Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China (35 page)

The day after Hua's memorial address, Jiang Qing requested an immediate meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, which included her allies
Wang Hongwen and Zhang Chunqiao, without the presence of Marshal Ye, to discuss the handling of Mao's documents.
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Hua, feeling he had no choice, called the meeting that afternoon. Jiang Qing brought with her Yao Wenyuan and Mao Yuanxin. At the meeting, she demanded that Mao Yuanxin, who had managed Mao's papers during the last ten months of his life, be kept in charge of his uncle's materials while he prepared a report on them. Others disagreed, and because the meeting reached no decision, the materials remained at the party center.
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Jiang Qing also attempted to extend her control in the propaganda apparatus, which she had controlled at the zenith of her power in the earlier days of the Cultural Revolution. In addition, she tried to mobilize youth, telling them to persist in class struggle and in their attacks on bureaucratism. In a speech at Tsinghua University on October 1, Jiang Qing encouraged young people to take an oath to fight to the end.

When Hua heard that at some meetings the Gang of Four had told allies to expect good news on October 7, 8, or 9, he concluded that he needed to act urgently. Although there was no real evidence that Jiang Qing had planned a coup, there were other ominous signs. On October 4, Chi Qun swore an oath of loyalty to Jiang Qing. And the October 4 edition of the
Guangming Daily
featured an article written by “Liang Xiao” (a pen name used by the radicals at the two universities, Peking University and Tsinghua University), declaring that the struggle against capitalists inside the party must be carried through to the end. Concerned about these developments, Marshal Ye went that same day to consult Wang Dongxing and Hua Guofeng, who were already worried that the Gang of Four might soon carry out some kind of action.
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No one doubted that Jiang Qing was part of the “I live, you die” political tradition, prepared to fight to the end. Any decision to arrest the Gang of Four would require the bold leadership of Acting Chairman Hua Guofeng and the cooperation of both Marshal Ye, vice chairman of the CMC, and Wang Dongxing, head of the Palace Guard (which protected the party center). All saw eye to eye and moved quickly. Immediately after Mao's death, Marshal Ye, then minister of defense as well as vice chairman of the CMC, had pledged to Hua his wholehearted support to keep the post-Mao transition smooth. Several days after Mao's death, Hua sent Li Xiannian to sound out Ye on how to deal with the Gang of Four, and Li and Ye agreed that fast action was called for. When Wang Dongxing would later describe the preparations
for the arrest of the Gang of Four, he would say that Hua Guofeng and Ye Jianying were the strategists, and that he simply implemented their directions.
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Marshal Ye sought to make the arrests in a way that would prevent a clash between military forces, which could create further instability. Because the Gang of Four had their own guards at Diaoyutai where they lived, that meant avoiding a confrontation there. But timing was also critical. The three partners in planning (Hua, Ye, and Wang Dongxing) realized that they must take the initiative before the Gang of Four did. After they saw the October 4 editorial and heard that the Gang of Four were telling their allies to expect good news as early as October 9, Hua, Ye, and Wang Dongxing prepared to move swiftly and decisively. Meanwhile, one by one Wang Dongxing was selecting a small number of men in his guard unit on whom he could rely.

On the afternoon of October 5, Marshal Ye talked separately with Hua and Wang Dongxing. They decided that on the next day, October 6, Hua would call a Politburo Standing Committee meeting on short notice (as was often done) to be held at 8:00 p.m. in Huairen Hall of Zhongnanhai. The stated agenda would include three important issues: publication of volume 5 of Mao's
Selected Works
, planning for the Mao Memorial Hall, and policies on the use of Mao's former residence in Zhongnanhai. Usually Politburo Standing Committee meetings were only attended by Hua, Ye, Wang Hongwen, and Zhang Chunqiao. With these items on the agenda, Wang and Zhang would not want to miss the meeting. And because Yao Wenyuan was centrally involved in publication of volume 5 of Mao's
Selected Works
, it was natural to invite him to join this discussion as well, even though he was not a member of the Standing Committee.

