In April 1955, at a Beijing hotel, on an ordinary evening, Pan Hannian, then serving as the Third Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Deputy Mayor, had just finished dinner with a few friends – writer Xia Yan, playwright Wu Zuguang, and his wife Xinfengxia. They were laughing and chatting as they returned to their rooms. As the night grew darker, the room was quiet except for the ticking of the clock. Suddenly, the phone rang, breaking the silence sharply and urgently. Someone downstairs was looking for him.
Pan Hannian had a wide circle of friends, wondering which old friend was visiting. He hastily went downstairs wearing slippers. But when he entered the lobby, what he saw stunned him: Minister of Public Security Luo Ruiqing stood there, accompanied by several plainclothes police officers armed with live ammunition. In the dim light, the atmosphere was tense. Without any pleasantries, Luo Ruiqing coldly said, “Pan Hannian, come with us.” And so, this legendary figure known as the “first red special agent of the Communist Party” was swallowed by the night, never to return home again.
Pan Hannian made significant contributions to the Communist Party’s seizure of power, risking his life to gather intelligence. Why did he end up losing his life in a Communist prison? Today, we will tell the story.
To understand the story, we need to go back a few days before Pan Hannian’s arrest. It was in 1955, during an important Party congress held by the Communist Party. Mao Zedong, with a serious expression, reported on the “Gao Gang and Rao Shushi anti-party alliance” issue. He warned everyone present solemnly that those with historical issues must confess voluntarily, with no leniency. Documents for the arrest of Hu Junhe and the isolation and review of Yang Fan were distributed during the meeting, creating a tense atmosphere.
Pan Hannian sat in the audience, feeling uneasy. Hu Junhe and Yang Fan had been his colleagues in Shanghai in the past. He knew that a secret he had hidden many years ago might have been exposed. That secret weighed on him like a heavy stone, suffocating him. He suspected that Mao Zedong’s speech was targeting him.
After the meeting, Pan Hannian couldn’t sit still. He found Shanghai Mayor Chen Yi and mustered the courage to confess his secret. Chen Yi, upon hearing this, reported to the central authorities immediately. The next day, Mao Zedong instructed that “this person can no longer be trusted, immediately arrest and investigate Pan Hannian.”
From that moment on, Pan Hannian’s fate took a drastic turn for the worse, plunging him into a bottomless abyss.
After his arrest, Pan Hannian was taken directly to Beijing’s Gongdelin Prison, a facility specifically for political prisoners. Five years later, in 1960, the newly-built Qin Cheng Prison with Soviet assistance was completed, and Pan Hannian was transferred there, becoming one of the first “residents” of this “mysterious prison.”
In 1963, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for “counter-revolutionary crimes”. Meanwhile, Yang Fan, who was the Director of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau at the time, was sentenced to 16 years. Including the pre-trial detention, Yang Fan spent a total of 24 years in prison. Upon his release, he was mentally shattered, blinded, afflicted by illness, and looked like a withered figure.
The political storm known as the “Pan-Yang Case” had far-reaching consequences. Over a thousand people were affected, with 830 individuals directly arrested. What crimes did Pan Hannian and Yang Fan actually commit? What was the “heartache” that tormented Pan Hannian so deeply?
According to Judge Peng Shuhua, who participated in the trial of the case, the case files for the “Pan-Yang Case” were voluminous, but the actual solid evidence was scarce.
Pan Hannian was accused of three major crimes: firstly, surrendering to the Kuomintang in 1936; secondly, collaborating with Japanese intelligence agencies during the war against Japan, and secretly meeting with Wang Jingwei; and thirdly, harboring a large number of counter-revolutionaries after the liberation of Shanghai, providing intelligence to Taiwan, which led to the Shanghai “February 26th Bombing” incident in 1950.
Facing these accusations, Pan Hannian only admitted that meeting Wang Jingwei was a “serious mistake”, citing urgent circumstances at the time which didn’t allow for consultation with superiors. He denied all other charges.
Judge Peng Shuhua found many loopholes in the case files. For instance, regarding the first accusation, Pan Hannian repeatedly explained that his meeting with Wang Jingwei was on the instructions of the Communist International delegation, to return to China and collaborate with the Kuomintang against Japan. The third accusation was even more absurd – during the 1950 Shanghai bombing, when the Kuomintang had just retreated to Taiwan, they were well-informed about Shanghai’s industrial layout and did not require any intelligence from agents.
What was even more suspicious was that Pan Hannian only “confessed” during interrogations by Minister of Public Security Luo Ruiqing and Deputy Minister Xu Zirong. Why did he do so? According to Judge Peng Shuhua, Luo Ruiqing and Xu Zirong had privately promised Pan Hannian that “as long as you confess, you will be released immediately after sentencing, without serving prison time, and even enjoy generous treatment.” This gave Pan Hannian hope and became his incentive to confess.
On January 9, 1963, the Supreme Court held a trial for Pan Hannian. This trial could be described as a carefully orchestrated “ceremony.”
Zhou Enlai issued several instructions personally: the number of observers should not exceed 200, all strictly selected by the Organization Department, only cadres above the bureau level in central and state agencies could attend. Ordinary people? No chance. The trial was closed to the public, journalists were barred, and media coverage was forbidden. For secrecy, the courtroom windows were tightly sealed, not allowing any light to enter.
What was even more unusual was Zhou Enlai’s specific request for the entire trial to be recorded. With no audio recording equipment available domestically at the time, an expensive device had to be purchased from Hong Kong, costing over ten thousand Chinese yuan – a significant sum in that era. Zhou Enlai’s intentions behind this remain a mystery to this day.
