Renmin University student orator for “genuine socialism”, the only Beijing student rightist never corrected
Born Cheng Haiguo in Shanghai, she joined the People’s Liberation Army at Wenling, Zhejiang, in 1949 as a clerk and in 1953 was sent as a cadre-student to the law department of Renmin University. In 1956 she won Hu Yaobang’s support against a defamatory article in China Youth Daily. On 23 May 1957, at a Peking University debate, she argued that the evidence against the “Hu Feng counter-revolutionary clique” was insufficient and that present-day socialism was an “atypical” socialism grown on feudal foundations; she spoke six times in May and June and disclosed the contents of Khrushchev’s secret speech. Labelled a rightist, she was arrested in 1958 and sentenced in 1959 to fifteen years for counter-revolution. Released on Mao’s order in 1973, she received a verdict of “no correction” in 1980, left for France in 1983 and died in Paris in 2009.
Also known as: Cheng Haiguo
Activities and affiliations
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1949–1953
People’s Republic of China state institutionsPLA clerk
Military command -
1957–2009
Social movements and organizing
Career Timeline
- 1949Joined the PLA at Wenling, Zhejiang, as a clerk
- 1953Entered the law department of Renmin University as a cadre-student
- 1957Six speeches at Peking and Renmin universities; labelled a rightist
- 1958Arrested for counter-revolution
- 1959Sentenced to fifteen years
- 1973Released on Mao’s order; worker at a farm-machinery plant in Wuyi, Zhejiang
- 1980Verdict of “no correction”
- 1983Settled in France via Hong Kong