Xú Shòuhuī (徐壽輝, in Wade-Giles Hsü Shou-hui was a 14th century rebel leader who proclaimed himself emperor during the late Yuan Dynasty period. He was also known as Xu Zhenyi .
Born in Luotian , Xu was a cloth vendor by profession. In August 1351, he worked with others in Qízhōu to establish the rebel army of Red Turbans under the pretense of the Buddhist White Lotus Society. In the following months, they captured Qishui and made it the command centre of the Red Turbans and the capital of the newly declared Empire of Tianwan , with himself as the emperor with the era name of Zhiping .
The number of his supporters increased rapidly as he claimed to be a Milofo reincarnate who sought to "destroy the rich to benefit the poor" . In 1352, he invaded more of Hebei, and moved on to take Jiangxi, Anhui, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Hunan.
After being temporarily defeated by the Mongol army, he fled to Huangmei Mountain , but returned in 1355 to invade once again and move the capital to Hanyang.
Five years later, Xu Shouhui was assassinated by his former co-fighter, Chen Youliang, thus causing the collapse of the Tianwan Empire.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Xie Fuzhi
Xie Fuzhi (: 谢富治; Pinyin: Xiè Fùzhì; Wade-Giles: Hsieh Fu-chih was born in 1909 in Huang’an County, Hubei and died in Beijing in 1972. He joined the CCP in 1931. Xie was married to Liu Xiangping and had at a least one child, a daughter named Xie Jingyi. Xie was named Vice Minister for State Affairs in 1965 and a member of the Beijing Municipal Revolutionary Committee in 1967. A member of the 8th and 9th Central Committees, Xie was promoted to Politburo Alternate Member in 1966, and Full Member at the 9th National Party Congress in April 1969.
Prior to 1949, Xie served as a political commissar in the 4th Column of the 2nd Field Army, under a commissars’ chain of command that led to Field Army Political Commissar Deng Xiaoping.. His unit was involved in the Huai Hai Campaign, after which it was merged into the newly formed 14th Army of the 2nd Field Army as the 41st Division. Xie emerged from the post-liberation reorganization as Political Commissar of the 4th Army, 2nd Field Army. He served with his former co-commander General Chen Geng, and concurrently as Deputy Political Commissar of the 3rd Army, 2nd Field Army under General Chen Xilian, later to become another Cultural Revolution military leftist.
Xie gave a speech in the summer of 1966, in his capacity as Minister of Public Security, that essentially gave ''carte blanche'' to the to confiscate and kill their opponents. Some consider it to be the trigger for the violence that followed.
In July 1967, PLA Wuhan Military Region Commander General Chen Zaidao backed the more conservative Million Heroes Red Guard faction against its militant opponents, the Wuhan Workers’ General Headquarters . Premier Zhou Enlai ordered General Chen to back down, and support the WWGH, but he refused to do so. Xie and Wang Li were sent to Wuhan to persuade General Chen to obey orders. On July 20, PLA forces detained and beat Xie and allowed Wang to be held by the Million Heroes faction. Premier Zhou flew to Wuhan but was prevented from landing by a show of military force at the airport. At that point, the army sent in three infantry divisions and other units, and forced General Chen to surrender without a fight. Xie and Wang were welcomed back to Beijing by a mass rally in Tiananmen Square on July 25th.
After returning to Beijing, Xie played a key role in providing military weapons to favored Red Guard factions, including the supply of 500 rifles to the Jinggangshan Commune of Beijing’s Teacher’s University.
Xie died before the denunciation of the Gang of Four in 1976, but he was idenfied in official documents, along with Kang Sheng, as equally responsible for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and guilty of "anti-party activities".
Military career
Prior to 1949, Xie served as a political commissar in the 4th Column of the 2nd Field Army, under a commissars’ chain of command that led to Field Army Political Commissar Deng Xiaoping.. His unit was involved in the Huai Hai Campaign, after which it was merged into the newly formed 14th Army of the 2nd Field Army as the 41st Division. Xie emerged from the post-liberation reorganization as Political Commissar of the 4th Army, 2nd Field Army. He served with his former co-commander General Chen Geng, and concurrently as Deputy Political Commissar of the 3rd Army, 2nd Field Army under General Chen Xilian, later to become another Cultural Revolution military leftist.
Cultural Revolution
Xie gave a speech in the summer of 1966, in his capacity as Minister of Public Security, that essentially gave ''carte blanche'' to the to confiscate and kill their opponents. Some consider it to be the trigger for the violence that followed.
The Wuhan Incident
In July 1967, PLA Wuhan Military Region Commander General Chen Zaidao backed the more conservative Million Heroes Red Guard faction against its militant opponents, the Wuhan Workers’ General Headquarters . Premier Zhou Enlai ordered General Chen to back down, and support the WWGH, but he refused to do so. Xie and Wang Li were sent to Wuhan to persuade General Chen to obey orders. On July 20, PLA forces detained and beat Xie and allowed Wang to be held by the Million Heroes faction. Premier Zhou flew to Wuhan but was prevented from landing by a show of military force at the airport. At that point, the army sent in three infantry divisions and other units, and forced General Chen to surrender without a fight. Xie and Wang were welcomed back to Beijing by a mass rally in Tiananmen Square on July 25th.
After returning to Beijing, Xie played a key role in providing military weapons to favored Red Guard factions, including the supply of 500 rifles to the Jinggangshan Commune of Beijing’s Teacher’s University.
Legacy
Xie died before the denunciation of the Gang of Four in 1976, but he was idenfied in official documents, along with Kang Sheng, as equally responsible for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and guilty of "anti-party activities".
Wang Liming
Wang Liming is the Dean of Renmin University of China Law School and currently recognized as the most prestigious scholar of civil law in China.
Wang was born in Xiantao, Hubei Province, . He received his B.A degree from Hubei College of Finance in 1981, and M.A in law degree from Renmin University of China Department of Law in 1984.
After graduation, Wang joined the faculty of Renmin University Law School. He received his LL.D degree from the same university in 1990.
In 1995, Wang Liming was selected as one of the "Ten Outstanding Young Jurists" by China Law Society.
Wang was a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School from 1999 to 2000 and Yale Law School in 2004.
