the "5-16 Corps" of the Steel Institute was somewhat convergent, but its members were still running in Beijing among colleges and universities, secondary schools and state organs, trying to expand its influence. From June 30 to July 2, they held " The first session of the Congress of Capital 5-16 Corps " at the Foreign Language College, and officially announced the establishment of the "Capital 5-16 Corps". The organization has a set of units, including headquarter and its various departments of politics, operations, organization, and information policy research; as well as eight armies. The organization had expanded to factories, offices, schools and even the Army in Shenyang City, Sichuan Province, Changsha City, Tianjin City and other places. In this period of time, the attack on "February Counter Current" was in a high tide, and TAN Zhen-lin, LI Xian-nian, YE Jian-ying, NIE Rong-zhen, XU Xiang-qian, etc. were all under attack severely. In early July, the 5-16 Corps distributed leaflets "Expose LI Xian-nia s big conspiracy" in the Great Hall of the People. They also posted leaflets and banners in Ministries of Fisheries, Agriculture and Forestry, Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Eighth Machinery Department, Bureau of Meteorology, etc. attacking ZHOU En-lai for protecting LI Xian-nian and saying it is a big conspiracy. On August 9, they went to the Beijing Zoo, Ganjiakou Shopping Malls and Xisidingzi Street, and distributed and posted a large number of leaflets and slogans against ZHOU with the titles of Ferret out the general supporter of the February Counter current, ZHOU En-lai is despicable traitor of Maoism" and so on. These leaflets and slogans had publicly signed as the "Capital 5-16 Corps". They also mail flyers to the universities and colleges in Beijing and provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong and Xinjiang, and plugged in leaflets from door to door in the city of Beijing. 151

153 In mid August, MAO Ze-dong wrote sentences on the article written by YAO Wen-yuan entitled "On two books by TAO Zhu": "Comrades, please note that there is now a handful of counter revolutionaries.... They use slogans that seem very 'leftist' but actually rightist in essence, blew the wind of 'doubting everything' and bombarded the proletarian headquarter. And they made mischief among people, fished in muddied and troubled waters, and wanted to dilute and shake the proletarian headquarter headed by Chairman MAO, and to realize their unspeakable evil purpose. The organizers and the operators of so-called 5-16 Corps are just such an anti-revolutionary group for conspiracy. They should be throughly exposed. This counter revolutionary organization aims at two: One is to damage and split the Party s Central Committee headed by our great leader Chairman MAO; and the other is to destruct and fragment the great Chinese People's Liberation Army, the main pillar of the proletariat dictatorship. We are not very clear about their members and leaders up to now." (Note: later on, on May 11, 1970, MAO Ze-dong met with the Vietnamese Party General Secretary DUAN and talked about the combat on "5-16 Corps": "Today down with ZHOU En-lai, tomorrow down with YE Jian-ying and the day after tomorrow down with LI Xian-nian. It is clear now that there is a small group called 5-16 Corps that wanted to take this opportunity to seize power.") The Central Cultural Revolution Group immediately called rebel organizations in the universities, colleges and middle schools in Beijing to have a meeting. In the meeting, CHEN Bo-da said: "There is a secret organization called I do not know if you know it or not. This is a conspiracy organization against the Prime Minister ZHOU and actually the Party Central. Against Premier ZHOU is against the Party Central. Do you know? Should we criticize? Down with it!" After this meeting, some of Beijing's Red Guard organizations jointly established "The Contact terminus specifically for pulling '5-16 Corps'". The organizations include "Yanan Commune" of the Beijing Iron and Steel Institute, "The East is Red" of the Beijing Institute of geology, "The East is Red" of the Beijing Agricultural University, Jinggangshan of the Beijing Normal University, etc. In mid and late August, Yanan Commune had captured 5-16 Corps leader LI Fang and ZHANG Jian-qi. The organization Qiweidong of the First Middle School of Changsha City detained nine members of 5-16 Corps, seized two pistols of 54 brand, 104 bullets and a large number of materials. The organization Jinggangshan of the Normal University uncovered the activist of 5-16 Corps, CHEN Li. The organization Red Flag Brigade of Beijing Foreign Language Institute destroyed the 5-16 Red Guards of the Institute. In the end of the month, the organization "Contact terminal 152

154 specifically for pulling 5-16 Corps, together with the organization Steel Division II in Wuhan City and other more than 1400 rebel organizations around the country held a mass assembly "Completely smash the antirevolutionary organization 5-16 Black Corps in the Beijing Institute of Iron and Steel, with more than twenty thousands participants. At the assembly, ZHANG Jian-qi and other four "5-16 Corps" leaders were uncovered. Since then, "5-16 Corps" collapsed totally and became an object for everyone, like a rat scampering in the street. On September 1, the Beijing Revolutionary Committee held an enlarged meeting, attended by ZHOU En-lai, CHEN Bo-da, KANG Sheng, JIANG Qing, ZHANG Chun-qiao, XIE Fu-zhi, etc. Two days later, the newspaper "People's Daily" published a telecommunications from the Xinhua News Agency, entitled The responsible leaders of the Party s Central Committee issued a call for fighting that stated: "Leading comrades of the Central Committee pointed out that... we must be determined to crush counterrevolutionary sabotage activities of the American and JIANG Jie-shi s spies, Soviet revisionist agents, and landlords, rich peasants, anti-revolutionaries, bad persons and rightists, and resolutely ban '5-16 Corps' that is an antirevolutionary organization manipulated by a handful of ringleaders." On September 5, JIANG Qing delivered a speech in a meeting for the representatives from Anhui province. She said: "In January and February of this year, there was a current (Note: Refers to the 'February Adverse Current') opposing the Proletarian Cultural Revolution from the rightist side. At the present, the wind (Note: Refers to '5-16 Corps') is against the Prime Minister and the Central from the extreme 'leftist' side. '5-16' is such a typical counter revolutionary organization, and you have to be vigilant." On September 23, this speech was issued, after the approval of MAO Ze-dong, by the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, the Central Military Commission and the Central Cultural Revolution Group jointly, with a note that stated: "At the present, a handful of counter revolutionaries are playing a conspiracy, from rightist or 'leftist' side, or at the same time from both sides, to destruct the proletarian headquarter headed by Chairman MAO, to destroy the People's Liberation Army and to destruct the new thing of the Revolutionary Committee. Every revolutionary mass organizations must enhance the revolutionary vigilance, and make a clear boundary with the ringleaders and all black persons supporting them in background, fight those who deliberately provoke and alienate one person from another, fish in mudded and troubled 153

155 water and sabotage, expose their evil plot, don't let them mess up our front and interference Chairman MAO's strategic deployment." In the evening of September 16, ZHOU En-lai met with representatives from some universities and colleges, and said: "First, we should not expand fight on '5-16'. '5-16' relies on rumors and conspiracy, and nothing beyond. Don't pull them out and then hit in crowd. Second, if there are truly such persons in the organizations of your school, you should draw a clear line with them, let the organization itself ferret out the bad leaders, which we welcome. Third, after pulling out the '5-16' leaders, do not push its masses to the opposite side just because there are several ringleaders and therefore the masses are not good. This is the mass against the mass. Fourth, '5-16 Corps' took the extreme 'leftist' look and wanted to shake Chairman MAO's command headquarter and provoke the relationship between me and the Central Cultural Revolution Group. It is impossible for me and the Central Cultural Revolution Group to speak exactly the same words. If talking in the same tone, then it is better just letting one of us talk." [Note: On February 8, 1968, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China established, approved by MAO Ze-dong, a joint project team for "5-16", with WU De as the head, and required that, in the investigation process, "you should prevent over expansion and don't blow all away and made them disappeared." But in reality "516" quickly became a "basket", in which anyone can be put in, and made millions of innocent people persecuted. The process of investigation evolved as part of the strife between mass rebel organizations. In October, 1969, MAO Ze-dong wrote a comment that reads: "'The 5-16 problem should not disappear like blow away by wind. But it did in some units, such as Beijing Institute of Foreign languages." So, the investigation movement "deepened". The movement lasted until 1974 when the campaign criticizing LIN and KONG started.] WANG Li, GUAN Feng and QI Ben-yu were knocked down In July 1967, after the Wuhan Incident occurred, Politburo held a meeting discussing propaganda caliber for the Wuhan Incident. In the meeting, KANG Sheng suggested not openly naming WANG Ren-zhong and CHEN Zai-dao, but instead using the wording of "a handful of capitalist roaders in the Party and in the Army in the Wuhan area". He called WANG Dong-xing in Shanghai and asked him to report the suggestion to Chairman MAO for 154

156 instruction. MAO agreed KANG s suggestion. Thus, the phrase of "a handful of capitalist roaders in the Party and in the Army" emerged in newspapers. The wording was also appeared in the manuscript of the August 1 editorial of the magazine Red Flag, drafted by LIN Jie and reviewed by GUAN Feng. The manuscript was then sent to CHEN Bo-da and WANG Li for approval. After a secretary read out the manuscript for them, CHEN Bo-da clapped and said: "Great!" This manuscript was then published, without sending it to ZHOU En-lai for review. MAO Ze-dong saw the editorial after returning from Shanghai back to Beijing, and wrote a comment: "Big, big, big poisonous weeds!" "Return our Great Wall back!" (Note: Great Wall refers to the People s Liberation Army.) On July 17, 1967, the rebel organization Red Flag Revolution and Rebellion Group of the Beijing Institute of Foreign Languages sent hundreds of people to the Department of Foreign Affairs, and camped there, demanding pulling out the Foreign Affairs Minister CHEN Yi. They had once rushed in the building of the Ministry of foreign affairs. On August 4, QI Ben-yu said to YAO Deng-shan, a rebel leader of Ministry of foreign affairs: "The action of the revolutionary teenagers for pulling CHEN Yi out is revolutionary, and their direction is absolutely right. The rushing into the Ministry of foreign affairs is only a problem about method and is secondary.... CHEN Yi's problem is very serious and should go to the mass and give a good selfreview." YAO Deng-shan was the charge d'affaires of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Indonesia when the Anti-China and Anti- Chinese Wave occurred in Indonesian in At that time, he led the struggle against the Wave, and was expelled from Indonesia by the government of Indonesia on April 22, He became a red fighter for foreign affairs and, when came back to China and arrived at the Beijing Airport, he received warm welcome from Premier ZHOU En-lai, Foreign Affairs Minister CHEN Yi, the Central Cultural Revolution Group s head CHEN Bo-da and deputy head JIANG Qing, and thousands of ordinary people. Since then, he quickly involved in the fierce struggle to down with the Minister CHEN Yi in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. He had a close relationship with the Central Cultural Revolution Group members GUAN Feng and QI Ben-yu. In August 7, WANG Li invited YAO Deng-shan et al to his office at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. At that time, he had just returned to Beijing from Wuhan City and his left leg was still in plaster. He was in the couch when 155

157 shaking hands with YAO and others, and then said: "Tonight I invite you to come to talk about the Cultural Revolution in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The movement there has met resistance. Foreign affairs bluff as if others cannot do it, and make it greatly mysterious as if only a few experts can do it. Is it so hard to deal with? I think handling the internal problems of Red Guards is much more complicated. Cannot the Red Guards do diplomacy?... They say you are in the wrong direction. Is the direction of CHEN Yi right?... You seized power in January, but how much power did you seize? How much power for business supervision did you get? Are you allowed to monitor the supervision? Had not the Department s Party committee team changed? Is it okay to keep the team unchanged in such a great revolution? Why can't rearrange the team?... You should make full use of the right of supervision, including supervise personnel selection because the line for cadre selection is the guarantee of the political line. Selecting a cadre is to pick a revolutionary but not a conservative. If the selection of cadres is unreasonable, you should oppose it using the supervision power. When picking cadres to go abroad or not, or do anything else, the first cretieria is if he is revolutionary and supporting Chairman MAO's revolutionary line, without which nothing will be okay. It is wrong if not following this criteria but only taking account about the rank, carrier and the current position and level.... Comrade YAO Dengshan made struggle with the imperialists and reactionaries in Indonesia, and against revisionism after returning back to the country. Revisionists are capitalist roaders. You should take a clear-cut stand, your attitude should be clear in supporting the revolutionaries. We strongly support you.... Pulling out CHEN Yi is in a right direction. Why cannot pull?! He made mistakes but did not go to the mass to accept criticism and do not make self-review, and therefore you can pull him out. He made a self-review in January, but later turned over and did not go to masses. Therefore, pulling him out has nothing wrong! Isn t it a revolutionary action and not counter-revolutionary? Blocking the gate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is of course a problem of method only and is secondary. Do not exaggerate one s methodological problem and state the problem so seriously.... The organizations "Red Flag Rebel Group" and "6-16" camped in the front of the gate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - -- what is wrong about it? Nothing, nothing is wrong...." The section of Protect CHEN in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs believed that Chairman MAO is always protecting CHEN Yi. But now, after learned WANG s speech on August 7, they had some doubt: Has the Chairman changed his position on CHEN Yi s issue? They have a female member, 156

158 WANG Hai-rong, who was an English translator in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and her grandfather WANG Ji-fan is MAO's cousin and a famous educator. Starting from her childhood, WANG Hai-rong often visits MAO's residence in Zhongnanhai District. So, she is now a good candidate for going to MAO and finding out what happened if any. At that time, MAO had just returned to Beijing. WANG Hai-rong went to visit him, and said to him that WANG Li's August 7 speech did not get a popular support. After listening her words, MAO just quoted two sentences in an ancient poetry: "All the world support a hero when he was at a right time, but will have no freedom at a later time when the time is not right." And then MAO said: "You go back. I want to have a rest." WANG then returned to the office in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the people there immediately started a search in Tang Dynasty s poetries, Song Dynasty Ci (a special form of poetry), but failed to find these two poems. WANG then went home to consult her grandfather. WANG Ji-fan took out a thick book of Tang Dynasty s poetries from his book shelf, and indicated the source of the two sentences of the poem. This poem was from LUO Yin s poem Choubiduo. After reading the full poem, people now know Chairman MAO s meaning: WANG Li has been very successful since the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, but his good luck is over now and, once a hero, will face problems now. As so, the people in the section protecting CHEN Yi felt safe in heart. In August 19, the rebels in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, following WANG Li's speech on August 7, took the power of the Ministry. On August 22, they fired the British Embassy in Beijing. In early morning of the next day, ZHOU En-lai, CHEN Bo-da and XIE Fu-zhi interviewed the leaders of the rebel organizations in the units related to foreign affairs. ZHOU severely criticized them: "Seizing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs power is illegal and will not be counted.... The slogan of Down with LIU, DENG and CHEN is wrong.... Sealing the offices of the vice ministers, arbitrarily and openly naming the cadres and issuing orders have resulted in out of control of the daily diplomatic works. Some even 'cut first without reporting', which is hot headed and take the Central as nothing. Setting fire on the British agency shows that the situation is out of control. It is a typical anarchism." CHEN Bo-da added: "The Cultural Revolution has been for a year now.... It is a very serious class struggle, not a game, nor to make fun of. You are joking about the country and provide foreigners a joke. Your action in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is completely a joke. The Party s Central Committee, headed by Chairman MAO, has not authorized your organization to do so. It is 157

159 completely a joke that a school authorizes the right to a organization!... Listen to the Prime Minister. Your fight teams, whose names I don't know, all listen to the Prime Minister." On August 24, ZHOU En-lai talked with YANG Cheng-wu alone. (Note: During that period of time, YANG Cheng-wu often accompanied MAO traveling around in the country for investigation.) He told YANG that WANG Li s August 7 speech in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs incited rebel organizations to seize the power of the Ministry and occupy the Ministry, and the chain reaction followed in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and other ministries. He also mentioned several other events, including the firing of the British agency, pulling out a handful people in the Army, and besieging the Zhongnanhai District in the name of pulling out LIU Shao-qi. ZHOU then ask: "How dangerous they are! What I worry about is the chain reaction. Now, there are two big things: one is that the central leadership can not be shaken, and the another is that the prestige of the People's Liberation Army can not be shaken! ZHOU En-lai handed YANG a copy of WANG Li s August 7 speech and asked him to pass it to MAO. On the second day, YANG Chengwu flied to Shanghai and conveyed ZHOU En-lai s words to MAO Ze-dong. MAO listened, while smoking, but did not speak or ask question. After YANG finished, he said: "Cheng-wu, you should be tired. Go back and have a rest first! I will think about the issues and take a look at the materials, and then call you later." In the next morning, MAO said to YANG: "You go to take the plane back to Beijing.... WANG s speech is very bad. Now 'WANG August-seventh' is swelling up and inflated because he can write a few articles. Should reduce the swelling. WANG has big mistakes. My view is that this person has a bookish cast of mind, can write a few article but does not understand politics. WANG s destructive force is larger than GUAN Feng: GUAN listens to WANG s words. WANG's interest is not only in a Minister or Deputy Prime Minister. This man loves to blow." MAO drank a mouthful of tea and then continued: "I have made my mind. You record what I will say. Then Mao said one word by one word: 'WANG, GUAN and QI (Note: refers to WANG Li, GUAN Feng and QI Ben-yu) are destructing the Cultural Revolution, and are not good men. After finishing his instruction, he said to YANG: You only report to the Prime Minister. Let the Prime Minister be responsible for handling the issue and grasping them." After reading and checking the record YANG made, MAO said: "That is good. You go back to Beijing and ask the Prime Minister to do it immediately." When YANG walking out of the room, MAO stopped him and said: "Maybe, just let QI make a self-criticism and so to try to save him. Point out his serious mistakes to QI Ben-yu, criticize him seriously and set a deadline for him to correct 158

160 mistakes. Let s take a longer time to see if he will change or not." Once again, YANG let MAO check the record he made and then left for the airport. At the noon, he returned to Beijing, and then immediately reported to ZHOU Enlai on MAO s decision. ZHOU said: This matter should not be delayed. Have a meeting immediately. That night, ZHOU presided over a small meeting in Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. CHEN Bo-da, KANG Sheng, JIANG Qing et al attended the meeting. ZHOU said in the meeting: "Today's meeting is to convey Chairman MAO s important decision." He then read MAO s instruction solemnly, word by word and sentence by sentence. In the next day, ZHOU called a meeting of the Central Culture Revolution Group in the 16 th building of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. The participants included WANG Li and GUAN Feng. At the meeting, ZHOU criticized WANG and GUAN severely. Then, JIANG Qing, KANG Sheng and CHEN Bo-da also criticized them. ZHOU then announced: Send WANG Li and GUAN Feng into isolation for self-review. After the meeting, WANG and GUAN were under house arrest in a building in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. In the following day, YANG Cheng-wu went, according to ZHOU En-lai's instruction, to Beidaihe City and reported to LIN Biao on the event. After listening YANG s report, LIN nodded but said nothing. Soon, the news about WANG Li and GUAN Feng s isolated self-review passed out, and big character posters to down with WANG Li and GUAN Feng plastered in Beijing City within just a day. By November, QI Ben-yu, whom MAO had wanted to save, was also knocked down. The reason was that QI sent a copy of the novel "Dream of Red Mansions" to LI Na (MAO and JIANG s daughter), which made JIANG suspecting that QI has un-grounded dream to marry LI Na. (Note: QI was married at the time.) So, JIANG talked to MAO and said QI cannot be transformed and therefore should be taken away. MAO agreed. ZHOU immediately called a Central Cultural Revolution Group meeting and announced: "Chairman MAO has decided that, because there is no hope to save QI Ben-yu, he will be immediately grasped." He then appointed XIE Fuzhi, YANG Cheng-wu and WANG Dong-xing to arrange that YANG Dezhong and several guards stationed in another room and waiting for the arrival of QI. After all the arrangements were done, ZHOU called QI and asked him to come to the meeting. QI came with excitement. As soon as he entered the hall, XIE Fu-zhi announced to him, "We arrest you now." QI stunned and said: "What a joke? Arrest me?" Taking the chance that QI has not fully reacted, YANG De-zhong let the soldiers hug QI (Note: QI is tall) and handcuff him, which made QI even more confused and said: "Why handcuff me? What are my sins? You have announced nothing but handcuff me. What law does it 159

161 follow?" Before entering the car, QI called loudly three times: "YAO Wenyuan, please say hello to Comrade JIANG Qing on my behalf!" The Central Cultural Revolution Group, which was originally made up of fourteen people, now had only CHEN Bo-da, KANG Sheng, JIANG Qing, ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wen-yuan, a total of five people, left. The Central Cultural Revolution Group that had downed with this person today and downed with that person tomorrow, but finally had only so few people. From left: QI Ben-yu, WANG Li and GUAN Feng. The Red Guards withdrawn from the stage of history On July 27, 1968, the Central, in accordance with an instruction of MAO Zedong, sent workers propaganda teams to universities and colleges. At Qinghua University, however, the Red Guard leader KUAI Da-fu against the workers propaganda team stationing in the university, ordered resistance and killed five people of the team. Early morning in the next day, MAO summoned the five college Red Guard leaders, NIE Yuan-zi, KUAI Da-fu, HAN Ai-jing, TAN Hou-lan and WANG Da-bin, reprimanded them, and asked them to return to the universities and ask their men to lay down their weapons. A month later, MAO Ze-dong issued a "supreme instruction" to the whole country: The workers propaganda teams will be in the schools for a long period of time, participate the whole process of fight, criticize and change in the schools, and always lead the schools. In rural areas, the schools should be managed by the poor and lower-middle peasants, the most reliable ally of the working class." In December, MAO Ze-dong issued an instruction asking "intellectual youth go to the countryside, and accept re-education of the poor and lower-middle peasants". The Graduates of the 1966, 1967, 1968 classes in all high schools (later known as "the older three classes"), were sent to countryside in the name of "young intellectuals going to the countryside", became a commune 160

