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Shanghai and the 'Gang of Four' ReconstVOL. XXVI NO. 11 nicts NOVEMBER 1977 / m VOL. XXVI NO. 11 NOVEMBER 1977 PUBLISHED MONTHLY IN ENGLISH. FRENCH, SPANISH. ARABIC AND RUSSIAN BY THE CHINA WELFARE INSTITUTE (SOONG CHING LING. CHAIRMAN) CONTENTS Shanghai and the 'Gang of Four* 2 Shanghai Under the Shadow The People Against the Gang After the Four Were Out Ho Lung's Days with the Red Army Wu Han-ioen 12 Chengchow: City on the Central Plain Chai Pao-yi 16 iSporfs: Peking international Football Tournament 22 'Home Ward' for Fracture Patients 26 Cultural JVofes; The Opera 'Sister Chiang' 28 Prospecting Underground Resources Pien Hui 32 China's Eight-Point Charter for Agriculture (4): Better Seed Strains 36 A Model for Mechanizing Fishing 39 How a Commune Builds Factories Chi Yeh-cheng 41 Tibet's Geysers Chang Ming-tao 44 Stamps of New China: Commemoratives on the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region 46 'Langfuoge Corner; 47 Lesson 9: First Day at Kindergarten For Advanced Students: Lukouchiao COVER PICTURES: Front: Large-caliber corrugated tubing produced by the Shanghai Special-Section Steel Tubing Plant, first of its kind made in China. Back: A children's race in a herding community of the Vuku nationality in Kansu province. Inside front: Technicians and workers at the Shanghai Hsinyueh Instrument Factory at work on the cooling device for an infra-red detector. Inside back: Ski training at the Yuchuan Spare-time Sports School in Heilungkiong province. Editorial Office; Wai Wen Building, Peking (37). China. Coble: "CHIRECON" Peking. Geiterol Distributor: GUOZI SHUDIAN, P.O. Box 399. Peking. China. ^ Shanghai and the The anti-Party clique of Wang Hung-wen, Chang Chun-chiao, Chiang Ching and Yao Wen-yuan spent years extending and consolidating their control over Shanghai, China's biggest indiLstrial city with a population of 10 million, building up a base for eventual seizure of supreme Communist Party and state power. The stories below describe their rise and fall in this city and the changes since their fall. Shanghai Under the Shadow AS EARLY AS the 1930s, two olutionary rebel organization, was politically. With the metropolis members of the "gang of four", eventually to show himself up as firmly in their hands they would Chiang Ching and Chang Chun- an ambitious careerist and oppor use it in their plan to create dis chiao, carried on counter-revolu tunist and to become a newborn order in the rest of the country tionary activities in Shanghai. In bourgeois element; the latter, a in preparation for seizing supreme October 1934 Chiang Ching was literary critic, would finally be power. arrested by Kuomintang special foimd to be an alien class element. In appointing people to leading agents in Shanghai. She made a In January 1967 in a movement positions, the "gang of four" did confession, turned renegade and that became known as the "January not choose them for their political was soon released. After that she storm" the people of Shanghai worth and work ability as Chair maintained very close relations overthrew the proponents of Liu man Mao had always urged. In with Kuomintang agents and Shao-chi's revisionist line. The stead, they offered new criteria: appeared in reactionary dramas and movement had Chairman Mao's appointees should be "those whom films. firm backing and a new provisional the leaders know well" and who organ of revolutionary power was "had emotional attachment to Chang Chun-chiao was already a about to be born in Shanghai. them". They wanted only this Kuomintang special agent when he Chang Chun-chiao and Yao Wen- kind, the kind that would be arrived in Shanghai in May 1935. yuan seized on this chance to gain faithful to them till death. Thus Following instructions from the control over the city. Distorting they built up their own machine in Kuomintang secret service, he took what Chairman Mao had stated as Shanghai. part in activities supporting Chiang the task of the cultural revolution, Kai-shek against the Communist Chang and Yao spread the idea that Wang Hung-wen's cronies, op portunist hoodlums who like hira Party and wrote articles attacking the revolutionaries should "suspect the great revolutionary writer Lu everything" and "overthrow the posed as rebels, were admitted into Hsun. whole lot of leaders". Chang de the Party and then placed in clared,"The purpose of the cultural leading posts in many important Later both Chiang Ching and departments. The main criterion revolution is to smash the old ma Chang Chun-chiao, by covering up chine ... to change the dynasty." for those given posts controlling this part of their past and pretend Chiang Ching said in a speech in the media and the cultural and arts ing to be "Leftists", got themselves Peking, "Ail chiefs