Wang became the Dean of Renmin University Law School in the end of 2005.
Biography
Wang was born in Xiantao, Hubei Province, . He received his B.A degree from Hubei College of Finance in 1981, and M.A in law degree from Renmin University of China Department of Law in 1984.
After graduation, Wang joined the faculty of Renmin University Law School. He received his LL.D degree from the same university in 1990.
In 1995, Wang Liming was selected as one of the "Ten Outstanding Young Jurists" by China Law Society.
Wang was a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School from 1999 to 2000 and Yale Law School in 2004.
Wang became the Dean of Renmin University Law School in the end of 2005.
Wan Exiang
Wan Exiang is a professor of international law at Wuhan University, vice president of the Supreme People's Court of China, and vice president of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang.
Wan Exiang was born in Gongan, Hubei in 1956. Wan received his B.A degree from Wuhan University in 1980, LL.M. degree from Yale Law School in 1987 and LL.D. degree from Wuhan University in 1988. After graduation, he joined the faculty of Wuhan University.
Wan was elected as the vice president of the Intermediate People's Court of Wuhan in 1996, vice president of the High People's Court of Hubei in 1999, and Vice President of the Supreme People's Court of China in 2000. He was elected as Vice President of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang in 2002.
Biography
Wan Exiang was born in Gongan, Hubei in 1956. Wan received his B.A degree from Wuhan University in 1980, LL.M. degree from Yale Law School in 1987 and LL.D. degree from Wuhan University in 1988. After graduation, he joined the faculty of Wuhan University.
Wan was elected as the vice president of the Intermediate People's Court of Wuhan in 1996, vice president of the High People's Court of Hubei in 1999, and Vice President of the Supreme People's Court of China in 2000. He was elected as Vice President of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang in 2002.
Nie Haisheng
Colonel Niè Hǎishèng is a military pilot and astronaut .
Military career
Nie was born in Yangdang town of Zaoyang, Hubei Province. After graduating from high school he joined the People's Liberation Army Air Force and became a . During his training at the PLAAF's No. 7 Flying School he was:
Commander of a flight squadron
Deputy Commander of a group
Master navigator
Nie graduated in 1987 and continued his career in the PLAAF. He has reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
On 12 June 1989 while flying at 13,000 feet his plane suffered an explosion and he lost his engine. The plane began to spin to the ground and the cabin began to heat up. Trying to regain control he waited until the plane was 1300 to 1700 feet before choosing to . For his handling of the situation he was honored with third-class merit.
CNSA career
In 1998, he was selected for the Chinese spaceflight program and was one of three candidates who were part of the final group to train for the ''Shenzhou 5'' flight, China's first manned spaceflight. Yáng Lìwěi was picked for the flight, with Zhai Zhigang ranked second ahead of Niè Hǎishèng.
Nie went into orbit, along with , as flight engineer of the ''Shenzhou 6'' flight on October 12 2005. The mission lasted just under five days.
Personal
He is married to Niè Jiélín and has an 11 year old daughter as of 2005. During the ''Shenzhou 6'' mission he celebrated his 41st birthday in space
The asteroid 9517 Niehaisheng was named after him.
Lin Biao
Lin Biao , born as Lin Yurong was a military leader who was instrumental in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeastern China, and was the General who led the People's Liberation Army into Beijing in 1949. He abstained from becoming a major player in politics until he rose to prominence during the Cultural Revolution, climbing as high as second-in-charge and Mao Zedong's designated and constitutional successor and comrade-in-arms.
He died in a plane crash in September 1971 in Mongolia after what appeared to be a failed to oust Mao. After his death, he was officially condemned as a traitor, and is still recognized as one of the two "major Counter-revolutionary parties" during the Cultural Revolution the other being Jiang Qing for which he is assigned a large portion of blame. His military ability, however, is generally commended.
The son of a small landlord and a native of , Hubei province, Lin was born Lin Yurong. He joined the and matriculated at Whampoa Military Academy when he was 18. While at Whampoa he became the protégé of both Zhou Enlai and the General Vasily Blyukher. Less than a year later, he was ordered to participate in the , rising from deputy platoon leader to battalion commander in the National Revolutionary Army within a few months. Lin graduated from Whampoa in 1925 and by 1927 was a colonel.
After the , Lin escaped to the remote Communist base areas and joined Mao Zedong and Zhu De in Jiangxi in 1928. Lin proved to be a brilliant commander and during the 1934 breakout he commanded the First Corps of the , which fought a two-year running battle with the Kuomintang, which culminated in the occupation of Yan'an in December 1936.
Lin and Peng Dehuai were generally reckoned to be the 's best battlefield commanders. They do not seem to have been rivals during the Long March. Both of them had supported Mao's rise to ''de facto'' leadership at Zunyi in January 1935. According to Harrison E. Salisbury's ''The Long March'', by May 1935 Lin Biao was dissatisfied with Mao's strategy. He says of Mao's circlings to evade the armies of Chiang Kai-shek: "the campaign had begun to look like one of Walt Disney's early cartoons in which Mickey Mouse again and again escaped the clutches of the huge, stupid cat." According to Salisbury, Lin Biao in May 1934 tried to persuade Mao to turn over active command to Peng Dehuai.
"Lin Biao did not present the bluff, lusty face of Peng Dehuai. He was ten years younger, rather slight, oval-faced, dark, handsome. Peng talked with his men. Lin kept his distance. To many he seemed shy and reserved. There are no stories reflecting warmth and affection for his men. His fellow Red Army commanders respected Lin, but when he spoke it was all business...
"The contrast between Mao's top field commanders could hardly have been more sharp, but on the Long March they worked well together, Lin specializing in feints, masked strategy, surprises, ambushes, flank attacks, pounces from the rear, and stratagems. Peng met the enemy head-on in frontal assaults and fought with such fury that again and again he wiped them out. Peng did not believe a battle well fought unless he managed to replenish--and more than replenish--any losses by seizure of enemy guns and converting prisoners of war to new and loyal recruits to the Red Army."