162 member and settled there, and were accepting the re-education of poor peasants. The Red Guards of the universities were assigned to factories or farms. Same for the five university Red Guards leaders who were once glorious in Beijing. Since then, the Red Guards withdrew from the stage of history. One of the five Red Guard leaders, KUAI Da-fu, was assigned, in 1968 December, to the Qingtongxia Aluminum Factory in Ningxia Province, and became electrolysis worker. By the end of 1970, during the period of the "Cleaning-up 5-16" movement, he was escorted back to Qinghua University in Beijing. In 1973, he was arranged to work in Dongfeng Chemical Plant. [Note: after the end of the Cultural Revolution, he was arrested in April 19, 1978, and sentenced on March 1983 to 17 years in prison. He was released in 1987 and returned to Qingtongxia Aluminum Factory. In 1992, he came to Penglai City in Shandong Province, and became the chief engineer of the Zhengxi Industrial Corporation. ] TAN Hou-lan was assigned, in October 1968, to a farm of the Beijing Military Region for labor training. In June 1970, she was recalled back to the Beijing Normal University, and put in an isolated review in the "Cleaning-up 5-16" movement. [Note: After the Cultural Revolution ended, TAN was arrested in April 1978 for the crime of anti-revolution. In the prison, she was distressed to regret. In 1981, She was diagnosed with cervical cancer, then got medical parole, and was allowed to return her hometown of Xiangtan for medical treatment. In June 1982, the Beijing Municipal People's Procurator decided to give her immunity from prosecution. In November of the year, TAN died, at the age of 45. She was unmarried for her whole life. ] WANG Da-bin was assigned in 1968 to Chengdu Exploration Machinery Factory, doing technological work on brazing. In 1971, he was escorted back to the Beijing College of Geology during the "Cleaning-up 5-16 Movement" and was reviewed in isolation, and was expelled from the Party. [Note: After the end of the Cultural Revolution, he was arrested in 1978 for the crime of counter-revolution, and was held in the Wuhan's First Detention Center. In 1983, he was released and returned to Chengdu. In autumn of 1985, with the attention of the relevant departments, he returned to the Chengdu Exploration Machinery Factory.] 161

163 HAN Ai-jing was detained at the end of In November 1969, he was assigned to work in the 331st Factory in Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province. From March to September 1975, he was subjected to isolated review. After that, he was doing supervised labor. [Note: After the end of the Cultural Revolution, he was arrested in April 1978 for the crime of counter-revolution. In June 1983, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was in prisons in Beijing and other place, and finally in Tanggemu Farm in Qinghai Province for labor. In 1987, he received a notice to let him back to the Beijing Aviation Institute, and given a job in accordance with the regular treatment for college graduates. He was assigned to work in the office of information technology in an arsenal factory in Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province and was later transferred to an office of the factory in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province. Later, he joined a company with state-owned shares, and finally was promoted to the general manager. In 2003, he retired internally and served as a consultant in another company. He expressed regret to his behavior in fighting and even beating Marshal PENG De-huai. But he also raised a question: Who, knowing the history of PENG De-huai, told the youth that PENG is an anti-party and antisocialist person?"] NIE Yuan-zi was sent in November 1969 to Liyuzhou Farm of the Beijing University located in Jiangxi Province for supervised labor. She has illness and therefore writes to the Beijing University asking for allowing her back to Beijing. In the summer of the following year, she returned to Beijing for curing her illness. At the beginning of 1971, she was isolated and examined, with her freedom of activity restricted. In 1973, she was arranged to work in the Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory, while having meals and living in the factory. In 1975, she was transferred to work in the Beijing University Instrument Factory. [Note: After the Cultural Revolution ended, she was arrested in April 19, In March 1983, she was sentenced to seventeen years in prison due to the crime of counter-revolutionary propaganda and the crime of false accusation. In June 1984, she got a medical parole. In 1986, she was released on parole and lived in a two-bedroom apartment owned by her relative in Haidian District, Beijing. She later had opened a business and got some profits, and used the profits to fund the construction of her hometown. Since 1999, she had no income but lived on relief fund of 600 Yuan monthly from the community office. She lived a simple life, suffering from heart disease, lumbar bone serious dislocation and a variety of diseases, but insisted in exercise and fitness therapy, and in writing his autobiography. ] 162

164 Chapter 7.7 The situations of LIU, DENG and TAO In the first year of the Cultural Revolution, LIU Shao-qi, DENG Xiao-ping and some others who had been knocked down as capitalist roaders were generally suffered in pulling out by Red Guards and the rebels. In the second half of 1967, the power seizure wave had been basically completed in the whole country, these falling or standing aside leading cadres were no longer in a face-to-face struggle, but were either isolated at home accepting the review or admitted to hospital and other safe places, such as West Beijing Hotel, where the rebels cannot impact. In the following few years, LIU Shao-ji, TAO Zhu, PENG De-huai, HE Long et al have died due to illness. LIU Shaoji was seriously ill LIU Shao-qi was denounced in the Zhongnanhai District by rebels face-to face in the first year of the Cultural Revolution, and then isolated at his residence for examination, but not denounced face-to-face anymore. At the beginning of the isolation, his wife and children still lived with him in the courtyard in Zhongnanhai District, though separately: he lives in the south part; and the other family members in the north part, separated by a preexisting wall from the south part, and were not allowed to meet with LIU. In September 13, 1967, his children were driven out of Zhongnanhai District and wife arrested, LIU became a man living alone. His spirit had been hit, could only sleep two or three hours a day, and sometimes cannot sleep at all. He looked trance. His arm was wounded in the war times, and the old injury had a relapse in the scuffle when he was denounced. As so, wearing a dress could take about an hour. His right leg was injured when he was pulled out and criticized, and therefore going to the Zhongnanhai canteen for meals could take 50 minutes for the distance of just 30 meters. The guarding soldiers following him did not dare to help. Later, he was so weak and could not walk, and therefore his stuff took meals from canteen to his residence, but was called royalist soldiers by others and therefore became less willing to continue to do it. Knowing this, LIU let them took more meals enough for him to eat for several days. His body became weaker and weaker, and his hands trembled uncontrollably and therefore food could not be put into his mouth, and scattered everywhere on his face and body. His body was thin and looked very weak. 163

165 LIU originally suffered from diabetes, coronary heart disease, chronic bronchitis, emphysema and other diseases. Over a year after being knocked down, his blood pressure was elevated and diabetes increased. His medical problems were dealt by the Beijing Hospital. ZHOU En-lai and the director of the Central Office, WANG Dong-xing, gave an instruction to the Hospital: When LIU needs to see a doctor, his guards should contact the general duty room of the Beijing Hospital, and the hospital should then send doctors and nurses to visit him at his residence, the drugs he needs should still be provided by the Zhongnanhai Health Pharmacy Supply. (Note: The Pharmacy had good medicines, including imported drugs that cannot be found outside.) During that time, Dr. DONG Chang-cheng wrote the most doctor s medical records. In February 1968, the Zhongnanhai Clinic of the Central Guards Regiment (i.e. the 8341st Troop) was established, and took over LIU Shao-ji's medical tasks and the medical records. The instruction they received was: "If LIU is sick and call you, you should go and provide serious treatment for him." Dr. GU Ying-qi (originally an attending doctor in the Beijing Hospital) was one of the two responsible persons of the Clinic and the one in charge of the daily works in the Clinic. He appointed assistant medical officer LI Liuzhuang and nurse MA xiao-xian as the ones making round visit to LIU s residence. He also told the other doctors and nurses that they should go to LIU s residence when needed. Every time when these medical personals visited LIU, they provided careful check and treatment, and recorded in details. All these records were saved in archive and kept until now. According to the medical records, LIU Shao-qi appeared on April 4, 1968 a new medical condition: talking less, sometimes confused while talking, urinary incontinence, tremor and mince (i.e. walk with small steps). In order to identify the cause of the new condition, the Clinic asked the director of Department of internal medicine of the Beijing Hospital, Dr. WANG Xin-de, for consultation. Dr. WANG identified that LIU s condition is caused by the brain blood deficiency, but he was not certain if there are brain lesions. To the problems of LIU s blood pressure increase and blood glucose fluctuations, a consultation was organized in June. After then, the drugs for treatment were adjusted. To reduce the cholesterol intake, the number of eggs he ate every day was reduced from six to two. The chef was asked to use less pork, but more cattle and sheep meat, bean products, vegetables and so on. Food buyers and the chef were very cooperative and the requirements have be seriously followed. In this period of time, LIU usually walk with the help of a guard s or a nurse s leftankle, until he was sick in bed. Once, the cook for LIU, Ma 164

166 Wen-quan, had suffered from diarrhea. He was immediately isolated and replaced by another chef while the kitchen, dinning room and dishes are all disinfected. At the beginning of June 1968, LIU caught a cold. Although it is a minor illness, but the result of treatments was poor. From July 6 onwards, his condition became serious: Fever, cough and pulmonary rales. Doctors initially diagnosed pneumonia, and let the nurse MA Xiao-xian live in LIU s home for caring him. The Clinic reported LIU s condition to upper levels. Soon, WANG Dong-xing came and conveyed Chairman MAO s and Premier ZHOU s instructions to GU Ying-qi: "Make every attempt to give him medical treatments." According to the instructions, the Clinic invited famous experts of Beijing and Shanghai for consultation, and let Professors TAO Huan-le and HUANG Wan, and Drs. GU Ying-qi and DONG Chang-cheng of the Zhongnanhai Clinic live in LIU s residence. Drs. GU Ying-qi and DONG Chang-cheng slept on the floor because there was not enough beds. At the same time, four nurses carried out nursing day and night, and so formed a medical group. ZHOU En-lai's health care doctor BIAN Zhi-qiang, who is also a responsible person in the the Zhongnanhai Clinic, came almost every day to see the situation and required the best treatment possible. In July 12, LIU Shao-ji could not cough out sputum and therefore there was a risk of airway obstruction. Experts came for consultation and suggested tracheotomy if needed. This needed approval and the Clinic wrote a report for it. Soon after, WANG Dong-xing came to convey the instructions of MAO Zedong and ZHOU En-lai: "If needed, we agree with the doctors decision." The Clinic immediately invited experts in Department of ENT and Anesthesia live in LIU s residence and be ready to do tracheotomy when needed. In July 22, LIU s pneumonia was controlled, but his "brain softening" became more and more serious, and his consciousness had not been restored. Although he was sleeping at night, and wake up, open eyes and turn head left and right in daytime, it seems that he had no thinking activities, unable to speak and loss of cognitive ability and do not recognize his acquaintances, which is medically called "coma awakening". Since then, LIU had bedridden, nurses fed his meals, and he could not control relieving of the bowels and rely on nurse to take care of. It was confirmed by X-ray and sputum culture that LIU s pneumonia is "bacillus pneumonia". The virulence of pneumonia is strong, resistant and difficult to control, and it is often fatal to old people. On October 9, LIU suddenly could not eat, his head turned to the left and eyes 165

167 gazed to left. Diagnosis confirmed that there were cerebral blood deficiency and diffuse small soft foci in his brain stem. Two days later, feeding the total daily calories started, and Calorie a day were kept. As a result of these treatment, LIU's body weight increased, face ruddy and occipital hair black in the beginning of 1969, but his consciousness, cognitive, speaking ability and memory function were still lost. The nurses followed the procedure for nursing care, massaged him, bathed him, turned his body around on time and cleaned his bed, and therefore LIU had no bedsore. According to ZHOU En-lai's instruction, the medical staff took photos of LIU in the family ward. The photos shows LIU has bright eyes watching the scenery, and the room is neat, bed sheet white, windows bright, table clean and utensils neat. According to the medical records, LIU's pneumonia was recurrent: twice in 1968 and five times in In the meantime, LIU was dying but safe after the rescue and treatments. LIU's arms and hips were tied up due to the so many injections. The nurses wrote on the record: No good blood vessels in his body. LIU often stretched out his fingers trying to scratch something and, once caught something, wouldn t let it go. The medical staff gave two plastic bottles and let him scratch them in hands. During this period of time, there were expert consultations of 40 times, including 23 times in July Experts participating in the consultations include Dr. Dong Cheng-lang of Shanghai and Drs. WU Jie, TAO Huan-le, WANG Shu-xian, LI Bang-qi, HUANG Wan, WANG Xin-de, XUE Shan-yi, WU Jia-rui, JIANG Shi-jie and so on of Beijing. Medical workers from the Zhongnanhai Clinic who performed treatments and cares include BIAN Zhi-qiang, DONG Changcheng, ZHANG Lin, NIU Fu-kang, LI Liu-zhuang and MA Xiao-xian. The persons for the intensive care were CAO Bing and JI Xiu-yun of the Beijing Hospital, HAN Shi-quan (male) of the Central Guards Regiment, DONG Jieqiu and QING Xi-zhen of the 301 Hospital, etc.. All drugs used in the treatment of LIU wer supplied by the Zhongnanhai Health Care Pharmacy, the vast majority of them were imported, especially antibiotics used, and most of them were not available in the regular hospitals at the time. LIU Shao-qi was designated as traitor, mole and knobstick On October 13, 1968, the twelfth session of the Eighth Central Committee held in Beijing. The Eighth Central Committee consists of 97 people, but now 87 because 10 people had died. Among the 87 people alive, only 40 (less than half) participated in this meeting but the other people were not notified for attending. At the beginning of the meeting, 10 of the alternate members of the 166

168 Central Committee were upgraded to formal member of the Central Committer, making the formal members attending the meeting over half. In addition, 74 people were expanded to attend the meeting and they are participants of the meeting of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, members of the acting group of the Central Military Commission, the leading persons of the Revolutionary Committee of provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, the leading generals of the Greater Military Regions, and the persons in charge of the authorities directly under the Central. At the opening ceremony of the plenary session, MAO Ze-dong announced the agenda of the session, of a total of three: First, to discuss and determine ideology and methodology for selecting representatives to attend the Ninth Congress of the Party; Second, to discuss the Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party (Draft); Third, to review special investigation cases, especially to the case for LIU Shao-qi. He then continued by saying: The Culture Revolution is absolutely necessary and very timely to consolidate the proletariat dictatorship, prevent the restoration of capitalism and develop socialism. Should we engage in the Cultural Revolution? Whether the achievements or the mistakes are a majority? Should we engage until the end or not to the end? Let us discuss. In the past, we fought north and south, which was a easier war because the enemy was very clear. This Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, on the other hand, is much more difficult than the wars in the past. The problem is the mixture of making an ideological mistake and that in the category of a contradiction between ourselves and the enemy. They are mixed together at the moment and it is still not clear, and therefore had no choice but to solve the problems province by province. The Cultural Revolution will go all the way until the end. What is the end? The end is when we would complete all the tasks including great criticism, cleaning the class team, streamlining institutions, reforming irrational rules and regulations, and other tasks. To get all these tasks done, it is estimated that we need three years. That is to say, it is estimated that the Culture Revolution will end in about the summer of next year. In the plenum, LIN Biao had spoken twice. In both of his speeches, he had no speech draft, nor discussed his plan for the speech in a meeting of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. He just went on with his own old habit: Prepare only an outline for the speech, and then adlib at the meeting. He said in the first speech: "The achievement of the Cultural Revolution is the greatest of the greatest, while the loss is the smallest of the smallest." He also said that the 167

169 size of our country is equivalent to the whole of Europe, for us to have a red over all the country is therefore equivalent to for the Europe being red all over. He also talked about several cultural revolution movements in the history of world civilization: the first is of ancient Greek and Roman classical culture development, which affected the human civilization for thousands of years; the second is the European Renaissance Movement in the 14th and 15th centuries, resulting in a bourgeois civilization and making Europe to entere the era of prosperity. He continued: This Cultural Revolution is personally launched and led by Chairman MAO and its historical significance is far more than the ancient Greek and ancient Rome civilization, and the European Renaissance Movement. When LIN Biao spoke, MAO nodded frequently and adviced LIN, for many times, to have a rest and then continues to say more. It seems that he is very much appreciated by LIN's speech. The plenary session discussed "The report of the review on crimes of the traitor, mole and knob stick LIU Shao-qi" submitted by the task force for LIU Shao-qi s problems in history. The report determined that LIU Shao-qi "betrayed the revolution and surrendered to the enemy, and acted as a traitor and mole" for three time in the years of 1925, 1927 and The plenary session passed the report, and made a decision to "expel LIU Shao-qi from the Party forever and dismiss from all positions inside and outside the Party". In the vote for it, only one person refused to raise hand, and she was the Central Committee member CHEN Shao-min. In a break of the meeting, KANG Sheng asked her why not raise her hand? She replied: "This is my right!" JIANG Qing once suggested to sentence WANG Guang-mei (LIU s wife) to death as she is, as JIANG said, a spy for the United States. JIANG s suggestion was rejected by MAO Ze-dong. He said: "Even if WANG Guangmei is really a spy, we should let her to stay as an evidence alive. When in Yanan, I did not agree with killing of WANG Bao-wei. Spare her." Later, ZHOU En-ai conveyed this instruction of MAO in a meeting of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. As so, WANG Guang-mei survived. The plenary session also criticized the "February Adverse Current" and it lasted for more than ten days. In the closing ceremony of the plenary session, MAO said: "Some comrades do not understand the 'February Adverse Current' very well, but now they do after the discussion in the past ten days or so. In the process, the comrades who made the mistakes explained their problems, then other people asked some questions, and they answered the questions. After this process repeated for several times, people understand the 168

170 problems more clearly. For this thing, if we say it is small, it is not so small and is a major event; If we say it is very big, it is actually not a big deal. They have opinions to say and a few people were together, all are Politburo members, some of them a deputy prime minister, some a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, which, as I see it, is also permitted by the Party's internal life. They openly spoke, not discussed in the back. In this world, there are always leftists, rightists and persons in the middle. All are leftists? I do not agree with that. If not letting the comrades involved in the February Adverse Current to attend the Ninth Congress of the Party, I think it is a weakness. For some of the party's old comrades, we should firstly criticize, secondly protect and thirdly watch (to see if they correct their mistakes). In 'cleaning up the class team' movement, we should pay attention to the word 'accurately'. Do not engage in such thing as '(you) force (them to confess), (they) confess and (you) believe (in their words). For academic authorities, criticism is necessary but protection is also necessary, such as FENG You-lan and JAIN Bo-zan may still have some use. On DENG (Note: Refers to DENG Xiao-ping), somebody suggested to expel him from the Party, I have a reservation to it. There is a difference between him and LIU (Note: Refers to LIU Shao-qi). Border conflict at Zhenbao Island and evacuation of leaders from Beijing In March 2, 15 and 17, 1969, China and the Soviet Union had armed border conflicts for three times at Zhenbao Island in the Ussuri River. There was no resident in the island. Soviet troop began to patrol the island in Starting from the beginning of 1967, Chinese troop also started to patrol on the island. Since then, there often were conflicts between the patrol troops of the two countries. At the beginning of 1969, the conflict intensified, from scolding to each other, to pushing, and then fighting with sticks. Russian soldiers are taller and stronger physically, and insolent too, and often wounded or even disabled Chinese soldiers. To this end, MAO Ze-dong and LIN Biao presided over two emergency meetings of Politburo members. The meetings decided to give resolutely fight back against the Soviet provocation, and made specific plans. Accordingly, the administrative group of the Central Military Commission telegraphed the three Military Regions of Shenyang, Beijing and Xinjiang, asking them to be ready for doing military struggles, especially in the eastern border, to cooperate with the diplomatic struggle. Provisions were also set: In any case, don't fire first; don't shoot but take 169

171 shooting as the last resort; may fire and self-defense only if they fired and we had casualties; self-defense measures, whatever it is, should be strictly controlled within our country. The telegram also asked the border guards: If the situation is politically advantageous, you should prior assume several possible situations, formulate your plans of action correspondingly, and strive to win whenever you decide to fight. After receiving the telegraph, the commander of the Shenyang Military Region, CHEN Xi-lian, established a command branch for the border struggle and immediately mobilized troops. In March 2, a Chinese troop patrolled in Zhenbao Island and was intercepted by a Soviet troop. Chinese patrol group retreated back. The Soviet troop deployed to form a battle formation, wanting to surround the Chinese patrol group. At this time, the second Chinese patrol group rushed to the scene. A Soviet captain commanded shooting, and six Chinese border guards were immediately killed or wounded. The Chinese opened fire. The Soviet deployed armored vehicles, shooting Chinese personnel. China's support troops arrived. Two sides fired to each other for about an hour, and then the Soviets withdrew. As the results, the total casualties of the Soviet were more than 60 people, and some of their armored vehicles, command vehicles and trucks were destroyed. China's casualties were 17 deaths, 11 seriously injured and other 24 people were injured but not very seriously. The Soviets had lost, and then transferred a large number of tanks, armored vehicles and artillery near the island, and were ready to fight in big. In order to deal with the Soviet tanks, the Chinese mobilized artillery, anti-aircraft guns and antitank forces, and all gathered in the vicinity. In the early morning of March 15, the Soviets soldiers boarded the Zhenbao Island under the cover of ten armored vehicles. On the island, there was a row of Chinese infantry in their defense shelters. At 8 AM, the Soviets started attack. The Chinese soldiers waited until the Soviet armored vehicles were only tens of meters away, and then they fired bazooka ripostes (Note: If the distance is farther, the fire could not go through the armor of enemy s vehicle). All of a sudden, two Soviet armored vehicles were destroyed. The Chinese artillery fired to press the Soviet infantry in the center of the island. At 10 AM, the Soviets dispatched a dozen of tanks and armored vehicles, once again launched an attack. China soldiers with rocket-propelled grenades rushed to a close distance and destroyed a Soviet T-62 tank, and the Soviet crew of the tank abandoned the tank and fled. At noon, the Soviets sent dozens of tanks and armored vehicles, and hundreds of infantry attacking 170

