Qiu Huizuo

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Qiu Huizuo
邱会作

Qiu Huizuo.jpg

Qiu Huizuo in 1955
Director of the PLA General Logistics Department
In office
October 14, 1959 –September 24, 1971
Preceded by Hong Xuezhi
Succeeded by Zhang Zongxun
Personal details
Born(1914-04-16)April 16, 1914
Xingguo, Jiangxi, China
Died July 18, 2002(2002-07-18) (aged 88)
Beijing, China
Military service
AllegianceFlag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China
Service/branch People's Liberation Army
Years of service 1929–1971
Rank PLALtGeneral r.png Lieutenant General

Qiu Huizuo (Chinese :邱会作; Wade–Giles :Ch'iu Hui-tso; April 16, 1914 – July 18, 2002) was a lieutenant general of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), best known as one of the "four guardian warriors" of Vice Chairman Lin Biao during the Cultural Revolution. [1] Qiu rose through the ranks of the PLA during the civil war between the Communists and the Kuomintang. He took charge as the PLA logistics chief in 1959, and was persecuted at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. He was later rehabilitated owing to the blessing of Zhou Enlai and Lin Biao, and elevated to the Politburo in 1969. In return, he helped to persecute Lin's enemies and consolidate Lin's power in the PLA. After Lin's flight and death in 1971, Qiu was purged and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Simplified Chinese characters standardized Chinese characters developed in mainland China

Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, they are one of the two standard character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the People's Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s to encourage literacy. They are officially used in the People's Republic of China and Singapore.

Wade–Giles, sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade, during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert A. Giles's Chinese–English Dictionary of 1892.

Lieutenant general, lieutenant-general and similar is a three-star military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a captain general.

Contents

Revolutionary years

Qiu was born in Xingguo County, Jiangxi Province on April 16, 1914. He was schooled in a local sishu (private school specializing in education in Chinese classics). [2]

Xingguo County County in Jiangxi, Peoples Republic of China

Xingguo County is a county in south central Jiangxi province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of and located in the north of the prefecture-level city of Ganzhou, with a total area of 3,214.46 km2 (1,241.11 sq mi). Its population was 719,830 at the 2010 census.

Jiangxi Province

Jiangxi is a province in the People's Republic of China, located in the southeast of the country. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into hillier areas in the south and east, it shares a border with Anhui to the north, Zhejiang to the northeast, Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Hubei to the northwest.

He joined the militia forces in his home county in 1929 at the age of fifteen. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1932. In 1934–35, he took part in the Long March. According to Qiu's autobiography, shortly before the Communists' forced exodus from their base in Jiangxi, he was almost executed by party intelligence officials who thought he possessed too much sensitive information regarding military logistics. However, on the way to his execution, he ran into Zhou Enlai, who spared his life and put him under the wing of the logistics head Ye Jizhuang. [2] By the time the Communist forces arrived in northern Shaanxi, Qiu was tasked with logistical work, ensuring that the army had sufficient supplies. [2]

Communist Party of China Political party of the Peoples Republic of China

The Communist Party of China (CPC), also referred to as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China. The Communist Party is the sole governing party within mainland China, permitting only eight other, subordinated parties to co-exist, those making up the United Front. It was founded in 1921, chiefly by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. The party grew quickly, and by 1949 it had driven the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) government from mainland China after the Chinese Civil War, leading to the establishment of the People's Republic of China. It also controls the world's largest armed forces, the People's Liberation Army.

Long March Military campaign during the Chinese Civil War

The Long March was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west. The best known is the march from Jiangxi province which began in October 1934. The First Front Army of the Chinese Soviet Republic, led by an inexperienced military commission, was on the brink of annihilation by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's troops in their stronghold in Jiangxi province. The Communists, under the eventual command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, escaped in a circling retreat to the west and north, which reportedly traversed over 9,000 kilometers over 370 days. The route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China by traveling west, then north, to Shaanxi.