and heads must organizations was their willingness into the Communist Party. go." Wang, Chang and Yao, eulogiz to sing the praises of the gang, and ing one another, promoted them these persons performed this task Leftists or Rightists? selves as "having rendered meri energetically. Hoping to receive a torious service to the cultural rev share of the spoils, a few of the When the cultural revolution olution" and as "leaders of the veteran cadres also went along with began in 1966 Chiang Ching and January storm" £md got themselves the gang, became their confidants Chang Chun-chiao saw it as their appointed to top Party and govern and were trusted with important chance to seize power. Posing as ment posts in Shanghai. posts. "Leftists", they rose to prominence and enlisted Wang Hung-wen and Their next step was to consoli Although Chairman Mao had. Yao Wen-yuan. The foi-mer, who date their control over the city or said that "we must be confident had become head of a workers' rev ganizationally, ideologically and that over 90 percent of the cadres CHINA RECONSTRUCTS of Four* ■ China Reconstructs Correspondents I jX |r 1 J •ii :(s t" '- ■ are good or comparatively good", the gang made a vast number of leading cadres the target of their criticism and attack. "Line them up," Wang Hung-wen said, "and you'll find that the majority have something wrong with them." Chang Chun-chiao gave the in struction, "Overthrow those where you can make a case. Where you can't, at least put them under fire." As a result, cadres who followed Chairman Mao's revolutionary line were attacked politically and rele gated to unimportant jobs. Many cadres were subjected to false charges and removed from their positions, and many more were made to "stand aside" and given no work or sent to the countryside to labor indefinitely. A small number were given posts strictly for show but no real authority. Reactionary Ideology The "gang of four" and their followers in Shanghai either distorted Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought or tampered with it to suit their purposes. Chang Chun-chiao was made to appear a theoretician. His ideas were even touted as "Chang Chun-chiao Thought". He held that Mao Tsetung Thought was outdated, and that the basic line Chairman Mao had laid down for the Party "had not solved the question of the changes in class relationships in the socialist period". "I've read through Chairman Mao's four vol umes and I still don't understand the status of the different classes today," he said. Chang Chun-chiao declared that veteran workers and labor models had become "people with vested interests", had lost the urge to make revolution and couldn't be Demonstrations like this went on for four days (October 20- 23, 1976) celebrating- the fall of the "gang of four" and in volved a total of four million people. NOVEMBER 1977 counted on for it. All veteran Shanghai that they were not to vote in charge of "organizing the cab cadres who had taken part in the for those particular people. inet". Chairman Mao saw through democratic revolution were "bour- their intentions and put a stop to Before the Tenth Party Congress ■ geois democrats" who "had arrived these attempts. ' at their stop and were getting off" in 1973 the four again plotted to — it was inevitable that such peo gain control of the Party Central Despite the gang's efforts Chou ple would turn into capitalist Committee, this time without the En-lai, Chairman Mao's close com roaders, therefore revolution should Lin Piao anti-Party clique which rade-in-arms, was reappointed be made against them. Another had already fallen. In Shanghai Premier of the State Council by such idea was that this was "a time Wang Hung-wen instructed his the Fourth National People's Con of transition between generations", followers many times to nominate gress in January 1975. But this the older revolutionaries were of candidates for delegates to the con did not stop the gang from attack no more use and it was time they gress and for the Party Central ing him. Toward the end of the turned over their jobs. Histori Committee who were favorable to year as Premier Chou became gravely iU, the four, without cally, people were supposed to them. conclude, the responsibility for authorization from Chainnan Mao leading the Party and the state had Following the Tenth Party Con and the Party Central Committee, fallen on the shoulders of the gang gress, the Fourth National People's whipped up a campaign to "ferret out capitalist roaders at every and their followers. The gang's Congress was scheduled to be held. level", an attempt to overthrow a followers gave wide publicity to It was to make appointments for large number of central and local "Chang Chun-chiao Thought" with government posts.

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