172 China garrison troops. The Chinese patrol and reinforced troop strongly resisted for two hours, and finally beated Soviet attack with the help of artillery support. The battle on the day lasted nine hours, the Soviet casualties were 140 people, including Colonel Leo Vladimirovich (the commander of the battle on the day, a border captain) killed; 13 tanks and armored vehicles damaged or destroyed; China s casualties were 12 died and 27 injured. After the battle, China took control of the whole island. On March 17, the Soviets tried to recapture its destroyed T-62 tank (Note: This model of tank was the most advanced at the time) and attacked Chinese again, but failed to pull the tank back. Four days later, the Soviets dispatched a blasting group, trying to blow up the tank, but were repulsed. Later, the Soviets used artillery fire on ice near the tank and the tank sank to the bottom of the river. In April, the Chinese navy divers tried to salvage the tank. In the month when both sides fought for the tank, the Soviet artillery pounded continuously and killed dozens of Chinese soldiers. Finally, the tank was recovered by the Chinese and shipped to Beijing, and displayed as a trophy in the Chinese People's Revolutionary Military Museum. In August, Chinese built barracks on the island, and keep 1 to 4 soldiers stationed there. In the whole conflict on Zhenbao Island, the Chinese border guards killed or injured more than 230 Soviet soldiers (the Soviet Union announced the figures of 58 dead and 94 wounded), destructed 19 tanks and armored vehicles (17 vehicles as announced by the Soviet Union); and 92 Chinese border guards were killed or injured. A hero in Zhenbao Island battle, SUN Yu-guo, became a representative of the Ninth Congress of the Party and spoke in the congress, reporting the battles in details. When he spoke, MAO Ze-dong stood up and took the lead for applause for several times. He said: "I am in favor of such a slogan: Not afraid of tough condition and not afraid of death. " In August, the Soviet implemented a retaliatory strike in Tielieketi area near the western boundary between Soviet Union and China. After the Zhenbao Island Conflict, the Soviet defense minister Marshal Grechko and other military hardliners advocated to use medium range ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads equivalent to millions of tons of explosives to strike a surgery-style nuclear attack on China's military, political and other important goals in the far east region. On August 20, the Soviet ambassador to the United States Dobrynin set an urgent appointment 171

173 with Henry Kissinger, an assistant to the President for national security affairs, trying to find out the bottom line of the United States on such an issue. In the early morning of the next day, Kissinger went to the White House and reported this to President Nixon. Nixon believed that the Soviet Union would not easily use nuclear weapons as long as the United States against it. And he said to Kissinger that we should try to inform China the Soviet intent as soon as possible. But it was difficult to inform China because there was no diplomatic relationship between China and the US. Finally Nixon decided to leak the information by a small newspaper. On August 28, a tabloid newspaper, the Washington Star Newspaper, prominently published a message with the title of "The Soviet desires to do surgical operation type nuclear strike on China" and the news said: "According to reliable sources, the Soviet Union wants to use medium range ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads equivalent to millions of tons of explosives to make surgical nuclear strikes onto important military bases in China, such as the launch bases at Jiuquan and Xichang, the Lop Nur nuclear test base, and cities of Beijing, Changchun and Anshan, and other important industrial cities." The news immediately aroused strong repercussions throughout the world. China paid great attention to the news. After listening ZHOU En-lai s report, MAO Ze-dong Zhou said: "The atomic bomb is very powerful, but I do not afraid." Soon, MAO put forward a policy of "Dig deep, accumulate grain widely and does not seek hegemony". The whole country soon entered a battle situation of "preparing to fight, many enterprises transferred to military production, a large number of factories were transferred to inaccessible mountain areas, implementing the configuration of mountain, scattered and underground hole, and each big city started to dig underground fortifications and shelters. Inside the Soviet government, the chairman of the Council of Ministers, Kosygin, and other people, however, advocated to talk with China. Kosygin let the post office to make a call to Beijing s post office, asking for a connection to the prime minister of China, ZHOU En-lai. The Chinese female operator who received the request, however, immediately replied: "We have nothing to talk with revisionism." And she then hung up the phone quickly. So, the Soviet Union government was unable to contact the Chinese counterpart. By September, Kosygin was going to Vietnam to participate in the funeral of Vietnam National President HU Zhi-ming. After learned that ZHOU En-lai will also attend the funeral, he intended to meet with ZHOU in Vietnam s 172

174 capital Hanoi. ZHOU didn t want to meet Kosygi, however, and therefore went to Hanoi in advance and returned to Beijing before Kosygin arriving in Hanoi. Later, MAO Ze-dong, LIN Biao and ZHOU En-lai discussed the issue together and made a decision: Agree Kosygin to stop in Beijing on his way home after attending the funeral in Hoinan, and meet with ZHOU En-lai at the airport. On September 11, Kosygin and ZHOU met at Beijing Airport and agreed that a meeting at the deputy foreign minister level will be held in the near future on the Sino-Soviet border problem. Although the two prime ministers had met, the situation remains tense. The Soviet Union continued to deploy in the Far East heavily, and the total strength was up to forty divisions. The Chinese also transferred its elite troops from the southeast coast to the Northeast border. LIN Biao raised questions of how to implement "the three defenses" (Note: Refers to defense to air strikes, defense to air raids and defense to nuclear attack) and how to make "two attacks" (Note: Refers how to attack tank and how to attack aircraft), and made deployment accordingly. On the "defense to air strike", he propose to deeply dig underground shelters, as proposed by MAO, which can also be used for defense to "nuclear attack". On the "defense to air raids ", LIN proposed artificial "rockery". The plains in northern China would be an advantage for movement of the Soviet s mechanized forces. LIN believed that we therefore need to set up some strategic support points to cling to, which can attract the Soviet forces and look for chances to annihilate the enemy in a movement. LIN further proposed to construct artificial mountains in the "Three North" regions (i.e. North China, Northeast China and Northwest China), especially in North China. As proposed by LIN, the interior of the constructed mountains should have a strong defense fortification, and the mountains can support each other and form a fire network. LIN personally went out to see the terrain for many times, and had chosen Tianjin, Baoding, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou and other places as the pilot of the mountain construction, which can become the supports of the defense of Beijing. For the defense of the west part of North China, LIN believed that Taihang Mountain in Shanxi Province can be used, and therefore personally went to see the terrain there. With his wife YE Qun, LIN boarded an aircraft at the Beijing s Xijiao Airport, and flied over Pingxingguan, Datong and Zhangjiakou, accompanied by Air Force commander WU Fa-xian and other Generals. On the eve of the national day, 1969, LIN Biao went to the Xijiao Airport to have an activity called "car driven around". (Note: This is for his car driver to 173

175 drive around in the city while LIN sit in the car. This is a habit of LIN, especially when he is in the condition of "fearing of water" that is a symptom of his illness. The activity could alleviate the condition.) In the airport, he saw rows of aircrafts and became very worried about the possibility that Soviet Union suddenly ran an attack and completely destroys all these aircrafts. After coming back, he talked to MAO Ze-dong and proposed to take measures to prevent the Soviet Union to make a surprise attack during the holidays of our National Day. MAO agreed to LIN s opinion. Then, LIN Biao asked his Secretary to call HUANG Yong-sheng, WU Fa-xian, LI Zuo-peng, QIU Huizuo and YAN Zhong-chuan to come to his residence in Maojiawan. LIN said: "The reason I called you in today is to talk about the combat readiness. It seems that the possibility having a battle is about 20%, but we should be prepared as if the possibility was 80%. Tomorrow is the National Day, and the war might begin when the people enjoy their happiness. Hitler launched the invasion of the Soviet Union on Sunday, and the Japanese attacked on Pearl Harbor also on Sunday. What if the enemy takes a surprise attack during our holidays? The Soviet Air Force Base in Mongolia is only a few hundred kilometers away from Beijing, and a plane can be here within an hour. If they use a missile, it is just a matter of a few minutes. I just went to Xijiao Airport and drove around there, and saw rows of aircrafts parked there, with no preparation for an unexpected situations. This is not good but very dangerous. Once there is an air strike, the aircrafts will be completely destroyed. We should take immediate measures to change this situation." Then he ordered: "First, transfer all aircrafts in the several airports near Beijing, except those in duty, to airports in other provinces. Second, set up obstacles on the runway at these airports to prevent the enemy airborne and glider. Third, immediately issue weapons to all the staff on duty at the airports and be ready to fight the enemy paratroopers. In addition, other combat preparation for the holidays should also be done well. For this issue, I have already reported to and asked for instruction of Chairman MAO, and Chairman MAO and Premier ZHOU both agreed to the overnight evacuation of the Air Force s aircrafts. So, you study it, and go back to make deployment. As for the National Day reception, I have already discussed with Premier ZHOU and decided that you do not need to participate in." HUANG Yong-sheng etc went back to the office of the Administrative Group of the Central Military Commission, and completed, at later night, all implementations of aircraft transitions and other measures. On October 15, LIN Biao chaired a Politburo meeting to discuss the strategic trends of the Soviet Union. In the meeting, ZHOU En-lai conveyed an 174

176 instruction of MAO Ze-dong: "It is not good for all the central leading comrades to be concentrated in Beijing, A nuclear bomb will kill a lot of people, and therefore we should disperse some of them, that is, some old comrades can be evacuated to other places." Accordingly, the meeting decided that the party and state leaders who are presently in the Beijing area shall be evacuated, regardless of whether or not they have a problem, and it should include those leaders who have been overthrown (such as LIU Shao-qi, DENG Xiao-ping and TAO Zhu) and the sidelined leaders (such as ZHU De and CHEN Yun). After the meeting, LIN and ZHOU reported the decisions made in the meeting to MAO Ze-dong. MAO replied: "I will leave Beijing tomorrow and go to Wuhan City. Comrade LIN Biao should also leave Beijing, and go to Suzhou City. As for ZHOU En-lai, stay in Beijing to work but must lead the group of the Politburo people to set in Xishan of Beijing." In the morning of the second day, MAO was eating breakfast, and JIANG Qing came in. She told the waiter to have another pair of chopsticks for her, wanting to have breakfast together with MAO. MAO said, however: "It's too late. I have to go after eating. They can prepare some meal for you if you want." As he said so, the waiter did not move to get meal for JIANG. JIANG was not happy and left. MAO left Beijing for Wuhan City on the same day. Also in the same day, LIN Biao went to Suzhou City. On October 17, all members of the Politburo and of the Administrative Group of the Central Military Commission moved to Xishan in the suburb of Beijing, under the leadership of ZHOU En-lai. A few days later, LIU Shao-ji was evacuated to Kaifeng City in Henan Province, DENG Xiao-ping to Nanchang City of Jiangxi Province and TAO Zhu to Hefei City of Anhui Province. ZHU De and other Grand Marshals were evacuated to provinces in the South of China. On October 17, i.e. the second day after LIN Biao arrived at Suzhou City, he dictated his secretary an instruction of six items for preventing the Soviet Union s possible launch of a surprise attack: "First, beware of possibility for the Soviet Union to use the first day of the negotiation on October 20 as a smoke screen and launch a surprise attack. As so, pay special attention to 19 th and 20 th days of the month. Second, all army units in the whole country, especially the Military Regions in the 'three north', should immediately and emergently evacuate tanks, aircraft, artillery and other heavy weapons. In addition, take measures to hide combat fortifications and important military points. Third, ensure smooth communication. Forth, increase production of the national defense industry, especially quickly arranging production of antitank weapons. Fifth, every Military Region immediately organizes an elite 175

177 command team who should enter the wartime command position. Sixth, the strategic missile forces should be ready for launch." Then, he asked the secretary to reorganize his instruction and then let YE Qun to telephone WANG Dong-xing in Wuhan City asking him to immediately report to MAO about the instruction. At the same time, the instruction was sent to HUANG Yong-sheng and the Administrative Group of the Central Military Commission, with a note added by YE Qun: "For these six items, we have asked Comrade WANG Dong-xing submitting them to Chairman MAO. In case Chairman MAO has other instructions, we should follow his instructions." Later, WANG Dong-xing called YE Qun and said that Chairman MAO did not provide additional opinion to Vice Chairman LIN s six items. After receiving the "Instructions of six item", HUANG Yongsheng called the members of the Administrative Group in and conveyed LIN s instruction. And then said to YAN Zhong-chuan: "You go to convey (to the lower levels)." YAN asked: "How to convey it?" HUANG replied: "Convey by phone first to the heads of all the Military Regions. After returning back to the office of the staff combat duty room, YAN proposed a draft to be used in telephone communication. He thought that this instruction is the first order made by the Administrative Group of the Central Military Commission after transferring to Xishan, and therefore named it as Order Number One. And he so instructed the staff on duty. In October 19, LIN Biao emergently reported the "Instruction of six items" to Chairman MAO again, in the form of a record of telephone communication this time. WANG Dong-xing then distributed it to MAO and ZHOU En-lai and other leaders. ZHOU wrote an instruction saying Chairman MAO, please read." WANG brought the circulating file to MAO personally. After looked at it, MAO s face became unhappy and he said to WANG: "Burn it." Before WANG reacting, MAO picked up a match and set the circulating file onto fire. Then, he picked up the envelope and wanted to set fire on it too. WANG hurriedly said: "Chairman, you can't burn it. If burned, how should I explain it in case somebody question it? Leave the envelope that has the circulating number and please don't burn it." MAO then stop to burn the envelop. In the evening, ZHOU En-lai called WANG: "Had the Chairman seen LIN Biao's emergency phone notice?" WANG replied: "I sent it to the Chairman and the Chairman burned it." ZHOU asked in astonishment: "Burned?" WANG explained: "The Chairman was not happy and burned it. After I advising, he left the envelope unburned." ZHOU did not say anything 176

178 more. LIN Biao and HUANG Yong-sheng et al learned that MAO had burned the circulated file, and then ordered to revoke the Order Number One. The death of LIU Shao-qi According to the emergency evacuation plan, LIU Shao-ji was evacuated to Kaifeng City of Henan Province. At the night of October 17, 1969, LIU Shaoji, who was suffering from serious illness with body unable to move by himself, was carried on a stretcher to a plane flying to Kaifeng City. His guard LI Tai-he, and a doctor and two nurses accompanied him. At 9 PM, the plane landed. Waiting at the Kaifeng Airport were the political commissar of the Henan Military Region, WANG Gong-xin, the security director of the Liberation Army s No. 155 Hospital, ZHANG Jin-gui, and staff SHI Zhen-de. They boarded the plane and saw LIU Shao-ji lying inside the cabin and his nose was with a feeding tube. The escort personnel were exchanging a purple towel covering his body (the air is warmer in the plane) to a pink quilt (outside of the plane was cold). In exchange for the quilt, SHI Zhen-de saw that LIU did not wear a cloth. LIU s stretcher was carried off the plane and then to a car, and drove to a small building within complex of the Revolutionary Committee of Kaifeng City. The medical staff from Beijing explained to the Kaifeng s medical group consisting of Dr. CHANG Wen-xiu and three nurses, about LIU's illness, treatment, his daily life and diet, and other aspects of the situation. The Kaifeng s doctor CHANG decided that they will continue what LIU was treated in Beijing but adding antibiotic when infusing. Nose feeding was carried five times a day and the food fed are the egg drop soup, chicken soup, soybean milk and milk. LIU had not spoken a word during his time in Kaifeng City. His eyes open when the nursing staff came, and then closed with a normal face. The nurse washed his feet and combed his hair every day, made nails every three to five days. LIU showed bronchial pneumonia symptoms twice on October 24th and 31 st day, but both were out of danger after medical treatments. In November 6, the medical staff from Beijing went back to Beijing and, since then, LIU s medical care work was transferred to local staff in Kaifeng City. On October 10, LIU's illness attacked again, with high fever continuously. Local medical personnel treated the illness by using the same method they used in the two previous times. 177

179 At 1 AM in the early morning of November 12, 1969, LIU's physical condition deteriorated, i.e. mouth breathing and lip empurples, which did not change even after taking oxygen. The nurse on duty still gave LIU the drugs according to the original prescription. At 6:38 AM, the nurse found that the situation was bad and called the other medical personnel to rescue LIU. At 6:42 AM, all health care workers were there. Three minutes later, LIU's heart stopped beating. Five minutes after the stop of breathing, the rescue efforts were stopped. LIU Shao-qi was 71 years old. After LIU's death, the director of the 155th Hospital reported to ask for instruction. At the same time, he let SHI Zhen-de and CAO Wen-xiu clean LIU s body by taking a bath and cleaning the face, and then a photo was taken. At that night, the hospital director, LIU s guard LI, Mr. XING et al. sent LIU s body to a crematorium, with LIU's face covered by a large triangle towel. The people of the LIU project team from Beijing filled the cremation application form. They fraudulently put LIU Yuan (LIU Shao-qi s son) as the applicant. They put "LIU Wei-huang", which was a name LIU Shao-qi used when young but known only by very few people, in the column for the deceased. The ashes were secretly kept in Kaifeng City. DENG Xiao-ping s situation From the fall of 1967 to the fall of 1969, DENG Xiao-ping was isolated in the home. At the beginning, he swept the yard every day following an order of the red guards. And later, it became his habit, and he and his wife sweep the yard every day and make the yard very clean, regardless of rain, wind or freezing. In the rest of a day, DENG sat in his room, reading a book or newspaper, listening to the radio, or just sat in silence. Sometimes, the rebels came to order him writing materials on some other people. For example, in November 1967, a rebel group of the Ministry of Health ordered him to confess how he promoted QIAN Xin-zhong (then the Health Minister). To this request, DENG wrote: "QIAN Xin-zhong had worked for a long time in the Second Field Army. We, mainly me, trusted him. I and some other responsible comrades believed in a long term that he is capable when being in charge of health works. His surgery ability was rare in the time. He was hardworking, especially in the battlefields. So, my view on him is that he has a lot of minor problems, but the majority is good and he contributed in the wartime. The Prime Minister proposed promoting QIAN Xin-zhong to the Minister of Health and I was in favor of it. In this promotion, I have no conspiracy with 178

180 AN Zi-wen (Note: the Party s Organization Minister who had been knocked down at the time)." In October 1969, the central leaders were evacuated from Beijing to places in the country because the Soviet Union may raid China. DENG was evacuated to Jiangxi Province, and had a labor work in a small factory called "Xinjian Tractor Factory" located in Xinjian County on the outskirt of Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province. His wife ZHUO Lin and stepmother XIA Bo-gen accompanied him. Before he arrived, ZHOU En-lai phoned the Jiangxi Revolutionary Committee, asking them to ensure the personal safety of DENG. Then the vice director of the Jiangxi Revolutionary Committee, CHEN Chang-hao, went to the factory and told the director of the revolutionary committee of the factory: "The Central decided to put the Party s No. 2 capitalist roader DENG Xiao-ping in Jiangxi Privince for labor, and the provincial revolutionary committee decided to put him in your factory. You have three specific tasks. First, you should ensure his safety, 100%, not 99%. DENG has influence not only in the country, but also in foreign countries. At the same time, we afraid of the rebel s pulling and criticizing him, and of bad guys getting him off and killing him. If that happens, your head will be needed. In short, whenever Chairman MAO and the Party s Central want this person DENG Xiao-ping, we must hand over him in a good condition. Second, you arrange his labor in a workshop, three or four hours a day. Third, the Central did not make decision on how to treat him. As for his title, you do not call him comrade or his full name but just one character, i.e. his family name, and call him Lao DENG." Finally, CHEN said: "That DENG Xiao-ping is working here can be known by your factory workers, but not their family members. Keep it secret." After DENG arrived, the factory s director, LUO Peng, told him: "Previously, I worked in the Jinchanji Military Region and was one of your men." DENG nodded his head and asked: "Are thethere Red Guards in this factory?" LUO told him: "The majority of this factory are old workers who engage in production, and there are no Red Guards. In the workshop you work, the majority are also old workers and they are very disciplined, you need not to worry when working in the workshop. Don't be too tired, pay attention to rest." LUO Peng also said: "There is a room that was an office previously and now dedicated to the use of you and your wife. When you are tired, or when you don't feel well, you go to the room for a rest. My office is right facing the room, and you may come to me if there would be anything." 179

181 Left photo: The workshop DENG Xiao-ping labored. Right: DENG and his grandson. In the first day DENG labored there, the workshop director TAO Duan-jin let him clean machine parts. DENG nodded, rolled up his sleeves, scrubbed the parts in a pot and started to clean them. After squatting for a long time, his legs became numb, and felt difficult for his body to straight up. This scene was seen by the workshop director, and he came and said to DENG: Although I do not know in advance you have a leg problem, but I should think of that an old man should not squat for a long time. You change to another job!" He helped DENG sat in a chair and discussed with him: "Later, you may file steel components." DENG said: "This will be good for me. I was a fitter fifty years ago (Note: DENG was a fitter in France when he was young and work-and-study in Europe at the time). Working and being tired would not be a problem because it makes me sweat, which is good." Since then, DENG had been working as a fitter in the factory. His wife ZHUO Lin was also in the same workshop, doing the work of separating coils. Usually, they left from home at 8 AM every morning, and walked for half an hour to the factory. DENG stood and filed parts, and rarely spoke. ZHUO sat and separated coils, and chatted with the workers around. They were on a half-day labor, and left for home at the noontime. One day, a few people walked around the factory and asked a worker of the factory: "It is said that DENG Xiao-ping labors in your factory. Do you know that?" The worker replied: "I don't know." The worker told LUO Peng about what happened. LUO Peng immediately called a meeting of the defend group of the factory. He said in the meeting: "Recently, some unknown people inquire about the whereabout of DENG Xiao-ping. We should be vigilant. We should absolutely guarantee the safety of DENG Xiao-ping, which is the instruction from the Prime Minister and is a political task to be implemented completely." Later on the day, several big vehicles suddenly appeared outside 180