Edgar Snow in ''Red Star Over China'' focuses more on the role of Peng than Lin, evidently having had long conversations with, and devoting two whole chapters to, Peng . But he says of Lin:
"With Mao Zedong, Lin Biao shared the distinction of being one of the few Red commanders never wounded. Engaged on the front in more than a hundred battles, in field command for more than 10 years, exposed to every hardship that his men have known, with a reward of $100,000 on his head, he miraculously remained unhurt and in good health.
"In 1932, Lin Biao was given command of the 1st Red Army Corps, which then numbered about 20,000 rifles. It became the most dreaded section of the Red Army. Chiefly due to Lin's extraordinary talent as a tactician, it destroyed, defeated or outmanoeuvered every Government force sent against it and was never broken in battle...
"Like many able Red commanders, Lin has never been outside China, speaks and reads no language but . Before the age of 30, however, he has already won recognition beyond Red circles. His articles in the Chinese Reds' military magazines... have been republished, studied and criticised in Nanking military journals, and also in Japan and Soviet Russia.
''Red Star Over China'' also has an interesting indication that Lin and Mao were close personally. "Between acts at the Anti-Japanese Theatre, there was a general demand for a duet by Mao Zedong and Lin Biao, the twenty-eight year old president of the Red Academy, and formerly a famed young cadet on Chiang Kai-shek's staff. Lin blushed like a schoolboy, and got them out of the 'command performance' by a graceful speech, calling on the women Communists for a song instead."
A different view is taken by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday in '''', , which covers the Mao-Lin relationship in depth:
"Lin lauded Mao to the skies in public, although he felt no true devotion to Mao, and at home he would often make disparaging and even disdainful remarks about him, some of which entered his diary. It was out of pure ambition that Lin stood by Mao and boosted him the ambition to be Mao's No. 2 and successor. He told his wife that he wanted to be 'Engels to Marx, Stalin to Lenin, and Chiang Kai-shek to Sun Yat-sen.'"
According to Chang and Halliday, Lin remained valuable to Mao because, like the Chairman, he continued to put personal power above the interests of the country. In contrast, was purged with Lin's help after challenging Mao over the at Lu Shan conference in August 1959.
As commander of the 115th Division of the Communist 8th Route Army, Lin orchestrated the in September 1937, which was one of the few battlefield successes for the Chinese in the early period of the Second Sino-Japanese War . After the Battle of Pingxingguan, the Chinese troops captured many of the personal items that belonged to Imperial Japanese Army personnel. Among them is a cloak and a katana which was favored by Lin. He tried the cloak on and took the katana by his side, jumped onto a horse and went for a ride. He was then spotted alone by one of the sharpshooters from Fu Zuoyi's troops, who later became the mayor of Beijing after surrendering the city of Beijing to the Communists. The soldier was surprised to see a Japanese officer riding a horse in the desolated hills all by himself. He took an aim at Lin Biao in the head and severely injured him. Lin was then given the post of commandant of the Military Academy at Yan'an in 1938. He spent the next three years in Moscow. After returning to Yan'an, Lin was involved in troop training and indoctrination assignments.
With the resumption of Civil War after World War II, Lin was made Secretary of the Northeast Bureau of the Communist Party and commanded the Red Army forces that conquered the Manchurian provinces and then swept into North China. Mao and other communist leaders intended to take over the whole Northeast China as their base, but with the retreating of Red Army of Soviet Union it's clear that they had to fight for it. For sake of bargaining with the Nationalists in the peace negotiation, Mao ordered Lin to assemble the key armies to defend the key cities, which was against the previous strategy of Red Army of China. Lin suffered a major defeat in Si Ping, and retreated before receiving clear orders from Mao. Lin suggested seriously that the Red Army should change its strategy. In achieving victory, he abandoned the cities and employed Mao's strategy of guerrilla warfare and winning peasant support in the countryside.
Within a year he entrapped the core of Chiang Kai-shek's American-armed and American-trained armies, capturing or killing a total of thirty-six generals. Then came the 'Great 3 Battle'. Lin directed the Liao Shen Battle, eliminating 450 000 opposition soldiers. Following victory in Manchuria, Lin encircled Chiang's main forces in northern China, known as the Ping Jin Battle. The Communists took over Tianjin by force, and ruined the city. Finally in Peking General Fu Zuo Yi and his army of 400,000 men surrendered to him without a battle. The Ping Jin Battle saw Lin eliminate a total of approximately 520,000 opposition soldiers.
Lin went on for the liberation of the whole country. His army, now numbering almost a million soldiers, swept across China from the most north area, Northeast, to the most southern area, island of Hainan.
During this period, several separate Liberation Armies fought on different fronts, including Liu Bo Cheng and Deng Xiaoping's achievements in Central China, which were important to his subsequent power. Leading the 2nd Group, they set off the Huai Hai Battle with Chen Yi and Su Yu leading the 3rd Group, eliminating a total of 550 000 opposition soldiers. Lin Biao led one of the 3 main army groups of Liberation Army, and was regarded as the most brilliant general together with Liu Bo Cheng, and the 4th Group was regarded as the best group of the four.
Lin Biao's exact role in the 1950s is unclear. It seems he was frequently ill, and so had less of a role than his achievements might have entitled him to.
In his autobiography, Dr. Li Zhisui, one of then Mao's personal physicians, writes that Lin was mentally unbalanced rather than suffering from any chronic physical illness. Li's account of Lin's condition is quite a bit different from the official Chinese version, both before and after Lin's fall.
Although Snow writes that Lin led Chinese forces in Korea, this is incorrect. Lin and the rest of the Politburo initially opposed China's entry into the Korean War. In early October 1950, Peng Dehuai was named commander of the Chinese forces bound for Korea, and Lin went to the Soviet Union for medical treatment. Lin flew to the Soviet Union with Zhou Enlai and participated in negotiations with Stalin concerning Soviet support for China's intervention, suggesting that Mao still trusted Lin despite his opposition to joining the war.
Due to periods of ill health and physical rehabilitation in the , Lin was slow in his rise to power. In 1958 he was named to the . In 1959, after the Lushan Conference, Peng Dehuai was removed from his position as Minister of Defence and replaced by Lin Biao. As Defence Minister, Lin's policies differed from that of his predecessor. "Lin Biao's reforms aimed at 'de-Russification'. 'Professional-officer-cast' mentality was fought, titles and insignia of rank were abolished, special officer privileges ended, the Yenan type of soldier-peasant-worker combination was restored, and the Thought of Mao Tse-tung superseded all other ideological texts..."
