People

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1911–1994 ○ Natural causes

General who fought in Korea, commanded the Kunming region on the western front in 1979 and became chief of the General Staff

Appointed Kunming Military Region commander in January 1979, he directed the Yunnan front in the war with Vietnam. The following year he became PLA chief of the General Staff.

Born in Liling, Hunan, he joined the Red Army in 1928 and fought against Japan, in the civil war and in Korea. After commanding the Jinan and Wuhan military regions he took over the Kunming region in January 1979 and commanded the western front in the northwest in the war with Vietnam, while Xu Shiyou led the east. He became chief of the PLA General Staff in 1980 and died in Beijing in 1994.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1912–1966 ✕ Suicide

People’s Daily editor whose Evening Chats at Yanshan were read as satire of the Great Leap, the Cultural Revolution’s first victim

In 1966 his Evening Chats at Yanshan and Notes from Three-Family Village were condemned as “anti-party poisonous weeds”, making him a nationwide target; he took his own life at home on 18 May 1966 and was rehabilitated in February 1979.

A historian and journalist from Fujian, he ran newspapers in the Jin-Cha-Ji base during the war with Japan and edited the first Selected Works of Mao Zedong. Editor and then director of People’s Daily from 1949, he was rebuked by Mao in 1957 for running a “scholars’ paper” and stepped down. As a Beijing party secretary he wrote Evening Chats at Yanshan for the Beijing Evening News in 1961–1962 and, with Wu Han and Liao Mosha, Notes from Three-Family Village; in 1966 these were condemned as “anti-party poisonous weeds”, opening the Cultural Revolution, and he killed himself that May. He was rehabilitated in 1979.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1913–1989 ○ Natural causes

Zhuang general sent in 1950 to head the Chinese Military Advisory Group to the Viet Minh, who also attended the Geneva conference

Sent to Vietnam in 1950 to lead China's Military Advisory Group, Wei Guoqing advised Ho Chi Minh on the war against France; at the 1954 Geneva Conference, he discussed military matters with the Vietnamese delegation.

A Zhuang from Guangxi, he joined the Red Army and in the civil war was deputy political commissar of the Third Field Army’s Tenth Army Group. In April 1950 Liu Shaoqi sent him to Vietnam as head of the Chinese Military Advisory Group to advise Ho Chi Minh on the war with France. He is said to have handed Ho a copy of the French Navarre plan in October 1953, and he attended the 1954 Geneva conference with Zhou Enlai. He later chaired Guangxi (1958–1975), sat on the Politburo (1973–1982) and headed the PLA General Political Department, escaping the purges of the Cultural Revolution and after.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1913–2002 ↓ Removed 1962 · natural causes

A founder of the northern Shaanxi base, purged for sixteen years, who opened Guangdong’s special economic zones

He built the Shaanxi–Gansu base with Liu Zhidan that became the Long March's destination, was purged in 1962 and confined for sixteen years, then opened the special economic zones as Guangdong's first secretary in 1978.

From Shaanxi, he founded the Shaanxi–Gansu base with Liu Zhidan, the destination of the Long March. After 1949 he headed the Northwest Bureau and served as State Council secretary-general and vice-premier, but in 1962 Kang Sheng denounced the novel Liu Zhidan as an “anti-party” defence of Gao Gang and Xi was purged, spending sixteen years in confinement and rural exile. Returning as Guangdong first secretary in 1978, he asked the centre for the power to “take one step ahead” to stem the flight to Hong Kong, which led to the Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou special economic zones in 1980. A Secretariat member in the 1980s, he supported Hu Yaobang and opposed his removal in 1987. He was Xi Jinping’s father.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1914–1991 ✕ Suicide

From the Shanghai stage to the pinnacle of the Cultural Revolution: Mao's wife who led the Gang of Four and remade Chinese revolutionary art

At her 1980 trial, Jiang Qing defied the court: 'I was Chairman Mao's dog — I bit whomever he asked me to bite.' Dragged from the courtroom, she shouted revolutionary slogans.