182 the factory, on which stood rebels. A leader jumped off the vehicle and said: "We want to see DENG Xiao-ping!" The gate guard was an old party member. He stood in front of the vehicle and said, "You can't enter!" The leader of the rebels said: "Who are you? DENG Xiao-ping is the No. 2 capitalist roader. You still protect him, and where do you stand?" At this time, LUO Peng came out and said: "To protect security of DENG Xiao-ping is Premier ZHOU's instruction, and to forbid anyone to pull out DENG Xiao-ping is stipulated explicitly by the provincial revolutionary committee. If you want to take out DENG Xiao-ping, show me a letter from the provincial revolutionary committee. Whoever came but without such a letter, I will not give him DENG Xiao-ping. What I am doing is the implementation of instructions from the higher levels. This is nothing wrong!" The rebels left the factory and talked to a deputy director of the county s revolutionary committee. The deputy director himself led the rebels and rushed to the factory again. He broke resistence of the gate guard and entered the workshop. The director of the workshop, TAO, stepped forward to stop him. LUO Peng rushed in and said to the deputy director of the county revolutionary committee: You should get an approval from the director of the county s revolutionary committee. The deputy director of the county s revolutionary committee had to leave. Later, the Party s secretory of the county disciplined the deputy direction after approved by the provincial revolutionary committee. The residence of DENG s family was a small independent building. Originally, it was the residence of the principal of the Nanchang School for Infantry, who is a general, and therefore the building was known as "the general s building". The building is on a slope within the campus. It had an old appearance, though with red brick and gray tiles. In the hall downstairs stood a table for table tennis. DENG Xiao-ping lived in the chamber on the second floor, with a bathroom. There is neither central heating nor hot water in the building. When wanting to take a bath, DENG heated water in downstairs first, and then took the hot water, one bucket by one bucket, to the bathroom in upstairs. Later, an old cadre in the Party s provincial committee, named HUANG Zhi-zhen, learned about the matter, and then arranged DENG Xiao-ping s family to take a hot bath at the provincial hostel every weekend. Soon, DENG Xiao-ping took his son DENG Pu-fang, who was paralyzed, in to live together. DENG Pu-fang was paralyzed two years ago. At the time, he was a student at Beijing University and was isolated by the rebels in a room on the third floor. He jumped down from the window when the guard did not pay enough attention on him, broke his leg and was rushed to the university 181

183 hospital. His mother ZHUO Lin hurried to the hospital and saw her son with a leg broken and the lower body paralyzed. She did not cry in front of her son, but tears flowed down after leaving the room. Shortly afterwards, she came to Nanchang City with DENG Xiao-ping for supervised labor. Later, she received a letter from her sister who lived in Beijing, saying that her son has been sent to a welfare center, living in a big room with a dozen of people and therefore the room was very crowded. DENG Xiao-ping and ZHUO Lin were very worried about their son. DENG Xiao-ping wrote a letter to MAO Zedong, saying that we want to bring the son to the side in Jiangxi Province since his illness could not be treated in a hospital and was already sent to a welfare center. MAO agreed. Accompanied with his sister-in-law, Deng Pufang's took train and arrived at Xinjian County. DENG Xiao-ping and his family had lived there for about two years. The death of TAO Zhu In August 1968, a group of rebels broke into the residence of TAO Zhu in the Zhongnanhai District, took him to a meeting and criticized him there. TAO's hands were crucified, his head was pressed down but TAO desperately headed up, and then hit by fists and kicked by the rebels so that his forehead immediately had a few swollen spots. The meeting lasted three hours. By the end of September, TAO Zhu had dizziness and intended to vomit. After visiting a doctor, he got some medicine. In March 1969, A doctor found that TAO s right upper quadrant of abdominal had a large lump and therefore sent him to the Army s No. 302 Hospital for further examination. In the hospital, he was found to have gallbladder cancer and needed an immediate surgery. TAO was transferred to the Amy s No. 301 Hospital and had a surgery there. After the surgery, TAO became better. Soon, TAO s illness deteriorated again. In the later September, the cancer cells proliferated and the doctors said there is no further treatments available but using analgesics and anesthetics to relieve the pain. In October, the Central decided to implement an emergency evacuation plan due to a possible Soviet attack. WANG Dong-xing told TAO s wife, CENG Zhi: "There is a possibility of an outbreak of a war, Beijing should be evacuated and TAO Zhu will be evacuate to Hefei City of Anhui Province. You may decide by your own what you do. It will be okay if you want to go with him, but then you should stop communication with the outside world and 182

184 not to associate with anyone. It is also okay if you do not go with him. You may go to Guangdong Province and labor in countryside, but must not contact TAO. In Hefei City, TAO will receive 100 Yuan per month (Note: about twice the wages of a fresh college graduate) and he will take care of himself." CENG told TAO the words of WANG Dong-xing. TAO thought over for a while, and then said: "You do not accompany me going to Hefei." Before leaving for Hefei, TAO gave a poetry to his wife with whom he lived for more than forty years: "It is difficult for me to go back to the battlefields, and my thanks to you for the deep sentiment going to the sky and cloud. The white hair tells the age, my later life contaminated and I tried to suppress the bitter feeling. Even a sick horse knows to hiss, and drying sunflower afraid of snow and frost. Forget all the past like a gone smoke, and selfless makes the world wider." After arriving in Hefei City, TAO was admitted to an Army s hospital in the western suburb of the city, and received a highly special nursing care. In late October, TAO's condition worsened. He could not get up, eat nor stool. An examination by the hospital showed that TAO's condition is very serious: Intestines adhesion and a complete intestinal obstruction. After getting approval from a higher level, the hospital decided to give TAO an operation. But the surgery did not solve the problem of intestinal obstruction. After the surgery, TAO was in a coma. In November 30, 1969, TAO said goodbye to the world. He was 61 years old. The medical staff opened the big box that TAO brought from Beijing, and found it is almost filled with books and only a few pieces of clothing: a beige shirt, a silk-cotton coat and a wool uniform. They called these clothes "old clothes" and put on to TAO s body, one by one, then covered the body by a white sheet, carried to an ambulance and went to the crematorium. The death of PENG De-huai The last few years of PENG De-huai's life was in the General Hospital of PLA (i.e. the No. 301 Hospital). His ward was in the 14 th Inpatient Area of the South Building. The area is located in the southwest corner of the forth floor of the building, and its patients were mostly problematic senior cadres, i.e. of the ranks higher than deputy army corps commander or equivalent local leaders. PENG s patient number was

185 In the evening of April 12, 1973, PENG went, with help of the caring staff, to the doctor's office because he had hematochezia for ten days and the illness became more and more serious. The preliminary diagnose was that he has a rectal cancer. On April 18, the hospital officially reported to the Central Task Force for PENG: No. 145 patient must be operated as soon as possible, otherwise there is a danger to his life. The task force asked, in turn, ZHOU En-lai for instruction. ZHOU wrote an instruction: Comrade PENG De-huai's problem is not clear as yet. The operation should not be affected by his problem. The operation should be done well." In April 26, the hospital performed a surgery for PENG s rectal cancer. During the surgery, the doctors found the cancer has been transferred and then also removed those tumors, and made an artificial anus in the left lower abdomen. At this point, Dr. YANG Han-qin came to the 14 th Inpatient Area as the resident doctor. A department leader told him that No. 145 patient is PENG De-huai who downed in the Lushan Meeting. The department leaders, as well as the members of the special taskforce on PENG, stressed: You are a doctor and your task is to care and treat patients. You treat PENG s illness as how the treatment should have and prescribe medicines what medicine such a patient should take. If you have any question, you should report to get instructions. When you are in the patient s room, you shall not initiate talk with him nor answer his questions that are not related to the medical treatments he takes. Nobody is allowed to enter the room, except the related medical staff and the members of the special task force. The patient is not allowed to leave the room unless it is necessary for medical reasons, and there is a guard in the room, who is in duty 24 hours a day, day and night. Always pay attention to confidentiality. After succession, Dr. YANG carefully listened the introduction of the previous doctor on duty and carefully studied PENG s medical records. Then he came to PENG's ward. The room has more than ten square meters, and the doors and windows are closed. The room was almost empty except books of "The selected works of MAO Ze-dong" and a few pieces of outdated newspapers such as "People's Daily" and "Liberation Army Daily. PENG was wearing an old black thin coat and cotton shoes but without socks. He sat in a chair, and his hands in his sleeves and his eyes were dull. Noticing a new doctor coming, PENG pointed to the medical record card on the bed and said: "I am not named this '145'. I am PENG Deh-uai of the Lushan Meeting!" No one said anything. 184

186 Dr. YANG took care of six or seven patients, including Generals who had been pulled out and criticized. They were all relatively quite, except PENG. Sometimes roar came out of PENG s ward. Dr. YANG had seen that PENG tore alone sometimes and sighed some other times. PENG also talked to himself the old events, mentioning the names of MAO Ze-dong, ZHU De and ZHOU En-lai. Dr. YANG once heard PENG said: "Those telling a lie or exaggeration got popular and those telling the truth got guilty. What is it in the world?" "You (Note: Refers to MAO Ze-dong) said that I have conspiracy, plans and organization, a program and a purpose.... All are wrong. But I am prepared. What is prepared? I am prepared to be expelled from the Party, wife divorced and beheaded!" "You said that I am like a fierce ZHANG Fei, both rough and fine.... Why were you so angery? Just because of a letter from me and a few of my talks? Is it due to that you heard 'long live' too much?... I don't call you 'long live', I wish you healthy and longevity!" "I, PENG De-huai, have errors, but I also have contributions. Both errors and contributions, is it okay? But you cannot say I was a revolutionary sometimes and counterrevolutionary some other times!... Negating me PENG De-hai is a small matter, but negating history, facts, truth and the Party's principles is a big deal!" "I have never been afraid of death. I can destroy myself, but I will not betray myself." PENG s cancer has invaded his shoulders, and his shoulders were swollen badly and also very painful. The hospital planned for a radiation therapy. After obtaining agreements from the ad hoc group as well as his niece PENG Mei-kui, PENG began to have radiation therapy. The doctor in patrol asked him: "Is pain in your shoulders and waists getting less? You should stick with the radiation." PENG replied: "I can stand with it. My shoulders cannot be suppressed down and my back is still straight. Why didn't give my case a conclusion? What crime did I PENG De-huai commit? I will not die with eyes closed if I die in this way!" Sometimes, he burst into anger and said to the guard loudly: "I suffocate to die! I am not here to await the death! Let me go out!" "I want to see Chairman MAO, or you may expel me from the Party! Pull me out and shot! Let the people of the world to comment on me, a good man or a bad man." Later, the cancer had spread to the lung, brain and other parts of his body, so he suffered and the pain made him bite the bed sheet and then throw them onto the ground. The nurses had to repeatedly change the sheets, re-dress and take bath for him. He pulled out the transfusion needle and, when the guards stopped him to do that, shouted: "I don't use MAO Zedong s drug!" When feeding him, he pull the food to the ground and shouted: 185

187 "I do not eat meal from MAO ze-dong!" Sometimes he was depressed and irritable, staring and thinking, and some other times tore or shouted. The doctors and nurses comfort him: "Your mood should not be too excited. Don't think too much to avoid affecting your health." He stared at the notebooks in the hands of the project staff and the guards, and said in a higher voice: "Let you record! Just say I have an opinion and am angry. I really don't know how to thank you if you could report my situation to the Central Committee and Chairman MAO!" Late at night, he cried in a dream: "Destroy the enemy! Charge! Comrades..." followed by a long cough. PENG pain was getting worse and worse. He said: "xxx, I could not stand the pain. Just let me die." He could not sleep though it was midnight already, and the nurse gave him a sleeping pill or two, following the doctor's advice. After breakfast, he often had diarrhea and the nurse gave him a drink of camphor. In the morning of September 2, 1974, two members of the ad hoc group came to PENG s ward. They looked at the thin body and the dark and dry face of PENG lying on bed, and said: We come to you today to convey an instruction of the vice chairman YE Jian-ying, asking if you want to say something more. PENG s tongue was stiff and very difficult to speak, but he said: "Chairman MAO developed Marx-Leninism.... Premier ZHOU, to whom I got along fore more than 30 years, is the one in our Party who best masters and uses the thoughts and strategies of Chairman MAO. Our socialist causes will surely succeed. I have committed a lot of mistakes, but I do not engage in schemes and intrigues, at which I am innocent.... On our defense development, our strategic defense facilities are not complete and the defense industry and scientific research are unable to keep pace with the world, which I am mostly worried anout. As long as we have a plan and always be ready, the enemy's material strength can be overcome.... I have been reviewed for eight years, but still no conclusion up to now." One night in early November, the doctor rounded to PENG s room. PENG had bad back pain and groaned: "Why is the pain so bad today? Death is better than such a living." Severe pain caused convulsions, and he agitated, with rapid pulse, shortness of breath and cyanosis. Medical personnel rescued him, but eventually he entered into semi-coma due to multiple organ failure. In November 4, the hospital gave him a tracheotomy, agreed by the special task force and PENG s niece, to maintain the last life. He can't speak. He often turned his head to a side, and tears came down onto the pillow. His eyes were 186

188 covered with blood nets but always open. The noise of Ku-lu-ku-lu came out from his chest through the trachea sleeve. November 29 was the last day of PENG De-huai's life. When the medical staff was giving him a procedure of sucking sputum, he suddenly used his skinny right hand to gesticulate in the air, his mouth open and voiced ah, ah, and his eyes widely opened, looking at the world. Then, his heart stopped beating. He was 76 years old. The nurse routinely made services for the last time: scrubbing the body and changing the addresses, and finally covering the body by a white sheet. When PENG De-huai was dying, his mind was still clear, but there was not a family member or relative around to see him off. PENG had several engagements or marriages in his life, but the outcomes were all not good. In 1918, when he was 18 years old, he engaged with ZHOU Rui-lian, with whom he had known to each other during their childhood. Soon after that, he left home, however, to join the army in order to find the truth for poor men. Two years later, ZHOU's father was hounded to death because of debts, and she jumped off the cliff as her reaction against the plan that she must marry someone as the way to pay her father s debt. In 1921, PENG saw a song stress ZHANG Su-e, who was only 13 years old and was beaten because she insisted that she is a singer but not a prostitute entertainer. He and his friends immediately paid 170 Dayang (Note: This is a unit of silver money) and redeemed her body. The girl said to him that she is willing to serve him for a lifetime. But PENG bought her a steamer ticket and sent her home. In 1922, as an officer in the Xiang Army, PENG was 24 year old and married under the auspices of his relatives and friends. Her name is LIU Xi-mei and she was a daughter of a peddler. When they marry, she posed as 14 years old, but actually less than 12 years old. PENG renamed her as LIU Kun-mo, let her put the feet free, and taught her to read and write. In 1928, before launching the Pingjiang Uprising, PENG let her go home, promising to meet her after victory of the revolution. Since then, LIU wandering around, lost contact with PENG, and later married another man in Hankou City and had a daughter for him. In 1937, she learned from a newspaper that PENG is now the deputy commander of the Eighth Army, and wrote a letter to him addressed to "PENG De-huai, Pingxingguan Area". This letter was received by PENG! He got her to Yanan Town. She told him that she was re-married and had a daughter. PENG said to her: "I should not be blamed for this and, at the same time, you should not be blamed either." LIU later re-married to the director of 187

189 the BANK for the Shanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. Since then, PENG had several emotional events, but did not marry as a result. One of them was a foreigner who expressed her love to PENG in Yanan. PENG replied: "I am a soldier and always in battle fields. I am always ready to go the battlefront and ready to sacrifice. The war will be long and very cruel, so we can't fall in love." After listening these words, she believed more that he is a true hero, and therefore said: "I love you! For you, I am not afraid of any danger!" But PENG said: "You love me, which I am very grateful, but am really sorry that I do not love you." In 1938, PENG married to PU An-xiu in Yanan. She was a student of the Beijing Normal University and was 20 years old. After the marriage they had not gotten a child, but the feeling to each other had been okay. After PENG was knocked down at the Lushan Meeting, PU wanted to go with the Party, and for her and him each to go for her/his own. Historian JIAN Bo-zan persuaded her but no use. Finally PENG brought a pear, cut it to two pieces and asked PU if she will eat the separated pear. (Note: The word "pear" and "separation" are homonym in Chinese), PU hesitated for a while, and then picked up half of the pear, finished it by a few stuttering and left with hands covering her face. But they did not go for a formal divorce procedure. Since then, she never came to see PENG. During the Cultural Revolution, she was once brought to a meeting for criticizing PENG. PENG shouted to the Red Gguards: "She and I had separated. She is innocent!" But PU was still suffered, almost to commit a suicide. She had never visited PENG when he was in the hospitals, and did not shown up when he died. PENG kept a deep relationship with Marshal ZHU De. They often play chess. They were very different when eliminating a chess piece: ZHU took the piece out of the chessboard and put the booty in a straight row, while PENG s way to eliminate a chess piece was very scary: hardly put his chess piece on the top of the other piece to be eliminated, making a big sound of Ping. PENG often tried to undo in chess play. When he did so, ZHU would seize his wrist, stared at him and cried: "Do not undo! Put it down!" Then, PENG would straighten out his neck and said: "You eliminate it secretly! It does not count." ZHU would say: "Should I always announce an official statement when eliminating your chess piece? You should admit your tactic is not good enough. Undoing counts as nothing." Their guards were looking at the two old Grand Marshals and laughed. 188

190 The death of HE Long Marshal HE Long and his wife XUE Ming were sent to the Xishan Area of Beijing in early 1967, and lived in an independent residential segregation. HE said to his wife: "I did not expect that they think me as such a person.... Other people may not know me well, but doesn t he, ZHOU En-lai, know me very well? It seems that his situation is also not good.... In the old society, I had seen a variety of people, knew a variety of doctrines. I choose this and choose that, and finally I identified only the Communist Party of China can save China. From then on, I have dedicated my life to the Party and Communism. From my uprising by using only two knives to my activities in the northern expedition, Nanchang Uprising, Western Hunan and Hubei, Shanxi-Gansu- Ningxia and North-west Shanxi, who don't know me HE Long? Did not Chairman MAO also praise me? I want to go back and find them to clarify." But he was isolated there and not allowed leaving the residence. HE Long was often in a bad mood. One day, HE used his cane to struck a photo of LIN Biao in a newspaper and said angrily: "You, the despicable guy, why do not allow me engage in the revolution? Do you know that you are very guilty and do you fear of others to catch you?" "A traitor appears in the Party and the traitor is you!" HE Long then turned to his wife and said: "JIANG Qing is also a person who hits others. They control the newspapers. They are going to knock down all the old comrades and so that there is nobody around Chairman MAO and they can get the power!" When it comes to KANG Sheng, he said: "This man is a crafty person and did all the very bad things." At the time, the movement to seize power in provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions was going on, and newspapers were publishing editorials cheering the power seize and the establishment of the revolutionary committee. HE Long said: "From whom did they catch the power? These old cadres followed Chairman MAO and fought from south to north, and contributed! They held power for the proletariat! Their powers have been taken away!... Now the situation is so bad, where will the Party go? And where will the country go?" He added: "I desperately fought for decades, my whole career was in the Army, I followed the Party without disloyalty even in the most difficult times, and joined the Party when the Communist Party was in its most difficult time. As so, I will not afraid no matter how difficult it is." HE Long suffers from diabetes, often felt thirsty, but he and his wife got only a pot of drinking water a day. The water is not enough, and they therefore had to collect rain in a 189

191 washbasin and even in a cup. One day, the rain was heavy. The couple carried a large washbasin filled with water going back the room, but slipped and he fell and sprained his waist. In the following 18 days, he was unable to neither move nor defecate. His wife used a rubber tube for a spare oxygen bag to enema for him, and finally made his constipation eased. In September 1967, a Politburo meeting decided to establish "HE Long task force" to initiate the review on him, headed by KANG Sheng. KANG said: "HE Long's problems, in short, are the problems of the two mutinies." He said that the first is the "February mutiny" in 1966 and the second is the "attempted mutiny" in history. The cause of the latter is that a child of a former Guomindang official wrote a letter in February, 1967, to the Central saying that HE interviewed and discussed matters relating to a mutiny in 1933 with the Guomindang s spy XIONG Gong-qing (Note: He was a friend of HE in the earlier time). Actually, it is true that JIANG Jie-shi had sent XIONG Gong-qing inducing HE to capitulate. The Sub Bureau of the Central Committee in the Western Hunan and Hubei Soviet Area at the time sent a report to the Central: "In December of last year (i.e. 1933), JIANG Jie-shi had sent a representative XIONG Gong-qing to lobby Comrade HE Long, attempting to incorporate with HE. At the beginning, XIONG himself didn t go to HE personally but sent LIANG Su-fo first. Comrade HE discovered and exposed the plot of LIANG, considered it is insulting and reported the event to the Sub Bureau. We allowed XIONG to come for the purpose of obtaining information about JIANG Jie-shi s plot of destroying the Central Soviet Area and the Fourth Front Army. According to XIONG, JIANG has sent four men (two of them are from Zhejiang Province) to the Fourth Front Army. They have already set a similar work in the Central Soviet Area for many years. They mainly work on the upper level. We expose XIONG publicly, and held a mass meeting for a trial and finally shotted him." However, KANG Sheng required the task force to find out the specific content of the agreement between HE and XIONG, and to address the question of why XIONG was still killed after having reached an agreement with HE? The task force detained some of HE s subordinates, friends and relatives back home, tortured them to extract confessions. A General could not bear the tortures and finally wrote, following the project personnel's dictation, the provisions of the mutiny agreed by HE and XIONG. A few days later, another subordinate was also forced to confess that HE s killing of XIONG was a result of strong resistance from the majority of officers and soldiers of the 3 rd Red Army. 190

