|
Tenth Congress and the Rise of Gang of Four
(Oct,1973)
Tenth Congress
From August 24 to 28, Mao held the Tenth National Congress in Beijing The purpose of this congress was for Zhou to report back on political developments, Wang Hongwen reported back on the reform of the Party's rule and the members of the Central Committee were elected.
In the political report by Zhou, the conspiracy of Lin was further exposed and criticised. This criticism was a meaningful lesson for the party, but it was still "continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat" that was emphasised. In the reform of the Party's rule, rules were not much reformed except that a part about "Lin Biao will be the successor of Mao" was removed. The members of Central Committee were added with the veteran bureaucrats who had been persecuted for a long time. But those who followed Qing's group were also elected as the members.
The Tenth Congress solved some problems, but in general it followed the failure of Ninth Congress. "Continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat" was still called for. Under such a false policy, the CR could not help but continue.
Moreover, Qing Jiang, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen formed the "Gang of Four", and their power grew. That enabled them to be in an advantageous condition to get the highest leadership of party and government.
Campaign by the Gang of Four
On 25 January 1974, Qing gathered more than ten thousand peoples of Party and national organisations and held a "Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius" movement in Beijing. This was criticism against Lin and Confucius, the most famous educator and scholar. Qing used the two people as examples of traitors for their own advantage. In the movement, Qing and Yao made a speech saying it made a fool of the people.
After the meeting, Qing said proudly "I didn't invite to Zhou to this meeting at all". And she tried to broadcast recording of this meeting to all of China, but no sooner had Mao known that than he stopped this plan. Mao criticised her as this movement was excessive, but he didn't control their movement. The matter of this movement was spread all over China via various routes, and there was a lot of conflict as people quarrelled with each other over the slogan of "Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius" was spread.
In those days, the "Gang of Four" brought about several kinds of curious incidents. The purpose was to criticise Zhou and the veteran bureaucrats. So they interpreted trivial things as they liked and used them as a criticism against Zhou and the veteran bureaucrats. But Mao saw through their intentions. He said, "Jiang is conspiring".
From early 1974, Mao criticised the "Gang of Four" several times, and he left Deng with important works. That indicated that although Mao was old and sick he was thinking of how to deal with the important work of the Party and government. That had a great effect on the fall of the conspiracy
|
