Editing Jiang Qing (section)

=== Political activism ===
During this period, Mao galvanised students and young workers as his paramilitary organisation the [[Red Guards]] to attack what he termed as [[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionists]] in the party. Mao told them the revolution was in danger and that they must do all they could to stop the emergence of a [[Social privilege|privileged]] class in China. He argued this is what had happened in the [[Soviet Union]] under [[Khrushchev]].<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last1= |first1= |last2= |last3= |title=Introduction to the Cultural Revolution |url=https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/introduction_to_the_cultural_revolution |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241008084646/https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/introduction_to_the_cultural_revolution |archive-date=8 October 2024 |access-date=2024-11-28 |website=Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education |language=en}}</ref> With time, Jiang began playing an increasingly active political role in the movement. She took part in most important Party and government activities.<ref name="Landsberger">{{cite book |author=Landsberger |first=Stefan R. |author-link=Stefan Landsberger |url=http://72.5.117.181/wpp/stories/viewStory?storyId=934 |title=Madame Mao: Sharing Power with the Chairman |publisher=International Museum of Women |year=2008 |access-date=28 November 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123092823/http://72.5.117.181/wpp/stories/viewStory?storyId=934 |archive-date=23 January 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> Jiang took advantage of the Cultural Revolution to wreak vengeance on her personal enemies, including people who had slighted her during her acting career in the 1930s. She was supported by a radical coterie, dubbed, by Mao himself, the Gang of Four. She became a prominent member of the Central Cultural Revolution Group and a major player in Chinese politics from 1966 to 1976.<ref name="Landsberger" />

==== 1966–1969 ====
{{See also|January Storm}}
From 1962, Chairman [[Liu Shaoqi]] and his wife [[Wang Guangmei]] frequently appeared at diplomatic events, earning Wang the title of "First Lady," which reportedly made Jiang Qing jealous. Before Wang's overseas trips, Jiang advised her not to wear jewellery, claiming it looked better. However, upon seeing Wang on television wearing a necklace, Jiang criticised her for displaying "bourgeois style" in a talk with [[Red Guards]].<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |last=Ye |first=Yonglie |author-link=Ye Yonglie |date=2019-11-19 |title=王光美與江青 |url=https://www.bastillepost.com/hongkong/article/5445860-%E8%91%89%E6%B0%B8%E7%83%88%EF%BC%9A%E7%8E%8B%E5%85%89%E7%BE%8E%E8%88%87%E6%B1%9F%E9%9D%92 |access-date=2024-11-29 |website=Bastille Post |language=zh-hant}}</ref> [[File:年北京天安门，林彪与江青.jpg|left|thumb|[[Lin Biao]] with Jiang Qing in Tiananmen in 1966]]
[[Image:1967-07 1967年4月20日北京市革命委员会成立 江青.jpg|thumb|Jiang during the [[Cultural Revolution]]]]On 13 December 1966, Liu Shaoqi voluntarily offered to resign from his positions as [[President of China|President]]. He proposed moving with his wife and children to Yan’an or his hometown in Hunan to take up farming, hoping to bring the Cultural Revolution to an early conclusion and minimise the damage to the country. On 18 December, [[Zhang Chunqiao]], deputy head of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, summoned [[Kuai Dafu]], a leader of the Red Guards at [[Tsinghua University]], and instructed him to launch a campaign to overthrow Liu Shaoqi. On 25 December, Kuai Dafu led thousands of demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, where they publicly chanted the slogan “Down with Liu Shaoqi.”<ref name=":14">{{Cite web |date=2006-07-15 |title=回首文革(6)：接班人之死─刘少奇 |url=https://www.voachinese.com/a/a-21-n2006-07-15-voa5-58446232/1087961.html |access-date=2024-11-29 |website=[[Voice of America]] |language=zh-hans |archive-date=11 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211151956/https://www.voachinese.com/a/a-21-n2006-07-15-voa5-58446232/1087961.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Central Cultural Revolution Group]] was initially a small body under the [[Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|Standing Committee of the Politburo]].<ref name=":13" />  With the backing of Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan initiated a coup in Shanghai in January 1967, consolidating power and gaining support from revolutionary factions like Wang Hongwen.<ref name=":13" /> On 6 January 1967, Red Guards at Tsinghua University, with Jiang Qing's backing, lured Wang to the campus under the pretext of her daughter being in a car accident. Once there, Wang was detained and prosecuted.<ref name=":22" />