192 In the twelve plenary session of the Party s Eighth Central Committee held in October 1968, MAO Ze-dong said that he would no longer protect HE Long. Then, the task force proposed to criticize HE Long face-to-face. But the Central Cultural Revolution Group thought HE has "bad temper", and decided to criticize HE "back-to-back". They made a list of questions and let HE answer them in a written form. After taking a look at the list, HE hurtled it down to the table and shouted: "Hell! Where comes such a thing? I had shotted the person! A plant, a complete plant! See a ghost in a day time!" For the following few days, he burst into anger, smoked a lot and walked around in the room. He opened his notebook and wrote down the word "innocent" for several times. After the weather turned cool, HE Long was looking forward for ZHOU Enlai to send people to take him home, which ZHOU promised previously. But the days went by and no one came. He said to his wife: "The Prime Minister did not send people here, which indicates that he himself is enable to do it. The struggle within the Party is so complex that the Prime Minister may be in very difficult situation. The Cultural Revolution is personally launched and led by Chairman MAO. Does he not know that the whole country is in such a bad situation? I now understand the mood of the Prime Minister and the words he said to me. He had no choice! At that time, we were living in his home, would not LIN Biao and JIANG Qing attack him for this?" HE's health was getting worse, suffering fatigue, palpitation, dizziness, very irregular pulse, sleeping not well, etc. He had been suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes. His wife XUE Ming wrote to the Central Office, requesting treatment. Since then, a doctor came regularly and provided some medicine for HE. HE was also sent to a hospital and lived there for a few days. In early May 1969, HE fell down for seven consecutive times, which is a symptom of diabetes mellitus. XUE Ming repeatedly asked the hospital to check his blood sugar and urine sugar, but did not get agreement. In the night of May 24, HE fell down again. When waked up, he heard a sentinel outside of the window was singing the popular song "Honghu water waves". (Note: This is a theme song of a movie describing the people's life at Honghu Revolutionary Base led by HE Long, which had been widely circulated among ordinary people.) HE said to XUE: "The people will never forget whoever has done a good deed for the people, and will never forgive whoever has committed a crime in front of the people." In the afternoon of June 8, HE s blood pressure lowered and felt a severe pain in his upper abdomen. The 191

193 resident staff and the doctor reported this to their supervisor. After four hours, two specialist doctors came, sent HE s urine sample to a laboratory, and infused hypertonic glucose for him. At the midnight of the same day, the doctors called to the higher authorities requesting to send HE into the hospital for rescue. At 5 AM of June 9, the task force s personnel, and doctors and nurses of the 301 Hospital came to HE s residence. They did the inspection, and called the hospital for instructions. At 7 AM, the hospital replied: "You can send HE to the hospital." HE said: "I do not have a coma. I should not go to the hospital because the hospital is not where I should go!" But the doctors insisted that he should be sent to the hospital. HE then asked XUE: "I'm going to the hospital. How about you?" XUE said: "Of course I'm going with you!" At 9 AM, HE was admitted to the Hospital. At 10:55 AM, HE s blood pressure dropped to 70 / 40. At 11:30 AM, the attending physician proposed to organize an expert consultation team for HE s rescue. At 1:30 PM, the expert consultation team began diagnoses. Two hours later, HE Long died, at the age of

194 Chapter 7.8 The formation of the LIN Biao group The event of YANG, YU and FU In March, 1968, an event of "impact" on the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse happened in Beijing. The cause was that MAO Ze-dong received a letter from LU Xun s wife, XU Guang-ping, saying that the original scripts of LU s letters stored in the LU Xun s Museum were missing. MAO immediately asked ZHOU En-lai arranging people to find the scripts. The search was actually handled by FU Chong-bi, the commander of the Beijing Garrison. After twists and turns, FU finally found that the scripts should be stored in the Security Room of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, located at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse under the custody of a secret agent named BU Xin-rong. So, FU Chong-bi called JIANG Qing. Her secretary XIAO Li was on the phone and said that JAING was not in the office. FU then said: "Is there a person called BU Xin-rong in staff for the Central Cultural Revolution Group?... He should know the whereabouts of LU's scripts. You give Comrade JIANG Qing a report. We will be in your place soon." After the call, FU took some armed soldiers with him and went to Diaoyutai by riding on two military jeeps. FU and others arrived at the door of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the janitor called the Central Cultural Revolution Group to consult on whether to allowed them to enter. CHEN Bo-da s secretary replied: "They may come in." So, FU and others came to the conference room of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. At this moment, JIANG Qing entered to the room. Seeing a few armed soldiers standing in the room, JIANG was suddenly furious and shouted: "FU Chong-bi! What are you going to do? Come here to catch people? This is where the Central Cultural Revolution Group is. Who let you come in? You can't come here without permission! This is a big issue!" YAO Wen-yuan chimed in on her side: "What is this problem? You have to clarify." Just at this moment, FU s secretary FONG fell to the ground. In these days, secretary FONG was too tired in tracing LU Xun's scripts day and night, too nervous and with an empty stomach, and therefore collapsed momentarily and fainted. His black bag fell to the ground, and the notebooks and the files inside also left out around. JIANG Qing was shocked. She ducked and shouted: "What's the matter? What's going on?" FU Chong-bi replied: "It does not matter much. Just let him have a rest and he will be okay." A few people helped to lift and move Secretary FONG to the side. FU said to JIANG: "We have just located 193

195 where LU Xun s manuscripts are, and especially come to report it to you." JIANG's tone eased some, and asked: "Where are the manuscripts?" FU answered: "In the security room of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. The security officer BU Xin-rong should know." JIANG Qing immediately started an attack: "What? In the security room of the Central Cultural Revolution Group? Call the security officer in!" The security officer BU Xinrong is a cadre of the Air Force, a neatly dressed and quiet man. He gave a standard salute after entering the door, looked at JIANG respectfully and said: "Do you, leading cadre, have something to ask me?" FU asked: "Are several boxes of LU Xun's manuscripts in your place?" BU answered: "Yes, they are in the room upstairs and there are four boxes of them." JIANG s eyes got maddening, her finger pointed to BU s nose, and roared: "You are not Chairman Mao's soldier but a big villain. Catch him up!" All people in the room froze. Some people came forward and grasp BU arms. The security officer felt anxious so that his face was red, and he said: "What is the matter?" JIANG ferociously commanded: "Give me the keys!" After the security officer handed over the keys, his arms were twisted, and he disappeared in the door. JIANG said to the men in the room: "You go upstairs and take the boxes down." People hurried upstairs and brought four big camphor wood boxes. The boxes were opened, and LU Xun s manuscripts were inside, bunch by bunch. JIANG picked one bunch, looked at it for a while and throw it down, and picked another one. Other people in the room all stood there on the side of the boxes and did not make any sound. Then JIANG suddenly said: "I will not read more. Seal all of them up!" After the boxes were sealed, she became more amiable, and said to FU: "You haven't eaten yet? Eat here." FU replied: "No, thanks. We will go back." JIANG insisted: "I let you eat here, and then you must eat here! Don't you want to eat with me?" As she said so, FU stayed for a dinner. After FU left, JIANG Qing attended a Central s meeting. She said at the meeting: FU Chong-bi's courage is so big that he dare to take two vehicles to pound the Central Cultural Revolution Group! If going their way, our security is not guaranteed!" ZHOU En-lai said: "He was to report the whereabouts of LU Xun s manuscripts.... It is wrong that he entered Diaoyutai State Guesthouse without report in advance." CHEN Bo-da said: "No matter for what reason, everyone who wants to enter must report in advance. We do not want such kind of garrison commander!" YE Qun said: This FU Chong-bi is too outrageous!" JIANG said to WU Fa-xian: "You call YANG Cheng-wu right now and ask him to order FU Chong-bi to self-criticize!" WU Fa-xian 194

196 rushed to stand up and hurried to say: "I will immediately call. Immediately." After receiving the call from WU, YANG Cheng-wu had to leave the meeting he was presiding, and went to Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. As he just entered the room, JIANG immediately asked: "FU Chong-bi pounded at Diaoyutai, do you know it?" YANG answered: "I don't know. Why should he pound at Diaoyutai? He is the garrison commander and is allowed to enter Diaoyutai." YE Qun said: "He took two vehicles of armed soldiers, and rushed here. What is the nature of the problem?" YANG said: "Why did he rush? We will know the answer after we call him in and ask him why!" JIANG said: "The Army did such a thing, and it is simply defying laws. He dared to rush at the Central Cultural Revolution Group, and therefore we do not know where he would rush at a few days later! We need to criticize the garrison and FU Chong-bi, which you are responsible!" YANG replied snappily: "What responsibility should I take? I am not the commander of the Beijing Military Region nor the political commissar of the Beijing Garrison. They may criticize FU if criticism is needed." JIANG stared at him and said: "You are the acting General Chief of Staff, and I want you to be responsible!" YANG angrily replied: "I take the responsibility? I don't take! I did not make an order to rush Diaoyutai! And I can't criticize a cadre of the Beijing Garrison bypass his immediate leadership." And he stood up and wanted to leave. ZHOU En-lai stopped him and said: "Cheng-wu, do not leave right now. Comrade XIE Fu-zhi is also here. You accompany Comrade XIE Fu-zhi and go there, and call in cadres of the Beijing Garrison and tell them that such a thing should not happen in the future!" YANG stopped, thought for a while and said: "Accompanying him. Okay, I can do." ZHOU then said to XIE: "Comrade Fu-zhi, you and Comrade Cheng-wu go to the Garrison and criticize them." It seemed that the issue was over but, in JIANG Qing's mind, FU Chong-bi had shocked her Diaoyutai. Also in March 1968, a bigger event happened: The acting Chief of Staff, YANG Cheng-wu, had been knocked down. The fuse was a trifle about YANG s daughter, YANGg Yi. One day, a troubled woman came to the office of the Party committee of the Air Force. Her name is ZONG Su-mei. She said that her husband DAN Shi-chong, the secretary of the Air Force s political commissar YU Li-jin, has improper relationship between men and women with YANG Cheng-wu s daughter, YANG Yi. She continued by saying that DAN goes to the Jingxi Hotel every day to see YANG Yi and often brings food for her. She said that his husband s diary has a photo showing both him and YANG Yi, and two poems, the first one said that "Spring wind is hoping it can pass over the mountain pass of Yumenguan" 195

197 and the second said that "Spring wind has passed the mountain pass". She then asked: "What does that mean?" (Note: She meant to say that they have had sexual activity already when he wrote the second poem.) She said that recently DAN suddenly proposed to divorce with her, "I have had enough and the only thing I can do is to seek help from you, the leadership." The matter went to the Air Force commander WU Fa-xian. WU let staff of the Office of the Air Force Headquarter, WANG Fei and ZHOU Yu-chi, talk to DAN Shichong, but DAN strongly denied to admit. WANG and ZHOU then confined DAN. The political commissar of the Air force, YU Li-jin said: It is me who asked DAN Shi-chong to take care of YANG Yi. And the matter of DAN Shichong and YANG Yi is fabricated to corrupt YANG Cheng-wu s reputation. YU went to LIN Biao s residence with his wife, ZHAO Zi-zhen. ZHOU Zizhen wept and sobbed, and said to YE Qun that the Air Force engaged YANG Yi in the name of engaging DAN shi-chong. But YE Qun replied: "No matter what, ZONG Su-mei s views have been documented in the archives that can be referred." YU Li-jin said: "WU Fa-xian is an authoritarian and I, as the political commissar, do not have power. Everything should follow what WU has said. Many people said that when LIU Ya-lou was the Air Force commander, there is no political commissar, and now, when WU Fa-xian is the commander, the political commissar is redundant." After YU and ZHAO left, YE Qun reported to LIN Biao on what they said. After thinking over the issue for a period of time, LIN Biao called WU Faxian in to his residence in Maojiawan and said to him: "ZHOU Zi-zhen and YU Li-Jin came to complain on you. It seems that someone want to seize the power of the Air Force and knock you out by using YU Li-jin. Such a behavior is wrong, and you have to stick to principles and dare to struggle with YANG Cheng-wu. Don't be afraid, don't bend, and stand up your back to resist!" WU replied: "YANG Cheng-wu has asked his secretary to give me a call asking me going to his house tonight. He wants to see me." LIN Biao said: "You don't go alone. It is better to bring a person with you, so that there will be somebody who can testify about some things." That night, WU Fa-xian and his wife, CHEN Sui-qi, went to YANG Cheng-wu's home. They went to YANG's bedroom upstairs. YANG was lying on the bed and said: "First, don't say that YU Lijin is a traitor." (Note: Not long ago, the Nanjing Military Region found that YU Li-jin was a traitor from Guomindang s old archives and sent the corresponding materials to Beijing.) YU Li-jin now has no power in the Air Force already and, once the words about traitor spreading out, he will have no place in the Air Force at all. Second, (YU Li-jin's secretary) 196

198 DAN Shi-chong did nothing wrong. Do not engage him. If the things would become a bigger issue, it will be difficult to deal with. I call you in today mainly for these two things." WU replied: " I do not know if YU Li-jin is a traitor or not. It was reported by XU Shi-you in Nanjing directly to Chairman MAO and the vice Chairman LIN. I did not reveal a word out. I can't prove that the material is true or false, but of course I hope it is not. What to do with the materials? It is not my duty but will be decided by the above. I am a commander and he is a commissar, and therefore I have no right to deal the issue. As for that YU Li-jin has no power in the Air Force, it is not true. As you know, every afternoon I am in the Central Military Commission s Agministrative Group, and every night I attend meetings of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. Therefore, I do not have time to deal with the issues of the Air Force but, instead, basically handed issues over to YU Li-jin. How can it be said that he has no power in the Air Force? Second, the way for the Air Force to deal the DAN Shi-chong s issue has nothing wrong. He needs to be educated and we did not say that we would punish him. What we are afraid of is that, if dealing with the issue not properly, it will affect the reputation of YANG Yi. We are more afraid of the impact on your, the acting Chief of Staff s reputation. Is it good if the issue up roaring in the whole city?" At this point, YANG looked very impatient. WU Fa-xian then left. When sending them away, ZHAO Zi-zhen shouted: "Don't use this way to make YANG Yi out of the Air Force!" LIN Biao believed that YANG Cheng-wu, together with YU Li-lin, wants to seize the power of the Air Force by overthrowing WU Fa-xian; YANG, together with FU Chong-bi, wants to overthrow XIE Fu-zhi; and YANG has personal ambition, and also wants to squeeze out XU Shi-you, HAN Xian-chu, HUANG Yong-sheng and other Generals whose position is at the same level as his. LIN Biao reported his views to MAO Ze-dong. MAO called meetings for four times to discuss the problems of YANG Cheng-wu. The participants included LIN Biao, ZHOU En-lai, CHEN Bo-da, KANG Sheng, JIANG Qing, ZHANG Chun-qiao, YAO Wen-yuan, XIE Fu-zhi, YE Qun, WANG Dongxing, et al. The last meeting was held at the night of March 23, and the final decision was to withdraw YANG Cheng-wu from the position of acting Chief of Staff. At 1 AM, WU Fa-xian was called in to attend the meeting. MAO said to him: "I know the problem between you and YANG Cheng-wu. You are right and YANG Cheng-wu is wrong." After a while, he asked LIN Biao: "As so, who will be the new Chief of Staff?" LIN thought for a moment, then said: As there is no other candidate for now, should we let the commander of the 197

199 Guangzhou Military Region HUANG Yong-sheng to be the first deputy Chief of Staff or acting Chief of Staff? " MAO asked: "Where did HUANG Yongsheng come from?" LIN answered: "HUANG Yong-sheng was a monitor of the Wuhan Guards Regiment during the Civial Revolution in 1920s. After the Autumn Harvest Uprising, he followed you to Jinggangshan, and became a platoon leader there." MAO was very happy and said: "He was originally from the Wuhan Guards Regiment and is platoon leader in the Jinggangshan. Then we don't need the word acting, just let HUANG Yong-sheng be the Chief of Staff. Let it be our decision." For YU Li-jin s problems, MAO said: "XU Shi-you's material had been already sent to me here, saying that YU Lijin is a traitor. As so, let us arrest and examine him." Then JIANG Qing proposed: Both the positions of the Beijing Military Region and of the Beijing Garrison are very important. FU Chong-bi (Note: commander of the Beijing Garrison) has a very close relationship with YANG Cheng-wu and has been working under the direct leadership of YANG Cheng-wu. Moreover, FU Chong-bi had rushed the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. In order to prevent, it is better to change FU s position as well. MAO agreed, and finally it is decided to transfer him to the Shenyang Military Region and to be a deputy commander there. As to the commander post of the Beijing Garrison, MAO decided that, as proposed by LIN Biao, the deputy Chief of Staff WEN Yucheng takes the post. MAO went on to say: "As to the commander of the Beijing Military Region, let us do not change ZHENG Wei-shan s position. Change too much is not good, but we need to talk to him to clarify the problems." Then, MAO said to LIN: "Let En-lai to deal with the things to be followed. We two leave the venue and take a rest." ZHOU En-lai then presided over the meeting to make very specific decisions: (1) WU Fa-xian immediately sends an air plane to Guangzhou, taking HUANG Yong-sheng to Beijing before noon today as the latest. When HUANG arriving at Beijing, only WU Fa-xin goes to receive HUANG in the airport by using WU s own car, and no other person should go. WU should say nothing to HUANG on the way from the airport to the Great Hall of the People. ZHOU En-lai will personally talk to HUANG Yong-sheng in the Fujian Room of the Great Hall of the People. (2) Notify LI Zuo-peng and QIU Hui-zuo to lead a troop of the Guards Regiment of the Central Leadership, go to YANG Cheng-wu s home, and bring him to the Great Hall of the People, and then LIN Biao, ZHOU En-lai and the participants of the Central Cultural Revolution Group meeting will collectively talk with him. 198

200 (3) Notify ZHENG Wei-shan and FU Chong-bi to come to the Great Hall of the People. ZHOU En-lai will talk to them. At the same time, WU Fa-xian prepare an airplane to send FU Chong-bi to Shenyang City. For the Shenyang side, notify the commander of the Shenyang Military Region, CHEN Xi-lian, to be prepared for receiving FU Chong-bi. (4) Notify the deputy director of the Central Guard Bureau, YANG Dezhong, to lead the security force and go to the Air Force compound, arrest YU Li-jin there and put him in the Qincheng Prison. At the same time, notify the Ministry of Public Security to prepare for it. (At this time, WU Fa-xian raised a question: "This will be at deep night. When so many people rushing to YU Li-jin home, the action will be known widely. Will the effects too big?" ZHOU replied: "You find a way to avoid it! You may just say to him that you want to talk to him, at your home. And I will tell YANG De-zhong to take the guards to your home and wait there in advance. You are responsible only for letting your secretary to ask YU Li-jin going to your home. (5) On the evening of March 23, hold a meeting of all military officers in Beijing, at or above the regiment level, at the Great Hall of the People. The meeting is to convey the decision of the Central Committee on YANG, YU and FU s problems. WU Fa-xian returned home, notified the deputy chief of staff of the Air Force, LIANG Pu, and the guard battalion commander, TIAN Guang-lin, to come to his home. At this time, YANG De-zhong and soldiers arrived at his home. Then, WU told his secretary: "Inform YU Li-jin that I have things to discuss with him and therefore ask him to come to my house." Then he stood on the balcony on the second floor watching the yard. The yard was dark. After a while, YU Li-jin came into the yard. YANG De-zhong went to him and said: "YU Li-jin, you are arrested!" Several guards stepped forward and took him away. Then, WU let the Party s office and the security department of the Air Force search YU Li-jin's house and then keep monitoring there. The secretary of YANG Cheng-wu received a telephone call from YU Li-jin s secretary: Commander WU grabbed the commissar YU Li-jin in the midnight. We would like to ask YANG Cheng-wu if it is WU Fa-xian's coup. YANG was sleeping, and therefore the secretary is hesitant to wake him up. Just at this moment, LI Zuo-peng, QIU Hui-zuo and others came in, and waked YANG Cheng-wu on the bed and asked him to follow them to leave. YANG was brought to the Great Hall of the People. 199