A central leader of China's Cultural Revolution and head of the Gang of Four, Jiang Qing was, as Mao Zedong's wife, the most powerful woman in the Chinese Communist Party. After working as a left-wing stage and film actress in 1930s Shanghai, she went to Yan'an in 1937 and married Mao; barred from politics for twenty years, she returned to the public stage in 1963 through a campaign to revolutionize Peking opera. Appointed deputy director of the Central Cultural Revolution Group in 1966, she opened the Cultural Revolution with the attack on the play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, established eight revolutionary model operas (yangbanxi), and was elected to the Politburo in 1969. Arrested in October 1976 after Mao's death, she was sentenced to death for 'counter-revolutionary crimes,' saw her sentence commuted, and died by suicide in a Beijing hospital in May 1991.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1915–1986 ↓ Left office 1980 · lung cancer

The peasant leader of the model village behind “In agriculture, learn from Dazhai”, who rose to vice-premier

The symbol of Mao-era self-reliance: after Mao's 1964 “In agriculture, learn from Dazhai” his brigade became the national model, and he rose to the Politburo and vice-premiership before the reforms sidelined him in 1980.

A barely literate peasant from Dazhai in Xiyang County, Shanxi, he terraced hillsides as brigade secretary and rebuilt the village after the 1963 floods without state aid. When Mao said in 1964 “In agriculture, learn from Dazhai” the village became the national model, and Chen became a Central Committee member in 1969, a Politburo member in 1973 and vice-premier for agriculture in 1975. The Dazhai model preached collective labour and self-reliance, but inflated statistics and coercion came to light; after the reforms began he left the vice-premiership in 1980, lived on a farm outside Beijing and died of lung cancer.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1915–1989 ↓ Removed 1987 · heart attack

The reformist general secretary who rehabilitated the Cultural Revolution’s victims and freed thought; his death sparked the 1989 protests

He died on 15 April 1989, days after a heart attack; a day later unofficial mourners demanded the state reassess him, and within a week about 100,000 students marched on Tiananmen Square.

From Hunan, he joined the Red Army at fourteen, marched on the Long March and led the Communist Youth League after 1949. Persecuted in the Cultural Revolution, as head of the Organisation Department from 1977 he reviewed and reversed millions of unjust cases and in 1978 organised the “criterion of truth” debate that underpinned Deng Xiaoping’s return. Party chairman in 1981 and general secretary from 1982, he drove reform and opening, but after the student protests of late 1986 he was forced to resign in January 1987 for laxity toward “bourgeois liberalisation”. He died of a heart attack on 15 April 1989, and the mourning gatherings grew into the Tiananmen protests.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1916–2015 ○ Natural causes

“If you want rice, look for Wan Li” — the reform pioneer who let Anhui’s peasants contract land to households

“If you want to eat rice, look for Wan Li”: the reformist leader who first implemented the household-responsibility system in Anhui, then served as First Vice Premier (1983–1988) and NPC Standing Committee Chairman (1988–1993).

From Shandong, he was vice-mayor of Beijing after 1949, directing the “ten great buildings” including the Great Hall of the People, and was persecuted in the Cultural Revolution. Appointed Anhui first secretary in 1977, he tolerated the secret land division at Xiaogang village and with the provincial “six articles” allowed household contracting in the famine-stricken countryside, the starting point of rural reform. As vice-premier for agriculture from 1980 he dismantled the people’s communes, and he chaired the National People’s Congress Standing Committee from 1988 to 1993. Returning from abroad in May 1989, he endorsed martial law. He died in 2015 at 99.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1916–2015 ↓ Left office 1980 · natural causes

Mao’s bodyguard chief whose Zhongnanhai Unit 8341 arrested the Gang of Four, then pushed aside for the “two whatevers”

"A loyal soldier of Chairman Mao to the end": he guarded Mao for decades and had Unit 8341 arrest the Gang of Four in 1976.