On the night of October 6, although Wang Dongxing's small group of special forces was already inside, everything outside the building appeared normal. Just before 8:00 p.m., Wang Hongwen strode into the building and was suddenly grabbed by the guards. He yelled angrily, “I've come for a meeting, what are you doing?” The guards wrestled him to the floor and carried him to the main hall, where Hua Guofeng stood up to say, “Wang Hongwen, you have committed anti-party and anti-socialist crimes. The party center is placing you in confinement for investigation.” While Wang was taken away from the main hall, Zhang Chunqiao, carrying his briefcase, arrived exactly on time. About to enter the main hall, he too was arrested by guards and handcuffed; Hua Guofeng announced he would be interrogated for his
crimes, and he submitted without resistance. When Yao Wenyuan arrived, he was immediately arrested just outside the building.

Meanwhile, a small group of special forces attached to the Central Committee office building went to Jiang Qing's residence and told her that she was being held for special examination. She replied that she needed to go to the restroom, so a female member of the special forces accompanied her. Upon returning, she was escorted to a car and driven away. Within thirty-five minutes, with no firing of guns and no bloodshed, the threat from the Gang of Four was eliminated.
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At around the same time, Hua and Ye had also sent special teams to the broadcasting studios, to New China News Agency (Xinhua), to the
People's Daily
, and to other publications to make certain that followers of the Gang of Four were given no public voice and that no news would spread until the key followers of the gang had been arrested. The day after the gang's arrests took place, Xie Jingyi of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Chi Qun of Tsinghua University were placed in protective custody.
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To get around the problem of the Gang of Four being Politburo members who would resist formalizing Hua Guofeng's position as the top leader—a position that Jiang Qing had coveted for herself—Marshal Ye convened a meeting of the Politburo without the Gang of Four, at his home in the Western Hills. The meeting began at 10:00 p.m. on the evening of the gang's arrest, and continued until 4:00 a.m. At the meeting, the participants unanimously chose Hua as chairman of both the party and the CMC. They also discussed what cautionary steps were needed to avoid disruptions by followers of the Gang of Four.
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In addition, immediately after the Politburo meeting, it was announced that volume 5 of Mao's
Selected Works
, which Deng and the Gang of Four had struggled so hard to control, would be published under the direction of Hua Guofeng, giving Hua the critical opportunity to define Mao's legacy.
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The greatest risk of disorder from Gang of Four followers came from the armed militia forces in Shanghai.
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Indeed, Ye, Hua, and the others kept the gang's arrest secret until they were certain the Shanghai problem was under control. Xu Shiyou, former longtime commander of the Nanjing Military Region with jurisdiction over the Shanghai area, flew to Beijing where he assured the leaders that the military was fully prepared in case fighting were to break out in Shanghai. There was good cause for concern. Two days after the arrest of the Gang of Four, the gang's followers in Shanghai began to suspect
that something terrible had happened because they couldn't reach the gang, and they began to prepare for armed resistance.

Beijing countered this threat by sending senior leaders led by General Su Zhenhua to Shanghai to quiet things down. While there, the leaders also invited Ma Tianshui and other followers of Jiang Qing from Shanghai to Beijing for a meeting, where unbeknownst to them, they would become hostages. By October 14, those remaining in Shanghai who were still planning to resist realized that high-level party officials, as well as the public, were overwhelmingly opposed to armed resistance. Seeing the hopelessness of their situation, they yielded without a fight.
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Meanwhile, security officials had been reaching decisions about which former subordinates of the Gang of Four were most dangerous. On the day after the Gang of Four was arrested, thirty of the gang's most loyal followers in Beijing were taken into custody. Security officials continued to observe those still considered security risks.
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Mao Yuanxin was also arrested.

