In 2022, the former prime minister of Japan was assassinated and died in full view.
In fact, the assassination or mysterious death of foreign leaders in history is not new.
Albanian Prime Minister Shehu committed suicide, leaving Albania with the biggest mystery in a century.
Albania's "People's Hero"
Shehu was born in 1913 in a small Albanian village called Joros.
Shehu's family is not poor, so there is enough money to send him to school.
After finishing primary school in his hometown, Shehu went to Tirana Secondary Technical School, where he studied agricultural mechanics until graduating in 1932.
However, Albania was under the autocratic rule of the Sogu dynasty, and the authorities pursued a pro-Italian traitorous policy.
A year later, Shehu was sent to study at the Naples Military School in Italy.
However, he was soon recalled by the Albanian authorities for being accused of anti-fascist progressive ideas in Italy.
Upon his return to Albania, Shehu was arrested and imprisoned, and continued to be persecuted by the authorities after his release.
In July 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out.
In order to support the Spanish people in their struggle to defend the Republic and oppose the Franco fascist rebellion, the Comintern International set up an international column.
In November 1937, Shehu traveled to France as an international student, then set off from Paris, crossed the Pyrenees, and entered Spain, joining the 2nd Brigade of the International Column "Garibal's".
In the battle to defend the Republic, Xie Hu fought bravely and well, and was successively promoted from an ordinary machine gunner to platoon commander, company commander, and deputy battalion commander. In December 1937, he was admitted as a member of the Communist Party of Spain.
More than two years later, after the end of the civil war in Western Banya, Shehu withdrew with the international column to France, where he was imprisoned by the French authorities in a concentration camp for forty months.
In the camp, he joined the Italian Communist Party as a member of the party.
In April 1939, Italian fascist forces of Mussolini occupied Albania.
Four years later, Shehu returned to his homeland, joined the Albanian Communist Party, devoted himself to the anti-fascist struggle, and served as a member of the party committee and organization secretary of the Vlora region.
In May 1944, at the First Congress of Albanian Anti-Fascist National Liberation in Permet, Shehu was elected a member of the National Committee against Fascism and was awarded the rank of colonel.
The congress decided to establish divisions and corps of the National Liberation Army, with Shehu as commander of the 1st Assault Division.
In November of the same year, Shehu commanded the battle for the liberation of Tirana, was promoted to major general, and was appointed deputy chief of the general staff of the National Liberation Army.
After the liberation of Albania, Shehu rose through the ranks of lieutenant general, was elected a member of the Politburo, and served as chairman of the Council of Ministers from July 1954 until his death.
It can be said that Shehu has always been an important leader of the Albanian party, government and army, and was once awarded medals such as "People's Hero".
The Higher Military Academy of Albania is also named after him.
However, it was such an important political figure who mysteriously committed suicide in 1981.
Shehu was suspicious
December 18, 1981, Albania, the "Land of Mountain Eagles".
As usual, people were immersed in a peaceful atmosphere.
Suddenly, a shocking news came from the radio: Mohamed Shehu, the second largest person in Albania, a close comrade-in-arms of Hoxha, the first secretary of the Albanian Workers' Party and prime minister of the Albanian government for 28 years, "committed suicide due to insanity".
As soon as the news came out, people were surprised and talked about it.
Speculation about the death of Mohammed Shehu is rife in the streets: some believe that Mohammed Shehu committed suicide before shooting Hoxha.
Some pigs test that Hoxha personally shot and killed Shehu; Some people say that Shehu shot first but did not kill Hoxha, but was killed by Hoxha's guards; Others say that Shehu was "secretly executed" after being arrested by Hazbiu, the Minister of Internal Affairs who received Hoxha's orders... It's a strange story.
Hoxha has his own version of Shehu's death.
At the end of the year after Shehu's death, Hoxha published a book called The Titoists.
The book gives an official explanation of the ins and outs of Shehu's suicide.
The book mentions that in fact, when Shehu was studying in the United States in 1930, he had become a spy for the CIA.
And this was not his first role, during the Spanish campaign, Shehu became a spy for British intelligence in 1939.