201 At this time, it was dawn already. LIN Biao presided over a small meeting to talk to FU Chong-bi. LIN said to FU: "Now I announce to you the Central's decision: In order to strengthen the leadership of the Shenyang Military Region, you are appointed as the first deputy commander of the Shenyang Military Region; your present position of the commander of the Beijing Garrison will be succeeded by the deputy Chief of Staff, Comrade WEN Yucheng. Comrade WU Fa-xian will arrange a plane to send you to Shenyang." At the same time, ZHOU En-lai led the attendants of the Central Cultural Revolution Group meeting and talk with ZHENG Wei-shan. ZHOU told ZHENG that YANG Cheng-wu had big mistakes and has been revoked from the position of the acting Chief of Staff. He also asked ZHENG to draw a clear line with YANG and expose his mistakes. At 10 AM, LIN Biao, ZHOU En-lai and others talked to YANG Cheng-wu. LIN said to YANG: "I talk to you today mainly to deal with your problems. What are your faults? They are mainly 'mountainism', 'sectarianism' and 'distortion of the Marx doctrine'. You colluded FU Chong-bi together and wanted to overthrow XIE Fu-zhi. You colluded YU Li-jin together to overthrow WU Fa-xian. You also want to crowd out many comrades at the same level as you are, such as XU Shi-you, HAN Xian-chu, HUANG Yong-sheng, etc. The Chairman personally presided over four meetings to discuss your problems, and decided to withdraw the duties of your post of the acting Chief of Staff and the post of the first Secretary of the Party committee there." YANG tried to defend by a few words, but LIN did not let him speak and continued: "You don't go home now. We have found a place for you to live in the Great Hall of the People. You have a rest there first. The Central Committee has decided that you should leave from Beijing and go to Wuhan City and live in the East Lake area there. You can bring your whole family, including your mother, wife and children together. You can take all things you need away. You go there and self-review while taking a good rest." After the conversation, LIN Biao, ZHOU En-lai, CHEN Bo-da, JIANG Qing, et al shook hands with YANG Cheng-wu. After YANG left, JIANG Qing proposed to also put YU Li-jin wife, LU Li-hang, in jail so to help completing the investigation. (Note: LU Li-hang's sister worked in Shanghai City Archives and was the person responsible for keeping materials about JIANG s activities in 1930s. Prior to this, JIANG had already put LU Li-hang's sister in jail). No person in the meeting expresses opposition to JIANG s proposal, and the proposal was considered passed. [Note: YANG Cheng-wu family was finally relocated in Luoyang City in Henan Province, living in a building that originally is a palace of JIANG Jie-shi. Prior to their departure, LIN Biao made an 200

202 appointment with him and said to him: "You now go to the field to live for a period of time, and should seriously self-review your own mistakes. We will keep you as the deputy Chief of Staff." LIN Biao sent him to the door, shook his hands and said goodbye to him. Since then, YANG Cheng-wu received preferential treatment arranged by QIU Hui-zuo in accordance with LIN Biao s instruction. Although YANG Cheng-wu was down, LIN Biao let him homebound in a field and adhered to treat him as the deputy Chief of Staff. LIN did not allow the project group to engage YANG and refused JIANG Qing s repeated proposal of engaging YANG Cheng-wu.] From left: YANG Cheng-wu, YU Li-jin and FU Chong-bi. At 9 PM of March 23, military officers at the regimental level or above stationed in Beijing held a meeting in the Great Hall of the People, and more than ten thousand people attended. LIN Biao, ZHOU En-lai, HUANG Yongsheng and all members of the Central Culture Revolution Group attended the meeting. Before the meeting, MAO Ze-dong asked LIN Biao to talk in the meeting about three issues: The first is to oppose sectarianism, the second is to oppose double-dealers, and the third is about the relation between relativeness and absolute-ness in philosophy. [Note: The third issue is related to an article entitled Establish the absolute authority of Chairman MAO and of MAO Ze-dong s thoughts published in the name of YANG Cheng-wu. MAO saw this article when reading newspapers and wrote a comment: "The wording of absolute authority is wrong. There has been never a separate absolute authority, and an authority is always relative. An absolute thing exists in relative things, just as that an absolute truth is a sum of innumerable relative truthes and exists only in various relative truthes. Saying to establish (an authority) is wrong too. Authority and prestige can only be built from the practice of struggle, and cannot be established artificially.] In the meeting, LIN Biao said: "Recently there appears a new problem in our party's life.... Chairman MAO said that the problem is not big, but not very small either. 201

203 That is to say that, recently in the Air Force, YANG Cheng-wu colluded with YU Li-jin and wanted to overthrow WU Fa-xian so to usurp the Air Force leadership; YANG with FU Chong-bi to overthrow XIE Fu-zhi; YANG has a big personal ambition to exclude XU Shi-you, HAN Xian-chu, HUANG Yong-sheng and other persons with similar position as he has. The Central had four meeting in the residence of Chairman MAO and the Chairman personally presided the meetings. The meetings decided to withdraw YANG Cheng-wu from the duty of the Acting Chief of Staff, arrest YU Li-jin for justice, and revoke FU Chong-bi s job as the Beijing Garrison commander. It has also decided that Comrade HUANG Yong-sheng takes the position of the Chief of Staff, and Vice Minister WEN Yu-cheng the Beijing Garrison commander." Next, LIN Biao talked about the three mistakes YANG Chengwu made. ZHOU En-lai was the next person to speak. He expressed his full support to "the wise decision and command made by our great leader and great commander Chairman MAO, which was just announced by Vice Chairman LIN." In his speech, he demanded that we should always be loyal to the Central Cultural Revolution Group. He especially mentioned the contribution of JIANG Qing: "Here, I want to mention a few of the roles played by Comrade JIANG Qing in the Central Cultural Revolution Group. Comrade JIANG Qing is a strong Communist Party member and a proletariat fighter. Not from today or from the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, but in the 1930s she was already a firm communist, a brave woman warrior fighting with traitors, fake communists, secret agents and antirevolutionaries in society. If now there are double dealers, spies or bad elements collecting the so-called Comrade JIANG Qing s materials at that time, then there are two kinds of such materials. The first kind of materials are Comrade JIANG Qing s own writings for the battles, which are not black materials at all, but red materials, materials of the revolution! (Warm applause.) The second kind of materials is writings of Guomindang and is counter revolutionary things, i.e. slander, libel and persecution. Some one wants to take them out as black materials and publish in some places. Comrade JIANG Qing herself said very clearly that these are the words of Taiwan, words of Hong Kong and words of some ones who should be knocked down. Where are black materials? From more than thirty years ago, Comrade JIANG Qing has become our great leader Chairman MAO's close battle comrade and student. She got cultivation, learning and training of MAO Ze-dong's thought for a long period of time. After years of war, Comrade 202

204 JIANG Qing was in poor health condition in the times after the liberation of the country, but still bore persecution by a handful of representatives of capitalist roaders within the Party, LIU, DENG, TAO, PENG De-huai, HE Long, and PENG, LUO, LU and YANG, and TAN Zhen-lin and so on, and even by XIAO Hua. In spite of this, Comrade JIANG Qing was indomitable, and hold high the great red banner of MAO Ze-dong s thought. In the preparation stage of our Cultural Revolution and in the Socialist Revolution Education Movement, Comrade JIANG Qing reformed literature and art performance and, as we all know of, there were eight model dramas in 1964 that were personally guided and modified by Comrade JIANG Qing. In 1966, when the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was about to start, the counter revolutionary, traitor and the mole PENG Zheng wrote down the February outline, but Comrade JIANG Qing has been entrusted by the Vice Chairman LIN, wrote down the revolutionary February Summary of a Symposium, which everyone in our People's Liberation Army has one in hand and reads. So, a mention of her achievements before the Cultural Revolution is already enough to prove the great achievements of Comrade JIANG Qing. During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, as I have just mentioned, she has a lot of writings and speeches, and now a booklet is available, as all of you have read. From these, it can seen that Comrade JIANG Qing is an outstanding female soldier in our Party, an outstanding communist fighter! Worth for us to learn from her! Salute her! (At this moment, JIANG Qing shouted: The credit should go to the great MAO Ze-dong Thought! Long live Chairman MAO! Long long live! ") After ZHOU En-lai finished, it was JIANG Qing s turn. Her speech is not long, just expressing "a full support to the order made by the great leader Chairman MAO and announced by Vice Chairman LIN". CHEN Bo-da s speech was slightly longer, recalling the process of the Cultural Revolution. He said that from the time the Cultural Revolution began to March 1968, there were a total of five rounds: The first round was to expose the "PENG, LUO, LU and YANG"; The second was to down "LIU, DENG and TAO"; The third was a struggle with the February Adverse Current; The fourth was to clear "WANG, GUAN and QI"; And the fifth round is the recent fight with "YANG, YU and FU". In his speech, he self-criticized for his approval for publication of YANG Cheng-wu s article entitled Establish absolute authority of Chairman MAO and MAO Ze-dong s Thought, saying that he let this article published due to YANG Cheng-wu constantly urging. And then KANG Sheng and YAO Wen-yuan spoke. After they had finished, it was 203

205 1:30 AM already. At this time, MAO Ze-dong came to the stage from the rest area in the back. The audience suddenly boiled up and the attending Army cadres shouted, for a long time, slogans of "Long live Chairman MAO!", "Merry Chairman MAO a long life to eternity!" The scene was very lively. In the second day after the meeting, JIANG Qing wrote a letter to the new commander of the Beijing Garrison, WEN Yu-cheng. When this letter was delivered to the mail room of the Beijing Garrison, the man there said: "We only have Commander FU here. Where comes Commander WEN?" JIANG s letter was returned. JIANG was furious. In the meeting of the Central Cultural Revolution Group held at that evening, she said: We should hole a larger meeting attended by all cadres of the Garrison and the local cadres jointly, conveying the problems of YANG, YU and FU. So the second meeting was held with participants as many as more than one hundred thousands. The meeting first announced the Central s "Order on revocation of positions of YANG Cheng-wu, YU Li-jin and FU Chong-bi". Then, ZHOU En-lai, JIANG Qing, CHEN Bo-da, KANG Sheng spoke successively. ZHOU cited JIANG s contributions again in this second meeting and continued by saying: "In the Central Cultural Revolution, Comrade JIANG Qing very strictly demands not only on herself, but also on comrades. She uses the scale of MAO Ze-dong s Thoughts to examine every comrade, to distinguish boundaries between friends and foes. She is very sincerely eager to help comrades and, when identified a bad man, she dare to bravely take him out. This kind of spirit is worth for us to learn. Therefore, learn from Comrade JIANG Qing! Pay tribute to Comrade JIANG Qing! (JIANG interrupted by saying: Learn from the Prime Minister! Pay tribute to the Prime Minister! ) I don't deserve it, I have to learn. (CHEN Bo-da interrupted and said: Learn from each other. ) So, we swear to defend to death our great leader Chairman MAO, Vice Chairman LIN, the Party s Central headed by Chairman MAO and deputy headed by Vice Chairman LIN, the Central Cultural Revolution Group, Comrade JIANG Qing, our great People's Liberation Army, our revolutionary masses, our Red Guards and our red political regime of the proletariat dictatorship! " In fact, ZHOU En-lai not only had shouted the slogan of fight to the death to defend Comrade JIANG Qing in rallies, but also accommodated JIANG very well in daily life. Every time when ZHOU wanted go to JIANG s place, he always called personally (not by his secretary) JIANG s secretary YAN Chang-gui in advance: "What is Comrade JIANG Qing doing right now? Is 204

206 she working or resting? If she isn't resting, I want to go to Comrade JIANG Qing s place." Or he would ask: "I have something to talk with Comrade JIANG Qing. Please ask Comrade JIANG Qing if it is okay." And JIANG was always happily replied: "Yes, you can come, Prime Minister. You are welcome." JIANG often pestered ZHOU accompaning her to see performances of the Revolutionary model operas and, after the end of the show, continue to accompany her when she telling the theatre staff about her view and advice for the performance. ZHOU was always accompanying her "to the end". In the early winter of 1968, JIANG had a bad cold with high fever. ZHOU visited her in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse for several times and discussed the treatments with medical staff. Over the next few days, ZHOU brought the files and office supplies, and worked just in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse so that he can timely access JIANG's condition at any time. Even to JIANG s secretary YANG Yin-lu, ZHOU took the initiative to care for and asked if he has any personal difficulties. When learned YANG s brother-in-law had been arrested since three months ago, ZHOU immediately let WANG Dong-xing to deal with the issue and YANG's brother-in-law was released three days later. At a Politburo meeting, JIANG said to ZHOU that her toilet ring is cold, causing her getting cold often and, when getting cold, she did not dare to see the Chairman because afraid of infection to the Chairman. After listening to her words, ZHOU immediately suspended the Politburo meeting and asked all attendees going to JIANG s residence to check her toilet. The Politburo members could not refuse but go. They were around JIANG s toilet and discussed how to heat the toilet ring. Later, it was proposed to use cotton cloth to make a mat to be put on the top of the toilet ring. JIANG could not find any other way to fix the problem and therefore agreed. Seeing such a scene, HUANG Yong-sheng and others felt bad in their hearts. JIANG's secretary YAN Chang-gui later recalled: Even the Chairman said that the Prime Minister is a bit afraid of JIANG Qing. The contradiction between the Administrative Group of the Central Military Commission and the Central Cultural Revolution Group On March 25, 1968, LIN Biao presided a meeting to dismantle the Office of the Central Military Commission (CMC) originally headed by YANG Chengwu and establish an Administrative Group of the CMC. The new group was headed by HUANG Yong-sheng and deputy headed by WU Fa-xian, and with members of YE Qun, LI Zuo-peng, QIU Hui-zuo, LIU Xian-quan, LI De- 205

207 sheng and WEN Yu-cheng. From April 1 onwards, the Army's important documents were no longer CC to Marshals CHEN Yi, XU Xiang-qian, NIE Rong-zhen, YE Jian-ying and LIU Bo-cheng; and the Administrative Group actually replaced the Central Military Commission. At the same time, ZHOU En-lai announced that all members of the CMC Administrative Group will attend the meetings of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. Later, JIANG Qing proposed in a meeting that LI De-sheng to be the director of the Army s General Political Department. LIN Biao immediately asked the CMC Administration Group to write a report to MAO Ze-dong. MAO soon approved it and LI De-sheng became the director of the Amy s General Political Department. HUANG Yong-sheng, WU Fa-xian, LI Zuo-peng and QIU hui-zuo of the CMC Administrative Group all were men of LIN Biao in the Forth Field Army for a long time, and with illustrious military exploits. Now, they not only are members of the CMC Administrative Group and attendees of the Central Cultural Revolution Group meetings, but also serve at the key positions in the Army: HUANG is the Chief of Staff, WU vice Chief of Staff and commander and political commissar of the Air Force, LI deputy Chief of Staff and of the Naval commissar, and QIU deputy Chief of Staff and the minister of the General Logistics Department. HUANG was brave in battle fights and capable of finding a way to solve problems, but has the problem of liking women too much. Once, Marshal LUO Rong-huan angrily said to him: "You are at so high position but do not correct your problem. Shame on you!" During the initial stage of the Cultural Revolution, HUANG was not actively involved in the process of knocking LUO Rui-qing down. Later YE Qun revealed to him that LIN Biao was unhappy about it. HUANG hurried to write a letter to her by saying: "I did not speak well and follow closely, and I am not sharp.... You conveyed LIN Biao's instruction and I am stupid like a pig." Later, HUANG s children visited Beijing and lived in HE Long s home (Note: There are deep contradictions between HE Long and LIN Biao, but unknown by their children) during the period of the Great Tandem of the Red Guards. After learning this, HUANG immediately ordered them returning to Guangzhou City (Note: At that time, he was the commander of the Guangzhou Military Region). Further, he and his wife wrote a letter to YE Qun to explain: "We knew HE s (Note: Refers to the HE Long) issue only after the Party s Eleventh Plenary Session while the children were already out. Of course, we would not tell them even if they were at home. So, they were muddle-headed and often visit HE Xiao-long (Note: Son of HE Long) 206

208 following some others! We don't know what they talked about. When they came back, we will inquire. In short, the children are naïve and easy to be fooled, and we must strengthen their education in the future." After his children back to Guangzhou City, HUANG had taught them a lesson and let them write a letter to "Uncle LIN Biao" and "Mother YE Qun" saying that HE Xiao-long engages in secret organization and secret series, and so on. WU Fa-xian originally was the second man in the Air Force. After the first man in the Air Force, LIU Ya-lou, died, LIN Biao said to MAO Ze-dong: "WU Faxian is LIU Ya-lou s apprentice, he likes LIU Ya-lou worked hard, so I chose him as commander of the Air Force." MAO agreed WU to succeed the Air Force commander. WU Fa-xian knew that, without LIN Biao s help, he could not become the Air Force commander, therefore was very grateful for LIN Biao. WU once said: "Vice Chairman LIN let me be the commander of the Air Force. The real Air Force commander is Vice Chairman LIN. I do what he asked me to do." LI Zuo-peng is tall, dressed casually, forthright and bold, and known as "LI Bold". He is also known as LI Blind because his right eye is blind and he often wears a pair of sunglasses. In the early days of the Cultural Revolution, LI had been hit. LIN Biao said: "It is not allowed to against LI Zuo-peng whether I am alive or dead." Since then, LI was no longer a subject to hit. QIU Wei-zuo is the minister of the Army s General Logistics Department, and his performance was good. But he also liked to have sex with women too much, and therefore the rebels of the General Logistics Department denounced him very fiercely in January So he had to hide in the Xishan area that belong to the Central Military Commission. After hearing this, thousands of rebels gathered and surrounded the general office of the Central Military Commission located at Three Doors, to take QIU back to the department. The Amy s Culture Revolution Group made a telephone call, asking QIU to come back to the General Logistics Department and participate in the Cultural Revolution. QIU had to come down and he was immediately seized by the rebels of Hongzong of the Second Military Medical University and detained on the third floor of the Health Department of the General Logistics Department. Rebels interrogated him, shaved half of his hair but not the other half, "rode a jet", made him kneeled down. The rebels beated him so badly that his scapular bone periosteum and muscle were ruptured, right rib fractured and crossed out. He was faint and a goner for many times. On January 24, he wrote a letter on a cigarette case for help: "Now my life is in danger. I cry for help from the Chairman and Vice Chairman LIN and Marshal YE. Long live the Great Cultural Revolution! Long live Chairman MAO! When his guard come to deliver a meal for him, 207

209 QIU let the guard hide the letter in his crotch and got out successfully. That night, LIN Biao received the letter, anxiously wrote an order: "Immediately release QIU Hui-zuo!" He let CHEN Bo-da also signed on it. YE Qun brought the order co-signed by LIN and CHEN, and directly drove to the compound for the Logistic Department. After YE Qun left, LIN Biao inquired about the situation several times, requested his car be launched and ready to go for three times. YE Qun showed the rebels the order co-signed by LIN and CHEN, and QIU was so saved. When QIU returned to Xishan, it was midnight. Marshals YE Jian-ying and NIE Rong-zhen were waiting there. They saw QIU halfshaved head with many blood spots, and wound and cuts covered all over his body. They were very angry. YE helped QIU to enter the house and said: "Wei-zuo, you suffer!" NIE cursed while walking: "Fascism! Fascist!" In the next morning, Marshal LIU Bo-cheng on crutches came for a visit, he stroked QIU and said: "My eyes can't see. Let me touch you!" Since then, QIU had been boundlessly loyal to LIN Biao. Lin Biao (middle) is with (from left) LI Zuo-peng, WU Fa-xian, HUANG Yong-sheng and QIU Hui-zuo. The attendes of the daily meetings of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, after joined by the Administration Group of the Central Military Commission, were clearly divided into two factions: one consisted of JIANG Qing, KANG Sheng, ZHANG Chun-qiao, YAO Wen-yuan of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, and the other consisted of HUANG Yong-sheng, WU Faxian, LI Zuo-peng and QIU Hui-zuo of the CMC administrative Group. The rest of the participants, CHEN Bo-da, WANG Dong-xing, LI De-sheng, WEN 208

210 Cheng-yu et al remained neutral or gradually differentiated into one of the two factions in the process of struggle. JIANG Qing wanted to catch the military power via HUANG Yong-sheng, but was ignored by HUANG. HUANG believed that the CMC s Administration Group is only responsible to three men: MAO Ze-dong, LIN Biao and ZHOU En-lai, but not the Central Cultural Revolution Group. He had a reason for it. In the very beginning, when the Administration Group wanted to mobilize a row of troop or more to perform a specific task, they need, in accordance with the original provisions, to get the consent of MAO, LIN, ZHOU and the members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. In this way, their report should list many people s names, and wait for all these people have read, and only all the people have drawn a circle, the Administration Group can implement the mobilization of the troop. In view of this situation, MAO Ze-dong wrote an instruction on such a report in May, 1968: "A report like this only needs to write three people s names (Note: i.e. MAO, LIN and ZHOU). Write a long list of names, not only make the process slow, but also easy to leak." With the instruction of MAO, HUANG Yong-sheng did accordingly. To this, JIANG Qing was very discontent in her heart. One night, she said in a Central Cultural Revolution Group meeting with a loud voice: "HUANG Yong-sheng and WU Fa-xian, in your eyes there is no Central, organization nor discipline. You engage in independent kingdom and blockade information." She then proposed to temporarily cancel HUANG and WU s right to participate in the daily meeting of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, and let them clear their mind and write a selfreview. After the meeting, ZHOU En-lai, KANG Sheng and YAO Wen-yuan talked to HUANG and WU in Fujian Room of the Great Hall of the People, and asked them to self-review their mistakes and temporarily stop working. HUANG and WU reported to LIN Biao. LIN said: A report on troop mobilization should be submitted in the way according to the Chairman MAO's instruction. We have no right to make any change. You do not write a self-review. HUANG also said: In this issue, we have no wrong doing and should not write any self-review. In this way, the two sides stalemated. Half a month later, HUANG Yong-sheng was going to lead a Chinese party and government delegation to visit Albania in accordance with the original plan. The date of the visit is coming soon, but JIANG Qing did not allow HUANG going abroad because he insisted not to make a self-review. So, ZHOU En-lai made a report to MAO Ze-dong. MAO replied: "JIANG Qing is not right, HUANG Yong-sheng should still visit Albania. The CMC s Administration 209

