GANG OF FOUR

WHO

• The Gang of Four was the name given to a political faction composed
• of four Chinese Communist Party officials
• Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao,
• Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen.

JIANG QING

• Mao Zedongs wife
• she gave the Gang of Four an advantage over their opponents
• the first vice chairman she favored a more revolutionary approach to politics and the economy
• Charged with 48 offenses,she found guilty and
• sentenced to death later reduced to life imprisonment

ZHANG CHUNQIAO

• Feb 1967 He organized the Shanghai Commune becoming chairman of the city's Revolutionary Committee
• His attempt to promote himself higher in the party's hierarchy ended when he was arrested in October 1976
• He was sentenced to death, together with Jiang Qing, in 1984
• but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment
• deputy secretary of Shanghai municipal committee

YAO WENYUAN

• Mao's chief propagandist
• Yao Wenyuan was an ideal candidate for the criticism for such an
• opera because of his consistent socialist background.
• April 1969 he joined the Politburo of the Central Committee of the
• Communist Party of China, working on official propaganda.

WANG HONGWEN

• a trade union leader
• member of the 9th Central Committee (1969), secretary of the Shanghai CCP Committee (1971-1976),
• and member of the 10th Central Committee (1973)
• October 1976, Wang was arrested as a member of the Gang of Four and expelled from the Party

WHAT

• The Gang of Four effectively controlled the power organs of the Communist
• Party of China through the latter stages of the Cultural Revolution,
• although it remains unclear which major decisions were made through Mao Zedong
• and carried out by the Gang, and which were the result of the Gang of Four's own planning.

WHEN

• Cultural Revolution (1966-76)
• The group came into prominence in 1965

WHERE

• China

WHY

• They favored an even more revolutionary approach to
• Politics and the economy