Gao Gang–Rao Shushi affair (1953–1955)
가오강·라오수스 사건 (1953~1955)
The first power struggle within the top leadership of the People’s Republic of China, in which Gao Gang, chairman of the State Planning Commission, and Rao Shushi, head of the party Organisation Department, tried to unseat Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai and take their places, and were purged as an “anti-party alliance”. The Fourth Plenum of the Seventh Central Committee in February 1954 issued a resolution stressing party unity; Gao killed himself that August, and Rao was arrested in 1955 and died in prison in 1975. A national party conference expelled both in March 1955.
In depth
In autumn 1952, ahead of the First Five-Year Plan, the centre called the first men of the large regions, Gao Gang, Rao Shushi, Deng Zihui, Deng Xiaoping and Xi Zhongxun, to Beijing. When Mao confided to Gao his dissatisfaction with Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai over tax reform and the co-operatives, Gao read it as a sign of confidence. At the National Conference on Financial and Economic Work in June–August 1953 he attacked Bo Yibo and Liu, and in September–October Rao opposed Liu and Zhou at the National Conference on Organisational Work by attacking An Ziwen. Gao used a draft Politburo list prepared by Liu’s associates, which increased the representation of those from the Kuomintang-controlled areas, to win over veterans of the base areas, and Peng Dehuai and Lin Biao supported him.
Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun reported to Mao, and at an enlarged Politburo meeting on 24 December Mao warned that “there are two headquarters in Beijing”. The Fourth Plenum of February 1954 adopted the “Resolution on Strengthening Party Unity”, at which Zhou Enlai and Chen Yun implicitly criticised Gao’s “independent kingdom”. Placed under house arrest, Gao killed himself with sleeping pills on 17 August. The “Resolution on the Gao Gang–Rao Shushi Anti-Party Alliance” of the national party conference of 31 March 1955 expelled both, and the 1981 “Resolution on History” records that the defeat of the careerists’ plot to split the party and usurp supreme power strengthened party unity. Peng Dehuai and Lin Biao were exonerated after pleading that they had thought Gao had Mao’s approval.