In 1965, an article on revolution in developing countries, entitled ''Long Live the Victory of the People's War!'', was published in Lin's name. The article likened the 'emerging forces' of the poor in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to the 'rural areas of the world', while the affluent countries of the West were likened to the 'cities of the world'. Eventually the 'cities' would be encircled by revolutions in the 'rural areas', following the Thought of Mao Tse-tung. Lin made no promise that China would fight other people's wars, however. They were advised to depend mainly on 'self-reliance'. Lin worked closely with Mao, creating a cult of personality for him. Lin compiled some of Chairman Mao's writings into a handbook, the ''Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong'', which became known simply as "the Little Red Book."
Lin Biao's military reforms and the success of the Sino-Indian War impressed Mao. A propaganda campaign called "learn from the People's Liberation Army" followed. In 1966, this campaign widened into the Cultural Revolution.
After the purging of Liu Shaoqi during the Cultural Revolution, on April 1, 1969, at the , Lin Biao emerged as primary military power and second in ranking behind Mao Zedong in the party. Even the party constitution was modified to name Lin as Mao's special successor.
As the Cultural Revolution spun out of control, the People's Liberation Army, under Lin's command, effectively took over the country from the party.
Despite Lin's apparent interest in politics and increasing amount of political power during the Cultural Revolution, in private Lin expressed very little interest in Mao's policies and current political trends of the movement. In fact, some sources suggest that Lin was aloof and extremely introverted in private, leaving important policy and family duties to his wife, Ye Qun. Concomitantly, Lin also seemed plagued by psychological problems that incapacitated his abilities to administer in his position as Mao's second-in-command and so-called "close comrade in arms."
The circumstances surrounding Lin's death remain unclear. Lin disappeared in 1971, the standard claim being that he died after attempting a . He became China's second-in-charge on April 1, 1969, and advocated the restoration of the position of State President, which had previously been held by Liu Shaoqi until his removal from the position. The alleged purpose of the restoration was to ensure an orderly transition of power in the event of Mao's death. On August 23, 1970, the CCP held the second plenum of its Ninth Congress in Lushan, where Lin would speak for restoration of the position of President along with his supporter Chen Boda.
Some historians believe Mao had become uncomfortable with Lin's power and had planned to purge him and Lin's son Lin Liguo planned a pre-emptive coup. The Chinese government explanation was that Lin, with the help of his son Liguo, had planned to assassinate Mao sometime between September 8 and 10, 1971. According to the memoir of Dr. Li Zhisui, one of then Mao's personal physicians, Lin's own daughter, Lin Liheng , inadvertently exposed her father's plot. Doudou had become estranged from her mother Ye Qun and incorrectly believed that her mother was plotting against her father.
Supposedly after the discovery of the planned , Lin and his family and several personal aides attempted to flee to the Soviet Union. It is said they were chased to the airport by armed PLA officers and guards. According to the PRC account of Lin's death, their prearranged Hawker Siddeley Trident plane did not take aboard enough fuel before taking off, and as a result, the plane crashed near ?nd?rkhaan in Mongolia on September 13, 1971 after running out of fuel, and all on board were killed. Interestingly, the official Mongolian report on the crash investigation points out that the plane had plenty of fuel at the time of the crash. The investigators concluded that the plane crashed because of pilot error. The corpses were buried in a grave not far from the site of the crash. However, the Soviets reportedly sent a KGB investigative team, which recovered some of the remains for subsequent identification.
It has been reported that when Zhou Enlai asked Mao Zedong whether air force fighters should be sent to chase Lin's plane, Mao replied with an ancient Chinese proverb: “天要下雨，娘要嫁人，由他去吧” （"Some things cannot be changed, just as it has to rain and young girls have to marry. And so, let it be; let him go."） Li Zhisui writes that there was a feeling of relief in the Chinese government when word came from Mongolia that there were no survivors. Zhou Enlai reportedly said, "死得好, 死得好" . On the other hand, a biography of Zhou by Han Suyin claims that, on hearing that Lin was on board an aircraft leaving China, Zhou in fact ordered the grounding of all Chinese aircraft.
According to a retired Chinese army's enlisted personnel who guarded the Shanhaiguan Airbase, the Trident actually struck a fuel tank carrier truck parked near the runway. That may account for the plane's crash. The impact had torn part of the fuel tank of the Trident's wings, and while flying at the Mongolian airspace, the leaking fuel had reached the side engines, triggering the loss of control.
One view is that Lin opposed the rapprochement with the USA, which Zhou Enlai was organizing with Mao's approval. This was contrary to Lin's strategy of 'People's War'. Lin, unlike Mao, did not have a history of making compromises and retreats when it suited him.
There was also claims that Lin was secretly negotiating with the Kuomintang on Taiwan to restore the KMT government in China in return for a high position in the new government. These claims were never formally confirmed nor denied by either the Communist government nor the Nationalist government on Taiwan.
Most of the high military command was purged within a few weeks of Lin's disappearance. The National Day celebrations on October 1, 1971 were cancelled. The news of Lin Biao's plot and disappearance was withheld from the general public for nearly a year. When it did break, the people felt betrayed by Mao's "best pupil."
In the years after Lin's death, Jiang Qing, Mao's third wife and a former political ally of Lin's, started the Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius campaign, aimed at using Lin's scarred image to attack Zhou Enlai. Like many major proponents of the Cultural Revolution, Lin's image was manipulated after the movement; many negative aspects of the Cultural Revolution were blamed on Lin and after October 1976 blamed on Mao's supporters, the so-called . Lin was never politically rehabilitated. In recent years Lin's photo appeared in many books especially ones on history, to show the Chinese are changing their old attitude towards the politician. Lin is regarded as one of the best military strategists in China. A portrait of him is shown at the Chinese Military Museum in Beijing , included in a display of the "Ten Marshals": a group considered founders of China's armed forces.
*"Study Chairman Mao's writings, follow his teachings, act according to his instructions, and be a good soldier of his." - Foreword of ''The Little Red Book''.
*"Sailing the sea needs a helmsman; making a revolution needs Mao Zedong thought."