211 Group did nothing wrong and should still work normally. HUANG Yongsheng and WU Fa-xian are still members of daily meeting and still should attend the meetings as usual." ZHOU conveyed MAO s opinion to JIANG. JIANG could do nothing but follow MAO s instruction. In the night just before HUANG s visit to Albania started, ZHOU decided: CHEN Bo-da go to the airport to see HUANG off and later welcome him back to Beijing. But CHEN Bo-da did not do so, neither seeing him off nor welcoming him back. To this end, ZHOU traced and asked CHEN why. CHEN answered that it was JIANG Qing who did not let him go, so he did not dare to go. In the second day after HUANG returned home, there was a meeting in the Great Hall of the People. Before JIANG arriving at the meeting, MAO Ze-dong said: "You are afraid of JIANG Qing and not dare to resist. You are not wrong, but she was wrong. My policy to her is always like this: Accept if she is right but criticize her if she is wrong. In the future, you should not always listen to her. If she is wrong, you should resist, fight and criticize." Soon, JIANG arrived at the meeting venue, but MAO did not say anything about it. To mediate the contradiction between JIANG Qing and and the CMC s Administrative Group, ZHOU En-lai called HUANG Yong-sheng, WU Faxian, LI Zuo-peng and QIU Hui-zuo in and tell them that we will go to JIANG Qing s residence, i.e. the 11 th Building of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, to hold a solidarity meeting with her. ZHOU told these four Generals: This time we will have a meeting with JIANG Qing, CHEN Bo-da, KANG Sheng and YAO Wen-yuan, to eliminate misunderstanding between each other and to ease the atmosphere. He specially requested that, no matter what she said, you do not speak. When they came to JIANG s residence, ZHOU asked them to wait downstairs. For a while, ZHOU saw JIANG showing up and hurriedly went forward to hold her downstairs. Seeing HUANG et al in there, she started to scold, while continuing to go downstairs: "You the members of the CMC s Administrative Group, wearing a green military uniform, red star on the cap and red collar. All these are the results of fight of the Old Mother (Note: Referes to herself). In your eyes, there is no Central, no organization discipline. Do not you feel shameful?" JIANG's temper is big and she continuously scolded for an hour, while YAO Wen-yuan chimed sometimes. HUANG et al. stood there, listened to JIANG s scolding and did not say anything as requested by ZHOU in advance. The meeting didn't end until 11 PM that night. At around 3 AM, HUANG Yong-sheng et al had been asleep but was suddenly notified to attend a meeting at the 16th Building of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. When they got there, Zhou En-lai was 210

212 waiting for them at the door. He said to them: "I have reported to Chairman MAO the situation of our meeting that just finished. Chairman MAO blamed JIANG Qing too presumptuous and requested her to make a self-review to us immediately." After that, he stressed: "When Jiang Qing makes her selfreview, you need not say anything. Don't argue with her and just listen to her. After she finishes, the meeting will be over and all of us leave." At that time, HUANG Yong-sheng was with confused mind due to the effect of sleeping pills he took, speak not clearly and the eyes closed, and he was escorted by his guard into the venue, sitting in a side of ZHOU. After the start of the meeting, JIANG Qing said: "In recent days, I have not been in good health, often have a fever, delirium and confusion. I blamed comrades of CMC Administrative Group. I hereby apologize to them. Please don't mind. In the future, we must unite and work together." WU Fa-xian, who often has more words, could not help but said: "We welcome Comrade JIANG Qing s self-review. But it is worth vigilant to avoid the preconceptions and insulting, and having the subjective and one-sided views in dealing with problems." WANG Dong-xing then said: "Comrade JIANG Qing has an appetite for cursing and insulting comrades, which is really bad. The Politburo Standing Committee should be responsible for Comrade JIANG Qing's mistakes. Especially, the Prime Minister is too much accommodating to Comrade JIANG Qing." JIANG Qing listened, her face became pale and she looked very angry. ZHOU En-lai immediately announced the end of the meeting. Afterwards, LIN Biao said to WU Fa-xian: "JIANG Qing has said that the first step is to remove YANG Cheng-wu and the second step is to remove you WU Fa-xian." But WEN Yu-cheng, who was a member of the CMC Administrative Group, opted to go with JIANG Qing. He began with a counter-measure in the CMC Administrative Group. The secretary of HUANG, LI Bi-cheng, was former secretary of WEN. LI started to secretly record down words of HUANG s et al critical of JIANG. He prepared a private report saying that HUANG et al formed a small group against Comrade JIANG Qing, and sent it to WEN. WEN transferred it to JIANG Qing and JIANG further handed it over to MAO Ze-dong. MAO read it and then sent it to LIN Biao without any comment. LIN gave it to HUANG Yong-sheng. HUANG looked at the report and was very angry. He asked WU Fa-xian to arrange an airplane to send LI Bi-cheng to Guangzhou City and then set him under house arrest virtually. On the airplane, LI Bi-cheng quietly put a little red book The Quotations from Chairman MAO under his seat with a note saying that HUANG Yong-sheng and WU Fa-xian et al are of against Comrade JIANG Qing and the Culture 211

213 Revolution Group, and that he hopes the person who picks this will send it to Comrades JIANG Qing and hopes that Comrade JIANG Qing can save him. Unexpectedly, the flight attendant on the plane found the little red book and gave it to the 34th Air Division commander HU Ping. Finally, the little red book and the note were in the hands of HUANG Yong-sheng. MAO Ze-dong did not say anything on the matter and the matter left unsettled. CHEN Bo-da began to move closer to the CMC Administrative Group. After two years of the Cultural Revolution, the Central Cultural Revolution Group only have five members left, i.e. CHEN Bo-da, JIANG Qing, KANG Sheng, ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wen-yuan. Among them, CHEN was often in an isolated position. JIANG and others disdained him, considering him just a bookworm and unable to get something done, often ridiculed him. JIANG repeatedly encouraged, in meetings of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, criticism on CHEN. But HUANG Yong-sheng et al did not take a stand because LIN Biao told them: CHEN Bo-da is still at a high theoretical level. In the past, he prepared several important manuscripts of the Central. As a result, CHEN had more and more contacts with the CMC Administrative Group members. WANG Dong-xing also made more and more contacts with the CMC Administrative Group. JIANG Qing showed no respect at all to WANG Dongxing, as if he is her punching bag. Once, JIANG wanted a staff member of MAO Ze-dong to go away, but WANG did not do that because MAO did not make a clear statement on it. So, JIANG Qing and her daughter LI Na shouted on him. WANG had no way to go but talk to LIN Biao. LIN let WANG talk to MAO and JIANG directly: "LIN Biao said that whom Chairman MAO will use as his staff member should be solely determined by Chairman MAO himself and nobody should interfere, and that JIANG Qing should not intervene the life of Chairman MAO." WANG told these words of LIN to MAO, and MAO was very happy. Because of this experience, WANG often came to LIN for help when he had some difficulties. The Ninth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party In February 1969, the Chinese Communist Party began to do the preparatory work for its Ninth Congress. MAO Ze-dong was most concerned about the drafting of the political report that will be given in the general assembly. In February 7, he convened a meeting and said: "The first draft is most important 212

214 because the worst is to overthrow it and re-draft again. Let the following persons do the drafting: Bo-da leads, Bo-da, Chun-qiao and Wen-you attend, and Comrade LIN Biao commands. The Congress can start only if the drafting has been done." The meeting decided that the first draft shold be done before February 20 and the meeting should open in March 15. Before started drafting, CHEN Bo-da went to see LIN Biao first. According to LIN's opinions, CHEN set the title of the political report as "Struggle to construct our country into a powerful socialist country" and also wrote an outline. Soon, CHEN finished the first part of the report, with an emphasis that the purpose and the significance of the Cultural Revolution are to develop socialist productivity and improve the people's material and cultural life level, and build China into a powerful socialist country. (Note: These statements are far away from MAO Ze-dong s view that the Cultural Revolution is to engage the capitalist roaders in power and to prevent the restoration of capitalism, as he said in the very beginning of the Cultural Revolution.) By March 3, the deadline of finishing the first draft had passed more than a dozen days, MAO still had not yet received the first fraft. He said to the attendants of the Central Cultural Revolution Group meeting: "Originally it has been set the deadline of February 20. You (Note: Refers to CHEN Bo-da) could not finish it and did not tell us the reason. It was decided in the meeting, but one person (Note: Refers to CHEN Bo-da) postponed it." On March 7, MAO said: "The major issues for the Congress are the (political) report, and the party constitution and elections. The decision has been made but you do not follow, and you do not follow but do not tell us. We need be prepared for two possibilities: one is that the draft can be used and the other is not." He asked CHEN directly: "Whom have you asked to be engaged in the drafting?" CHEN replied: "Only me." MAO said: "You always say that you will correct whenever there is a mistake, but you did not, and you never change." After that, CHEN put the first part of the draft in a enlarged meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee presided by MAO Z-dong. In the meeting, KANG Sheng, JIANG Qing, ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wen-yuan said that the draft emphasizes too much on production, and does not place revolution in the prominent position, there is no class struggle, and the draft is of the "Productivity-only theory". MAO agreed with their opinion and said the draft cannot be used. ZHOU En-lai did not show his stand at the meeting. In March 12, MAO proposed a substitution: "Is it okay for you three, KANG, ZHANG and YAO?... So, we have two drafting teams, and each does its own.... In short, the draft should talk about contradictions, the struggle between proletariat and the bourgeoisie, reasons 213

215 for the Cultural Revolution, some ones (Note: Refers to LIU Shao-qi and DENG Xiao-ping) hindered the movement of the masses, which existed and was quite serious." KANG Sheng, ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wen-yuan started drafting immediately, and finished the first part of the report in only nearly a half month. In the draft, they used a lot of Marx, Engels, Lenin and MAO Zedong's writings to prove importance and necessity of carrying out the Cultural Revolution. It also reviewed how the Chairman MAO s proletarian revolutionary line struggled with and smashed various kinds of wrong line for decades. MAO read the draft and said it can be used. He asked them to make minor modifications and then submit it to an enlarged meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee for discussion. In the meeting presided by MAO Ze-dong, everyone was silent and no one spoke. Only CHEN Bo-da provided a bit of advice by saying: "We should engage in production and development, and improve labor productivity. If we only engage in movements then, as Bernstein said, the movement is all, and there is no purpose. " MAO was very angry and said: " For a gentleman to revenge, ten years is not too late. Why are you in such a hurry? You retaliate only half a month later! The nature of imperialism will not change. In the Yanan period, you rode on two boats at the same time: Originally you said you are willing to be my secretary, but later said willing to be the secretary of ZHANG Wentian. In 1950, you went to Moscow with me, and you once again rode on two boats at the same time. You went to see the leaders of the Soviet Union without reporting or my approval. Do you quickly go to the big boat when you see mine is about to sink?" All attendants just listened but no one said anything. Seeing nobody speaking, MAO finally said: This draft can be used, please continue to write the second part." Then, the meeting was over. In that evening, the Central Cultural Revolution Group had a meeting. In the meeting, KANG Sheng, JIANG Qing, ZHANG Chun-qiao, YAO Wen-yuan et al accused CHEN Bo-da in history against LU Xun's Popular Literature, and said CHEN was arrested in Tianjin and surrendered, and is a traitor, and so on. But HUANG Yong-sheng and other members of the CMC Administrative Group all did not to utter a single word. Criticism on CHEN Bo-da did not engage in. Soon, KANG Sheng et al finished drafting of the rest of the political report, and the draft had discussed in the enlarged meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee for several times, but only a few of the participants made a speech. 214

216 Only JIANG Qing proposed to add a section on the achievements of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. Her proposal got an immediate support from KANG Sheng, ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wen-yuan, but CHEN Boda did not agree and said: The Central Cultural Revolution Group is only a service agency, no achievements can be written and everything should be attributed to Chairman MAO. The chair of the meeting, ZHOU En-lai, and others didn't speak. Later, MAO learned the situation and said: "There should be such a section. We have engaged in the Cultural Revolution. If even the Central Cultural Revolution Group is not written as a paragraph, this is unreasonable." Finally, a section on the Central Cultural Revolution Group had added to the political report. In these discussions, LIN Biao did not utter a word and not change even a word in the manuscript sent to him for review. Before the report formally passed, ZHANG Chun-qiao had asked LIN to sign, but was rejected by LIN. Another preparatory work for the Party s Ninth Congress is to draft a revision of the Party Constitution. In April 1969, JIANG Qing said in a discussion meeting on the revision of the Party Constitution: "LIN Biao's name should be written in the Constitution. It can make others without a coveted heart and make the people of the whole country at ease." ZHANG Chun-qiao agreed: "It is true. Written in the Party Constitution will assure all." After received a report on the issue, MAO Ze-dong said, "Since most of the comrades have agreed, write it in." So, the draft of the revised Party Constitution had the sentence "Comrade LIN Biao is a close ally and successor of Comrade MAO ze-dong." There is another preparation work for the Party s Congress that is to deliberate on a list of candidates of members of the Central Committee, and Politburo and its standing committee. In this process, MAO Ze-dong read an Excerpt of letters from the people advocating JAING Qing to be a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and the minister of the Party s Central Organization Department. MAO wrote a comment on this letter except: "Undeserved fame. The proposals are not appropriate. P.S. LI Ne (Note: MAO's daughter), MAO Yuan-xin (Note: MAO's nephew) should not be a representative of the Congress." In the Party s practice, representatives who will attend the Congress are to be decided by the leaders of the Revolutionary Committee of the provinces in consultation with rebel organizations, or designated by the Central. 215

217 From April 1 to 24, 1969, the Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in Beijing. A total of 1512 people attended the meeting. Many members and alternate members of the Eighth Central Committee failed to attend the Ninth Congress since they were under review or imprisoned. On April 1, MAO Ze-dong presided over the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. He said: "I hope that our Congress will be well going, and become a meeting of unity and a meeting of victory." Then, the General Assembly elected the presidium. MAO Ze-dong was elected as the chairman of the presidium, LIN Biao the vice chairman, ZHOU En-lai the secretary general and WU Fa-xian the deputy secretary (Note: Originally, it was WANG Dongxing, but he fell ill suddenly). The general assembly also adopted the three agenda of the meeting: For Lin Biao to give the political report of the Eighth Central Committee; To amend the constitution of the Communist Party of China; And the election of the Ninth Central Committee of the Party. At the plenary meeting, LIN Biao gave the political report. He just read the draft prepared by KANG, ZHANG and YAO, one word by one word, without any change. In the plenary session on April 14, ZHOU En-lai spoke. He praised not only MAO Ze-dong, but also LIN Biao with very high evaluation and said that LIN is a glory representative of the Jinggangshan realignment (Note: In fact, LIN was only a company commander at the beginning). At this time, LIN stood up and said: "I am nothing. Everything should be attributed to the wise leadership of Chairman MAO." On the same day, the Ninth Congress passed the new "Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party". The new constitution states that MAO Ze-dong put Marxism Leninism to a new stage, and clearly expressed that: "Comrade LIN Biao always hold high the great red flag of MAO Ze-dong Thoughts and is the most loyal to, and most firmly executes and defends the proletarian revolutionary line of Comrade MAO Ze-dong. Comrade Lin Biao is Comrade MAO Zedong s close comrade and the successor." On the afternoon of April 23, the General Assembly elected the Central Committee (Note: The election was a matching election, namely the number of candidates is equal to the number of members that should be chosen). The election resulted in 170 members and 109 alternate members of the Central Committee elected. MAO Ze-dong got all votes, and LIN Biao two votes less and Zhou En-lai one vote less. JIANG Qing got eight votes less, which was behind YE Qun, HUANG Yong-sheng, WU Fa-xian, LI Zuo-peng and QIU Hui-zuo. There is a reason for such a result: Before the election day, YE Qun chatted with HUANG Yong-sheng et al and said: "LIN Zong (refers to LIN 216

218 Biao) said that JIANG Qing is now too rampant. ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wen-yuan were in the past unknown pawns but now have such a high prestige. It seems that they will be elected to the Central Committee without any problem, but we should make their votes fewer, not elected unanimously, so to kill their spirit." CHEN Bo-da added: "ZHANG Chun-qiao was a 'little tramp' in Shanghai." HUANG Yong-sheng said: "ZHANG Chun-qiao despise us. Once at an airport, he openly designated us as crass, and I retaliated immediately by saying that you was only a small reporter in the Jinchaji Base." Accordingly, HUANG Yong-sheng et al. arranged some of the military representatives not to vote for JIANG Qing and others and, as a result, the number of votes JIANG Qing and others got became less. Now, JIANG Qing et al saw that their number of votes is a lot less and were very angry. During a break of the meeting, JIANG Qing said to WU Fa-xian in the Jiangsu Room: "You have more votes than us! You, the CMC Administrative Group, have high prestige. Old Mother (Note: Refers to herself) got much less votes than you. Do you contribute to the Cultural Revolution more than me?" Nobody said anything. Though said nothing, KANG Sheng immediately went to the Central Organization Department and asked GUO Yu-feng there going to the Secretariat of the Congress, checking the votes and finding which delegation voted less for JIANG Qing et al. GUO Yu-feng did not dare to do that and, instead, talked to WANG Liang-en (the deputy director of the Central Office) about KANG s request. WANG Liang-en also did not dare to do that and immediately reported to the Deputy Secretary General of the Congress, WU Fa-xian, who in turn reported to ZHOU En-lai. ZHOU En-lai believed that this approach is in violation of the Party Constitution, and reported to MAO Ze-dong. MAO listened but said no word. The matter was left unsettled. After the election of the Central Committee, the first meeting of the Central Committee did not hold immediately as usually it should do, but a few days later in order to "brew" the candidates of the Politburo and its Standing Committee. MAO Ze-dong designated ZHOU En-lai, KANG Sheng and HUANG Yong-sheng going to the provincial and municipal delegations to seek opinions on who should be nominated. CHEN Bo-da was not satisfied by this arrangement of MAO, because he is a member of the Politburo Standing Committee but not among the three, and HUANG is not a member of the Politburo Standing Committee but now is in the group of three. JIANG Qing wanted to be a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and became very enthusiastic to HUANG Yong-sheng, contrary to her normal 217

219 behavior. She said to HUANG: "I'm going to talk to Chairman MAO recommending you to be a Standing Committee member." Opposite to what she expected, HUANG replied: "I have not even dreamed to be a member of the Standing Committee. Please do not recommend me. I do not have any qualification, and my capability and prestige are low. It is not proper for me to be a Standing Committee member, not at all. I am even not good enough to be the Chief of Staff I am serving right now, how can I be a member of the Standing Committee? This is not because of my modesty, but I do not have capability to do that. I hope you do not recommend me to Chairman MAO. Chairman MAO will consider who should be the member of the Standing Committee. It is not good for us to interfere with Chairman MAO." Seeing it does not work, JIANG Qing then went to ZHOU En-lai, saying that she nominates DENG Ying-chao (Note: ZHOU's wife) and CAI Chang (president of the all China Women's Federation and LI Fu-chun's wife) as members of the Political Bureau. ZHOU rejected her proposal. Then, JIANG found YE Qun, suggesting LIN Biao talks to MAO Ze-dong and recommends JIANG Qing to be a member of the Standing Committee. But LIN replied: "We just listen to Chairman MAO s arrangement." In fact, MAO Ze-dong had long been considering who should be in the Standing Committee. When KANG Sheng once proposed to MAO that HUANG Yong-sheng could be in the Standing Committee. MAO replied: "I have no opinion. You go to arrange. But JIANG Qing can not be in the Standing Committee." Also, in a meeting presided by MAO on who should be in the Standing Committee, MAO said: "CHEN Bo-da should not be a member of the Standing Committee. He and I are not in tune. As to if HUANG Yong-sheng should or should not be in the committee, you discuss." But HUANG Yong-sheng was determined not to be in the committee. After the meeting, HUANG talked to LIN Biao and ZHOU En-lai, and said: "There are many old comrades in our Party. Choosing me as a member of the Standing Committee is contrary to the will of the people." After ZHOU and LIN considered over, both agreed with HUANG's opinion. Subsequently, MAO also expressed consent. According to ZHOU En-lai and other people's opinion, MAO finally agreed to let CHEN Bo-da continue to be a member of the Standing Committee. In the afternoon of April 28, the first meeting of the Ninth Central Committee held. MAO presided over the meeting, and proposed candidates of members of Politburo and its Standing Committee. The list of Politburo members included LI Xian-nian and YE Jian-ying. LI Xian-nian immediately said: "Chairman, I should not be re-elected." But MAO said: "We want you to be 218