He returned to Albania in 1942, and Shehu became a spy for Yugoslavia.
And Yugoslavia also found him a spy wife.
In 1944, after the liberation of Albania, the CIA sent Shehu instructions to break into the Soviet KGL.
Hoxha claimed that Shehu had long been a multiple spy serving many countries, and that his long lurking within the Afghan Party was to murder Hoxha and then take the supreme power of the country into his hands.
In order to achieve this goal, Shehu prepared three sets of plans.
However, on the night of December 16, 1981, his cousin, also a Yugoslav spy, received an order from the Yugoslav Security Service, resulting in Shehu.
The next day, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party held a meeting to criticize Shehu for allowing his son to marry a girl with overseas connections, accusing him of making "political mistakes."
At that time, Shehu had deeply felt the danger approaching, and feared that his ultimate goal of murdering Hoxha would be revealed.
Unable to sleep at night, he chose to die on his own so that he could save his family.
Shehu believed that the Albanian Party would still leave many of his glorious titles as long as he committed suicide, and he also mentioned in his suicide note that he wanted to use the "pistol fire" as a public cause of death.
In this way, Shehu's family will not be implicated and his honor will be preserved.
That night, the Shehus poured all the poison they had prepared to murder Hoxha into the toilet.
In the early morning of the 18th, Shehu died with his own gun.
All of the above are written by Hoxha in the book, and although it can justify itself, it is difficult to believe.
Whether Shehu committed suicide is actually doubtful.
His chief guard also provided the media with an opinion on Shehu's death.
A few days after Shehu's "suicide," Ali Chena, who had served as his long-time chief guard, together with Shehu's family, was arrested and imprisoned for "defecting to foreign intelligence services," spending eight years behind bars.
When Chener was released in 1989 and worked as a physical education teacher at a secondary school in the capital, Tirana, he later replied in an interview with reporters:
"I was Shehu's chief guard from 1972 until the night of Shehu's death, and I was by his side at all times."
"I found that he realized that disaster was coming quite long before he died, and he felt a constant threat that he would either be removed or die in vain. I was on guard outside his house the night he died, and I'm sure he wouldn't kill himself. ”
As for why the chief guard felt that Shehu would not commit suicide, he said that he judged it from his character.
The chief guard said that Shehu was a very unique person, and he had a very tenacious character.
Ordinary people will fear Shehu's majestic energy and think that he is fierce.
In fact, it is not surprising that Xie Hu has such a personality, but this does not mean that Xie Hu is a cruel person.
The chief guard said he always believed that only weak and incompetent people would be afraid of Shehu.
Because Shehu doesn't do anything to innocent people.
But the chief guard also admitted that Shehu was undoubtedly guilty, but there were more people who had sinned more than him, and those people were ruthless and planned to kill him.
Before his death, Xie Hu had a premonition that something unexpected would happen to him, so he often told the chief guard that something unexpected might happen and asked them to strengthen their vigilance.
But one day, Shehu inexplicably said to the guards on duty: Be careful, someone will shoot me from places you can't expect.
The chief guard added that on the night of December 17, 1981, he also asked us if we had carefully inspected the area around the house.
In addition, the chief guard also stated what he believed was the reason for Shehu's death.
The chief guard firmly believed that the killing of Xie Hu must have been planned for a long time, and that the cause of Xie Hu's death was entirely due to political struggle.
The origin of this incident can actually be traced back to the 1975 fight between Hoxha and Shehu.
After that quarrel, Hoxha became wary of Shehu, often fearing that Shehu would attack him, and considered Shehu to be a liberal-minded rightist.
But Shehu's death had a lot to do with the political situation in Albania at that time.
Hoxha was in poor health and getting older, and if Shehu had not stepped down, Alia would have no chance of making a living.
There is no doubt that Shehu's death paved the way for Alia's rise to power.
In addition to his own speculation, the chief guard also said that a series of circumstances on the night of Shehu's death were enough to prove that he did not commit suicide but homicide.
The chief guard recalled that during the day, the Politburo had been meeting, and he acted as a guard, so he walked back and forth outside.