Every aspect of the trial had been “prepared”. The indictment, sentencing documents, even the length of the sentence, were all pre-written. Pan Hannian did not defend himself in court; he simply bowed and confessed. When making his final statement, he only spoke a few words. The verdict was reported to the central authorities, reviewed personally by Zhou Enlai, and approved one by one by the top leaders.
After the verdict, Pan Hannian was briefly “released”, but he could not return home. He and his wife were placed in the Tuang River Farm on the outskirts of Beijing. In 1965, he was granted parole, receiving treatment as an eighth-level cadre, receiving a monthly living allowance of 200 yuan, with a chef and servants at his disposal, and even being able to visit family and friends in the city.
However, this “freedom” was short-lived. In 1966, the Cultural Revolution erupted. In May 1967, Pan Hannian was once again sent to Qin Cheng Prison, sentenced to life imprisonment, and expelled from the party.
In 1970, he and his wife were relocated to a labor reform farm in Hunan, at which time he was already suffering from liver cancer. In 1977, this “first red special agent of the Communist Party”, Pan Hannian, passed away in a foreign land with endless regrets.
If it was a wrongful conviction, why did Pan Hannian confess? The answer lies in his early career as a special agent.
In 1943, while conducting underground intelligence work in Shanghai, Pan Hannian was ordered to meet with Wang Jingwei. Wang Jingwei, who harbored a strong resentment towards the Communist Party, the meeting was fruitless. Upon returning to the Huainan base, during the height of a rectification campaign, Pan Hannian’s comrade Yang Fan and others were under review. Worried about being implicated himself, he chose to conceal this meeting.
Afterward, with related individuals passing away successively and very few knowing about the meeting left, Pan Hannian naively believed he could keep the secret under wraps. In 1945, he went to Yan’an to attend the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party, where Mao Zedong met with him alone. Despite being prepared to confess, Pan Hannian, after speaking with Mao Zedong, chose silence once again.
However, the truth cannot be kept hidden forever. Kuomintang newspapers revealed Pan Hannian’s secret meeting with Wang Jingwei. Kang Sheng, head of the Communist Party’s Social Department, personally verified the information, but Pan Hannian vehemently denied it. Mao Zedong even sent a telegram to dispel the rumors, labeling them as “fabrications and slanders”. Now, Pan Hannian confessing to others revealed the truth, escalating Mao Zedong’s wrath.
But it seems somewhat illogical that a highly meritorious special agent would be sentenced so severely simply for concealing a meeting. What was the real reason behind Pan Hannian’s harsh sentence?
To unravel this mystery, we must return to the background of Pan Hannian’s meeting with Wang Jingwei. The Communist Party had always labeled the Wang Jingwei regime as the “Wang Puppet Government,” so why did Pan Hannian risk meeting with Wang Jingwei, who collaborated with the Japanese? The answer lies in him carrying out orders from higher authorities. And that higher authority was none other than Mao Zedong.
Professor Toshihiko Endo from Tokyo Welfare University in his book “The Truth of Mao Zedong Colluding with the Japanese Army” suggests that the real reason for Pan Hannian’s severe sentence might have been Mao Zedong’s fear of his own secrets being exposed. If Pan Hannian was truly found guilty just for failing to report his meeting with Wang Jingwei, it would have been his own problem. But in reality, before and after the Pan Hannian case, almost all Communist special agents connected to the incident were arrested, as if being “silenced.”
Moreover, according to Chinese scholars familiar with Pan Hannian’s case, Pan Hannian thought he would only face severe criticism or disciplinary action, having packed his bags ready to return to Shanghai after submitting the materials.
So, what was the secret that Mao Zedong feared being exposed? His collusion with the Japanese during the war against Japan.
Toshihiko Endo cited the memoir of Japanese intelligence officer Hideo Iwai in “Recollections of Shanghai”. Iwai disclosed that Pan Hannian had, through an intermediary, proposed that the Communist Party wished to negotiate a ceasefire with the Japanese forces in North China, and he asked Iwai to facilitate this. Iwai arranged for Pan Hannian to meet with the military adviser to Wang Jingwei, Zenryo Aso, who then introduced him to Wang Jingwei.
Iwai and Aso understood that Pan Hannian was a “special envoy” from Mao Zedong, treating him with high respect, issuing special passes, providing substantial monthly activity funds, and even arranging top-notch accommodations for him in Shanghai.
Furthermore, Pan Hannian maintained contact with Zhou Fohai, the second-in-command of the Wang Jingwei regime. Zhou Fohai’s diaries and his son’s memoirs documented these interactions.
Although the ceasefire proposal in North China did not materialize, in Central China, Pan Hannian reached an understanding with the Japanese: the New Fourth Army ensured the safety of the Japanese railway lines, and in return, the Japanese turned a blind eye to the New Fourth Army’s activities. This allowed smooth transportation for the Japanese trains and the New Fourth Army’s growth.
Because it was during the period of “cooperation between the Nationalists and Communists,” Pan Hannian also provided a wealth of intelligence about Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Army to the Japanese. This included information on Chiang Kai-shek’s wartime capabilities, his conflicts with the Communist Party, and his relations with foreign powers, as well as activities of British and American intelligence personnel in Hong Kong and Chongqing.
Former Communist leader Wang Ming mentioned in his memoirs that Pan Hannian, as per Mao Zedong’s orders, acted as a negotiator with the Japanese forces and Wang Jingwei. Perhaps, it was these sensitive secrets that made Pan Hannian a sacrificial necessity.
– Production Team of “The Truth of a Century”