220 elected." Then the election (an equal-number-candidate election) held. As the result, all the 25 candidates were elected to be member of the Politburo. Among them, MAO Ze-dong, LIN Biao, ZHOU En-lai and KANG Sheng won unanimous support, CHEN Bo-da two votes less, HUANG Yong-sheng three votes less and JIANG Qing seven votes less, and WU Fa-xian and YE Qun had more votes than ZHANG Chun-qiao and YAO Wen-yuan. The Politburo members held a meeting and elected MAO Ze-dong, LIN Biao, ZHOU En-lai, KANG Sheng and CHEN Bo-da as members of the Standing Committee. Before the session of the Ninth Central Committee to elect members of the Central Military Commission, MAO propose to choose Marshals LIU Bo-cheng, CHEN Yi, XU Xiang-qian, NIE Rong-zhen and YE Jian-ying as vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission. As he said this, the audience warmly applauded, and so they were elected. LI Fu-chun was elected as a member of the Central Committee but nothing else. TAN Zhen-lin and DENG zi-hui was even not elected as a member of the Central Committee. All these were results of MAO s opinion. After the Party s Ninth Congress, the Central Cultural Revolution Group had no longer worked in reality, although not officially revoked. Since then, Politburo meeting replaced the Central Cultural Revolution Group meeting. The meeting is still held every day in the evening, still hosted by ZHOU ENlai, and MAO and LIN did not participate as usual. All issues raised in the meeting or the issues MAO let the Politburo to discuss, and the documents passed accordingly were included in a report signed by ZHOU En-lai, as before, and submitted to MAO and LIN, and finally implemented after they approved. Contradictions within the Politburo After the Ninth Congress, Army cadres were accounted for a considerable proportion in the Central Committee, the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee, and various central Departments. It was so even in various provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. LIN Biao s prestige was also getting higher and higher. The members of the original Central Cultural Revolution Group, headed by JIANG Qing in reality, were very dissatisfied with it. At a meeting of the Political Bureau, JIANG Qing, ZHANG Chunqiao and YAO Wen-yuan openly said that LIN Biao stumbled when reading the political report in the Party s Nineth Congress. HUANG Yong-sheng et al informed this to LIN Biao and LIN responded: "I never read someone else's 219

221 manuscript. I only used to write my own outline points, and then give an impromptu in a conference. Chairman MAO repeatedly modified this report personally, I have to read it as is. But I don't have a habit of reading out other body s work, so I read it not well enough." In another meeting of the Political Bureau, JIANG Qing et al openly said that we should criticize the speech of LIN Biao in the twelfth session of the Eight Central Committee. She said that LIN Biao talked about the ancient Greece and ancient Rome, and the Renaissance, but did not outstand class struggle, which belittles the Cultural Revolution. Her words made all the participants startled: How can JIANG Qing dare to criticize LIN Biao? Later, JIANG Qing had a conversation with HUANG Yong-sheng, LI Zuo-peng and QIU Hui-zuo in the Jingxi Hotel. (WU Fa-xian was not in Beijing at the time.) She said: The speech of LIN Biao was not prior discussed in a Central Cultural Revolution Group meeting and not approved by Chairman MAO. LIN just wrote a few items and then talk by his own, and therefore must be criticized and clarified. When JIANG Qing saying these words, HUANG Yong-sheng et al hawed. After JIANG left, they hurried to see LIN Biao. LIN said: "Let her go. But we should pay attention to her to see what she would do." Soon, JIANG Qing and YAO Wen-yuan jointly wrote comments on an article written by Russian writer Chernyshevsky reviewing the European Renaissance. They borrowed the name of criticizing Chernychevsky and actually criticized LIN Biao s speech in the twelfth session of the Eighth Central Committee. In a meeting of the Political Bureau, they proposed to issue Chernychevsky s articles and their comments to units at the county or the regiment level, or above. KANG Sheng expressed his support, but ZHOU En-lai, CHEN Bo-da, HUANG Yong-sheng, WU Fa-xian, LI Zuo-peng, QIU Hui-zuo, LI Xian-nian, WANG Dong-xing and YE Qun were all opposed. JIANG Qing had to temporarily gave up. But at a later meeting of the Politburo, she again made this request. At this time, ZHOU En-lai very rarely lost his temper and said: "Comrade JIANG Qing, you need to know a bit of democratic centralism and the principle of collective leadership! On this issue, the majority of people do not agree, only three or four of you agree and insist to issue. Is it good? You often interfere with the people, we do not agree but you insist to pass it, which is a way to split the Party. Moreover, even if the document is to be issued, it should get agreement from Chairman MAO." JIANG Qing was surprised and momentarily speechless. LIN Biao's personal relationship with ZHOU En-lai was very good. Once in a meeting, KANG Sheng and ZHANG Chun-qiao quietly said to WU Fa-xian, who sat 220

222 next to them: The slogan of pulling a handful of people in the Army was approved by ZHOU En-lai. After the meeting, WU immediately telephoned LIN Biao. LIN asked WU to come to his residence immediately. After WU arrived, LIN said: "'Fat man' (nick name of WU), you don't be fooled! Their purpose is to urge you to come out against ZHOU En-lai. You must pay attention and these words should tell no one. 'Pulling a handful people in the Army' was introduced by the Central Cultural Revolution Group. Even if the Prime Minister had seen this, it is just negligence. The Prime Minister should not be blamed. Our Party needs the Prime Minister. My health is not good and Chairman MAO is to master the fundamental policies, and implement the correct policy of Chairman MAO and organization of the implementation are fully dependent on Premier ZHOU. I can't do Premier ZHOU s role. It seems that KANG Sheng wants to be the prime minister. He has this wish, and you should pay attention to it. When Premier ZHOU went abroad, KANG Sheng served as acting prime minister twice. But I think he can't do the job." WU Faxian replied: "I have no experience of working in the Central in the past, and therefore not understand well stake of some problems. Thank you LIN Zong for concerning on me. I must remember LIN Zong s reminder and pay attention to assisting the Prime Minister." Later, WU Fa-xian suggested to YE Qun that she tells the story to ZHOU. YE said: "I have already told Premier ZHOU." In spite of this, WU Fa-xian himself told ZHOU the story. ZHOU listened, but smiled and said nothing. ZHOU was also very concerned about LIN Biao. One time, he let WU Fa-xian tell LIN Biao: Is it good for you to go out to somewhere? It will be good for your health. Do not always live in Beidaihe or Suzhou. WU conveyed ZHOU s words to LIN Biao. LIN showed sincere thanks to ZHOU's kindness and said: "Thanks to the Prime Minister for the kindness! But my health is really bad, and now even cannot zhuanche (Note: riding in a car and driving around in the vicinity)." One morning, JIANG Qing called HUANG Yong-sheng, WU Fa-xian, YE Qun, LI Zuo-peng, QIU hui-zuo and LI De-sheng, a total of six Politburo members in her residence, the 11 th Building of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. JIANG Qing said at the beginning: "Today I want to talk casually to you, please do not make a record." Everyone put away the notebook, but LI Zuopeng still record quietly. JIANG saw it and stopped him. JIANG said for three hours continuously. She first told her own stories, saying that she and KANG Sheng are from Zhucheng County in Shandong Province. After attended in primary school and middle school, she also attended lectures at the Shandong University in the capacity of an associate student. Later, she took part in the 221

223 revolution in Shandong Province. She then moved to Shanghai and engaged in the Left Wing Literary Federation, in support of LU Xun's "Popular literature" and against WANG Ming's "National Defense literature". After the outbreak of the War against Japanese Invasion, she said, she arrived in Chongqing City and met ZHOU En-lai. On the way to Yanan with ZHOU En-lai, the plane landed in Xian City, and she went to the Huaqingchi Hot Spring to take a bath. She continued to say how MAO Ze-dong pursued her in Yanan. She said that, before the marriage, every afternoon MAO rode a horse going to see her, walked across the Yanhe river with her, and went sightseeing around. She helped organizing and copying MAO Ze-dong s writings. In 1947, after evacuated from Yanan, she was the director and the Party branch secretary of the organ under the Central, and had followed MAO fighting as a guerrilla in northern Shanxi Province. At that time, they lived with peasant family and ate their food. Sometimes WANG Dong-xing would buy a chicken but only for MAO Ze-dong himself. As a result of the long hard life, her health was getting weaker and weaker, and got the uterine cancer after having born LI Na. Later, MAO discussed with the Soviet Union and asked them to send a special plane to Yanan, and then she went to the Soviet Union for treatments. She was hospitalized in Moscow and had a major surgery. After returning to China, she had lived separately from MAO, until now. After finishing her own story, JIANG went on to say about ZHOU En-lai. She said: "ZHOU En-lai has administrative work ability and organization ability, which I admire very much. But he can't see clearly the principle of big problems, is easy to follow others: He follows eastward if today has the east wind, and westward if west wind. During the Cultural Revolution, he made a few mistakes and wrote selfreviews for them that are now in my hand. When the Cultural Revolution began, he was a rival with the Central Cultural Revolution Group: He only presided over the Politburo Standing Committee meetings, but did not participate in the Central Cultural Revolution Group meetings. Later, only after the Standing Committee meeting collapsed, he requested to participate in the Cultural Revolution Group meetings. This man can not be at the helm, can not be the number one leader." Finishing comments on ZHOU En-lai, JIANG Qing talked about CHEN Bo-da. She said: "CHEN Bo-da is a villain. He reads a lot, but cannot make any specific thing done. Being the leader of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, CHEN has no leadership and no idea. When the Culture Revolution Group handles affairs, it depends on my and KANG s ideas about what to do. In the history, CHEN Bo-da also had problems: He had always followed WANG Ming, writing articles to advocate WANG Ming s 'National Defense Literature'. In Tianjin City, he had been 222

224 arrested, and was a Tolorwsky suspect." Finally, JIANG talked about KANG Sheng. She said: "Comrade KANG Sheng has farsightedness, and is very bold in dealing with issues. He read a lot and is at a high theoretical level, and is able to see problems accurately. But he lacks of practical experiences, and is not professional when in leadership." After JIANG Qing finished, YAO Wen-yuan supported her. He said: "Comrade JIANG Qing s words are a significant education for us, worth of studying them hard. Comrade JIANG Qing's Marx-Leninism level is high, and we must take Comrade JIANG Qing as a model and check our own." HUANG Yong-sheng et al just listen but said nothing. After left from the residence of JIANG Qing, HUANG Yong-sheng and WU Fa-xian rode on the same car going back to the office of the CMC Administrative Group. They both agreed that the meeting held by JIANG today is not legitimate: She is just a member of the Politburo and was not directed by anyone, but convened seven Politburo members to have a meeting, which is an engagement of small group activities, and she was to mobilize and draw us to support her, and against ZHOU En-lai and CHEN Bo-da. They decided to report it to MAO Ze-dong, LIN Biao and ZHOU En-lai. In the afternoon, HUANG Yong-sheng, WU Fa-xian, LI Zuo-peng and QIU Hui-zuo together went to LIN Biao s residence. After listening to their report, LIN decided that HUANG and WU immediately go to see MAO. He let YE Qun personally contact MAO Ze-dong s staff to arrange the meeting. While YE making the call, LIN told HUANG et al: When in Yanan, it was JIANG Qing who chased Chairman MAO. Via KANG Sheng, she tried to be close to Chairman MAO by using every possible ways. It is quite often that, when Chairman MAO was writing an article, she sat on the side and knitted a woolen sweater for the whole day. She was desperately chasing Chairman MAO, and finally married him." Just after LIN finished his words, YE Qun came back from the call, and said that MAO Ze-dong agreed to meet and is waiting for them now. In Mao's residence, HUANG Yong-sheng gave MAO a summary report, and then WU Fa-xian continued: "Comrade JIANG Qing only allows to play the eight model operas and denies all others. Is it good? " MAO replied: "No one of the eight is done by herself alone, but helped by other people." At this moment, YE called and said: "It is almost the time for the (Politburo) meeting to start. You d better coming to attend the meeting first, otherwise, if JIANG Qing finds you are talking with Chairman MAO, it will be not good." MAO said: "I know the situation. You quickly go back to the meeting. ZHOU En-lai is waiting for you." Before they left, MAO added: 223

225 "Don't talk about your coming to me complaining JIANG Qing. If she knows it, she will retaliate on you. She did it once before. And I will not tell her that you are here either." He also tell his female secretary ZHANG Yu-feng not to tell JIANG the visit of HUANG and WU. After left from MAO s residence, HUANG and WU were somehow disappointed because it seems that MAO was not very interested in their report. After the Politburo meeting at the Great Hall of the People was over, HUANG and WU told ZHOU En-lai about the event. But ZHOU just laughed and did not say anything. Then they went to LIN Biao. LIN said: "Now, Chairman MAO and Premier ZHOU know it. Let them to deal with it." So, the matter left unsettled and nobody mentioned it any more. 224

226 Chapter 7.9 The Lushan Meeting in 1970 The debate about amendment of the Constitution before the meeting Early in March 1970, WANG Dong-xing returned to Beijing from Hangzhou City and conveyed MAO Ze-dong s instructions to the Political Bureau. He said: "Chairman MAO proposed the Politburo to discuss preparation for the convening of the Fourth National People's Congress because the Cultural Revolution has taken a quite long time and we need to consider the resumption of government agencies. He said that the first agenda is for the Congress to summarize the experience of the Cultural Revolution. The second is to establish and restore the governments at all levels. The third is to research on economic development and military readiness. I mainly have these three points of views." Then WANG continued: Chairman MAO also asked the Politburo to establish a drafting group for amendment of the Constitution; in addition, also need to prepare the drafting of the "Work report of the Government", "Report on national economic plan" and "Work report on combat readiness"; These should proceed immediately. In the end, WANG conveyed MAO Ze-dong's words: "There is another problem on whether or not to set up the post of a national president for our country. My opinion is not to set. If people want to set a president for the country, then who will be the president of the country? I, MAO Ze-dong, is not going to be the president. If a president would be set, then he is LIN Biao." After WANG finished his conveying, there was no discussion and the meeting ended. After the meeting, WANG Dong-xing told YE Qun that he wants to go to Maojiawan, directly conveying the instructions of MAO. But he was told that LIN had been in sleep after taking sleeping pills at 8 PM as usual. As he could not go to see LIN, he then decided to invite YE Qun, HUANG Yong-sheng, WU Fa-xian, LI Zuo-peng and QIU Hui-zuo together coming to his home. After all of them arrived at his home, WANG was very high and insisted to invite all of them having dinner at his home. As the result, all of them ate the sweet potatoes that were rare at the season (it was in March) and therefore precious, but he still had some. They were happily eating and talking until the midnight. At 9 PM on March 13, ZHOU En-lai presided a Politburo meeting in the Great Hall of the People, specifically discussing how to implement MAO Zedong's instruction on the Forth National People's Congress. The meeting 225

227 first decided to set up a work group for preparation of the Congress, led by ZHOU En-lai and including members ZHANG Chun-qiao, HUANG Yongsheng, XIE Fu-zhi and WANG Dong-xing. And then the meeting decided to set up a work group for the constitutional amendment, headed by KANG Sheng and including members CHEN Bo-da, ZHANG Chun-qiao, WU Faxian, LI Zuo-peng and JI Deng-kui. The issue of whether to set a president position for the country will be discussed in the work group for the constitutional amendment. The work group for constitutional amendment found a meeting room behind Huairentang Hall in the Zhongnanhai District and began to work there. KANG Sheng organized a group of secretaries headed by LI Xin. The team s work hours were from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. At the first meeting, KANG said that the Chairman suggested changing the state system so that there is no national president post for the country. He went on to say: "In the general superclass of the Constitution, we can write Chairman MAO is the founder of the People's Republic of China, but in the front of the name of Chairman MAO we should not add the adjectives (Note: Refers to the four adjectives of "great", namely "the great teacher, the great leader, the great commander and the great helmsman") and "three adverb " (namely "talentedly, creatively and comprehensively developed the Marx-Leninism) because, if we add more adjectives, Chairman MAO will cross out more." After KANG finished, ZHANG Chun-qiao said a few words that we have not dealt with the Constitution in the past, but do not be afraid, just work boldly and do not worry even if mistakes were made. In the first two months after the Constitution Group began to work, the group members studied various constitutions of modern China including the first Constitution of the People's Republic of China passed in 1954, which was established under the leadership of MAO Ze-dong, and the results of widely listening to the views of the democratic parties and personages of various circles of society; SUN Zhong-shan s "Constitution of five powers" and YUAN Shi-kai s Constitution. They also studied Constitutions of other socialist countries including the Soviet Union, North Korea, Eastern European socialist countries. They further studied Constitutions of the capitalist countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Australia, and Canada et al. Among the constitutions they had studied, some has hundreds of clauses, or dozens, or even only three. After circulating the constitutions, the members held a meeting for discussion. There were many different views and even 226

228 controversy in the discussions. Finally, all members agreed on a few opinions: The principle of amending the Constitution is that it should be simple and not complicated; The principles and spirit of the 1954 Constitution should be basically inherited; As to the questions of how many chapters and how many items the Constitution should have, we should start writing first and then see what happens. LIN Biao view on whether or not to set up a national president post for the country was different from MAO Ze-dong s. At the night on April 11, LIN in Suzhou City asked his secretary to telephone the Political Bureau telling his comments: "First, on the national president post issue that will be determined in the People's Congress. Comrade LIN Biao still recommended Chairman MAO to be the State President concurrently. This will fit the psychological state inside and outside the party, and of domestic and foreign people. Otherwise, it is not suitable for the people's psychological state. Second, on the problem of whether to set up vice state president post. Comrade LIN Biao thinks that it does not matter much, i.e. we could set up or not, and set up more vice presidents or less. Third, Comrade LIN Biao believes that he should not serve as a vice president." On the second day, the Political Bureau reported LIN Biao's comments to MAO Ze-dong. MAO wrote an instruction that stated: "I can't do it any more. The comment is not proper." In late April, MAO stated the same opinion in a Politburo meeting that he will not be the national president and that we should not set up such a post. And he then borrowed the stories of the ancient book of Three Kingdoms and said: "SUN Quan advised CAO Cao to be the emperor. CAO Cao commented that SUN Quan is to put him on the fire and roasted. I advise you not to take me as CAO Cao and you do not be SUN Quan." In the afternoon on May 17, HUANG Yong-sheng, WU Fa-xian, LI Zuo-peng and QIU Hui-zuo went to LIN Biao s residence to report their works. When it comes to the question of setting up the national president, someone mentioned that MAO Ze-dong had said "if you want to have the president of the country, then only LIN Biao can be." At this point, LIN replied very firmly: "I will not be the president, and it is not proper. Chairman MAO should be the national president and it is right and proper. A large country with a population of one billion, without a national president or without a head of state is not right and not proper. Only Chairman MAO can be the national president and the head of state, all others are not appropriate. But a national president should go abroad to visit and should make a return visit after the head of a state visited China. Chairman MAO is in old age, and for him to go abroad will be difficult. We may set 227

229 posts of vice president who can go abroad to visit other countries. I am not suitable as a vice national president because my health is not good, and can not participate in activities and can not go abroad." At a meeting of the Political Bureau, ZHOU En-lai proposed a compromise solution: "For the Chairman to be the national president is certain, and for the Vice Chairman to be the vice national president is also certain. But the Chairman does not want to participate in the general state activities and the Vice Chairman s health is not good and cannot participate in much activities. Therefore, we could set a number of posts of vice national president, who would go abroad for a visit or host heads of other states." WANG Dong-xing who was present at the time said: "The Prime Minister is very thoughtful. In fact, this problem is not so difficult to solve. The Chairman likes to see foreign guests and, actually, has met important guests and felt very happy." The audience spoke and agreed with what the Prime Minister and WANG Dong-xing said. The work group for constitutional amendment gradually formed two factions: CHEN Bo-da, WU Fa-xian and LI Zuo-peng were in one of the sections, and KANG Sheng and ZHANG Chun-qiao were in the other. The section of CHEN et al adhered to the view of LIN Biao: "A national president post should be set and MAO Ze-dong will be the national president. Considering MAO Ze-dong s inconvenience to go abroad, we can set up a post for vice national president. In short, a national president post should be set." KANG and ZHANG did not agree with setting the post of a national president and, further, they propose that the head of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress will not be called chairman but just director. (Note: In fact, these are also MAO's opinion.) In order to ease the contradiction, KANG suggested that the constitution has a sentence that states: LIN Biao is the successor of Chairman MAO. In the constitutional amendment group, despite the great contradiction, the work is still carried out as usual. The draft of the modified constitution was basically in line with the views of KANG Sheng, and the members discussed and studied one item by one item, including the content, the wording and even the punctuation. The draft was in line with the scheme of not setting the post of national president. The draft had a total of six chapters and, in its General Programme, there was the sentence of "Comrade LIN Biao is Comrade MAO Ze-dong's close ally and successor". The draft also provided that the People's Congresses at all the 228

230 levels, including the National People's Congress, will set a post of director only, but not chairman. Members of the Constitutional Amendment Group. From left: CHEN Bo-da, WU Fa-xian, KANG Sheng and ZHANG Chun-qiao. On July 17, the Constitution Amendment Drafting Committee held a large meeting in Jingxi Hotel, and 55 people attended. ZHOU En-lai chaired the meeting, but MAO Ze-dong and LIN Biao did not attend. In the afternoon of the next day, ZHOU participated in the discussion session of the Northeast and Southwest Joint Discussion Group. The first speaker was a member of the Central Committee, WEI Feng-ying, who was born in a worker s family. Her first sentence was: "Our great teacher, great leader, great commander and great helmsman Chairman MAO taught us that..." ZHOU En-lai immediately interrupted her and said: "Comrade WEI Feng-ying, you have been a member of the Central Committee but not an ordinary worker for a time already, and should pay attention when you talk. The Chairman has said many times that one should not use "the four adverbs" (Note: ZHOU meant to say the four 'greats'), and therefore we should not use them.... The four adverbs cite only few words, which the Chairman does not agree with. Not long ago, the Chairman, the Vice Chairman LIN and I met and came to the Great Hall of the People for attending a meeting. When the Chairman got off the car, saw his portrait hanging on the north gate of the Hall, and lost his temper and said: Hanging my portrait everywhere, let me stand and serve sentry duty, exposed to the sun, the wind and the rain. It is cruel and merciless! Take all of them off and, if not, I will never enter the Great Hall. When entering the North reception lobby, the Chairman saw quotations from his works were hung up in the walls where originally hanged paintings, and was very angry again and said: Do my few words have so much effects? Written all over, hanging around, which is very annoying. The Chairman said to me: En-lai, call someone to take them all off. I then pleased the party s secretary of the Hall, 229