*"Comrade Mao Zedong is the greatest Marxist and Leninist of our time. Comrade Mao Zedong ingeniously, creatively, and completely inherited, defended and developed Marxism and Leninism, and upgraded Marxism and Leninism to a brand-new stage."
He died in a plane crash in September 1971 in Mongolia after what appeared to be a failed to oust Mao. After his death, he was officially condemned as a traitor, and is still recognized as one of the two "major Counter-revolutionary parties" during the Cultural Revolution the other being Jiang Qing for which he is assigned a large portion of blame. His military ability, however, is generally commended.
Revolutionary
The son of a small landlord and a native of , Hubei province, Lin was born Lin Yurong. He joined the and matriculated at Whampoa Military Academy when he was 18. While at Whampoa he became the protégé of both Zhou Enlai and the General Vasily Blyukher. Less than a year later, he was ordered to participate in the , rising from deputy platoon leader to battalion commander in the National Revolutionary Army within a few months. Lin graduated from Whampoa in 1925 and by 1927 was a colonel.
After the , Lin escaped to the remote Communist base areas and joined Mao Zedong and Zhu De in Jiangxi in 1928. Lin proved to be a brilliant commander and during the 1934 breakout he commanded the First Corps of the , which fought a two-year running battle with the Kuomintang, which culminated in the occupation of Yan'an in December 1936.
Lin and Peng Dehuai were generally reckoned to be the 's best battlefield commanders. They do not seem to have been rivals during the Long March. Both of them had supported Mao's rise to ''de facto'' leadership at Zunyi in January 1935. According to Harrison E. Salisbury's ''The Long March'', by May 1935 Lin Biao was dissatisfied with Mao's strategy. He says of Mao's circlings to evade the armies of Chiang Kai-shek: "the campaign had begun to look like one of Walt Disney's early cartoons in which Mickey Mouse again and again escaped the clutches of the huge, stupid cat." According to Salisbury, Lin Biao in May 1934 tried to persuade Mao to turn over active command to Peng Dehuai.
"Lin Biao did not present the bluff, lusty face of Peng Dehuai. He was ten years younger, rather slight, oval-faced, dark, handsome. Peng talked with his men. Lin kept his distance. To many he seemed shy and reserved. There are no stories reflecting warmth and affection for his men. His fellow Red Army commanders respected Lin, but when he spoke it was all business...
"The contrast between Mao's top field commanders could hardly have been more sharp, but on the Long March they worked well together, Lin specializing in feints, masked strategy, surprises, ambushes, flank attacks, pounces from the rear, and stratagems. Peng met the enemy head-on in frontal assaults and fought with such fury that again and again he wiped them out. Peng did not believe a battle well fought unless he managed to replenish--and more than replenish--any losses by seizure of enemy guns and converting prisoners of war to new and loyal recruits to the Red Army."
Edgar Snow in ''Red Star Over China'' focuses more on the role of Peng than Lin, evidently having had long conversations with, and devoting two whole chapters to, Peng . But he says of Lin:
"With Mao Zedong, Lin Biao shared the distinction of being one of the few Red commanders never wounded. Engaged on the front in more than a hundred battles, in field command for more than 10 years, exposed to every hardship that his men have known, with a reward of $100,000 on his head, he miraculously remained unhurt and in good health.
"In 1932, Lin Biao was given command of the 1st Red Army Corps, which then numbered about 20,000 rifles. It became the most dreaded section of the Red Army. Chiefly due to Lin's extraordinary talent as a tactician, it destroyed, defeated or outmanoeuvered every Government force sent against it and was never broken in battle...
"Like many able Red commanders, Lin has never been outside China, speaks and reads no language but . Before the age of 30, however, he has already won recognition beyond Red circles. His articles in the Chinese Reds' military magazines... have been republished, studied and criticised in Nanking military journals, and also in Japan and Soviet Russia.
''Red Star Over China'' also has an interesting indication that Lin and Mao were close personally. "Between acts at the Anti-Japanese Theatre, there was a general demand for a duet by Mao Zedong and Lin Biao, the twenty-eight year old president of the Red Academy, and formerly a famed young cadet on Chiang Kai-shek's staff. Lin blushed like a schoolboy, and got them out of the 'command performance' by a graceful speech, calling on the women Communists for a song instead."
A different view is taken by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday in '''', , which covers the Mao-Lin relationship in depth:
"Lin lauded Mao to the skies in public, although he felt no true devotion to Mao, and at home he would often make disparaging and even disdainful remarks about him, some of which entered his diary. It was out of pure ambition that Lin stood by Mao and boosted him the ambition to be Mao's No. 2 and successor. He told his wife that he wanted to be 'Engels to Marx, Stalin to Lenin, and Chiang Kai-shek to Sun Yat-sen.'"
According to Chang and Halliday, Lin remained valuable to Mao because, like the Chairman, he continued to put personal power above the interests of the country. In contrast, was purged with Lin's help after challenging Mao over the at Lu Shan conference in August 1959.
Second Sino-Japanese War
As commander of the 115th Division of the Communist 8th Route Army, Lin orchestrated the in September 1937, which was one of the few battlefield successes for the Chinese in the early period of the Second Sino-Japanese War . After the Battle of Pingxingguan, the Chinese troops captured many of the personal items that belonged to Imperial Japanese Army personnel. Among them is a cloak and a katana which was favored by Lin. He tried the cloak on and took the katana by his side, jumped onto a horse and went for a ride. He was then spotted alone by one of the sharpshooters from Fu Zuoyi's troops, who later became the mayor of Beijing after surrendering the city of Beijing to the Communists. The soldier was surprised to see a Japanese officer riding a horse in the desolated hills all by himself. He took an aim at Lin Biao in the head and severely injured him. Lin was then given the post of commandant of the Military Academy at Yan'an in 1938. He spent the next three years in Moscow. After returning to Yan'an, Lin was involved in troop training and indoctrination assignments.
