Head of the Propaganda Department who rose to fourth in the party in 1966 and was toppled by Jiang Qing and Chen Boda
From Qiyang in Hunan, he took part in the Nanchang and Guangzhou uprisings and was held in Nationalist prisons in 1933–1937. In the civil war, as deputy political director of the Northeast Field Army, he negotiated the peaceful takeover of Beiping with Fu Zuoyi. After 1949 he was Guangdong party secretary and in the Guangzhou Military Region, then first secretary of the Central-South Bureau, and in 1965 replaced Lu Dingyi as head of the Propaganda Department while serving as vice-premier and a secretary of the Central Secretariat. Ranked fourth in May 1966 and named to the Standing Committee in August, he tried to restrain the movement and fell to Jiang Qing and Chen Boda in January 1967. Denied timely treatment for cancer and sent to Hefei, he died in November 1969; he was rehabilitated in 1978.
Also known as: T'ao Chu
Activities and affiliations
-
1938–1949
Chinese Communist revolutionary forces (before 1949)Deputy director, Political Department, Northeast Field Army
Military command -
1953–1967
People’s Republic of China state institutionsActing chairman of Guangdong; vice-premier
Government and administration -
1965–1967
Communist Party of ChinaDirector, Central Propaganda DepartmentMain
Ideology and propaganda -
–1969
Political and party leadership
Career Timeline
- 1927Took part in the Nanchang and Guangzhou uprisings
- 1929Secretary-general of the Fujian provincial committee
- 1933–1937Imprisoned by the Nationalists
- 1949Deputy political director, Northeast Field Army; negotiated the takeover of Beiping
- 1953Guangdong party secretary; Guangzhou Military Region
- 1965Head of the Propaganda Department; vice-premier
- 1966Ranked fourth; Politburo Standing Committee
- 1967Toppled by Jiang Qing and Chen Boda
- 1969Died in Hefei
- 1978Posthumously rehabilitated
Related historical events
- 1966–1976The Cultural RevolutionPropaganda chief toppled from fourth placeHe fell in January 1967 after trying to restrain the movement and died untreated in Hefei in 1969.
- 1976–1992Reform and opening: the Deng Xiaoping eraFormer propaganda chief rehabilitated at the Third PlenumChen Yun raised his case at the Central Work Conference.