“The Truth of a Century: A Major ‘Tongtian’ Case During the Cultural Revolution”

Hello audience, welcome to watch “Centennial Truth”.

During the ten-year Cultural Revolution, there were many so-called “major cases” and “important cases.” Among them, there was a “major counter-revolutionary group conspiring to frame Jiang Qing,” which was a “sky-reaching” big case.

However, after the end of the ten-year Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party claimed that this was a major case of injustice and all those wrongly accused were exonerated.

So, what was the story behind this “major counter-revolutionary group conspiring to frame Jiang Qing”? Going back to the roots, it is related to Jiang Qing’s half-brother Li Ganqing.

Today, based on Ye Yonglie’s “Biography of Jiang Qing” and other sources, I will talk to you about what really happened during the Cultural Revolution in this “sky-reaching” major case.

Jiang Qing’s father was named Li Dewen, a carpenter from Zhucheng County, Shandong Province, who had a carpentry shop. He married another woman, had two sons and a daughter, with a son named Li Ganqing and a daughter named Li Yunlu, as well as another son whose whereabouts were unknown.

In his forties, Li Dewen’s first wife passed away, and he remarried Wang. In the second year after Wang entered the family, she gave birth to Li Yunhe (later renamed Jiang Qing). That year, Li Ganqing was 13 years old, and Li Yunlu was 10 years old.

When Jiang Qing was of age, her brother and sister were already out working. Later, Jiang Qing went to Jinan, Qingdao, Shanghai, Xi’an, and Yan’an. In Yan’an, the 24-year-old Jiang Qing married Mao Zedong, 45, a leader of the Chinese Communist Party. Despite the wars, Jiang Qing still maintained intermittent contact with her brother and sister.

In late November 1948, Jiang Qing suddenly received a telegram from her brother Li Ganqing, informing her of their mother’s death. Jiang Qing asked Mao Zedong if she could go to Jinan for the funeral.

At that time, the Communist Party had already occupied Jinan. Mao agreed to let Jiang Qing attend the funeral, accompanied by his bodyguard Li Yinqiao. During this visit, Jiang Qing couldn’t see her mother one last time and could only pay her respects at the grave. She then attended her brother Li Ganqing’s wedding and reunited with her sister Li Yunlu, who had sheltered her in Tianjin for a year.

After the Communist Party took over in 1949, Mao Zedong’s wife Jiang Qing became the first lady of the Chinese Communist Party.

From 1949 to 1959, the Minister of Public Security, Luo Ruiqing, was responsible for protecting Mao Zedong’s security and was a frequent companion to Mao as his “great security guard.”

In the spring of 1959, at a public security work conference held in Shanghai, Luo Ruiqing specifically conveyed instructions to investigate the situation of those close to Chairman Mao. He also asked the head of the Shandong Public Security Department, Zhang Guofeng, about Li Ganqing’s situation, to which Zhang Guofeng replied that he was not clear.

In fact, as early as 1953, the Railway Public Security Bureau had investigated Li Ganqing, due to his relationship with Jiang Qing, but no further action was taken.

Soon after, Zhang Guofeng went to Beijing to attend the “National Guard Work Conference.” The Ministry of Public Security assigned a special task to the Shandong Public Security Department to investigate the “historical and current performance of Li Ganqing, a Jinan Railway Bureau employee.” Minister of Public Security Luo Ruiqing directed Deputy Minister Yang Qiqing to lead the investigation.

In fact, Jiang Qing had already brought her sister Li Yunlu into Zhongnanhai and now wanted to bring her brother Li Ganqing in as well. The Central Committee requested strict political scrutiny from Shandong.

On July 25, 1959, the Shandong Public Security Department set up a “Li Ganqing Investigation Team,” led by Zhang Guofeng, the head of the Shandong Public Security Department. Members included Wang Maoqing, deputy head of the Public Security Department of Jinan Railway Bureau, and officials such as Qu Hejun and Shi Dian’an.

After more than a month of investigation, the special team revised its materials three times and wrote a report on the investigation of Li Ganqing, which was submitted to the Ministry of Public Security. After receiving it, Deputy Minister Yang Qiqing immediately reported to Minister Luo Ruiqing.

The main content of this investigation material included:

Li Ganqing, born on March 13, 1901, in Dongguan, Zhucheng County, Shandong Province, attended a private school for a few years.