Chinese Civil War
With the resumption of Civil War after World War II, Lin was made Secretary of the Northeast Bureau of the Communist Party and commanded the Red Army forces that conquered the Manchurian provinces and then swept into North China. Mao and other communist leaders intended to take over the whole Northeast China as their base, but with the retreating of Red Army of Soviet Union it's clear that they had to fight for it. For sake of bargaining with the Nationalists in the peace negotiation, Mao ordered Lin to assemble the key armies to defend the key cities, which was against the previous strategy of Red Army of China. Lin suffered a major defeat in Si Ping, and retreated before receiving clear orders from Mao. Lin suggested seriously that the Red Army should change its strategy. In achieving victory, he abandoned the cities and employed Mao's strategy of guerrilla warfare and winning peasant support in the countryside.
Within a year he entrapped the core of Chiang Kai-shek's American-armed and American-trained armies, capturing or killing a total of thirty-six generals. Then came the 'Great 3 Battle'. Lin directed the Liao Shen Battle, eliminating 450 000 opposition soldiers. Following victory in Manchuria, Lin encircled Chiang's main forces in northern China, known as the Ping Jin Battle. The Communists took over Tianjin by force, and ruined the city. Finally in Peking General Fu Zuo Yi and his army of 400,000 men surrendered to him without a battle. The Ping Jin Battle saw Lin eliminate a total of approximately 520,000 opposition soldiers.
Lin went on for the liberation of the whole country. His army, now numbering almost a million soldiers, swept across China from the most north area, Northeast, to the most southern area, island of Hainan.
During this period, several separate Liberation Armies fought on different fronts, including Liu Bo Cheng and Deng Xiaoping's achievements in Central China, which were important to his subsequent power. Leading the 2nd Group, they set off the Huai Hai Battle with Chen Yi and Su Yu leading the 3rd Group, eliminating a total of 550 000 opposition soldiers. Lin Biao led one of the 3 main army groups of Liberation Army, and was regarded as the most brilliant general together with Liu Bo Cheng, and the 4th Group was regarded as the best group of the four.
Politician
Lin Biao's exact role in the 1950s is unclear. It seems he was frequently ill, and so had less of a role than his achievements might have entitled him to.
In his autobiography, Dr. Li Zhisui, one of then Mao's personal physicians, writes that Lin was mentally unbalanced rather than suffering from any chronic physical illness. Li's account of Lin's condition is quite a bit different from the official Chinese version, both before and after Lin's fall.
Although Snow writes that Lin led Chinese forces in Korea, this is incorrect. Lin and the rest of the Politburo initially opposed China's entry into the Korean War. In early October 1950, Peng Dehuai was named commander of the Chinese forces bound for Korea, and Lin went to the Soviet Union for medical treatment. Lin flew to the Soviet Union with Zhou Enlai and participated in negotiations with Stalin concerning Soviet support for China's intervention, suggesting that Mao still trusted Lin despite his opposition to joining the war.
Due to periods of ill health and physical rehabilitation in the , Lin was slow in his rise to power. In 1958 he was named to the . In 1959, after the Lushan Conference, Peng Dehuai was removed from his position as Minister of Defence and replaced by Lin Biao. As Defence Minister, Lin's policies differed from that of his predecessor. "Lin Biao's reforms aimed at 'de-Russification'. 'Professional-officer-cast' mentality was fought, titles and insignia of rank were abolished, special officer privileges ended, the Yenan type of soldier-peasant-worker combination was restored, and the Thought of Mao Tse-tung superseded all other ideological texts..."
In 1965, an article on revolution in developing countries, entitled ''Long Live the Victory of the People's War!'', was published in Lin's name. The article likened the 'emerging forces' of the poor in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to the 'rural areas of the world', while the affluent countries of the West were likened to the 'cities of the world'. Eventually the 'cities' would be encircled by revolutions in the 'rural areas', following the Thought of Mao Tse-tung. Lin made no promise that China would fight other people's wars, however. They were advised to depend mainly on 'self-reliance'. Lin worked closely with Mao, creating a cult of personality for him. Lin compiled some of Chairman Mao's writings into a handbook, the ''Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong'', which became known simply as "the Little Red Book."
Lin Biao's military reforms and the success of the Sino-Indian War impressed Mao. A propaganda campaign called "learn from the People's Liberation Army" followed. In 1966, this campaign widened into the Cultural Revolution.
After the purging of Liu Shaoqi during the Cultural Revolution, on April 1, 1969, at the , Lin Biao emerged as primary military power and second in ranking behind Mao Zedong in the party. Even the party constitution was modified to name Lin as Mao's special successor.
As the Cultural Revolution spun out of control, the People's Liberation Army, under Lin's command, effectively took over the country from the party.
Despite Lin's apparent interest in politics and increasing amount of political power during the Cultural Revolution, in private Lin expressed very little interest in Mao's policies and current political trends of the movement. In fact, some sources suggest that Lin was aloof and extremely introverted in private, leaving important policy and family duties to his wife, Ye Qun. Concomitantly, Lin also seemed plagued by psychological problems that incapacitated his abilities to administer in his position as Mao's second-in-command and so-called "close comrade in arms."
Attempted coup and downfall
The circumstances surrounding Lin's death remain unclear. Lin disappeared in 1971, the standard claim being that he died after attempting a . He became China's second-in-charge on April 1, 1969, and advocated the restoration of the position of State President, which had previously been held by Liu Shaoqi until his removal from the position. The alleged purpose of the restoration was to ensure an orderly transition of power in the event of Mao's death. On August 23, 1970, the CCP held the second plenum of its Ninth Congress in Lushan, where Lin would speak for restoration of the position of President along with his supporter Chen Boda.
Some historians believe Mao had become uncomfortable with Lin's power and had planned to purge him and Lin's son Lin Liguo planned a pre-emptive coup. The Chinese government explanation was that Lin, with the help of his son Liguo, had planned to assassinate Mao sometime between September 8 and 10, 1971. According to the memoir of Dr. Li Zhisui, one of then Mao's personal physicians, Lin's own daughter, Lin Liheng , inadvertently exposed her father's plot. Doudou had become estranged from her mother Ye Qun and incorrectly believed that her mother was plotting against her father.
