The Chinese Communist Party and the Cultural Revolution The Case of the Sixty-One Renegades Pamela Lubell Lubell/97906/paj 16/11/01 5:55 pm Page 1 St Antony’s Series General Editor: Richard Clogg(1999– ), Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford Recent titles include: Pamela Lubell THE CHINESECOMMUNIST PARTY ANDTHE CULTURAL REVOLUTION The Case of the Sixty-One Renegades Klaus Gallo GREAT BRITAIN AND ARGENTINA From Invasion to Recognition, 1806–26 Peter Mangold SUCCESS AND FAILURE IN BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY Evaluating the Record, 1900–2000 Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi REFASHIONING IRAN Orientalism, Occidentalism and Historiography Louise Haagh CITIZENSHIP, LABOUR MARKETS AND DEMOCRATIZATION Chile and the Modern Sequence Renato Colistete LABOUR RELATIONS AND INDUSTRIAL PERFORMANCE IN BRAZIL Greater São Paulo, 1945–60 Peter Lienhardt (edited by Ahmed Al-Shahi) SHAIKHDOMS OF EASTERN ARABIA John Crabtree and Laurence Whitehead (editors) TOWARDS DEMOCRATIC VIABILITY The Bolivian Experience Steve Tsang (editor) JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE AND THE RULE OF LAW IN HONG KONG Karen Jochelson THE COLOUR OF DISEASE Syphilis and Racism in South Africa, 1880–1950 Julio Crespo MacLennan SPAIN AND THE PROCESS OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION, 1957–85 Enrique Cárdenas, José Antonio Ocampo and Rosemary Thorp (editors) AN ECONOMIC HISTORY OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY LATIN AMERICA Volume 1: The Export Age Volume 2: Latin America in the 1930s Volume 3: Industrialization and the State in Latin America Jennifer G. Mathers THE RUSSIAN NUCLEAR SHIELD FROM STALIN TO YELTSIN Lubell/97906/paj 16/11/01 5:55 pm Page 2 Marta Dyczok THE GRAND ALLIANCE AND UKRAINIAN REFUGEES Mark Brzezinski THE STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTIONALISM IN POLAND Suke Wolton LORD HAILEY, THE COLONIAL OFFICE AND THE POLITICS OF RACE AND EMPIRE IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR The Loss of White Prestige Junko Tomaru THE POSTWAR RAPPROCHEMENT OF MALAYA AND JAPAN, 1945–61 The Roles of Britain and Japan in South-East Asia Eiichi Motono CONFLICT AND COOPERATION IN SINO-BRITISH BUSINESS, 1860–1911 The Impact of the Pro-British Commercial Network in Shanghai Nikolas K. Gvosdev IMPERIAL POLICIES AND PERSPECTIVES TOWARDS GEORGIA, 1760–1819 Bernardo Kosacoff CORPORATE STRATEGIES UNDER STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT IN ARGENTINA Responses by Industrial Firms to a New Set of Uncertainties Ray Takeyh THE ORIGINS OF THE EISENHOWER DOCTRINE The US, Britain and Nasser’s Egypt, 1953–57 Derek Hopwood (editor) ARAB NATION, ARAB NATIONALISM Judith Clifton THE POLITICS OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN MEXICO Privatization and State–Labour Relations, 1928–95 St Antony’s Series Series Standing Order ISBN 0–333–71109–2 (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England Lubell/97906/paj 16/11/01 5:55 pm Page 3 The Chinese Communist Party and the Cultural Revolution The Case of the Sixty-One Renegades Pamela Lubell The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in association with St. Antony’s College, Oxford Lubell/97906/paj 16/11/01 5:55 pm Page 4 © Pamela Lubell 2002 All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court Road,London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVEis the new global academic imprint of St.Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 0–333–91955–6 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lubell,Pamela,1949– The Chinese Communist Party and the Cultural Revolution: the case of the sixty-one renegades / Pamela Lubell. p.cm.