Hua Guofeng recalls the arrest of the Gang of Four: "They didn't put me in their eyes"

Editor's note: Zhang Gensheng is the former governor of Jilin Province. In 1972, zhang Gensheng was transferred from the decentralized coal mine back to the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee to work several times to Beijing for meetings, and in the autumn of 1977, he was transferred to the State Planning Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. In May 1982, Zhang Gensheng was hospitalized in Beijing Hospital due to illness. Hua Guofeng was also hospitalized here, so he saw each other more often during morning and evening walks. They had some brief conversations. On the morning of March 9, 1999, Zhang Gensheng personally inquired about hua Guofeng's process of smashing the "Gang of Four" that year, and Hua Guofeng briefed Zhang Gensheng in detail on the situation at that time.

　　1976 was the most difficult year for our party and country. During the year, the "Gang of Four" frantically carried out conspiracies to usurp the party's power. On January 8, the beloved Premier Zhou of the whole country passed away, and under the planning of the "Gang of Four", the "April Five-Year Plan" Tiananmen Incident, which brutally suppressed the broad masses of the people to mourn the premier, took place, Deng Xiaoping was overthrown again, and on July 6, Marshal Zhu De, the founder of the great Chinese People's Liberation Army, also died of illness. Marshal Ye Jianying was suspended from work under the pretext of being in poor health. Li Xiannian, Yu Qiuli, and several other vice premiers were unable to work, and they left Beijing to go to other places to "recuperate from illness." Only Vice Premier Gu Mu presided over the work of the State Council; the "Gang of Four" also let Li Suwen, Wu Guixian, Sun Jian, Yao Lianwei, and others directly manage several aspects of work so that they could manipulate and command. In terms of the ideology of the news media, Yao Wenyuan is completely controlled and covers the sky with one hand.

　　They thought I was the main obstacle to their seizure of power, and they didn't take me seriously, and they beat and pulled. I am very clear in my heart: we cannot let them seize the leadership of the party and the country together, but we must seize the opportunity. There were only four members left on the Politburo Standing Committee, Wang Hongwen and Zhang Chunqiao, and Ye Shuai and I were also two. Moreover, on February 7, 1976, Mao Zedong decided to let Ye Shuai recuperate from illness and rest, and Chen Xilian would take charge of the work of the Central Military Commission instead. At that time, no one understood why Chairman Mao had added the phrase Ye Shuai to the circular on appointing me as acting premier of the State Council in the discussion and adoption of the Politburo of the Central Committee. I reckon this is directly related to Jiang Qing's "Gang of Four" and Mao Yuanxin's rumors slandering Ye Shuai's opposition to the Cultural Revolution, and most of the members of the Politburo, with the exception of the "Gang of Four," were opposed to them.

　　On September 9 of that year, Chairman Mao Zedong, the great leader of our Party, passed away. The "Gang of Four" believes that the time has come, so it has intensified its usurpation of the party's power activities, and the party and the country have really reached a critical moment of life and death. The "Gang of Four" rebelled against revolutionary public opinion and attempted to establish an armed force under their control. Zhang Chunqiao's younger brother (deputy propaganda director of the General Political Department) personally went down to a certain tank division to carry out activities, and Shanghai once again distributed a large number of guns and ammunition to the militia. On the afternoon of September 10, when the party and the country were in danger, I first approached Li Xiannian to have a secret talk at home, pointing out that the "Gang of Four" was engaged in rampant activities and that their ambition to plot and usurp the party's power was beyond relent. In order to guard against the "Gang of Four" detection, Li Xiannian borrowed the name of the Beijing Botanical Garden on the 13th, and then suddenly turned to Xishan. At that time, Ye and Li did not talk to each other for a while, they did not explore each other' bottoms, and when they met, they first greeted each other and said hello, and then walked around the courtyard, and after a period of conversation, they turned to the main topic, formally exchanged views on the current situation and the "Gang of Four", and conveyed my opinions and the meaning of sending him, expressed their views and attitudes, but did not talk deeply.

　　In order to properly implement this major policy decision that has a bearing on the fate of the party and the country, I also personally contacted Ye Shuai directly to exchange views and make preparations. Detailed preparations were also discussed to select reliable personnel. I also personally talked to Wu De and Wu Zhong of the Beijing Municipal CPC Committee and instructed them to resolutely prevent students from Peking University, Tsinghua University, and other schools from being instigated by Xie Jingyi and Chi Qun because they did not know the truth, and to resolutely put an end to all accidents.

　　When everything was ready, on the evening of October 6, Ye Shuai and I personally sat in the command of HuaiRentang, and Wang Dongxing carried out the action. At that time, in the name of convening the Politburo Standing Committee, Wang Hongwen and Zhang Chunqiao were informed to attend the meeting, and they were successfully arrested, and I announced to them in person: The Central Committee has decided to carry out guardianship review of them. Since Yao Wenyuan was not a member of the Standing Committee, he was informed that he had reviewed the manuscript of the fifth volume of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong and invited him to attend the meeting, so that Yao Wenyuan was also arrested. Jiang Qing was arrested at his home in Zhongnanhai. Also arrested at the same time as them were Mao Yuanxin, Xie Jingyi, chi Qun, and others. And after arresting Jiang Qing and Yao Wenyuan, they all read out to their faces the decision I signed to carry out guardianship review of them.

　　After completing the task of arresting the Gang of Four, they immediately notified the members of the Politburo to hold a meeting at Yuquan Mountain. I announced that the "Gang of Four" had been isolated and examined, and I focused on the crimes of the "Gang of Four" in conspiring against the Party to seize power and engage in frenzied activities; in order to ensure that the leadership of the Party and the state would not be usurped by them and that their criminal aims would not succeed, resolute measures must be taken to smash their conspiracies and severely punish their crimes. Ye Shuai gave a briefing on the arrest of the "Gang of Four" and highlighted the anti-party crimes of the whole party and the whole army resolutely opposing their gang. In this particular case, extraordinary measures against them are very necessary. Because the public opinion department is controlled by them. In addition, a group of anti-Party elements in Shanghai have already fired a large number of guns, and in order to avoid bloody casualties and stabilize the situation in the whole country, they have been forced to adopt such special measures. After discussion, the Politburo unanimously expressed its support.

　　I first proposed that Ye Shuai be appointed chairman of the Party Central Committee, and he was highly respected and saved the Party twice. Ye Shuai stood up and said that he proposed that I be appointed chairman of the Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission; chairman Mao had designated you as his successor; I was already seventy-nine years old, you were more than twenty years younger than me, I had practical work experience, I was a down-to-earth person, stressed democracy, and respected the old comrades. This is also a matter of imminent danger.

Source: People's Daily News