The meeting that day ended at about 19:45, and during the meeting, the chief guard heard the sound of shouting from inside, basically going towards Shehu.
So Shehu came out looking very sluggish, and the chief guard said that he was shocked to see Shehu at the time, because he had always appeared in a very tough image.
But when he came out of the door that day, feeling very dejected, the chief guard said that he had never seen Shehu look like this.
At this time, Xie Hu had actually been depressed for more than ten days, and on the way back, Xie Hu sat in the car without saying a word.
After returning to his residence, he told the chief guard to come here the next morning at eight o'clock to pick him up, because at nine o'clock he would continue the Politburo meeting and make self-criticism at the meeting.
Although they said goodnight to each other, Shehu did not go straight back to the bedroom to sleep.
The chief guard said Shehu went to the study and called Hoxha in the study.
During the call, Shehu told Hoxha that he was shocked by the charges he received at the meeting today, and he hoped to go to Hoxha's house immediately to explain to him.
But Hoxha did not accede to Shehu's request, saying it was not convenient to have guests at home to eat.
But Hoxha did not completely refuse, he went on to say that Shehu could write down what he wanted to say and read it directly at the political meeting tomorrow.
The chief guard said that he went home, but only a short time after returning home, he received a call from Shehu's residence, it was Xiehu's health doctor, who asked him to return to Xiehu's house immediately to be on guard.
The chief guard was puzzled because he had just returned, so he asked the health care doctor Xie Hu if something had happened.
The health doctor said Shehu called him and asked who was on duty at home, seemingly worried about what danger would happen next.
Seeing that Shehu looked so worried, the health doctor said to him, "The chief guard is here."
So now he immediately asked the chief guard to return to his post.
Knowing the cause and effect, the chief guard also set out and arrived at Shehu's house at ten forty-five p.m.
At that time, in addition to the chief guard, Shehu's doctor, driver and two other soldiers were there, and nothing unusual happened to them.
At seven o'clock the next morning, the chief guard received a call from Xie Hu's eldest son, asking him to go to Xie Hu's room immediately.
After the guard entered, he saw Shehu lying on the bed in his shirt, pajama pants and socks, as if he was still asleep.
The bed was neat, there were no traces of messiness.
But on the quilt beside him was a pistol, and this pistol was not a silent pistol.
The chief guard saw that this was one of his usual pistols, and he usually kept it in the safe with his automatic rifle.
Doctors told Shehu's family that Shehu had been shot through the heart with a pistol and had died.
But the chief guard and his family felt very strange, ordinary people use pistols to commit suicide at the temple, why did Shehu aim at his heart?
In addition, there are many doubts.
After Shehu's death was billed, the staff of the Albanian Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted a pistol experiment.
They closed the doors and windows in Shehu's room, and then fired a bullet with the Makarov pistol that Shehu said had used to commit suicide.
They found that the bullet made a loud noise after it was fired.
The place where the guard stands outside the house can be heard clearly, even further away.
So they thought that Shehu could not have committed suicide with his own pistol, because the loud noise would attract many people in the residence.
But Shehu died quietly, which suggests that he must have killed him, and the murderer used a silent pistol, not the one they found next to Shehu's body.
The chief guard admitted that there were actually many ways to enter Xie Hu's residence without knowing it.
The first is the tunnel, and the Xie Hu family has a tunnel that leads directly to his room, which can only be used under special circumstances.
But this tunnel is not guarded by them.
There is also the fact that Shehu's house is divided into a front yard and a backyard, only the front yard is Shehu's own guard soldiers, and the backyard is guarded by Hoxha's guards.
The chief guard said that the mystery of Shehu's death may be hidden in the letters he wrote before his death.
The letter was thirty pages long and was on the bedside table beside him when Shehu's body was found.
Early that morning it was taken by Shehu's eldest son, Vladimir.
The chief guard said that immediately after discovering Shehu's death, he called Alia to explain everything carefully, and emphasized the letter in particular.
According to Alia's driver, Alia rushed to Hoxha's house immediately after answering the phone in the morning and later called the Minister of the Interior.
