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47-652: The precursor to the CCEG was the Special Case Examination Committee, an organ established by the Politburo in May 1966 to investigate the political offences of Peng Zhen , Luo Ruiqing , Lu Dingyi and Yang Shangkun . When it was found that there was a need for analysis of other cases, the committee was retained under a new name, and soon achieved a permanence as a central institution. The Central Case Examination Group

94-526: A "cultural revolution", but he fell out of favor with Mao Zedong in April 1966 when he attacked Mao's belief that all literature should support the state. He was accused of being an associate to Wu Han 's counter-revolutionary clique and deposed at a May 1966 conference in what became the opening act of the Cultural Revolution . Lu Dingyi , Luo Ruiqing and Yang Shangkun were also deposed. Peng survived

141-596: A democratic society based on rule of law. If not handled well, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection may be at risk of becoming a bigger version of the CCEG." — Wang Li , as quoted in the memoirs of Deng Liqun The CCEG was responsible to the Politburo Standing Committee , and wielded significant power in the realm of public security. It took the decisions to arrest, torture and imprison suspected 'revisionist' elements. For example, at

188-813: A resistance movement against the invading Japanese forces. Peng was important in developing the Second United Front during the Second Sino-Japanese War . Around the same time, he was appointed the Organization Department Director of the North Bureau of CCP. Peng also served on a number of positions as vice-president of the Central Party School and director of the CCP Policy Research Office. In 1945 he served in

235-519: The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre , Peng Zhen supported the declaration of martial law in Beijing and the removal of Zhao Ziyang . Peng Zhen died on April 26, 1997, from blood cancer aged 94, two months after the death of former vice premier Deng Xiaoping, and was eulogized with high honours by the highest organs of the party and the state. His official obituary declared him a "great proletarian revolutionary, politician, and outstanding expert in

282-527: The Eight Elders of the CCP. Gang of Four The Gang of Four ( simplified Chinese : 四人帮 ; traditional Chinese : 四人幫 ; pinyin : Sì rén bāng ) was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes due to their responsibility for

329-534: The CCEG also began to investigate Lin Biao. In 1975, in an effort to bring the Cultural Revolution to a close, Mao ordered that the CCEG conclude its major cases swiftly and release of some prisoners. This led to the release of around 300 prisoners in the middle of 1975. The last case assigned to the CCEG was the case of the ' Gang of Four '. Jiang Qing, once an active member of the CCEG, came under investigation by

376-528: The CCEG should be dissolved at the same time as the Cultural Revolution Group, in 1969, it was retained as an institution for the remainder of the Cultural Revolution decade, continuing its investigative role until after the Cultural Revolution itself ended. In 1970, the group started to examine the case against Chen Boda , who was one of the staunchest proponents of the Cultural Revolution but by this point had fallen from political favour, and in 1971

423-481: The Cultural Revolution and met with the Red Guards . The removal of this group from power is sometimes considered to have marked the end of the Cultural Revolution, which had been launched by Mao in 1966 as part of his power struggle with leaders such as Liu Shaoqi , Deng Xiaoping and Peng Zhen . Mao placed his wife Jiang Qing, a former film actress who before 1966 had not taken a public political role, in charge of

470-585: The Cultural Revolution, and was eventually rehabilitated under Deng Xiaoping . He subsequently became Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission , a post he already held from late 1950s in the capacity of leader of a Central Politics and Law Leading Group. Beginning in 1983, as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Sixth National People's Congress , he sought to increase

517-501: The Gang of Four retained control over the government media, and many articles appeared on the theme of "principles laid down" (or "established") by Mao near the end of his life. (The words "principles laid down" were themselves supposedly a quotation from Mao, but their canonical status was in dispute. ) Urban militia units commanded by supporters of the radical group were placed on a heightened state of readiness. Premier Hua Guofeng attacked

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564-731: The Gang of Four, including Chen Boda and Mao Yuanxin, were also sentenced. In the struggle between Hua Guofeng's and Deng Xiaoping's followers, a new term emerged, pointing to Hua's four closest collaborators, Wang Dongxing, Wu De , Ji Dengkui and Chen Xilian. In 1980, they were charged with "grave errors" in the struggle against the Gang of Four and demoted from the Political Bureau to mere Central Committee membership. In 2013, mainland Chinese state media labelled Anson Chan , Martin Lee , Joseph Zen and Jimmy Lai as 'Hong Kong's "Gang of Four"' due to their alleged foreign connections. In 2016,