From April 1921 to March 1923, he worked as a “household servant” (clerk) in the pseudo-47th Regiment, 93rd Division, 2nd Battalion, 8th Company of Warlord Zhang Zongchang’s forces. During the puppet and Kuomintang era, he held positions such as chief of police, patrol officer, bureau member, and member of the Jinpu Railway Anti-Japanese Team.

In 1939, under the command of Japanese secret agents, Li Ganqing wrote two letters to Jiang Qing, who was in Yan’an at that time and married to Mao Zedong, attempting to subvert her.

According to prisoner Mi Ruizheng of the First Brigade of the Second Labor Reform Team in Shandong, at the end of 1945, Li Ganqing went to his home at No. 6 Linxiangnan Street, Jinan, and “borrowed” a Wanghu brand pistol.

Li Ganqing also admitted that in October 1945, Mi Ruizheng gave him a handmade No. 3 pistol. He said he played with this pistol for a few days and it was taken by Lieutenant Li Ganchen of the 15th Squadron of the Nationalist Army in Shandong.

Li Ganqing was also involved in theft and corruption:

In 1948, he stole two bags of flour from the station canteen, valued at 65 million old Chinese yuan (equivalent to 65 yuan in new currency).

In 1951, while serving as the manager of the railways apartment, he embezzled rice, flour, and eggs from the canteen, amounting to 3.9 million.

In June 1951, he falsified documents in the machinery apartment, embezzling 80 thousand; in July, he overreported expenses by 50 thousand when buying pickled vegetables in the machinery apartment.

Although Li Ganqing had participated in various political movements and received education, his level of consciousness was not high, his transition was slow, he did not participate in any learning on a regular basis, and he often refused to attend meetings. His work attitude was not proactive, he was busy making tea at work, and during his time at the Public Security Department, he often secretly returned home during office hours.

Due to corruption, Li Ganqing was reprimanded during Mao Zedong’s “Three-anti” campaign.

In October 1959, Jiang Qing received a letter from her brother Li Ganqing, stating that someone was investigating his history. The investigation results of the Shandong Public Security Department ultimately thwarted Jiang Qing’s attempt to bring Li Ganqing into Zhongnanhai, leading Jiang Qing to hold a grudge.

In order to protect her brother (actually not wanting her brother’s affairs to affect her political prospects), Jiang Qing could only vent her grievances to Mao Zedong and requested that when passing through Jinan, he must meet her brother.

On October 26, 1959, Mao Zedong met briefly with Jiang Qing’s brother Li Ganqing on a special train near the western suburbs of Mount Baima in Jinan after meeting with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Brazil, Luis Carlos. Mao’s meeting relieved Li Ganqing of a heavy burden.

Time passed, and during the Cultural Revolution, Jiang Qing transformed into the deputy head of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, essentially acting as Mao Zedong’s proxy in the Central Cultural Revolution Group.

Former Minister of Public Security Luo Ruiqing became one of the members of the first anti-party group, the “Peng, Luo, Lu, Yang anti-party group,” overthrown after the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution.

During Luo Ruiqing’s tenure as Minister of Public Security, he was twice tasked with investigating the scandalous and treasonous activities of Jiang Qing when she was an actress in Shanghai in the 1930s based on an anonymous letter, and so had a better understanding of Jiang Qing’s past.

At that time, much of the scandalous information about Jiang Qing in Shanghai, including many photos, was stored in the Ministry of Public Security.

After Luo Ruiqing’s downfall, Jiang Qing believed that the time had come to retaliate against Luo Ruiqing and all those within the Public Security system who knew her secrets. Almost all officials involved in investigating the anonymous letter incident were detained for review, as well as the public security personnel who had investigated her brother Li Ganqing.

On April 25, 1968, Wang Xiaoyu, Director of the Shandong Provincial Revolutionary Committee, traveled to Beijing to report to members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group on the investigation of Jiang Qing’s brother by the Shandong Provincial Public Security Department. Those present at the meeting included Jiang Qing, Chen Boda, Wu Faxian, Ye Qun, and Kang Sheng.

At that time, Jiang Qing was in a position of great power but also held a high rank. She angrily denounced those who had investigated her brother in the Shandong Public Security agency as “a small group of counter-revolutionaries,” and tearfully said with a trembling voice, “My brother Li Ganqing had a hard life in the past. To make ends meet, he worked as a policeman for a few days in the old society, and they persecuted him, actually, it’s against our Chairman Mao!”