– (St.Antony’s series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–333–91955–6 1.Zhongguo gongchandang–History.I.Title.II.Series. JQ1519.A5 L796 2001 324.251’075’09046–dc21 2001046006 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd,Chippenham,Wiltshire 0333_919556_01_pre.qxd 10/11/01 03:35 PM Page v For Miriam (Mimi) Feldman and in memory of Sam Feldman with love and respect 0333_919556_01_pre.qxd 10/11/01 03:35 PM Page vi 0333_919556_01_pre.qxd 10/11/01 03:35 PM Page vii Contents Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1 1936: On the Eve of War and Freedom 20 The common enemy 22 The CCP in northern China 28 An organizational shambles 32 An, Yang, Bo and Liu under arrest 39 Beijing under threat 45 The party and the students 47 Risk assessment: Song, Liu and the sixty-one 49 2 Release from the Guomindang Prison, 1936 52 Caolanzi prison 53 The roles of Liu Shaoqi and Zhang Wentian 67 Into the great wide open: Shanxi 1936–43 73 Cadre screening 79 Yan’an, 1943–45 85 3 Levers of Power: Careers 1949–66 94 Dossier access 98 Liu Lantao and the Central Control Commission 101 An Ziwen and the Organization Department 106 Yang Xianzhen and the Party School 118 Bo Yibo: heavy power 123 Summary 135 4 Prison Again – the CCP Version 138 1–12 August 1966: the Eleventh Plenum of the Eighth Central Committee 140 Revving Up: Kang Sheng’s role, August–September 1966 142 Zhou Enlai’s role in November 1966: shoring up the defence 145 vii 0333_919556_01_pre.qxd 10/11/01 03:35 PM Page viii viii Contents December 1966 to February 1967 147 Official condemnation: March–May 1967 151 Spreading the net 154 Winding up the case 158 5 Rehabilitating the Sixty-One 161 Rehabilitation policy and balance-of-power politics in the early 1970s 163 May 1975: a brief spring thaw 166 A barely changing climate 168 Hu Yaobang and rehabilitation policy 170 1978: the COD acts 173 Muted tones of rehabilitation 176 The sixty-one rehabilitated 179 The CDIC and the CAC 181 Bo Yibo: post-Cultural Revolution 182 Remembrance 186 6 A Prejudiced Conclusion 190 Appendix: The Sixty-One 196 Notes and References 197 Bibliography 233 Index 253 0333_919556_01_pre.qxd 10/11/01 03:35 PM Page ix Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to the following foundations and institutions for their generous support: the Polonsky Foundation; the Louis Freiberg Research Fund for East Asian Studies; The Dean’s Office, Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Dean himself, Professor Yair Zakovitch; the Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and last but not least, my second home, the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace. I would like to thank the Warden and Fellows of St Antony’s College, Oxford and those who awarded me the Israeli Junior Research fellowship (1998–9) for a wonderfully peaceful and academically fruit- ful year. I am indebted to those who have read parts or all of this book in the various stages of its evolution: Professors Lyman P. Van Slyke, Frederick Teiwes, Vera Schwarcz, Michael Schoenhals, Thomas Kampen, Irene Eber, Harold Z. Schiffrin, Ellis Joffe, Yitzhak Shichor, Theodore Friedgut, Norman Rose and Eyal Ben-Ari. I thank them and the anonymous readers for their perspicacious comments and suggestions. Both Michael Schoenhals and Thomas Kampen generously volunteered documents that were most helpful. The book’s failings are my own. I would also like to thank the academic and administrative staff at the Truman Institute and the former and current chief librarians: Cecile Panzer and Tirzah Margolioth. My thanks in particular to the Institute’s East Asia librarian, Riccardo Schwed, for his ever-gracious assistance. Librarian Nancy Hearst at Harvard University’s John King Fairbank Centre for East Asian Research was tremendously helpful, not only responding promptly to my many requests, but also furnishing me with additional enlightening materials. Many thanks to Lin Qian, Zhang Hunbo, Weijia Dukes (all at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Kan Shio-yun (at the Institute for Chinese Studies, Oxford) for their invaluable research and translation assistance. I am very grateful to those involved in the editing and production of this book: Helen Simpson, Keith Povey, Rosalind Duke; and at Palgrave: Josie Dixon, Alison Howson, Peter Dent and Anthea Coombs. On a more general note, I would like to acknowledge my debt to my mentors at Hebrew University. Professors emeritus Harold Z. Schiffrin, founding father (along with Avraham Altman) of East Asian studies in ix