Following the Red Guards' disruption of party structures in January 1967, this group replaced the Secretariat and became the central command for the party. Jiang Qing's role as the "First Deputy Head" of the group grew significantly, elevating her political power. [[Chen Boda]], the nominal leader of the group, was repeatedly humiliated by Jiang Qing during this period. Fearing her power, he endured her mistreatment in silence. In one notable incident, after a middle school student scaled his wall, Chen's wife reported the event, sparking a "footprint incident" that enraged Jiang Qing. She demanded Chen move out of Zhongnanhai, and this further strained his relationship with her. Seizing the opportunity, Lin Biao and his wife, Ye Qun, aligned with Chen, who quietly defected to their faction.<ref name=":13" />
[[File:1967-08 1967年 江青与红卫兵.jpg|thumb|Jiang Qing met [[Red Guards]] in 1967]]
On 18 July 1967, a public [[struggle session]] against Liu Shaoqi was held in Zhongnanhai. On 5 August, the Central Cultural Revolution Group approved three separate struggle sessions targeting Liu Shaoqi and his wife, Deng Xiaoping and his wife, and Tao Zhu and his wife. From that point, Liu Shaoqi was completely stripped of his personal freedom. On 16 September 1968, under Jiang Qing's leadership, a special investigation team compiled three volumes of so-called evidence against Liu, largely extracted through torture and coercion. After being imprisoned in Zhongnanhai for over two years, Liu Shaoqi was transferred to Kaifeng, Henan Province, on 17 October 1969, where he subsequently died.<ref name=":14" />

Meanwhile, Jiang's stature continued to rise, though she was still not a member of the Central Committee during the 11th Plenary Session of the 8th Central Committee. At the 9th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in April 1969, Jiang was admitted to the Politburo after Mao Zedong shifted his stance, likely to balance the power of the Lin Biao faction. Mao also approved the entry of Lin Biao's wife, Ye Qun, into the Politburo, further consolidating their influence.<ref name=":13" />

==== 1969–1971 ====
At the [[9th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party|9th National Congress]] of the Communist Party, Jiang condemned quotation songs, which had been promoted since September 1966 as mnemonic devices for the study of [[Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong|''Quotations'' ''from Chairman Mao Zedong'']].<ref name=":2323">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Andrew F. |title=Mao's Little Red Book: A Global History |date=2013 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-107-05722-7 |editor-last=Cook |editor-first=Alexander C. |location=Cambridge |pages= |chapter=Quotation Songs: Portable Media and the Maoist Pop Song}}</ref>{{Rp|page=43}} Jiang had come to view the popular tunes as akin to [[yellow music]].<ref name=":2323" />{{Rp|page=43}}

Jiang's rivalry with, and personal dislike of, [[Zhou Enlai]] led Jiang to hurt Zhou where he was most vulnerable. In 1968, Jiang had Zhou's adopted son (Sun Yang) and daughter ([[Sun Weishi]]) tortured and murdered by Red Guards. Sun Yang was murdered in the basement of [[Renmin University]]. After Sun Weishi died following seven months of torture in a [[secret prison]] (at Jiang's direction), Jiang made sure that Sun's body was cremated and disposed of so that no autopsy could be performed and Sun's family could not have her ashes. In 1968, Jiang forced Zhou to sign an arrest warrant for his own brother. In 1973 and 1974, Jiang directed the "Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius" campaign against premier Zhou because Zhou was viewed as one of Jiang's primary political opponents. In 1975, Jiang initiated a campaign named "Criticizing Song Jiang, Evaluating the Water Margin", which encouraged the use of Zhou as an example of a political loser. After Zhou Enlai died in 1976, Jiang initiated the "Five Nos" campaign in order to discourage and prohibit any public mourning for Zhou.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Teiwes, Frederick C. |author2= Sun, Warren|title=The First Tiananmen Incident Revisited: Elite Politics and Crisis Management at the End of the Maoist Era|journal=Pacific Affairs|volume=77|issue=2|year=2004|pages= 211–235 (213)|jstor=40022499}}</ref> When traditional landscape and bird-and-flower paintings re-emerged in the early 1970s, Jiang criticised these traditional forms as "[[Black Painting incident|black paintings]]",<ref name=":Minami">{{Cite book |last=Minami |first=Kazushi |title=People's Diplomacy: How Americans and Chinese Transformed US-China Relations during the Cold War |date=2024 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |isbn=9781501774157 |location=Ithaca, NY |pages=166}}</ref> which in fact targeted Zhou Enlai.{{Sfn|Terrill|1999|p=290|pp=}}

