February Countercurrent
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February Countercurrent
The February Countercurrent (), also known as the February Adverse Current, refers to the joint efforts by a group of conservative Chinese Communist Party veterans to oppose the ultra-leftist radicalism at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Overview The events refer mainly to a series of stormy meetings of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party and the top military brass which took place between January and February, 1967, which pitted Communist revolutionary generals Tan Zhenlin, Chen Yi, Xu Xiangqian, Nie Rongzhen, Ye Jianying and others against Maoist radicals led by Lin Biao, Kang Sheng, Jiang Qing, and Zhang Chunqiao. The veterans asserted that the Cultural Revolution was throwing the country into chaos and that its real aim was to purge the top leadership of the party and the military. An account detailed one of the confrontations, which involved the Marshal Ye Jianying slamming the table so hard, he broke several fingers. As one of the leaders of the Weberia ...
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Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang, and, in 1949, Mao proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Since then, the CCP has governed China with eight smaller parties within its United Front and has sole control over the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Each successive leader of the CCP has added their own theories to the party's constitution, which outlines the ideological beliefs of the party, collectively referred to as socialism with Chinese characteristics. As of 2022, the CCP has more than 96 million members, making it the second largest political party by party membership in the world after India's Bharatiya Janata Party. The Chinese public generally refers to the CCP as simply "the Party". In 1921, Chen Duxiu and ...
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Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal was to preserve Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society. The Revolution marked the effective commanding return of Mao –who was still the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)– to the centre of power, after a period of self-abstention and ceding to less radical leadership in the aftermath of the Mao-led Great Leap Forward debacle and the Great Chinese Famine (1959–1961). The Revolution failed to achieve its main goals. Launching the movement in May 1966 with the help of the Cultural Revolution Group, Mao charged that bourgeois elements had infiltrated the government and society with the aim of restoring capitalism. Mao called on young people to " bombard the ...
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Politburo Of The Chinese Communist Party
The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, formally known as the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and known as the Central Bureau before 1927, is the decision-making body of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Currently, it is a group of 24 top officials who oversee the CCP and headed by the general secretary. Unlike politburos of other Communist parties, power within the Chinese politburo is further centralized in the Politburo Standing Committee, a group of 7 individuals from among the larger Politburo. The Politburo is nominally elected by the Central Committee. In practice, however, scholars of Chinese elite politics believe that the Politburo is a self-perpetuating body, with new members of both the Politburo and its Standing Committee chosen through a series of deliberations by current Politburo members and retired Politburo Standing Committee members. The current and former Politburo members conduct a series of informal straw polls to ...
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Tan Zhenlin
Tan Zhenlin (; 24 April 1902 – 30 September 1983) was a political commissar in the People's Liberation Army during the Chinese Civil War, and a politician after the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Tan Zhenlin was born in You County, Hunan. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1926, and participated in the Chinese Civil War since the Jinggang Mountains rebellion in the early days of the war. By 1949 he rose to the first deputy political commissar of the Third Field Army of the PLA. After the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, Tan became the Party Secretary and Governor of Zhejiang. He served as the Third Secretary of the Communist Party's East China Bureau, then Governor of Jiangsu. In December 1954 Tan became the party's deputy Secretary-General (not to be confused with General Secretary), and later Vice-Premier. During the Great Leap Forward, Tan became a Secretary of the Secretariat, in charge of agriculture. He supported Mao's policies during t ...
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Chen Yi (general)
Chen Yi (; August 26, 1901 – January 6, 1972) was a Chinese communist military commander and politician. He served as Mayor of Shanghai from 1949 to 1958 and as Foreign Minister of China from 1958 to 1972. Early life Chen was born in Lezhi County near Chengdu, Sichuan, into a moderately wealthy magistrate's family. War A comrade of Lin Biao from their guerrilla days, he was prominent in the Jiangxi Soviet. Later, due to a leg injury, he was the only one of the later Ten Marshals to have not participated in the Long March. Thus, Chen was later made a commander under Ye Ting in the New Fourth Army. After the Wannan Incident, Chen succeeded Ye Ting as commander of the New Fourth Army during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). He played a pivotal role as commander of the 3rd Field Army working closely with his close friend and comrade Su Yu. When Su Yu showed his expertise and talent in large formational warfare, the division of labour between them meant that Chen Yi remai ...
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Xu Xiangqian
Xu Xiangqian (November 8, 1901 – September 21, 1990) was a Chinese Communist military leader and one of the ten marshals of the People's Liberation Army. He was the son of a wealthy landowner, but joined the Kuomintang's National Revolutionary Army, against his parents' wishes, in 1924. When the Kuomintang (KMT) began to fight the Communists (CCP) in 1927, Xu left Chiang's forces and led a Communist army based in Sichuan under the political authority of Zhang Guotao. After Zhang defected to the KMT in the late 1930s, Xu survived politically and rejoined the Red Army, in a less senior position, under the leadership of Mao Zedong. During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) Xu served in several military units in Communist-controlled areas across North China, and directed the construction of several bases areas. When the Chinese Civil War resumed, in 1947, Xu was active in North China. Forces under his command were responsible for the capture of the heavily fortified city ...
