'Gang of Four' member Zhang Chunqiao dies
(xinhua)
Updated: 2005-05-11 08:55

Zhang Chunqiao [file photo]

Zhang Chunqiao, member of the "Gang of Four," died of cancer April 21 at the age of 88.

Zhang, one of the culprits of the "Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary clique," was given death sentence with a two-year reprieve by a special tribunal of the Supreme People's Court in January 1981.

His sentence was reduced to life imprisonment with political rights deprived for life in January 1983, and was commuted again to 18 years in prison with political rights deprived for 10 years.

Since January 1998, Zhang had been on medical parole.

Gang of Four

Term of opprobrium given to four persons held responsible for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution (1966–69). They were also accused of trying to seize power after the deaths (1976) of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. The most notable of the Gang of Four was Jiang Qing, Mao's widow. The others were Wang Hongwen, Yao Wenyuan, and Zhang Chunqiao. They were imprisoned in 1976, tried in 1980, and sentenced in 1981. Their sentences ranged from death (later commuted to life in prison) to 20 years in prison.

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