611-538: The Gang, and which were the result of the Gang of Four's own planning. Their fall did not amount to a rejection of the Cultural Revolution as such; it was organized by the new leader, Premier Hua Guofeng , and others who had risen during that period. Significant repudiation of the entire process of change came later, with the return of Deng Xiaoping at the 11th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and Hua's gradual loss of authority. The group

658-690: The NPC's power. He used the NPC as a base to oppose reform. In January 1987, Peng Zhen played a pivotal role in Hu Yaobang 's resignation as General Secretary by attack and criticizing Hu during a meeting. Peng left Politburo after the 13th Party Congress in November 1987 and retired from politics in March 1988 after Wan Li took over his position as Chairman of Standing Committee of the National People's Congress . During

705-707: The Nationalists under the command of Du Yuming attacked in November 1945, the Communists were forced back. Peng was removed as the CCP leader in the northeast after further failure by Lin Biao's forces in March 1946 led to the Communists retreat back to Harbin. Peng was a member of the CCP Central Committee starting from 1944 as well as a member of the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee . He also held

752-653: The actual leadership of the Cultural Revolution consisted of a wider group, referring predominantly to the members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group . Most prominent was Lin Biao , until his purported defection from China and death in a plane crash in 1971. Chen Boda is often classed as a member of Lin's faction rather than Jiang Qing's. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, on November 10, 1965, Yao Wenyuan, in one of his most famous pieces of writing, published an article in Wenhuibao criticizing

799-412: The affairs of the state; unswerving Marxist, instrumental in laying the foundations of legal institution in our country, and excellent leader of the party and state." The obituary also curiously made mention of his support of Deng Xiaoping's 1992 "southern tour" which re-ignited economic reforms after relative stagnation following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre . He was considered one of

846-452: The alliance of Deng Xiaoping, Zhou Enlai, and Ye Jianying . Zhou Enlai died in January 1976, and, in the subsequent months, a power struggle occurred in the top echelons of the party. The reformist Deng was named acting premier, while the Gang of Four began using their newspapers to criticize Deng and to mobilize their urban militia groups. Much of the military and party security remained under

893-517: The border with the Soviet Union (see Sino-Soviet split ). Premier Zhou Enlai , who had accepted the Cultural Revolution, but never fully supported it, regained his authority, and used it to bring Deng Xiaoping back into the Party leadership at the 10th Party Congress in 1973. Liu Shaoqi had meanwhile died in prison in 1969. Near the end of Mao's life, a power struggle occurred between the Gang of Four and

940-567: The communist party's effort to establish an institutionalized justice system. The trials were highly visible to the Chinese public thanks to the daily television broadcasts of trial sessions and wide circulation of documentary films about the trials. In late 1980, the four deposed leaders were subjected to a trial by the Supreme People's Court of China with Jiang Hua presiding; in January 1981, they were convicted of anti-party activities. During

987-530: The control of the party elders of the Central Committee, who generally took a cautious role in mediating between the reformist Deng and the radical Gang of Four. They agreed to the removal of Deng from office after the April Tiananmen Incident but took steps to ensure that Deng and his allies would not be personally harmed in the process. On September 9, Chairman Mao died. For the next few weeks

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1034-501: The country's cultural apparatus. Zhang, Yao and Wang were party leaders in Shanghai who had played leading roles in securing that city for Mao during the Cultural Revolution. Around the time of the death of Lin Biao in 1971, the Cultural Revolution began to lose momentum. The new commanders of the People's Liberation Army demanded that order be restored in light of the dangerous situation along

1081-405: The excesses and failures in the Cultural Revolution. The gang's leading figure was Jiang Qing ( Mao Zedong 's last wife). The other members were Zhang Chunqiao , Yao Wenyuan , and Wang Hongwen . The Gang of Four controlled the power organs of the CCP through the later stages of the Cultural Revolution, although it remains unclear which major decisions were made by Mao Zedong and carried out by

1128-617: The history research committee and the organizing committee of the CCP's 7th National Congress . In September 1945 Peng was sent by Mao Zedong to take up overall leadership of the CCP in Northeast China . He was accompanied by Lin Biao who was to assist Peng with directing military operations against the Nationalists . Peng decided that the CCP could hold the 3 big cities of the Northeast: Shenyang , Changchun and Harbin . When