Aliya asked the Minister of the Interior to quickly go to Shehu's house and take the letter away.
So the letter went to Hoxha.
According to the chief guard, he is still here today because he did not have the opportunity to read the letter.
Because almost all the people who read Xie Hu's letter died.
The chief guard said that perhaps Shehu was forced to commit suicide in front of the murderer, but it is more likely that he did not commit suicide.
But at that critical juncture, whether it was suicide was no longer the key, the key was that Shehu died.
Shehu's death is inseparable from Hoxha.
Shehu followed Hoxha for decades and is considered his successor.
But Shehu was fierce and brutal, and in 1961 Shehu said that if anyone threatened our unity, if necessary, we would pierce his head with a bullet.
For many years, Albania has always adhered to Hoxha's closed-door route, because of its isolation, so its economic development is very slow.
Since the rupture of Sino-Albanian relations in 1978, Albania's situation has deteriorated.
However, around how to change the status quo in Albania and how to develop Albania's economy, there are gradually signs of divergence between Shehu and Hoxha, who were once close comrades-in-arms.
Later, as Hoxha grew older and Shehu became more powerful, he used the opportunity to purge the "anti-party clique" and installed himself in key leadership positions in many ministries of the Albanian government.
Under the changed circumstances, he is not as respectful to Hoxha as he used to be.
In the past, Shehu used to call Hoxha, who was only five years his senior, "my dear father."
The later period is completely different.
Hoxha was always proud and suspicious, even cruel, and became even more serious in his later years.
He was a very authoritarian leader who put his name on an equal footing with Marx and Engels.
Fight mercilessly against dissidents until they are physically eliminated - killed.
From 1940 to 1975, Hoxha carried out thirteen purges within the party.
What is even more frightening is that between 1973 and 1975 alone, he purged three so-called reactionary groups and almost completely eliminated the older generation of leaders of the Albanian Party.
And in this way, only Hoxha was left with the "big" Politburo member.
However, with the rapid expansion of Shehu's power, Hoxha could no longer rest assured of Shehu, and the relationship between the two became more and more tense, until finally broke out, causing Shehu's death.
See the bloody battle
The political game is like a battlefield battle without gunsmoke.
But it is not bloodless, from ancient times to the present, and even abroad, there are not a few people in power who died because of political problems.
The mystery of Shehu's death revolves around whether he committed suicide, but how Shehu died is not the point.
Even if Hoxha vigorously denies it, people will still believe that Shehu's death is inseparable from him, and this seems to be the case.
That past aside, China and Albania are no longer as ugly as they were during Hoxha.
In 2022, at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Albania also sent a sports delegation to participate.
On July 1, 2022, the current Prime Minister of Albania appeared and said that Afghanistan is discussing with NATO the establishment of a naval base, which will become the largest port in Albania in the existing plan of the Albanian side.
On January 18, 2023, Ambassador to Albania Zhou Ding visited the overseas Chinese community in Tirana, the capital of Albania, on the eve of the Spring Festival, sending Chinese New Year wishes and "warm Spring Greeting" gift packages carefully prepared by the embassy to overseas Chinese, and had cordial discussions with representatives of overseas Chinese.
On February 8, according to Chinanews.com, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey, which killed more than 11,000 people in Turkey and Syria, and Turkey said that more than 40,000 people were injured nationwide.
After the incident, several countries, including Albania, sent rescue teams and medical teams.
On February 14, 2023, Ambassador Zhou Ding and the heads of relevant authorities of the country signed a memorandum of understanding on tourism cooperation between the two countries.
With the strong support of the state, the tourism industry of China and Argentina may be able to prosper, and for the Arab side, the tourism industry of China and Argentina can be supported by China, which is not intended to be a great encouragement.
Previously, in order to attract Chinese tourists, Albania announced a visa-free policy for Chinese tourists.
Today's Albania, in the past step by step exploration, has finally embarked on a road of development.
Resources
"The Mystery of Shehu's Suicide"
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Author: Li Li
EDIT: As it is