From Jiangxi, he guarded Mao after the Long March and from 1949 headed the Central Guard Bureau (Unit 8341), managing the leadership’s security and daily life. Director of the General Office during the Cultural Revolution and trusted by Mao, in October 1976 he used Unit 8341 with Ye Jianying and Hua Guofeng to arrest Jiang Qing and the Gang of Four. Made party vice-chairman in 1977, he backed Hua’s “two whatevers” against Deng Xiaoping, resigned the vice-chairmanship in 1980 and left politics. He died in 2015 at 99.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1917–2005 ○ Sentenced to death, commuted; released 1998

Theoretician of the Gang of Four who organized the Shanghai People's Commune and championed all-round dictatorship over the bourgeoisie

At his 1980 trial, Zhang remained silent and refused to speak until his family was permitted to visit him years later.

A core theoretician of China's Cultural Revolution and member of the Gang of Four. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1938 and rose as editor of Shanghai's Jiefang Daily. His 1958 article 'Destroy the Ideology of Bourgeois Right' caught Mao Zedong's attention; as a member of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, he organized the Shanghai People's Commune in 1967, overthrowing the existing municipal government. As vice premier in 1975, he authored 'On Exercising All-Round Dictatorship Over the Bourgeoisie,' formalizing the class-struggle line of the socialist transition, and remained faithful to his Maoist convictions through arrest and imprisonment until his release in 1998.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1919–2005 ↓ Removed 1989 · died under house arrest

From Sichuan’s farm reforms to general secretary, the reformer who opposed martial law in 1989 and died under house arrest

Premier 1980-1987 and general secretary from 1987, in charge of political reform; he lost power over the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and lived under house arrest until his death

From Henan, he was a provincial cadre in Guangdong until purged in the Cultural Revolution, returned as Sichuan first secretary in 1975 and, with household contracting and enterprise autonomy, earned the saying “If you want to eat, look for Ziyang”. Premier from 1980 and general secretary from 1987, he pushed price reform and plans for political reform. In May 1989 he opposed martial law against the student protests, told students in the square “We have come too late”, and fell; he remained under house arrest in Beijing until his death in 2005. His secretly recorded memoirs were published posthumously in Hong Kong.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1921–2008 ↓ Left office 1981 · natural causes

Mao’s designated successor — “With you in charge, I am at ease” — who arrested the Gang of Four and was eased out by Deng Xiaoping

On 6 October 1976, a month after Mao died, Hua had the Gang of Four arrested at Zhongnanhai with Ye Jianying and Wang Dongxing, and took the party and Military Commission chairmanships. He then lost power to Deng Xiaoping by 1981.

From Shanxi, he rose as a provincial cadre in Hunan, caught Mao’s attention, and in 1976 became acting premier after Zhou Enlai’s death in January and first vice-chairman and premier after the April Tiananmen incident. After Mao died he arrested the Gang of Four in October with Ye Jianying and Wang Dongxing and took the party and Military Commission chairmanships. He sought legitimacy in the “two whatevers” — uphold every decision Chairman Mao made, follow every instruction he gave — but lost the initiative to Deng Xiaoping in the 1978 debate on the criterion of truth and at the Third Plenum, giving up the premiership and party chairmanship in 1980–1981. He remained on the Central Committee until 2002.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1926–2022 ○ Natural causes

The “core” plucked from Shanghai in 1989 who led post-Tiananmen China into the market economy and the “Three Represents”

The compromise leader plucked from Shanghai after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, he became the "core" of the third generation and steered the party toward a market economy.

An electrical engineer from Jiangsu who trained at a Soviet car plant, he became mayor of Shanghai in 1985 and its party secretary in 1987. In 1989 he closed the liberal World Economic Herald and defused the Shanghai protests without major bloodshed, and in June was chosen to replace Zhao Ziyang as general secretary. After Deng Xiaoping’s southern tour in 1992 he made the “socialist market economy” the party’s goal and oversaw state-enterprise reform, WTO accession and the return of Hong Kong. Stepping down as general secretary in 2002 and Military Commission chairman in 2004, he left the “Three Represents”, which opened the party to private entrepreneurs. He died of leukaemia in 2022.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1928–2019 ○ Natural causes

The premier who declared martial law in May 1989, called “the butcher of Beijing”; Zhou Enlai’s ward

An engineer who became premier in 1987, declared martial law in Beijing on 20 May 1989, and was the government official held responsible for the military crackdown of 3-4 June.

