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The Rise of Wang Tung-hsing: Head of China's Security Apparatus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Paris H. Chang
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Extract

Wang Tung-hsing occupies a very important position in Chinese politics today. His political influence has increased enormously in the past year, and since the 11th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in August 1977, he has become one of the four vice-chairmen of the Central Committee (CC) of the Party.

Type
Research Notes
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 73 , March 1978 , pp. 122 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1978

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References

* This study has benefited from comments and insights of Stephen FitzGerald, Galen Fox, Carol Hamrin, Jim Novak, William Rope and Ting Wang who read an earlier version. I am also indebted to Ting Wang, Frank Cibulka and Janet Jarrard for research assistance.

1. Eric Chou, , Hung-ts'ao Jen-wu Chih (Leadership profiles of the Chinese Communist Regime) (New York: World Journal, 1976), p. 82.Google Scholar

2. Issues and Studies (Taipei), Vol. 12, No. 8 (August 1976), p. 96.Google Scholar

3. Chou, , Hung-ts'ao Jen-wu Chih, p. 82.Google Scholar

4. Ibid. p. 83.

5. This is based on Ch'en Ch'ang-feng, “On the long march with Chairman Mao,” Wen-hui pao (Hongkong), 9, 21 July 1971. Ch'en was one of Mao's bodyguards in the 1930s and the commander of the Kiangsi Military District during 1973–75; in his memoir, Ch'en reminisced that he was illiterate when he joined the Red Army in 1928 at the age of 13, and that Mao taught him to read.Google Scholar

6. Kung Ch'u, , Wo Yu Hung-chun (The Red Army and I) (Hongkong, 1954), p. 281.Google Scholar

7. E.g. Chiang Ch'in-feng, , Ts'ai Mao Chu-hsi Chou-wei (Around Chairman Mao) (Peking: Chinese Youth Publishing House, 1958), pp.52, 68; and Lui Hui-shan, , “To protect the Party centre and Chairman Mao,” Chung-kuo ch'ing-nien (China Youth), no. 1 (1959), p. 22.Google Scholar

7. 8. Yen Ch'ang-lin, Hsiung-chung Tsu Yu Hsiung-ping Pai-wan (In His Mind A Million Bold Warriors) (Hongkong: Chao-yang Ch'u-pan-She, 1971). It is interesting to note that on 26 August 1965 the People's Daily (pp. 2–3) published an edited version of the memoir which deleted most of the materials on Wang and only mentioned him in passing. The Preface to the 1971 edition also noted that the author was then the “responsible person” of a factory in Peking.Google Scholar

9. Ibid. pp. 13–19.

10. See “Wang Tung-hsing,” China News Analysis, No. 1096 (14 October 1977), p. 2.Google Scholar

11. See Kiangsi jih-pao, 2 August and 4 September 1958, 27 January, 4, 15 February, 5, 24 March, 13 April, 26 June, 14 October 1959, and 17 June 1960; in addition, NCNA (Nanchang), 30 June and 5 August 1958.Google Scholar

12. “Hold aloft the great banner of the ‘July 30 Directive’ and march on: the Kiangsi Communist Labour University grows and amid struggle,” Kuang-ming jih-pao, 26 July 1977.Google Scholar

13. “Background information: a new-type university,” Peking Review, No. 33 (12 August 1977), p. 40.Google Scholar

14. Ibid. and Hung-ch'i (Red Flag), No. 8 (8 August 1977), pp. 3–4. The timing of the publication of Mao's letter coincided with the leadership debate on China's high education, and Wang may have invoked Mao's letter to slow down the attempts to undo the reforms introduced during the Cultural Revolution.

15. The text of Wang's report is published in the PLA Bulletin of Activities and translated into English in J. Chester Cheng (ed.), The Politics of the Chinese Red Army (Stanford: Hoover Institution, 1966), pp. 12–15.Google Scholar

16. People's Daily, 8 September 1977.Google Scholar

17. See Wu-ch'an Chih-sheng (Voice of Proletariat), No. 14 (18 February 1968) in Survey of Mainland China Press (SCMP) (Hongkong: American Consulate-General), No. 4146, pp. 9–10; and Chan pao (Combat News), 14 February 1967. These allegations have been confirmed by an authoritative article in People's Daily, 8 September 1977.Google Scholar

18. SCMP, Supplement, No. 16 (5 June 1967), p. 25.Google Scholar

19. “Forever remember Chairman Mao's teachings and persist in continuing revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat,” People's Daily, 8 September 1977. This article is attributed to the “Theoretical Study Group” of the Party's CC General Office.Google Scholar

20. Ibid. After Mao died, Chiang Ch'ing allegedly took away Mao's papers from the CC General Office; informed by Wang Tung-hsing of the incident, Hua Kuo-feng prevailed upon Chiang Ch'ing to return the papers and, subsequently, accused her of having tampered with two documents and using the doctored papers to take over the Party leadership. The account was given by Chinese cadres after her purge, and reported in Ming pao (Hongkong), 26 October 1976.

21. Chiu P'eng-Lo Chan-pao (Expose P'eng [Chen]-Lo [Jui-ch'ing] Combat News) (Canton), No. 3 (February 1968) in SCMP, No. 4139 (15 March 1968), pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

22. See, for examples, articles in People's Daily on 1 June, 29 June, 17 November, 8 December 1969 and 6 January 1970, and in Hung-ch'i, May, June/July, August 1969 and January 1970.Google Scholar

23. The group's report and recommendations were contained in a classified Party document Chung-fa 34 (1973).Google Scholar

24. See Parris Chang, “Mao's last stand?” Problems of Communism, July–August 1976, pp. 1–17.Google Scholar

25. In the summer of 1972 Chiang Ch'ing spoke of Wang Tung-hsing in glowing terms in a talk with Roxane Witke. Chiang also disclosed that Wang was responsible for organizing the military record she was going to narrate for the American visitor and that six maps were specially prepared under Wang's guidance for her for that occasion. Roxane Witke, Comrade Chiang Ch'ing (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1977), p. 193. In the book (p. 507) Wang is mistakenly identified as a native of Shansi.Google Scholar

26. See the source in note 19 above and Ming pao, 31 October 1976.Google Scholar

27. Ming pao, 31 October 1976.Google Scholar

28. Ibid. 1 November 1976.

29. An analysis of Hua's pre-Cultural Revolution career has noted the Maoist imprint on Hua's “decisional and work style” and rural orientation; see Michel Oksenberg and Sai-cheung Yeung, “Hua Kuo-feng's pre-Cultural Revolution Hunan years, 1949–66: the making of a political generalist,” The China Quarterly, No. 69 (March 1977), p. 52.Google Scholar

30. Ibid.