Plane crash
Supposedly after the discovery of the planned , Lin and his family and several personal aides attempted to flee to the Soviet Union. It is said they were chased to the airport by armed PLA officers and guards. According to the PRC account of Lin's death, their prearranged Hawker Siddeley Trident plane did not take aboard enough fuel before taking off, and as a result, the plane crashed near ?nd?rkhaan in Mongolia on September 13, 1971 after running out of fuel, and all on board were killed. Interestingly, the official Mongolian report on the crash investigation points out that the plane had plenty of fuel at the time of the crash. The investigators concluded that the plane crashed because of pilot error. The corpses were buried in a grave not far from the site of the crash. However, the Soviets reportedly sent a KGB investigative team, which recovered some of the remains for subsequent identification.
It has been reported that when Zhou Enlai asked Mao Zedong whether air force fighters should be sent to chase Lin's plane, Mao replied with an ancient Chinese proverb: “天要下雨，娘要嫁人，由他去吧” （"Some things cannot be changed, just as it has to rain and young girls have to marry. And so, let it be; let him go."） Li Zhisui writes that there was a feeling of relief in the Chinese government when word came from Mongolia that there were no survivors. Zhou Enlai reportedly said, "死得好, 死得好" . On the other hand, a biography of Zhou by Han Suyin claims that, on hearing that Lin was on board an aircraft leaving China, Zhou in fact ordered the grounding of all Chinese aircraft.
According to a retired Chinese army's enlisted personnel who guarded the Shanhaiguan Airbase, the Trident actually struck a fuel tank carrier truck parked near the runway. That may account for the plane's crash. The impact had torn part of the fuel tank of the Trident's wings, and while flying at the Mongolian airspace, the leaking fuel had reached the side engines, triggering the loss of control.
Aftermath
One view is that Lin opposed the rapprochement with the USA, which Zhou Enlai was organizing with Mao's approval. This was contrary to Lin's strategy of 'People's War'. Lin, unlike Mao, did not have a history of making compromises and retreats when it suited him.
There was also claims that Lin was secretly negotiating with the Kuomintang on Taiwan to restore the KMT government in China in return for a high position in the new government. These claims were never formally confirmed nor denied by either the Communist government nor the Nationalist government on Taiwan.
Most of the high military command was purged within a few weeks of Lin's disappearance. The National Day celebrations on October 1, 1971 were cancelled. The news of Lin Biao's plot and disappearance was withheld from the general public for nearly a year. When it did break, the people felt betrayed by Mao's "best pupil."
In the years after Lin's death, Jiang Qing, Mao's third wife and a former political ally of Lin's, started the Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius campaign, aimed at using Lin's scarred image to attack Zhou Enlai. Like many major proponents of the Cultural Revolution, Lin's image was manipulated after the movement; many negative aspects of the Cultural Revolution were blamed on Lin and after October 1976 blamed on Mao's supporters, the so-called . Lin was never politically rehabilitated. In recent years Lin's photo appeared in many books especially ones on history, to show the Chinese are changing their old attitude towards the politician. Lin is regarded as one of the best military strategists in China. A portrait of him is shown at the Chinese Military Museum in Beijing , included in a display of the "Ten Marshals": a group considered founders of China's armed forces.
Quotations
*"Study Chairman Mao's writings, follow his teachings, act according to his instructions, and be a good soldier of his." - Foreword of ''The Little Red Book''.
*"Sailing the sea needs a helmsman; making a revolution needs Mao Zedong thought."
*"Comrade Mao Zedong is the greatest Marxist and Leninist of our time. Comrade Mao Zedong ingeniously, creatively, and completely inherited, defended and developed Marxism and Leninism, and upgraded Marxism and Leninism to a brand-new stage."
Li Yuanhong
Li Yuanhong was a general and political figure during the Qing dynasty and the . He was twice president of the Republic of China.
A native of Huangpo, Hubei, he was the son of a Qing veteran of the Taiping rebellion. He graduated from Tianjin's naval academy in 1889 and served as an engineer in the First Sino-Japanese war. His cruiser was sunk and he survived because of his life belt since he could not swim. He later joined the army and became senior military officer in Hankou. In 1910, he attempted to break up revolutionary rings that infiltrated his 21st Mixed Brigade. He did not arrest any caught in subversive activities, but simply dismiss them..
When the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 broke out, the needed a visible high-ranking officer to be their figurehead. Li was well respected, had supported the Railway Protection Movement, and knew English which would be useful in dealing with foreign concerns. He was reportedly dragged from hiding under his wife's bed and forced at gunpoint to be the provisional military governor of Hubei despite killing several of the rebels. Though reluctant at first, he embraced the revolution after its growing momentum and was named military governor of China on November 30. Qing Premier Yuan Shikai negotiated a truce with him on December 4.
Despite Li commanding the rebel army, Sun Yat-sen of the Revolutionary Alliance became the first provisional president in Nanjing on January 1, 1912. Li was made vice president as a compromise and he formed People's Society to campaign for the presidency. Meanwhile, the north was still under the control of the Qing. A negotiation made Sun step down in favor of Yuan Shikai as president with Li keeping his vice-presidency. This ended the Qing dynasty and reunified north and south China. People's Society later merged with the pro-Yuan Republican Party.
In 1913, he combined the Republicans with Liang Qichao's Democratic Party to form the . The Progressives became the biggest rivals to the opposition led by Sun. He supported Yuan against Sun during the Second Revolution which earned him the enmity of his former comrades. When Yuan pulled off his presidential coup, Li was viewed as a potential threat and confined in Beijing where he became a passive bystander under Yuan's grip. Yuan could never fully trust Li because he wasn't a protege within the Beiyang Army's inner circle and because of his past association with the revolutionaries. Nevertheless, Yuan married his son to Li's daughter to strengthen their ties. Li kept his office and honors as vice president but had no power. Some factions called on Li to claim the presidency when Yuan crowned himself emperor in 1916. He refused for fear of his life but he also declined aristocratic titles granted by Yuan, a decision which would help his standing later on. Li remained in self-imposed isolation at his residence during the monarchic period until the death of Yuan.