Chen Boda, head of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, declared this as the “major counter-revolutionary group conspiracy to frame Jiang Qing” case. He remarked that based on the investigation of Li Ganqing in Shandong, it was found that the Ministry of Public Security had two departments – one was the central department, and the other was the underground one led by Liu, Deng, Peng, and Luo, with links nationwide. They needed to thoroughly expose this black line and completely destroy the public security, procuratorate, and judicial system!

Chen Boda further directed on the report of the Shandong Provincial Revolutionary Committee, “Forward to Wu Faxian for specific handling.” At the time, Wu Faxian was the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Chinese Communist Party military and a member of the Central Cultural Revolution Group.

On the afternoon of April 29, 1968, an Ilyushin Il-14 civilian aircraft made an emergency landing at Jinan West Suburb Airport. Shortly after, a group of prisoners were escorted into the cabin. They were: Qu Hejun, head of the Public Security Department of the Jinan Railway Bureau, Yu Jie, head of the Security Department of the Shandong Provincial Public Security Department, and Chen Jingbo, head of the Liaison Department of Shandong Province.

That night, the special plane landed again and transported Li Bingzheng, Deputy Director of the Shandong Public Security Department, Wang Maoqing, Deputy Head of Public Security at Jinan Railway, and Shi Dian’an, head of security at Jinan Railway Bureau, all of whom were public security officers who were involved in the investigation of Jiang Qing’s brother, to Beijing for harsh interrogation.

On the evening of April 29, 1968, Zhang Guofeng, head of the Shandong Public Security Department, suffering from stomach cancer and unbearable pain, was hospitalized for treatment. He was not taken to Beijing for “isolation and investigation,” but the next night, he was quickly transferred to the Guodian Labor Reform Hospital in a remote and simple setting, where he was interrogated under pressure. Zhang Guofeng died on June 30, 1968, just two months after being detained by the Red Guards for investigation.

The day before Zhang Guofeng’s death, his second daughter Fan Xinglu made great efforts to find his hospital room and saw her father, who was once tall, now tortured and emaciated, like a piece of dry wood, on the brink of death. Overwhelmed with sorrow, she could not speak.

Even after Zhang Guofeng’s death, he was still branded as the mastermind behind the “major counter-revolutionary conspiracy” and labeled a “counter-revolutionary.”

In the years that followed, Zhang Guofeng’s wife and eldest daughter passed away due to illness, leaving this disdained and mistreated “counter-revolutionary family” in a state of ruin and demise.

Other than the six officials who were brought to Beijing and Zhang Guofeng, Ye Maolin, head of the office of the Shandong Public Security Department, was also unjustly accused of being a “counter-revolutionary” for listening to a report on the situation of Li Ganqing and was thrown into prison. He fell severely ill in prison and died less than three months after his release.

This case also implicated 39 other public security officials and their families and children.

After the end of the ten-year Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party shifted all responsibility for the “major counter-revolutionary group conspiracy to frame Jiang Qing” case to the “Lin, Biao, Jiang, Qing counter-revolutionary group.”

In fact, after the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong was most concerned about a coup. To eliminate the hidden dangers of a coup, Mao first conducted a large-scale purge of the Ministry of Public Security and the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. Almost all the ministers and deputy ministers of the original Ministry of Public Security, as well as almost all the directors and deputy directors of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, were overthrown.

On July 23, 1967, then Minister of the Chinese Communist Party Public Security, Xie Fuzhi, told Deputy Minister Li Zhen and Political Director Shi Yizhi, “Chairman Mao said, ‘I am happy to hear that the People’s Armed Police, Public Security, and Legal System are being smashed.’ You need to spread this saying. I heard Chairman Mao say he wanted these smashed to pieces to secure his power, not just once but seven or eight times.”

After that, there was a wave of smashing the public security, legal, and judicial systems nationwide.

Jiang Qing took advantage of Mao Zedong’s statement and the power given to her as the Deputy Head of the Central Cultural Revolution Group to vent her private grievances. Without Mao Zedong’s support, Jiang Qing would not have been able to stir up such a big wave.

Well, that’s it for today’s program. Thank you for watching, and we’ll see you next time.