China's Coup of October 1976

Abstract

On the evening of October 6, 1976, less than one month after the death of the Chinese supreme leader Chairman Mao Zedong, the so-called Gang of Four Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen -all members of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), were arrested on the orders of the First Vice-Chairman of the CCP Central Committee (CC), Hua Guofeng, in the heart of communist power, Zhongnanhai. Although it was Hua who, in the name of the CC, read out the decision to detain them for their alleged crimes in plotting to usurp power, it was Ye Jianying, Vice-Chairman of both the CCP CC and its Military Affairs Commission (MAC), who had planned and executed the operation, which, against some odds, proceeded without incident. On October 20, two weeks after the arrest of the four central leaders, the Politburo established a special case group of Politburo members to investigate the alleged crimes of the Gang (Wang Hongmo, 1989: 22).' The first set of inner-Party documents compiled by the special case group was released on December 10, 1976 (Zhonggong yanjiu zazhishe, 1977: sec. 5), the second set (a collection of materials concerning the backgrounds and careers of the Four) was compiled in 1977, and the third set of documents appeared on September 23, 1977 (Issues & Studies, 1978-1979). In July 1977, at the 3rd plenum of the 11th CC, the Gang was expelled from the Party, and over three years