Chapter 23 8. Being falsely accused of being the "general backstage" of the Tiananmen incident

The "Tiananmen Incident" refers to the spontaneous revolutionary activities that broke out in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and many places across the country around April 5, 1976, to commemorate Zhou Enlai, support Deng Xiaoping, and oppose the "Gang of Four." On January 8, 1976, Zhou Enlai, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Premier of the State Council, and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, died of illness due to ineffective medical treatment.Zhou Enlai was infinitely loyal to the party and the people, and his death aroused great sorrow from the people of all ethnic groups in the country.

The people of the whole country deeply mourned Zhou Enlai, but the "Gang of Four" suppressed and obstructed the mourning activities of the masses under the pretext of "criticizing Deng, countering the Rightist trend of overturning the verdict" and "the great debate of the educational revolution", and even ordered that black gauze and white flowers should not be worn , It is not allowed to set up a mourning hall, and it is not allowed to hold a memorial service, in an attempt to cut off the people's memory and remembrance of Zhou Enlai.What's more, "Wen Wei Po", a public opinion tool controlled by the "Gang of Four", deleted Zhou Enlai's inscription without authorization on the March 5th page of Learning from Lei Feng; The overthrown capitalist-roaders who have refused to repent so far will help them to power" remarks.This act of blatantly opposing Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping aroused the people's anger even more.A protest movement in memory of Zhou Enlai and against the "Gang of Four" represented by the Tiananmen Square incident finally broke out.

Protests first erupted from Nanjing. On March 29, people in Nanjing posted slogans on the streets such as "Wen Wei Po's anti-Party articles are a signal flare for usurping the party and power", "We will not stop until we find out the black backstage of Wen Wei Po", "Down with Zhang Chunqiao".On the trains and long-distance buses traveling from south to north, slogans mobilizing the people to fight against the "Gang of Four" were also plastered on them.The masses also spontaneously went to Meiyuan New Village and Yuhuatai to carry out mourning activities.Laying a wreath to the portrait of Zhou Enlai.

In Beijing, the people spontaneously gathered in front of the Monument to the People’s Heroes in Tiananmen Square for several days starting from March 20, laying wreaths and flower baskets, posting slogans and leaflets, reciting poems, giving speeches, and expressing their condolences to Zhou Enlai. Denounce the perverse actions of the "Gang of Four". April 4 is the Qingming Festival, and the mourning activities of the people of Beijing reached their climax.Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Tiananmen Square from all directions in disregard of the prohibition, to mourn Zhou Enlai deeply and denounce the "Gang of Four" angrily, forming a massive demonstration.

Facing the growing indignation of the masses, the "Gang of Four" panicked and hated it to the bone.That night, Hua Guofeng, who presided over the work of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, called a meeting to study what happened in Tiananmen Square in the past few days.Under the influence of Jiang Qing and others, the meeting believed that so many people gathered in front of Tiananmen Square and made public "counter-revolutionary" speeches was a planned and organized "counter-revolutionary counterattack", "the central government has a backstage", and the target was Deng Xiaoping.Jiang Qing and others also arrogantly proposed that after the Qingming Festival, the wreaths should be removed overnight and those who made "counter-revolutionary" speeches should be arrested.The meeting decided to take emergency measures to deal with "bigger incidents".Mao Yuanxin wrote a written report on the meeting of the Politburo and its decisions, and reported it to Mao Zedong, who was seriously ill. Mao Zedong circled the report.

On April 5th, the crowd continued to flock to Tiananmen Square. When the crowd found that the wreaths they presented had been taken away, and heard that some people had been arrested, they were very angry. , A strong protest action was taken, and serious conflicts occurred with some militias, police and fighters.Part of the Politburo watched the changes in the square from the Great Hall of the People.At 6:30 p.m., Wu De, Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, made a radio speech, saying, "There are bad people in Tiananmen Square who are sabotaging and counter-revolutionary sabotage activities." "We must recognize the reactionary nature of this political event and expose them ", "The revolutionary masses should leave the square immediately, and don't be fooled by them." At 9:30, more than 1,000 militiamen, more than 3,000 policemen, and 5 battalions of security forces blocked Tiananmen Square with wooden sticks, brutally suppressing and arresting the revolutionary masses.

On the evening of April 7, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held a meeting and read out and adopted two resolutions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The first resolution stated: "According to the suggestion of the great leader Chairman Mao, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China unanimously approved Comrade Hua Guofeng as the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. First Vice-Chairman of the Committee, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.” The second resolution reads: “The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China discussed the political events in Tiananmen Square and Deng Xiaoping’s recent performance, and believes that the nature of the Deng Xiaoping issue has become confrontational. According to the proposal of the great leader Chairman Mao, the Politburo unanimously passed the removal of Deng Xiaoping from all positions inside and outside the party, and retained his party membership to see the effect.” An hour later, the Central People’s Broadcasting Station broadcast these two resolutions to the whole country.