1175-508: The inaugural head of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission . Born in Houma , Shanxi province, Peng was originally named Fu Maogong (傅懋恭). He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1923 as a founding member of the Shanxi Province CCP. Arrested in 1929, he continued underground political activities while imprisoned. He was released from prison in 1935 and began organizing

1222-553: The key military leaders Wang Dongxing and Chen Xilian would support them, but instead, Hua won the Army over to his side. On 6 October 1976, Hua had the four leading radicals and a number of their lesser associates arrested. Han Suyin gave a detailed account of their overthrow: An emergency session of the Politburo was to take place in the Great Hall of the People that evening. Their presence

1269-402: The latter were the usurpation of state power and party leadership; the persecution of some 750,000 people, 34,375 of whom died during the period 1966–1976. The official records of the trial have not yet been released. Audience members who attended the opening of the trial included selected people's representatives from each province and autonomous region, as well as victims' families including

1316-487: The next party leadership. These four, together with the rehabilitated Deng Xiaoping and Wang Dongxing, were elected party Vice Chairmen at the August 1977 National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party . At the politburo level, the membership of all four living marshals, seven other generals and at least five others with close military ties reflected the deep concern for national stability. The Gang of Four trials were part of

1363-403: The play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office . The article argued that the opera was actually a sympathetic portrayal of the reformist efforts of the military hero Peng Dehuai and thus an attack on Chairman Mao's Great Leap Forward . Mao subsequently purged Peng from power. The article is cited as the spark that launched the Cultural Revolution . Jiang Qing staged revolutionary operas during

1410-616: The positions of First Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee, and Mayor of Beijing from 1951 to 1966. In addition to being mayor, he was a high-ranking member of the Politburo from 1956 to 1966. In June 1960, he attended Bucharest Conference of Representatives of Communist and Workers Parties , countering Soviet leader Khrushchev during the conference. Peng was appointed head of the Five Man Group in charge of preparing

1457-661: The pro-Beijing newspaper Sing Pao Daily News started publishing editorials that criticized Tung Chee-hwa , Leung Chun-ying , Zhang Xiaoming and Jiang Zaizhong as another 'Hong Kong's Gang of Four'. The articles claim that although all of them appeared to be loyal to Beijing, they were actually betraying it and destabilizing Hong Kong for their personal interest, by igniting social and political conflicts, as well as through other mischievous means. In 2019, Chinese state media labelled Anson Chan, Martin Lee, Jimmy Lai and Albert Ho as yet another 'Gang of Four of Hong Kong' due to their alleged collusion with foreign forces in relation to

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1504-475: The radicals' media line at a Politburo meeting in late September; but Jiang Qing emphatically disagreed with Hua, and she insisted that she be named as the new party chairman. The meeting ended inconclusively. On October 4 the radical group warned, via an article in the Guangming Daily , that any revisionist who interfered with the established principles would "come to no good end". The radicals hoped that

1551-402: The streets of Beijing and other major cities. During the nationwide "Movement of Exposition, Criticism and Uncovering (揭批查运动)" millions of formerly " rebel faction " red guards were publicly criticized as they were thought to be related to the Gang of Four. Immediately after the arrests, Premier Hua Guofeng , Marshal Ye Jianying, and economic czars Chen Yun and Li Xiannian formed the core of

1598-690: The time of Twelfth Plenum in October 1968, 88 fully fledged or 'alternate' members of the CC were under CCEG investigation. By the autumn of 1967, the CCEG had become too large an operation for its existing structure, and so the group was subdivided into a First Office and a Second Office. The First Office, led by Wang Dongxing , took responsibility for the cases from the initial phases of the Cultural Revolution, including cases surrounding Peng Zhen and his supporters. The Second Office, led by Yang Chengwu and (following Yang's demise in March 1968) General Huang Yongsheng ,

1645-486: The trial, Jiang Qing in particular was extremely defiant, protesting loudly and bursting into tears at some points. She was the only member of the Gang of Four to argue on her own behalf. The defence's argument was that she obeyed the orders of Chairman Mao Zedong at all times. Zhang Chunqiao refused to admit any wrongdoing. Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen expressed repentance and confessed their alleged crimes. The prosecution separated political errors from actual crimes. Among

