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Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back ofthe book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell &Howell Information Company 300North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. MI48106-1346 USA 313!761-47oo 800:521·0600 THE LIN BIAO INCIDENT: A STUDY OF EXTRA-INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS IN THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY AUGUST 1995 By Qiu Jin Dissertation Committee: Stephen Uhalley, Jr., Chairperson Harry Lamley Sharon Minichiello John Stephan Roger Ames UMI Number: 9604163 OMI Microform 9604163 Copyright 1995, by OMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 11, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ~ Copyright by Jin Qiu 1995 All Rights Reserved iii TO MY PARENTS iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study of the Lin Biao Incident is in a sense a result of personal struggle and determination. As a woman whose father, Wu Faxian, was convicted of assisting Lin Biao in his alleged coup d'etat, something I never believed he had done, I was determined to find out what happened to Lin Biao on the night of September 12-13, 1971. This determination became stronger when I came to the United States, since I am probably the only person, among the tens of thousands of victims of Mao's purge after the Incident, who has the opportunity and the language ability to conduct such research in the West. I have deep compassion towards the people who fell victim to the purges that followed the Lin Biao Incident. During the subsequent purge, Mao not only removed thousands of senior and junior officials from office, but put them into jailor house arrest. The major "accomplices," including my father, were sentenced to between sixteen and eighteen years in jail. The consequences of the purge also extended to family members of those purged. My mother, for example, was put under house arrestment for eight years, and my brother, for seven years, during which they suffered all kinds of humiliation and forced labor. They were guilty only because of their relationship to my father. My two younger sisters, only 11 v and 13 years old at the time, had to struggle to survive on their own since our parents disappeared overnight. Having experienced hardship myself and witnessed the sufferings of my family members friends, and their families, I made up my mind investigate the other side of the story about the Lin Biao Incident. Thus, personal motivation and determination was the major force that carried me through all the difficulties in conducting my research. Fortunately, I am not alone in my hard struggle, first to survive in this country, and then to transfer life stories into an academic work. Many people helped me in the process with their warm hearts and much needed encouragement, and I would like to take this opportunity to express my genuine gratitude, although I am unable to mention the name of each of them. I am profoundly indebted to my advisor, Stephen Uhalley, Jr., without whose help, I would never be able to conduct the research in the United States. With his unflagging encouragement and support, I went through a transition from a motivated daughter who was willing to get the stories out concerning her family to a scholar. Academically, I am also indebted to other professors in the University of Hawaii, especially the members of my dissertation committee, Harry Lamley, Roger Ames, John Stephan and Sheron Minichiello. I enjoyed working with them and am grateful for their warm support, and constructive vi suggestions. I wish especially to thank Idus Newby, chair of the History Department, who thoroughly edited the entire dissertation. I wish to express deep appreciation to my friends, Allan Sparks, and his wife, Patricia Sparks, for their efforts to make my trip to the United States possible, and also to Carol Jung and Frank Jung, Patricia Huston and Clyde Huston, for unfailing encouragement and support that I could always rely on. I am grateful to my friends and colleagues in the History Department of the University of Hawaii, from whom I profited greatly from the exchange of opinions. I wish especially to thank Peter Martin Worthing who spent a tremendous amount of time discussing and editing my work. I also want to mention Ken Robinson, Paul Lococo, Kim Jin­ kyung, and Sylvia Sun, who also helped me in the various stages of my research. Several institutions have generously supported the research for this dissertation. The History Department offered me financial support, which made it possible for me to start and continue the research. The Center for Cultural And Technical Exchange between East and West provided a four-year fellowship, during which I finished all the requirements for a ph. D., and financial support for my field trip to the libraries at Harvard University, Columbia University, Stanford University, University of California at vii Berkeley, and the Library of Congress to collect data for my dissertation The Center for Chinese Studies at University of Hawaii supported my research in Hong Kong and People's Republic of China in 1993. It is pleasure to express my gratitude to these institutions. I am also grateful to Hong Yung Lee, Lowell Dittmer and Frederick Wakeman at the University of California at Berkeley, Parris Chang at Pennsylvania State University, Roderick McFarquhar at Harvard University, Micheal Ying-Mao Kau at Brown University and Thomas Robinson at Georgetown University, and Andrew Nathan at columbia University, who provide me with many illuminating insights and constructive suggestions at the different stages of my research. Various libraries and their staffs generously supported and assisted my research. I am especially indebted to Nancy Hearst at the library of John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University, Annie K Chang and John F. Sweeney at Center for Chinese Studies Library, University of California at Berkeley, Julia W. Tung of the East Asian Collection at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Wang Ji at the East Asian Collection of the Library of Congress, and Jean Hung at the Universities Service Center, the Chinese University Of Hong Kong. I deeply appreciate the help from my interviewees and Chinese scholars who shared their information and experiences with me, even though by doing so, they ran the viii risk of being harassed by the Chinese government. I greatly admire their courage and honesty. Uniortunately, I can not mention their names here. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and my brother and sisters whose love and confidence in me has been an inexhaustible source of support. Without their personal sacrifice and unconditional support over these years, I would never have be able to complete this research. ix ABSTRACT This dissertation is a study of the Lin Biao Incident of September 13, 1971, which refers to Marshal Lin Biao's reported defection to the Soviet Union when his aircraft crashed in the Mongolian desert. Lin and his wife and son were killed. The Incident remains an unsolved mystery. The Chinese government issued accusations of an aborted coup d'etat and a plot to assassinate Mao supposedly masterminded by Lin Biao, but failed to establish a convincing link between Lin and the crimes of which he was accused. This dissertation presents a different interpretation of the Incident. The Incident in its narrow sense was a consequence of the political involvement of family members during the Cultural Revolution. Based on this discovery, I made the Incident a case study of Chinese politics, illustrating the function of extra-institutional factors in the Cultural Revolution. I employed the concept of "extra-institutional" factors to make a distinction between two groups of factors that function in the Chinese politics, those related to a institutional study, such as ideology, organizations, decision-making; and those social, cultural and human factors usually excluded from an institutional studies. More specifically, by extra-institutional factors I mean x duch elusive things as personality, individual experience, and social relationships, including family ties and personal connections [guanxi] and loyalties as these function in the political sphere. In other words, I purposefully draw a distinction between two groups of general political phenomena--those that characterize or constitute political systems, and those that inform or pervade the context in which those systems function and provide meaning. Hopefully, this study of Chinese politics during the Cultural Revolution from a perspective that relates to the political culture and human behaviors of the leaders adds a useful perspective to the study of Chinese institutional history.