After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in May 1966, the three universities in Beijing, Peking University, Tsinghua University, and the Central Party School, became the hardest-hit areas. Lü Ping, the president of Peking University, Jiang Nanxiang, the president of Tsinghua University, and Lin Feng, the president of the Central Party School, all became targets of the rebel factions for criticism, struggle, and removal.
Mao Zedong initiated the Cultural Revolution, primarily relying on the Central Cultural Revolution Group. Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, served as the deputy head of the group, and Kang Sheng, Mao’s most important disciple during the Rectification Movement in Yan’an, served as an advisor. The intention of Mao to target individuals during the Cultural Revolution was usually transmitted down through Jiang Qing or Kang Sheng.
After the start of the Cultural Revolution, Kang Sheng became the direct leader of the Cultural Revolution movement at the Central Party School.
According to Liang Hongwu, who was responsible for “clearing up” the false cases and implementing policies at the Central Party School after the end of the Cultural Revolution: “From the materials of that year, it can be clearly seen that Lin Feng being named for criticism, posting big-character posters, engaging in criticism and struggle, being removed from office, isolated and detained, subjected to special reviews, publicly criticized off-campus, until being formally arrested, imprisoned, coerced into confessing during interrogation, fabricated with charges, each step was carried out according to Kang Sheng’s instructions, speeches, or direct commands, all were completed under his manipulation.”
On June 20, 1966, Kang Sheng criticized Lin Feng for “suppressing revolutionary masses” at the Party School, while warning Lin Feng, “You need to be prepared, someone is accusing you of opposing Lin Biao in the Northeast, committing a wrong path.” On July 10, a young student at the Party School posted a big-character poster accusing Lin Feng of “opposing Mao Zedong’s ideology” and other “Ten Major Crimes.” On August 13, Kang Sheng met with the author of the big-character poster and another young cadre who had written a poster “attacking the black school committee,” expressing “support for your revolutionary spirit” and encouraging them to “persist in the struggle against Lin Feng’s gang.”
Subsequently, many big-character posters were posted at the Central Party School condemning the “Lin Feng Gang.” On August 19, the “rebel factions” at the Party School, according to Kang Sheng’s “directive spirit” regarding “seizing power,” instructed some people to suddenly jump onto the stage during a school committee meeting and push Lin Feng and others down, giving Lin Feng a high-profile label, hanging a black sign around him, and conducting a struggle session on campus.
Seeing that Lin Feng still showed a “stubborn attitude” of “refusing to admit mistakes,” Kang Sheng repeatedly instructed the Party School to “hold a meeting on Lin Feng” and “raise the issue of removing Lin Feng from office to the Central Committee.”
Not long after, the rebel factions at the Party School wrote a report to the Central Committee. On December 23, the Central Committee forwarded this report, revoking Lin Feng’s position at the Central Party School and deciding to conduct a special review on Lin Feng.
On March 30, 1968, Lin Feng was formally arrested and taken to Qin Cheng Prison.
After Lin Feng was overthrown, he suffered severe physical and mental torment.
On December 14 and 18, 1966, Lin Feng was taken to the criticism meeting at the Beijing Worker’s Stadium twice. In the large-scale criticism assembly with tens of thousands of participants, Lin Feng was forced to kneel down, endure punches and kicks, but he refused to bow down. During the meeting on the 18th, while being “jetted,” Lin Feng struggled to stand up straight and raised his head, which enraged the irrational attackers. His ribs were broken, his left arm was fractured, and he suffered internal bleeding. In the harsh winter, his shoes were kicked off, his clothes torn open, and he was dragged around with his chest exposed, eventually fainting at the criticism meeting.
In Qin Cheng Prison, due to the inhumane treatment he endured, Lin Feng developed diabetes, pulmonary tuberculosis, and various other serious illnesses that worsened over time. Lin Feng was once escorted to Fuxing Hospital, where he stayed in the area managed by the public security authorities for detained prisoners. Here, Lin Feng was subjected to scrutiny and torture. He was ordered to clean up excrements for other seriously ill inmates, and was not allowed to speak to anyone outside.
Through the “special review,” Kang Sheng fabricated charges against Lin Feng, labeling him as a “gangster,” “anti-party element,” “counter-revolutionary revisionist,” “former Nationalist Party member,” “fake communist party member collaborating with the agents of Japan and Chiang [Kai-shek],” “collaborating with foreign forces,” and “consistently pursuing a revisionist line.”
Mao Zedong’s biggest political enemy he wanted to overthrow during the Cultural Revolution was the then number two figure in the Communist Party, Liu Shaoqi.
In order to bring down Liu Shaoqi, evidence of his “guilt” had to be found. Where to find it? People who had previously worked with Liu Shaoqi were the focus of coerced confessions.
Lin Feng served as the secretary to Liu Shaoqi, then the Secretary of the North China Bureau of the CPC, in May 1936. He also served as the Deputy Chief of the Organization Department of the North China Bureau and was considered a trusted aide of Liu Shaoqi.
After Lin Feng underwent a special review, the special investigation team wrote in a report to Kang Sheng: Lin Feng mentioned that in 1936, Liu Shaoqi gave him a promissory note worth 40,000 yuan, but Lin Feng claimed not to know where the money came from. Kang Sheng immediately linked this “40,000 yuan issue” to the incident of Liu Shaoqi negotiating with the Nationalists in Nanjing in 1936, and deemed it as “funds for the espionage activities of the Nationalists to Liu Shaoqi.”
Two days later, before the matter was clarified, Kang Sheng forwarded this information to the Political Bureau of the CPC. Simultaneously, he instructed the investigators to immediately interrogate Lin Feng’s wife, Guo Mingqiu, and clearly stated: “In the future, focus on the issue of Lin Feng and Guo Mingqiu attacking Liu Shaoqi,” considering the “40,000 yuan issue” as a “breakthrough” to expose the “traitorous and espionage group of Liu Shaoqi.”