The sudden release of the news of the arrest of the Gang of Four thrilled and relieved a public weary of continued struggles and afraid of their return. The public announcement was made on October 18, and huge, spontaneous public celebrations erupted. Foreign correspondents observing the events reported extraordinary excitement as the masses poured onto the streets of all major cities to celebrate.
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Chairman Hua Seeks Party Support

Yet within the party there were doubts as to whether the Gang of Four should be arrested and even whether Mao had actually chosen Hua to be his successor. Mao had never announced publicly that Hua Guofeng was his successor. High-level officials knew that Mao would never have arrested the Gang of Four and even some who disliked the Gang of Four felt that Mao's wishes should be followed.

In an effort to solidify support for Hua's rule, Marshal Ye and Li Xiannian supported Hua Guofeng at a meeting that brought together leading central, provincial, and military officials in a meeting in Beijing. They enumerated the crimes of the Gang of Four and explained the need for arresting them. Most high officials agreed with the need to arrest the Gang of Four and acknowledged that Hua, Marshal Ye, and Wang Dongxing had acted wisely and courageously in the way they carried it out.

It was at this meeting that Hua revealed for the first time the scrawled note
that Mao had given to him on April 30 during the visit of New Zealand's prime minister, Robert Muldoon: “with you in charge, I am at ease.”
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The revelation helped persuade the regional party secretaries that Mao had indeed chosen Hua. At the meeting Hua received declarations of approval for his selection as chairman of the party and the CMC. The confrontation between Hua and the Gang of Four would be told and retold as a great struggle between good and evil—between the party pursuing the correct path and a gang plotting against the party. Like many stories recorded in Chinese historical documents, the victor was seen as virtuous and the loser as villainous. But this time, as in 1949, there was genuine and widespread popular support for the victor.

To further solidify his position, Hua chose to continue the criticism of Deng and to delay his return. On October 26, Hua announced that in addition to criticizing the Gang of Four, the party would also continue its criticism of Deng Xiaoping.
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The party's criticism was not as extreme as that initiated by the Gang of Four, but it continued for several months. Hua was not ready to welcome Deng back. Deng was too experienced, too confident, and too ready to take charge. Marshal Ye also thought that Hua needed time to establish himself as a strong leader and that Deng should return somewhat later. It wasn't until near the end of 1976 that Marshal Ye, Li Xiannian, and other senior officials began advocating that Deng be brought back to work.
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Deng, always ready to accept power realities, was one of the first leaders to express support for Hua Guofeng. On October 7, Deng Rong's husband, He Ping, heard through Marshal Ye's family about the arrest of the Gang of Four. He rushed home by bicycle to report the good news to Deng and his family, who thus learned about the arrest even before it was made public.
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On October 10, Deng wrote a letter that was delivered to Wang Dongxing to pass on to Hua Guofeng. In the letter, Deng congratulated the party under the leadership of Comrade Hua for its decisive action and great victory over those who had been plotting to seize power. He wrote, “I sincerely support the decision of the party center on the appointment of Comrade Hua Guofeng as chairman of the Central Committee and of the Central Military Affairs Commission.... Comrade Guofeng is the most appropriate successor to Mao.... How jubilant this makes us feel.”
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On December 10, two months after the arrest of the Gang of Four, Deng was admitted to the No. 301 Military Hospital with a prostate problem, and on December 14, the party center passed a resolution that Deng again be permitted to read party documents. The first batch of materials he received in
the hospital was “Evidence of the Crimes of the Anti-Party Faction Activities of Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao, Jiang Qing, and Yao Wenyuan.” It was to be the first of several batches of such materials that Deng would be given in order to secure his support for Hua's arrest of the Gang of Four. After reading the first batch, Deng said there was plenty of evidence to justify the actions taken and he did not need to see more.
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Even so, while Deng was still in the hospital Hua Guofeng personally briefed him on issues concerning the Gang of Four.
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