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Nie Rongzhen
Nie Rongzhen (; December 29, 1899 – May 14, 1992) was a prominent Chinese Communist military leader, and one of ten Marshals in the People's Liberation Army of China. He was the last surviving PLA officer with the rank of Marshal. Biography Nie was born in Jiangjin County in Sichuan (now part of Chongqing municipality), the cosmopolitan and well-educated son of a wealthy family. In his 20s, Nie applied to the ''Université du Travail'' (University of Labour) in Charleroi, Belgium, with a scholarship from the Socialist Party, and was thus able to study science in Charleroi. Political leanings Zhou Enlai spent a night in Charleroi and met with Nie. Nie agreed to join the group of Chinese students in France on a work-study program, where he studied engineering and became a protégé of Zhou Enlai. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1923. A graduate of the Soviet Red Army Military College and Whampoa Academy, Nie spent his early career first as a political officer ...
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Ye Jianying
Ye Jianying (; 28 April 1897 – 22 October 1986) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary leader and politician, one of the founding Ten Marshals of the People's Republic of China. He was the top military leader in the 1976 coup that overthrew the Gang of Four and ended the Cultural Revolution, and was the key supporter of Deng Xiaoping in his power struggle with Hua Guofeng. After Deng ascended power, Ye served as China's head of state as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 1978 to 1983. Life Born Ye Yiwei () into a wealthy Christian Hakka merchant family in an old rural village at Jiaying county (modern-day renamed as Meixian District), his courtesy name was Cangbai () and most of Ye Jianying's siblings died before being adults due to severe illness. After graduation from the Yunnan Military Academy in 1919, he joined the Kuomintang (KMT). He taught at the Whampoa Military Academy, and in 1927 joined the Communist Party. That year ...
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Lin Biao
) , serviceyears = 1925–1971 , branch = People's Liberation Army , rank = Marshal of the People's Republic of China Lieutenant general of the National Revolutionary Army, Republic of China , commands = 1st Corps 1st Red Army Corps, Chinese Red Army 115 Division, 8th Route Army People's Liberation Army Lin Biao ( Chinese: 林彪; 5 December 1907 – 13 September 1971) was a Chinese politician and Marshal of the People's Republic of China who was pivotal in the Communist victory during the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeast China from 1946 to 1949. Lin was the general who commanded the decisive Liaoshen and Pingjin Campaigns, in which he co-led the Manchurian Field Army to victory and led the People's Liberation Army into Beijing. He crossed the Yangtze River in 1949, decisively defeated the Kuomintang and took control of the coastal provinces in Southeast China. He ranked third among the Ten Marshals. Zhu ...
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Kang Sheng
Kang Sheng (; 4 November 1898 – 16 December 1975) was a Chinese Communist politician best known for having overseen the CCP's internal security and intelligence apparatus during the early 1940s and again at the height of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A member of the CCP from the early 1920s, he spent time in Moscow during the early 1930s, where he learned the methods of the Soviet NKVD and became a supporter of Wang Ming for leadership of the CCP. After returning to China in the late 1930s, Kang Sheng switched his allegiance to Mao Zedong and became a close associate of Mao during the Anti-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War and after. He remained at or near the pinnacle of power in the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1975. After the death of Chairman Mao and the subsequent arrest of the Gang of Four, Kang Sheng was accused of sharing responsibility with the Gang for the excesses of the Cultural Revo ...
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Jiang Qing
Jiang Qing (19 March 191414 May 1991), also known as Madame Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and major political figure during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party and Paramount leader of China. She used the stage name Lan Ping () during her acting career (which ended in 1938), and was known by many other names. Qing married Mao in Yan'an in November 1938 and served as the inaugural "First Lady" of the People's Republic of China. Jiang was best known for playing a major role in the Cultural Revolution and for forming the radical political alliance known as the "Gang of Four". Jiang served as Mao's personal secretary in the 1940s and was head of the Film Section of the Communist Party's Propaganda Department in the 1950s. She served as an important emissary for Mao in the early stages of the Cultural Revolution. In 1966, she was appointed deputy director of the Central Cultura ...
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Zhang Chunqiao
Zhang Chunqiao (; 1 February 1917 – 21 April 2005) was a prominent Chinese political theorist, writer, and politician. He came to the national spotlight during the late stages of the Cultural Revolution, and was a member of the ultra-Maoist group dubbed the "Gang of Four". Biography Born in Juye County, Shandong, Zhang worked as a writer in Shanghai in the 1930s and became closely associated with the city. After the Yan'an conference in 1938, he joined the Communist Party of China. With the creation of the People's Republic of China, he became a prominent journalist in Shanghai in charge of the ''Liberation Daily'' newspaper. He met Jiang Qing in Shanghai and helped to launch the Cultural Revolution. Zhang first came to prominence as the result of his October 1958 ''Jiefang'' ("Liberation") magazine entitled “Destroy the Ideology of Bourgeois Right.” Mao Zedong ordered the reproduction of the article in ''People’s Daily'', and personally wrote an accompanying “Edito ...
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