Mao Yuanxin
- Mao Zedong (uncle)
- Mao Zemin (father)
Mao Yuanxin | |||||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 毛遠新 | ||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 毛远新 | ||||||||||
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Mao Yuanxin (born 14 February 1941), also known as Li Shi (Chinese: 李实), is a former Chinese politician. As the nephew of Chairman Mao Zedong, he acted as the liaison between Mao and the Communist Party's Central Committee in Mao's ailing years, when he was no longer able to regularly attend political functions. He was considered an ally to the radical political faction known as the Gang of Four. He was arrested soon after Mao's death after a political struggle ensued, and was sentenced to prison.
Biography
Born on 14 February 1941 in Dihua (now Urumqi), Mao Yuanxin is the son of Mao Zemin, a younger brother of Mao Zedong, who joined the Communist Party in 1922 and was executed by warlord Sheng Shicai in 1943. Sheng, governor of Xinjiang, had been aligned to the Chinese Communist Party and had at first welcomed Mao Zemin, but switched allegiance after Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Mao Yuanxin's mother was also arrested.[1] After she remarried, Mao Yuanxin was brought up as part of his uncle's family.
In 1960, Mao Yuanxin was admitted to Tsinghua University, then transferred to the PLA Institute of Military Engineering and became politically important during the Cultural Revolution. In 1973 he became party secretary of Liaoning province and political commissar of Shenyang Military Region in 1974.[2] By that time he had allied himself with Jiang Qing. In Shenyang he participated in the Cultural Revolution, including leading a march of Red Guards to a military installation in the Northeast. By 1975, when Mao was no longer able to attend Central Committee meetings on a regular basis, Mao Yuanxin became the chairman's liaison with the Politburo,[3] and he contributed to the temporary fall of Deng Xiaoping in 1976, as well as a series of other political manuoevers of the Gang of Four. [4]
During Mao Zedong's final years, Mao Yuanxin had a close relationship with the Gang of Four.[5] Some historians believe that Mao Yuanxin relayed news to Mao that the April 1976 "Tiananmen Incident" was planned by Deng Xiaoping, which resulted in Mao's final break with Deng before the latter's purge. Mao Yuanxin was arrested along with other of their supporters following Mao's death in October 1976, and was sentenced to seventeen years in prison by court martial.[6]
Mao Yuanxin faded from public view after the end of the Cultural Revolution. He was released from prison in October 1993 after having served his 17 years sentence. He changed his name to Li Shi and worked in the Shanghai Automobile Industry Quality Testing Institute as an engineer. He retired in 2001, and receives a pension in accordance with his "senior engineer" qualification. He also receives treatment as a "martyr's family member" because of his father's manner of death.
In October 2012, Mao Yuanxin visited Xichuan County in Henan to tour the progress of the South–North Water Transfer Project.[7] He also attended the 120 year commemoration of his uncle's birth in 2013, held in Hunan Province.
Personal life
Mao Yuanxin is married to Quan Xiufeng (全秀凤), a former factory worker. They live in Shanghai and have one daughter, Li Li (李莉), born in January 1977.
References
- ^ Page 11 -12, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, by Li Zhisui, Arrow Books 1996
- ^ Biographical Sketches in The Private Life of Chairman Mao
- ^ Glossary of Names and Identities in Mao's Last Revolution, by Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals, Harvard University Press 2006.
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20070331234331/http://library.thinkquest.org/26469/cultural-revolution/revival.html]
- ^ Eldest Son: Zhou Enlai and the Making of Modern China, Han Suyin, 1994. page 413.
- ^ Biographical Sketches in The Private Life of Chairman Mao
- ^ "毛泽东侄子李实参观南水北调工程(图)". HiNews. 26 October 2012.
External links
- Role mentioned in the obituary of Ren Zhongyi
- Role mentioned in 'Rise and Fall of Deng Xiaoping' in an on-line history of the Cultural Revolution
- v
- t
- e
- Down to the Countryside Movement
- Cleansing the Class Ranks
- 12-3 incident
- January Storm
- February Countercurrent
- Wuhan incident
- 9th Party Congress
- One Strike-Three Anti Campaign
- Project 571
- Lin Biao incident
- 10th Party Congress
- Black Painting incident
- Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius
- Hangzhou incident
- 1975 Banqiao Dam failure
- Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend
- 1976 Nanjing incident
- 1976 Tiananmen Incident
- Mao Zedong
- Liu Shaoqi
- Zhou Enlai
- Lin Biao
- Deng Xiaoping
- Gang of Four (Jiang Qing
- Zhang Chunqiao
- Yao Wenyuan
- Wang Hongwen)
- Peng Dehuai
- Wu Han
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- Tao Zhu
- Chen Boda
- Wang Dongxing
- Xie Fuzhi
- Ji Dengkui
- Wang Li
- Qi Benyu
- Wu Faxian
- Qiu Huizuo
- Yang Chengwu
- Chen Zaidao
- Kang Sheng
- Mao Yuanxin
- Hua Guofeng
- Ye Jianying
- Four Olds
- Newborn socialist things
- Struggle session
- Feudal fascism
- Big-character poster
- Cow demons and snake spirits
- Bloodline theory
- Continuous Revolution Theory
- Seizure of power
- Violent Struggle
- One Divides into Two
- Democracy Wall
- Eight model plays
- Loyalty dance
- Capitalist roader
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- Learn from Dazhai in agriculture
- Stinking Old Ninth
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- Barefoot doctor
- Worker-Peasant-Soldier student
- May Seventh Cadre School
- Xiang River Storm and Thunder
- Category