Zhou Enlai by Gao Wenqian

Author:Gao Wenqian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublicAffairs

ON THE DEFENSIVE

Mao Zedong had hoped that his nationwide criticism of Liu Shaoqi would unify all the new mass organizations that had sprung up after he’d dismantled the formal Communist apparatus. Despite the Chairman’s call for unity in April 1967, and his efforts to make do with the Party’s core of old cadres, factional fights continued to rage all over the country. Too often, the masses could care less about achieving a semblance of national unity; they were mostly interested in seizing power. Mao’s decision to order the army to give the leftists critical support also began to backfire. Clashes between military units and rebel forces had broken out in a number of places, and in several provinces military units dispersed some mass organizations and arrested their leaders. Mao feared that this sort of unrest would effectively weaken the Cultural Revolution.

By June 1967, hostile forces were waging bloody combat with weapons they’d seized from the military. The Chairman had no choice but to seriously consider a timetable for ending the Cultural Revolution. He outlined a two-year plan: the following year would establish a new political framework and an institutional foundation; the next year, according to Mao’s calculations, would wrap up the entire affair.

In mid-July Mao took matters into his own hands and visited the central China city of Wuhan located on the Yangtze River, the site of one of the most vicious of all the conflicts that had broken out all over China. The Chairman decided that in Wuhan he would set an example for the entire country.

Zhou immediately ordered personnel from army, navy, and air force units to accompany the Chairman for his protection when he traveled to Wuhan. The night before Mao was scheduled to arrive, Zhou slipped into the city to take a personal hand in the preparations. Zhou’s motivation for taking these extra precautions was fueled, in part, by his desire that Mao forget the Announcement by the Fifth Warrior. He hoped that the Chairman would reward his demonstration of loyalty by dismissing the affair altogether. Zhou also knew that the battles tearing Wuhan apart were all being orchestrated by Lin Biao and Jiang Qing.

Lin Biao and Jiang Qing were out to sabotage Chen Zaidao, the general in command of the Wuhan military region. Lin Biao had a long-standing loathing for Chen Zaidao that dated back to the civil war, when Chen, who led forces in the Fourth Army commanded by Lin, refused to acquiesce to him. When the Cultural Revolution broke upon China, Chen Zaidao did everything he could to protect Liu Shaoqi. The Central Cultural Revolution Group immediately blacklisted him.

Mao didn’t like the way the military was suppressing rebel forces in Wuhan, but he could not go along with a purge of Chen Zaidao. He was the rustic kind of man Mao liked, not someone who would naturally align himself with Liu Shaoqi. Mao wanted Chen to acknowledge his mistakes, but he also thought he could persuade the general to support the revolutionary rebels, who would, in turn, offer him their support.

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