Zhang Chunqiao has a brother named Zhang Qiuqiao. Most people thought he was a high official by virtue of his brother's relationship.
Not really.
Zhang Qiuqiao joined the revolution and went to Yan'an earlier than his brother Zhang Chunqiao, and was born in Shandong Province, where he served as the secretary of Marshal Luo Ronghuan.
Zhang Qiuqiao's legendary experience can be said to be a portrayal of China's nearly 50 years of history in the 1930s and 1980s.
In September 1920, Zhang Qiuqiao was born in Juye County, Shandong Province, 3 years younger than his older brother Zhang Chunqiao. Zhang Qiuqiao said shandong provincial high school. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, in December, he and a group of classmates traveled thousands of miles to Yan'an, and then entered the famous Northern Shaanxi Public School.
Two months later, when his brother Zhang Chunqiao arrived in Yan'an. At this time, Zhang Qiuqiao happened to join the Communist Party of China, and then transferred to the training class for party members of the Central Organization Department. After graduation, he successively served as a secretary in the Secretariat of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Secretariat of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and it can be said that he worked directly in the organs of the CPC Central Committee.
In the winter of 1939, Zhang Qiuqiao was transferred back to Shandong, first serving as the secretary of Luo Ronghuan's political commissar at the headquarters of the 115th Division, and soon transferred to the Political Department of the 115th Division as a press officer, who was responsible for editing the "Current Affairs Newsletter", and later responsible for editing the "Soldier Daily", serving as the editor-in-chief of the 1st and 4th editions and the head of the reporter group.
In the spring of 1943, due to the urgency of the war, the 115th Division was reduced to pieces and dispersed to various military sub-districts. Zhang Qiuqiao came to the 13th Regiment of Binbei Military Sub-district and served as the deputy instructor of the 2nd Company. The 13th Regiment was an ace regiment, and the regimental commander and commander of the Binbei Military Sub-district was Liang Xingchu.
The following year, Zhang Qiuqiao was transferred to the Coastal Military Region and served as the editor-in-chief of the Militia Newspaper.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Luo Ronghuan led the main force of the 115th Division into the northeast, and Zhang Qiuqiao remained in the Shandong Military Subdistrict, successively serving as the director of the "Forward Newspaper" of the Lunan Military Region, the director of the "Jinpu Frontline Newspaper," the director of the Propaganda Department of the Luzhong South Military Region and the director of the "Former Guardian Newspaper.", and he was a well-known figure on the propaganda front of the Shandong army.
After the founding of New China, Zhang Qiuqiao was transferred to Beijing by Luo Ronghuan, director of the Political Department, to serve as deputy editor-in-chief of the Bayi Magazine sponsored by the Central Military Commission.
Zhang Chunqiao, in Shanghai, successively served as the director of the East China Branch of the Xinhua News Agency and the deputy editor-in-chief of the Shanghai Liberation Daily. The brothers were not much different in their positions.
In 1955, Zhang Chunqiao's political status began to soar. In January, he was promoted to editor-in-chief of Jiefang Daily and deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. However, in September, Zhang Qiuqiao was also awarded the rank of colonel (division level), and was awarded the Order of Independence and Freedom of the Third Class and the Liberation Medal of the Second Class.
In January 1959, Zhang Chunqiao became a member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, officially higher than Zhang Qiuqiao.
In March 1963, Zhang Chunqiao became the director of the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. At the same time, Zhang Qiuqiao was also promoted to deputy editor-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army Daily and first deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the Society in Beijing. In December, Zhang Chunqiao was promoted to alternate secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, and a year later, he was appointed secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee. In May 1966, Zhang Chunqiao became a member of the East China Bureau and the director of the Propaganda Department of the East China Bureau. However, during this period, the position of his younger brother Zhang Qiuqiao did not change.