1692-592: The very apparatus she had been involved in. After completing its analysis of the 'Gang of Four' case, the Central Case Examination Group was formally dissolved after thirteen years of operation at the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee , held in December 1978. Peng Zhen Peng Zhen (pronounced [pʰə̌ŋ ʈʂə́n] ; October 12, 1902 – April 26, 1997)

1739-498: The widows of Liu Shaoqi, He Long , and Luo Ruiqing . Jiang Qing and Zhang Chunqiao received death sentences that were later commuted to life imprisonment, while Wang Hongwen and Yao Wenyuan were given life and twenty years in prison, respectively. All members of the Gang of Four have since died; Jiang Qing committed suicide in 1991, Wang Hongwen died in 1992, and Yao Wenyuan and Zhang Chunqiao died in 2005, having been released from prison in 1996 and 1998, respectively. Supporters of

1786-450: Was a horrible, harmful institution... it had unlimited powers and it answered to no one. The group could choose to purge whomever it wanted, and had the power to throw people in prison; it even dictated how long the prison term was... the Group must be buried forever... it had strong autocratic tendencies and operated on the whims of the individual. So long as the Group exists, we will never become

1833-528: Was a leading member of the Chinese Communist Party . He led the party organization in Beijing following the victory of the Communists in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, but was purged during the Cultural Revolution for opposing Mao's views on the role of literature in relation to the state. He was rehabilitated under Deng Xiaoping in 1982 along with other 'wrongly accused' officials, and became

1880-418: Was at this plenum that Liu Shaoqi was officially expelled from the CCP. The CCEG's membership included most of the membership of the Cultural Revolution Group and Zhou Enlai , with Mao Zedong 's wife Jiang Qing taking a particularly active role in the building of cases against individuals. In addition, other members included Wang Dongxing and Ye Qun , the wife of Lin Biao . "The Case Examination Group

1927-415: Was done with quiet and efficiency. In Shanghai, the Gang's supporters received a message to come to Beijing "for a meeting". They came and were arrested. Thus, without shedding a drop of blood, the plans of the Gang of Four to wield supreme power were ended. According to historian Immanuel C.Y. Hsü , the operation was not completely bloodless – Wang Hongwen killed two of the guards trying to capture him and

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1974-607: Was founded at roughly the same time as the Cultural Revolution Group (CRG). The CRG was essentially "command central" of the Cultural Revolution. However, unlike the CRG, the CCEG was to operate throughout the entire of the Cultural Revolution decade and beyond, investigating and reporting on the purported crimes of many of the members of the higher echelons of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and all people considered to be counterrevolutionary . The group's highest profile case

2021-405: Was led by Jiang Qing , and consisted of three of her close associates, Zhang Chunqiao , Yao Wenyuan , and Wang Hongwen . Two other men who were already dead in 1976, Kang Sheng and Xie Fuzhi , were named as having been part of the "Gang". Chen Boda and Mao Yuanxin , the latter being Mao's nephew, were also considered some of the Gang's closer associates. Most Western accounts consider that

2068-586: Was required. Since Wang Dongxing had been their ally, they did not suspect him... As they passed through the swinging doors into the entrance lobby, they were apprehended and led off in handcuffs. A special 8341 unit then went to Madam Mao's residence at No. 17 Fisherman's Terrace and arrested her. That night Mao Yuanxin was arrested in Manchuria , and the propagandists of the Gang of Four in Peking University and in newspaper offices were taken into custody. All

2115-419: Was solely concerned with the cases of members of the military. It took over several cases of senior PLA soldiers, including that of Marshal He Long . In 1968, a Third Office was established under Xie Fuzhi to investigate the May 16th Conspiracy, involving some members of the Cultural Revolution Group. The Third Office would later take on other cases of conspiracy groups. Although there were suggestions that

2162-524: Was that of Chinese President Liu Shaoqi , whose case was reportedly investigated by 400,000 people (including some Red Guards from Peking University), looking at over four million files. The findings of the CCEG on President Liu Shaoqi were compiled into a seventy-four page report to be considered by the Twelfth Plenum of the Eighth Central Committee of the CCP that met in October 1968. It

2209-452: Was wounded himself before being subdued. Beginning on 21 October, nationwide denunciations of the Gang began, which culminated in the December release of files related to the Gang's alleged crimes to the public. The party issued a denunciation of the Gang of Four as "left in form, right in essence". Government media blamed the Gang of Four and Lin Biao for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. Celebrations were prominent and not limited to

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