Mao’s inquisitor who ran party security and intelligence from the Yan’an “rescue” campaign to the Cultural Revolution
He died of bladder cancer in December 1975 and was buried with state honours as a “proletarian revolutionary”, but in October 1980, on the eve of the Gang of Four trial, he was posthumously expelled from the party and exhumed from Babaoshan.
From a Shandong landlord family, he worked in the Shanghai underground and in 1933 went to Moscow as Wang Ming’s deputy, where he studied the Soviet purges. Back at Yan’an in 1937 he sided with Mao and, as head of the Social Affairs Department, ran the rectification movement’s “rescue” campaign that branded thousands as enemy agents. Sidelined for a time after 1949, he returned in the Sino-Soviet polemics of the 1960s and as adviser to the Cultural Revolution Group directed the investigation and persecution of Liu Shaoqi, He Long and other veterans. He died of cancer in 1975 and was posthumously expelled from the party in 1980.
Also known as: K’ang Sheng · Zhao Rong
Activities and affiliations
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1925–1975
Political and party leadership
- Head of the Central Social Affairs Department1939–1945Security, intelligence and policing
- Party leadership during the Cultural Revolution1966–1975
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1933–1937
CominternMember of the ECCI Presidium
Diplomacy and international organization -
People’s Republic of China state institutionsMain
Security, intelligence and policing
Career Timeline
- 1925–1975CCP member
- 1933–1937Worked in Moscow as Wang Ming’s deputy in the Comintern
- 1939–1945Head of the Central Social Affairs Department
- 1939–1946Head of the Social Affairs Department (intelligence and security)
- 1966–1969Adviser to the Central Cultural Revolution Group
- 1966–1975Party leadership during the Cultural Revolution
- 1973–1975Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee
- 1980Posthumously expelled over responsibility for the Cultural Revolution
Related historical events
- 1937–1945The war with Japan and the second united frontDirected the rectification “rescue campaign”As Social Affairs chief ran the 1943 cadre screening and forced confessions.
- 1956–1957From the Hundred Flowers to the Anti-Rightist CampaignHardliner in theory and propagandaRegained influence in theory and culture after the anti-rightist turn.
- 1956–1969The Sino-Soviet SplitTheoretical offensive against Soviet revisionismHe returned to the centre of power by leading the theoretical offensive in the Sino-Soviet polemics of the 1960s.
- 1966–1976The Cultural RevolutionAdviser to the Group and investigator of fabricated casesDirected the “special case” investigations of Liu Shaoqi, He Long and others.
- 1976–1992Reform and opening: the Deng Xiaoping eraCultural Revolution strongman whose errors were raised in 1978His errors were one of the “six issues” Chen Yun raised at the 1978 work conference.
Private gain from confiscated art and his reputation as a calligrapher
During the Cultural Revolution, Kang Sheng is recorded as abusing his position for personal advantage. A gifted painter and calligrapher, he used his power to indulge a penchant for collecting antiques and works of art, notably inkstones. According to Byron and Pack, in a series of visits to the Cultural Relics Bureau he took 12,080 volumes of rare books, 34 percent of all rare books removed, and 1,102 antiques, 20 percent of the total; only Lin Biao, Mao's designated heir and second in the land, appropriated more antiques. After his death his collection of 34,000 books and 5,500 artefacts was donated to Jingshan Park. The Korean-language article states that the cultural objects looted for his private collection during the Cultural Revolution ran to tens of thousands and that his interest in calligraphy and painting earned him a reputation as a skilled hand. The CCP Central Committee later held the Cultural Revolution responsible for the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the state and the people since 1949, and the removal of cultural property for private gain is recorded as one facet of his abuse of that power. At the same time, he was considered among the best Chinese calligraphers of his generation and left numerous notable works.