From March 21 to 31, 1955, at the Party's National Congress, Deng Xiaoping made the "Report on the Anti-Party Alliance of Gao Gang and Rao Shushi", and adopted the decision to expel Gao and Rao from the party and revoke all posts inside and outside the party. Soon, Rao Shushi was arrested and examined by the Ministry of Public Security for "harboring political issues such as counter-revolution." In his opening speech and conclusions, Mao Zedong summed up the lessons of the Gao and Rao incidents.
Mao Zedong pointed out: "In the protracted revolutionary struggle, although Gao Gang has his correct and meritorious side to the revolution and thus wins the trust of the Party, his individualistic ideas (prominently manifested in pride and arrogance when things go well, and when they are not satisfied, they suffer from gains and losses, discouragement and wavering) and the corrupt desire for private life have not been corrected and stopped for a long time, and have developed even more greatly after the victory of the whole country. ...... Gao Gang's anti-party behavior in the recent period is the inevitable result of the development of his dark side. ”
Mao Zedong also pointed out that although there was no written agreement between Gao Gang and Rao Shushi, their thoughts, goals and actions were the same, indicating that they were not two independent kingdoms and single-handed households that had nothing to do with each other. Later, Bo Yibo outlined several facts: First, Rao Shushi was always considered to respect Liu Shaoqi, but when Gao Gang launched the struggle to "criticize Bo to shoot Liu", he set up another battlefield to "fight against Liu" to cooperate. He later admitted: "I do not deny that both of us oppose Comrade Shaoqi in action and in terms of objectives"; second, on the "list question", Mao Zedong said that the problem is not with the people who put forward the list, but with the people who spread the list. The spreaders were precisely Gao Gang and Rao Shushi. They will spread the list widely up and down, spread rumors and confuse the public, in order to achieve ulterior motives. Third, Rao Shushi agrees to all cadres recommended by Gao Gang; rao Shushi is rejected by all cadres who are opposed by Gao Gang. Rao Shushi also said: In the future, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee should take the former organization director of the Northeast Bureau as the core. Fourth, after Rao's problem was exposed, Gao twice went to Chairman Mao and asked for his protection; after the Gaogang problem was exposed, Rao also "wronged" Gao Shen.
On November 15, 1956, Mao Zedong further said at the Second Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: "Here we talk about the issue of 'connecting with foreign countries'. Do we in China have such people who carry the central authorities to communicate intelligence to foreigners? I think there are, for example, Gaogang is one. This has been proven by many facts. This is clearly referring to Gaogang's unusually close relationship with the Soviet Union. At this time, the relations between the Chinese and Soviet parties were much worse than before.
Mao Zedong had envisaged that after Gao Gang's review, appropriate arrangements would be made for his work. Because Gao Gang is also an old qualification in the party. During the war years, he did a lot of work for the party in the northwest and northeast. Before and after the founding of New China, when he presided over the work in Northeast China, Mao Zedong praised him more than once. Mao Zedong asked a responsible comrade of the Central Committee to talk to Gao Gang and wanted him to return to northern Shaanxi to take charge of a regional work. But before he could talk about it, gao gang's suicide attempt occurred. When Ye Zilong reported this to Mao Zedong, judging from his expression, he was disgusted by the matter. He said, "Don't mention anything high in the northwest, let him go!" Since then, he has completely abandoned the idea of saving Gao Gang. Mao Zedong has always believed that suicide only means that the nature of the problem has changed. And he has always believed that for a person, suicide is not a skill, but an act of soft bones. He looked down on soft bones.
Some people say that Gao Gang is more righteous, but in fact, he especially likes to form gangs and factions, which is more vulgar. During the "three antis" and "five antis" movements, "tigers" of all sizes were being fought everywhere. Gao Gang, on the other hand, really killed a Siberian tiger and packed it into boxes and sent it to Zhongnanhai for Chairman Mao.
Mao Zedong looked at the huge tiger and said, "This tall hemp!" "Then let someone carry the tiger away, he doesn't want it."
In the past, Mao Zedong at least did not dislike Gao Gang, and sometimes even trusted him. Mao Zedong already knew about Gao Gang's strong desire for power. However, he thought that "Takamako can do things", so he did not think too much about it.
Mao Zedong also pointed out that comrades who make mistakes under the influence of Gao and Rao are different from Gao and Rao. Gao Gang and Rao Shushi are bad people, "all darkness, darkness, and no light in the sun and moon," and they should be resolutely overthrown and purged from the party.
In short, the handling of the gao and Rao problems was relatively lenient, and no one was harmed at that time, and a number of cadres were consciously protected.
This article is excerpted from "The Testimony of the Red Wall: The Truth Left by the Influential Figures of the Republic" (I), by Yin Jiamin, Contemporary China Publishing House, October 2009