In June 1966, the "Cultural Revolution" broke out, and Zhang Chunqiao was promoted to deputy head of the Central Leading Group for cultural revolution, becoming a major leader of this level. Zhang Qiuqiao is also the deputy editor-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army Daily. Soon after, acting editor-in-chief Hu Zhi was transferred to Xinhua News Agency, and the list of successor leading bodies was delayed in obtaining approval from the Central Committee during the Cultural Revolution, so Xiao Hua, director of the General Political Department, designated Zhang Qiuqiao to organize a provisional party committee and preside over the daily work of the newspaper.
Not long after, Li Ne (pseudonym Xiao Li), the daughter of Mao Zedong who worked at the newspaper, posted a large poster and shelled Zhang Qiuqiao, the head of the provisional party committee, calling the newspaper work in the previous paragraph "the implementation of the reactionary line" and believing that Zhang Qiuqiao "opposed the reporters' study of Mao Xuan and had a serious bourgeois journalistic viewpoint." After Zhang Qiuqiao wrote a review, he stepped down. Subsequently, Xiao Li served as the head of the leading group of the editor-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army Daily.
Later, although his elder brother Zhang Chunqiao was a big red man of the "Central Cultural Revolution" and became the first secretary of the Shanghai Municipal CPC Committee, a member of the Working Conference of the Central Military Commission, and a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, his younger brother Zhang Qiuqiao, like most of the cadres who stepped down, was criticized and delegated, and participated in production and labor in the countryside for a long time, that is, what people later called "squatting in the cowshed.".
In 1974, Chi Haotian, a member of the core group of the People's Liberation Army Daily, was responsible for implementing the cadre policy work and after discovering the situation of Zhang Qiuqiao, he wrote a letter to Jiang Qing and Ye Jianying, demanding the liberation of Zhang Qiuqiao. After reading the letter, Jiang Qing said: "Although Xiao Li criticized Zhang Qiuqiao, he once told me that comrade Zhang Qiuqiao should be liberated, and Xiao Li believed that Zhang Qiuqiao and Hu Yi and Tang Pingzhu should be treated differently. Therefore, in July 1975, Zhang Qiuqiao was implemented and liberated, and he was immediately transferred to the deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the General Political Department.
At this time, Zhang Chunqiao was vice premier of the State Council, member of the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission, director of the General Political Department, and concurrently served as the first secretary of the party committee. In this way, the brothers worked in a unit for the first time, and the younger brother was the younger brother's subordinate.
This situation did not last long. Just over a year later, on October 6, 1976, the "Gang of Four" was arrested, and Zhang Qiuqiao was suspended for examination because of his brotherly relationship with Zhang Chunqiao. Subsequently, two rumors involved Zhang Qiuqiao: First, when the "Gang of Four" was arrested, a list of cabinets was copied from Wang Hongwen's home, on which Zhang Qiuqiao's name was listed, and he was a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and director of the General Political Department. However, this list is false, has no historical basis, and is later confirmed to be made up. The second is that after Chairman Mao's death, Zhang Qiuqiao was ordered to secretly connect with the 6th Tank Division at Nankou to prepare for an armed uprising. After Zhang Chunqiao was isolated and examined, several special case teams did not find out his contact with his elder brother Zhang Chunqiao outside his post. The "Nankou Tank Division Incident" is pure fiction.
After years of review, no problems were found about Zhang Qiuqiao, and in 1984, Zhang Qiuqiao retired as a deputy military officer.
After retiring, Zhang Qiuqiao has been living in the general political compound and enjoying the treatment of military cadres. But he still had decades of old habits, worked tirelessly, and wrote a large number of articles recalling the anti-Japanese base area in Shandong. In 2005, he also published his memoir "But Seek to Stand In Heaven and Earth".
In November 2010, Zhang Qiuqiao died of illness at the age of 90. In his life, it reads:
"He has a strong personality, and during his illness, he actively fought against the disease with a tenacious will. He administered the family strictly, worked hard to overcome all kinds of difficulties in life, and admonished his children to cause as little trouble as possible to the organization, which embodied the noble consciousness and personality of an old Communist Party member. ”