From Sichuan, he was raised under the protection of Zhou Enlai and his wife after the Nationalists executed his father in 1931. Trained in hydroelectric engineering at the Moscow Power Institute, he rose through the electricity ministry and succeeded Zhao Ziyang as premier in 1987. After the televised dialogue with student representatives collapsed on 18 May 1989 he declared martial law in Beijing on 20 May and was the government’s responsible official for the crackdown of 4 June. As premier he pushed through the Three Gorges Dam, and he chaired the National People’s Congress Standing Committee from 1998 to 2003. He died in 2019.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1931–2005 ↓ Arrested 1976 · natural causes

The Gang of Four’s theorist whose attack on Hai Rui Dismissed from Office opened the Cultural Revolution; the critic nicknamed “the cudgel”

Born 1931 in Zhuji, Zhejiang. His November 10, 1965 article in Wenhui Bao, “On the New Historical Beijing Opera ‘Hai Rui Dismissed from Office’”, launched the Cultural Revolution; arrested on October 6, 1976, and sentenced to twenty years in 1981.

A Shanghai literary critic, he caught Mao’s eye with aggressive polemics during the 1957 anti-rightist campaign. At the direction of Jiang Qing and Zhang Chunqiao he published “On the New Historical Play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office” in Wenhui Bao in November 1965, the opening of the Cultural Revolution, and as a member of the Cultural Revolution Group controlled propaganda. A Politburo member from 1969 and part of the Shanghai group, he ran campaigns such as “Criticise Lin Biao and Confucius”. Arrested with the Gang of Four in October 1976, he received twenty years in 1981, was released in 1996 and died in 2005.

People’s Republic of China state institutions Chinese communism 1935–1992 ↓ Arrested 1976 · illness

The Shanghai worker-rebel who rose “like a helicopter” to party vice-chairman, youngest of the Gang of Four

The youngest of the Gang of Four: from a Shanghai mill's militia office he led the November 1966 rebel headquarters and the 1967 Shanghai Commune, was second-ranked CCP vice-chairman by 38, and was seized in the 6 October 1976 coup.

From Jilin, he fought in the Korean War and became a security cadre at a Shanghai cotton mill. In 1966 he led the worker-rebel “Workers’ General Headquarters”, the driving force of the “January Storm” that seized the Shanghai government in 1967, and ran the Shanghai Revolutionary Committee with Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan. Picked by Mao as a successor of worker origin, he became party vice-chairman at the Tenth Congress in 1973, mocked as a “helicopter” for his rapid, inexperienced rise. Arrested with the Gang of Four in October 1976, he was sentenced to life in 1981 and died of liver disease in custody in 1992.

Communist Party of China Chinese communism 1940–

The Xinhua reporter who lost his father to the famine and, in Tombstone, documented 36 million Great Famine deaths

A Xinhua reporter who from the mid-1990s raided provincial archives to compile the first detailed account of the Great Famine, published in 2008 as Tombstone: 36 million dead.

From Hubei, he watched his adoptive father starve in the Great Leap famine of 1959 without knowing it was a nationwide disaster. As a Xinhua reporter he began in the 1990s to search archives and interview survivors across the country, and after more than a decade published Tombstone in Hong Kong in 2008. The book estimates about 36 million famine deaths in 1958–1962 and traces them to the communes, forced procurement and “anti-rightist” politics; it is banned on the mainland. His history of the Cultural Revolution, The World Turned Upside Down, followed in 2016. He was deputy publisher of the journal Yanhuang Chunqiu.