Later, the investigation team found in the Central Archives that the 40,000 yuan that Liu Shaoqi handed to Lin Feng was funding given by Zhang Wentian, then the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, to Liu Shaoqi for his activities when he was transferred from Yan’an to Tianjin as the Secretary of the North China Bureau.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Gao Gang served as the First Secretary of the Northeast Bureau of the CPC and the Chairman of the Northeast People’s Government, while Lin Feng served as the First Deputy Secretary of the Northeast Bureau and the First Deputy Chairman of the Northeast People’s Government.
In 1954, after Mao Zedong brought down Gao Gang and Rao Shushi, he began the purge of Gao Gang’s “cronies” in the Northeast Bureau. For this purpose, Premier Zhou Enlai, representing Mao, went to Shenyang and held a meeting of the senior officials of the Northeast Bureau, conveying the central instructions to expose Gao Gang’s issues. Mao also stationed Luo Ruiqing, the Minister of Public Security, at the Northeast Bureau to investigate Gao Gang’s anti-party activities.
During the senior officials’ meeting of the Northeast Bureau, it was revealed that Gao Gang’s former subordinates in the Northeast Bureau, including the Second Deputy Secretary, Zhang Xiushan, the Third Deputy Secretary, Zhang Mingyuan, the head of the Organization Department, Guo Feng, who had previously served as the Deputy Secretary-General and then Secretary-General of the Northeast Bureau, Ma Hong, the Secretary-General and Minister of Rural Work, Zhao Dezun, were Gao Gang’s “Five Tiger Generals” who had participated in Gao Gang’s anti-party factional activities.
After learning about this situation, Luo Ruiqing immediately affirmed that these five individuals were indeed regarded as Gao Gang’s “Five Tiger Generals,” recognizing them as members of Gao Rau’s anti-party faction.
After Luo Ruiqing’s remarks, Lin Feng spoke next, stating: “Some of the leaders in the Northeast Bureau actively participated in Gao Gang’s conspiracy to seize party and state leadership, openly spreading rumors, causing discord, slandering central leaders, helping Gao Gang control the leadership of the Northeast Bureau, and even shamelessly engaging in illegal activities such as forging Central Committee elections. This is absolutely unacceptable according to party discipline.” Regarding Luo Ruiqing’s statement, “I fully agree.”
On April 24, 1954, the senior officials of the Northeast Bureau passed a report to the Central Committee: “In view of the fact that Zhang Xiushan, Zhang Mingyuan, Guo Feng, Ma Hong, Zhao Dezun, etc., all actively participated in Gao Gang’s anti-party and anti-central factional activities, the mistakes were extremely serious, and it is recommended that the Central Committee remove them from their current positions as Deputy Secretaries of the Northeast Bureau and members of the Northeast Bureau, as well as from other party positions.”
On April 28 of the same year, the Political Bureau of the CPC held a meeting and approved the above recommendations, and publicly announced it to the party organizations at the provincial level and above on May 4.
On March 31, 1955, the National People’s Congress of the CPC passed the Resolution on the “Anti-Party Faction of Gao Gang and Rao Shushi,” pointing out the names of Zhang Xiushan and the other five individuals. For decades thereafter, they were marked as members of the “Gao Gang Anti-Party Faction” and were unable to clear their names.
Recent archival materials indicate that the “Gao Gang and Rao Shushi Anti-Party Faction” did not actually exist, and Zhang Xiushan and the other five individuals were not members of any “Gao Gang Anti-Party Faction.”
Lin Feng joined the CPC in March 1927. Until before the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, he mainly engaged in underground CPC activities in Beijing, Tianjin, and the neighboring areas for nearly a decade.
In November 1932, Lin Feng was appointed as the Secretary and Organizational Department Director of the Beijing City Committee of the CPC; in 1933, he served as the Inspector of the Hebei Provincial Committee of the CPC; in December 1935, he returned to the position of Secretary of the Beijing City Committee of the CPC; and starting from February 1936, he served as the Secretary of the Tianjin City Committee of the CPC.
In the spring of 1936, Liu Shaoqi, acting as the representative of the Central Committee of the CPC, went to Tianjin to oversee the work of the North China Bureau of the CPC. In May 1936, Lin Feng was appointed as Liu Shaoqi’s secretary. After the “Marco Polo Bridge Incident” in 1937, Liu Shaoqi withdrew the North China Bureau to Shanxi. From September 1937 to May 1938, Lin Feng served as the Deputy Secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the CPC. From November 1937, he became a member of the North China Bureau of the CPC and the head of the Organization Department.
After the CPC’s army occupied Nanjing in 1949, the party leaders had a 16-character principle regarding the underground party: “Demote, control, use, adapt on-site, gradually eliminate.”
Subsequently, in the various political movements initiated by the CPC, most of the members who dedicated their lives to the party’s underground work were targeted for persecution, and many were left with broken families and tragic losses.
After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, many individuals who had engaged in underground work in Beijing, such as Peng Zhen, Liu Ren, and Cui Yueli, faced great difficulties. Lin Feng, who once served as the Secretary of the Beijing City Committee, was also caught in the chaos.
By the time the Cultural Revolution erupted in 1966, Lin Feng had served the CPC for nearly 40 years. In 1959 and 1965, Lin Feng was elected as the Vice Chairman of the Second and Third National People’s Congress, reaching the rank of a vice-national level official as one of the leaders of the CPC and the country.
However, after Lin Feng’s death in 1977, the white cloth placed over his body at the memorial service, rather than the CPC flag, signified that even in death, the CPC failed to acknowledge him as a party member.