Editing Gang of Four (section)

==Trial==

The Gang of Four trials were part of the communist party's effort to establish an institutionalized justice system.<ref name=":Qian">{{Cite book |last=Qian |first=Ying |title=Revolutionary Becomings: Documentary Media in Twentieth-Century China |date=2024 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=9780231204477 |location=New York}}</ref>{{Rp|page=222}} The trials were highly visible to the Chinese public thanks to the daily television broadcasts of trial sessions and wide circulation of documentary films about the trials.<ref name=":Qian" />{{Rp|page=222}}

In late 1980, the four deposed leaders were subjected to a trial by the [[Supreme People's Court of China]] with [[Jiang Hua]] presiding; in January 1981, they were convicted of anti-party activities. During the trial, Jiang Qing in particular was extremely defiant, protesting loudly and bursting into tears at some points. She was the only member of the Gang of Four to argue on her own behalf. The defence's argument was that she obeyed the orders of Chairman Mao Zedong at all times. Zhang Chunqiao refused to admit any wrongdoing. Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen expressed repentance and confessed their alleged crimes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/gangoffour/Gangof4.html|title=The Gang of Four Trial|first1=Haiping|last1=Zheng|year=2010|access-date=2017-12-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171230122458/http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/gangoffour/Gangof4.html|archive-date=2017-12-30|url-status=live}}</ref>

The prosecution separated political errors from actual crimes. Among the latter were the usurpation of state power and party leadership; the persecution of some 750,000 people, 34,375 of whom died during the period 1966–1976.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.country-studies.com/china/the-four-modernizations,-1979-82.html |title=China the Four Modernizations, 1979–82 |publisher=Country-studies.com |access-date=2011-07-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110602132245/http://country-studies.com/china/the-four-modernizations,-1979-82.html |archive-date=2011-06-02 |url-status=live }}</ref> The official records of the trial have not yet been released.{{as of?|date=June 2021}}{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

Audience members who attended the opening of the trial included selected people's representatives from each province and autonomous region, as well as victims' families including the widows of Liu Shaoqi, [[He Long]], and [[Luo Ruiqing]].<ref name=":Qian" />{{Rp|page=223}}

Jiang Qing and Zhang Chunqiao received death sentences that were later commuted to life imprisonment, while Wang Hongwen and Yao Wenyuan were given life and twenty years in prison, respectively. All members of the Gang of Four have since died; Jiang Qing committed suicide in 1991, Wang Hongwen died in 1992, and Yao Wenyuan and Zhang Chunqiao died in 2005, having been released from prison in 1996 and 1998, respectively.

Supporters of the Gang of Four, including Chen Boda and Mao Yuanxin, were also sentenced.<ref>{{Citation |last=Cook |first=Alexander C. |title=China's Gang of Four Trial: The Law v. The Laws of History |date=2017 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/political-trials-in-theory-and-history/chinas-gang-of-four-trial/494C2B8553812198C36AEFB273CD9B7B |work=Political Trials in Theory and History |pages=263–294 |editor-last=Pendas |editor-first=Devin O. |access-date=2023-03-19 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781139941631.010 |isbn=978-1-107-07946-5 |editor2-last=Meierhenrich |editor2-first=Jens}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Pace |first=Eric |date=1989-09-30 |title=Chen Boda, 85, Leader of Chinese Purges in 60's |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/30/obituaries/chen-boda-85-leader-of-chinese-purges-in-60-s.html |access-date=2023-03-19 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>