==== 1971–1973 ====
{{See also|Lin Biao incident|Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius|Snail Incident}}
[[File:Lauen Banda.jpg|thumb|The [[Gang of Four]]]]
Jiang first collaborated with then second-in-charge Lin Biao, but after Lin Biao's death in 1971, she turned against him publicly in the [[Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius|Criticise Lin, Criticise Confucius]] Campaign.<ref name="the">{{cite book |last=Hsin |first=Chi |title=The Case of the Gang of Four: With First Translation of Teng Hsiao-Ping's Three Poisonous Weeds |publisher=Cosmos Books, Ltd. |year=1977 |page=19 |asin=B000OLUOE2}}</ref> After the [[Lin Biao incident|September 13 Incident]] in 1971, Jiang Qing saw the collapse of the Lin Biao faction and, with Mao Zedong's declining health, she became eager to seize the highest power in the country. In 1972, Jiang Qing enlisted American journalist Roxane Witke to write her autobiography. After 1972, Mao's health deteriorated.  Though Mao was largely cut off from the outside world due to his illness, Zhu De sent Mao a letter informing him about Jiang Qing's biography. This revelation deeply angered Mao, who, in a fit of rage, even expressed his desire to expel Jiang Qing from the Politburo and sever their political ties.<ref name=":13" /> By 1973, although unreported due to it being a personal matter, Mao and his wife Jiang had separated.<ref name="the" />

==== 1973–1976 ====
{{See also|Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend}}
On 10 March 1973, Deng Xiaoping was reinstated as Vice Premier, serving as Zhou Enlai's deputy. During the 10th National Congress of the CCP, Deng remained a member of the Central Committee but he did not gain a seat on the Politburo. On 10 April 1974, Deng led the Chinese delegation to the [[United Nations General Assembly]]. Although Jiang Qing strongly opposed Deng's appointment, Mao Zedong cautioned her in a letter to cease opposing his decision.<ref name=":17">{{Cite web |last=Ye |first=Yonglie |date=2015-07-22 |title=邓小平成了江青的"眼中钉" |url=https://www.shobserver.com/wx/detail.do?id=5860 |website=Shanghai Observer}}</ref>

After Zhou Enlai was hospitalised, Wang Hongwen managed the Politburo, Deng Xiaoping oversaw the State Council, and Ye Jianying led the Central Military Commission.<ref name=":17" /> On 4 October 1974, Mao Zedong proposed appointing Deng as First Vice Premier. Sensing that Deng might replace Zhou Enlai at the upcoming Fourth National People's Congress, Jiang Qing attempted to block Deng from taking charge of the State Council and the Party's central operations.<ref name=":18">{{Cite web |date=2022-01-12 |title=鄧小平1975年大整頓 江青被迫寫書面檢查 |url=https://www.bastillepost.com/hongkong/article/9979609-%E9%84%A7%E5%B0%8F%E5%B9%B31975%E5%B9%B4%E5%A4%A7%E6%95%B4%E9%A0%93-%E6%B1%9F%E9%9D%92%E8%A2%AB%E8%BF%AB%E5%AF%AB%E6%9B%B8%E9%9D%A2%E6%AA%A2%E6%9F%A5 |access-date=2024-11-29 |website=Bastille Post}}</ref>

On 12 December, Mao reaffirmed his support for Deng by proposing his appointment as a member of both the Military Commission and the Politburo—a suggestion that gained majority approval from Politburo members.<ref name=":17" /> On 23 December, despite his ill health, Zhou Enlai flew to Changsha to meet Mao and seek his endorsement of Deng Xiaoping, with Wang Hongwen also in attendance. Mao agreed and, while pointing at Wang, remarked that Deng's ''"politics'' is better than his.''"'' Mao spoke English for the word "politics." Wang was embarrassed as he did not understand.<ref name=":18" />