Li became president from June 7, 1916 to July 17, 1917. When Yuan died, he left a will containing Li's name along with Premier Duan Qirui and Xu Shichang. The will was an imperial tradition started by Kangxi and was not constitutional in the republic. The Beiyang generals pressured him into office since he was acceptable to the . He tried to return to the 1912 constitutional arrangement, but Duan held the real power. The reconvened on August 1 after being disbanded over two and a half years before. Duan was eager to pull China into World War I but Li was more hesitant. They conflicted greatly over Duan's decision to cut ties with Germany. He forced Duan to resign on May 23, 1917 when the premier's secret loans from Japan were exposed. Duan fled to Tianjin to muster his forces and most generals abandoned the government. In response, Li asked General for assistance. In exchange, Zhang asked for the dissolution of parliament which was granted on June 13. Zhang, who was secretly pro-German, unexpectedly occupied Beijing from June 14 to July 12 of 1917 and kept the president prisoner. Zhang then proceeded with a move that would undermine most of his support when he attempted to restore Emperor Puyi and the Qing dynasty on July 1. Li was released to the Japanese legation where he asked for Duan's assistance in saving the republic. Duan overthrew Zhang and was reinstated as premier. Vice President Feng Guozhang was made acting president in Nanjing. On July 17, distraught from recent events, Li officially resigned from office and moved to Tianjin in retirement.
He served again as president of China between 11 June 1922 and 13 June 1923 after Cao Kun forced out President Xu Shichang. Li was chosen because he was respected by all of the factions and was hoped to reunify the country. He accepted only with the private assurances that warlord forces be disbanded; they were never honored. Like his first term, he called back the original National Assembly but he was even more powerless than before. He organized the "Able Men Cabinet" consisting of prestigious experts but it became undone when he arrested the finance minister for graft after examining rumours and circumstantial evidence; a court threw out the charges. Cao soon harbored presidential ambitions himself and orchestrated strikes to force Li out of office. Cao went as far as trying to bribe the assembly into impeaching him. When Li was vacating the capital, he attempted to take the presidential seal with him but was intercepted. He fled to Japan for medical treatment and returned to Tianjin in 1924 where he later died.
Early history
A native of Huangpo, Hubei, he was the son of a Qing veteran of the Taiping rebellion. He graduated from Tianjin's naval academy in 1889 and served as an engineer in the First Sino-Japanese war. His cruiser was sunk and he survived because of his life belt since he could not swim. He later joined the army and became senior military officer in Hankou. In 1910, he attempted to break up revolutionary rings that infiltrated his 21st Mixed Brigade. He did not arrest any caught in subversive activities, but simply dismiss them..
National prominence
When the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 broke out, the needed a visible high-ranking officer to be their figurehead. Li was well respected, had supported the Railway Protection Movement, and knew English which would be useful in dealing with foreign concerns. He was reportedly dragged from hiding under his wife's bed and forced at gunpoint to be the provisional military governor of Hubei despite killing several of the rebels. Though reluctant at first, he embraced the revolution after its growing momentum and was named military governor of China on November 30. Qing Premier Yuan Shikai negotiated a truce with him on December 4.
Despite Li commanding the rebel army, Sun Yat-sen of the Revolutionary Alliance became the first provisional president in Nanjing on January 1, 1912. Li was made vice president as a compromise and he formed People's Society to campaign for the presidency. Meanwhile, the north was still under the control of the Qing. A negotiation made Sun step down in favor of Yuan Shikai as president with Li keeping his vice-presidency. This ended the Qing dynasty and reunified north and south China. People's Society later merged with the pro-Yuan Republican Party.
In 1913, he combined the Republicans with Liang Qichao's Democratic Party to form the . The Progressives became the biggest rivals to the opposition led by Sun. He supported Yuan against Sun during the Second Revolution which earned him the enmity of his former comrades. When Yuan pulled off his presidential coup, Li was viewed as a potential threat and confined in Beijing where he became a passive bystander under Yuan's grip. Yuan could never fully trust Li because he wasn't a protege within the Beiyang Army's inner circle and because of his past association with the revolutionaries. Nevertheless, Yuan married his son to Li's daughter to strengthen their ties. Li kept his office and honors as vice president but had no power. Some factions called on Li to claim the presidency when Yuan crowned himself emperor in 1916. He refused for fear of his life but he also declined aristocratic titles granted by Yuan, a decision which would help his standing later on. Li remained in self-imposed isolation at his residence during the monarchic period until the death of Yuan.
As President
Li became president from June 7, 1916 to July 17, 1917. When Yuan died, he left a will containing Li's name along with Premier Duan Qirui and Xu Shichang. The will was an imperial tradition started by Kangxi and was not constitutional in the republic. The Beiyang generals pressured him into office since he was acceptable to the . He tried to return to the 1912 constitutional arrangement, but Duan held the real power. The reconvened on August 1 after being disbanded over two and a half years before. Duan was eager to pull China into World War I but Li was more hesitant. They conflicted greatly over Duan's decision to cut ties with Germany. He forced Duan to resign on May 23, 1917 when the premier's secret loans from Japan were exposed. Duan fled to Tianjin to muster his forces and most generals abandoned the government. In response, Li asked General for assistance. In exchange, Zhang asked for the dissolution of parliament which was granted on June 13. Zhang, who was secretly pro-German, unexpectedly occupied Beijing from June 14 to July 12 of 1917 and kept the president prisoner. Zhang then proceeded with a move that would undermine most of his support when he attempted to restore Emperor Puyi and the Qing dynasty on July 1. Li was released to the Japanese legation where he asked for Duan's assistance in saving the republic. Duan overthrew Zhang and was reinstated as premier. Vice President Feng Guozhang was made acting president in Nanjing. On July 17, distraught from recent events, Li officially resigned from office and moved to Tianjin in retirement.
He served again as president of China between 11 June 1922 and 13 June 1923 after Cao Kun forced out President Xu Shichang. Li was chosen because he was respected by all of the factions and was hoped to reunify the country. He accepted only with the private assurances that warlord forces be disbanded; they were never honored. Like his first term, he called back the original National Assembly but he was even more powerless than before. He organized the "Able Men Cabinet" consisting of prestigious experts but it became undone when he arrested the finance minister for graft after examining rumours and circumstantial evidence; a court threw out the charges. Cao soon harbored presidential ambitions himself and orchestrated strikes to force Li out of office. Cao went as far as trying to bribe the assembly into impeaching him. When Li was vacating the capital, he attempted to take the presidential seal with him but was intercepted. He fled to Japan for medical treatment and returned to Tianjin in 1924 where he later died.
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