Zhou Enlai 1st Premier of the Peoples Republic of China

Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China. Zhou was China's head of government, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Mao Zedong and was instrumental in the Communist Party's rise to power, and later in consolidating its control, forming foreign policy, and developing the Chinese economy.

After the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Communists and Kuomintang in 1945, Qiu served in Manchuria as political commissar of the Eighth Column of Lin Biao's Fourth Field Army. Qiu, being a relatively junior officer, was not particularly close to Lin Biao at the time. He did not meet Lin in person until 1948, when Lin put him in charge of logistics of the Fourth Field Army. Qiu did work closely with Huang Yongsheng, who was commander of the Eighth Column. They participated in the Liaoshen Campaign, Pingjin Campaign, and the Hengbao Campaign. [3]

Chinese Civil War 1927–1950 civil war in China

The Chinese Civil War was a civil war in China fought between the Kuomintang (KMT)-led government of the Republic of China and the Communist Party of China (CPC) lasting intermittently between 1927 and 1949. Although particular attention is paid to the four years of Chinese Communist Revolution from 1945 to 1949, the war actually started in August 1927, with the White Terror at the end of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition, and essentially ended when major hostilities between the two sides ceased in 1950. The conflict took place in two stages, the first between 1927 and 1937, and the second from 1946 to 1950; the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945 was an interlude in which the two sides were united against the forces of Japan. The Civil War marked a major turning point in modern Chinese history, with the Communists gaining control of mainland China and establishing the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, forcing the Republic of China (ROC) to retreat to Taiwan. It resulted in a lasting political and military standoff between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, with the ROC in Taiwan and the PRC in mainland China both officially claiming to be the legitimate government of all China.

Manchuria geographic region in Northeast Asia

Manchuria is a name first used in the 17th century by Japanese people to refer to a large geographic region in Northeast Asia. Depending on the context, Manchuria can either refer to a region that falls entirely within the People's Republic of China or a larger region divided between China and Russia. "Manchuria" is widely used outside China to denote the geographical and historical region. This region is the traditional homeland of several groups, including the Koreans, Xianbei, Khitan, and Jurchen peoples, who built several states within the area historically.

In the military, a political commissar or political officer, is a supervisory officer responsible for the political education (ideology) and organization of the unit they are assigned to, and intended to ensure civilian control of the military.

Early People's Republic

After the Communists won the Civil War and established the People's Republic of China, Qiu was appointed Director of the Political Department of the South China Military Region, serving under commander Ye Jianying and deputy commander Huang Yongsheng. [3]

Guangzhou Military Region Former military region of China

The Guangzhou Military Region was from 1955 to 2016 one of the People's Liberation Army PLA Military Regions, located in the south of the People's Republic of China. In May 1949, the Central China Military Region (MR) was formed. In March 1955, it was divided into two, the Guangzhou MR and the Wuhan Military Region. When the Wuhan MR was disbanded in August 1985, its troops stationed around the Hubei province were assigned to the Guangzhou MR.

Ye Jianying former Head of State of the Peoples Republic of China

Ye Jianying was a Chinese communist general, Marshal of the People's Liberation Army. As the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 1978 to 1983, Ye was the head of state of China.

In 1955, Qiu was appointed deputy director and political commissar of the PLA General Logistics Department (GLD), working under director Hong Xuezhi. He also attained the rank of lieutenant general, when the PLA awarded military ranks for the first time in 1955. At the Lushan Conference in 1959, Defence Minister Peng Dehuai was purged for criticizing Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward and replaced by Lin Biao. Hong Xuezhi was also dismissed for following Peng's lead, and Qiu was named head of the GLD. [3]

Hong Xuezhi Chinese general

Hong Xuezhi was a general in the Chinese Red Army and a politician in the People's Republic of China. He was the only person promoted to general in 1955 who was still in office in 1988.

Lushan Conference

The Lushan Conference was a meeting of the top leaders of the Communist Party of China held between July and August 1959. The Politburo met in an "expanded session" between July 2 and August 1, followed by the 8th Plenum of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from August 2 – 16. The major topic of discussion was the Great Leap Forward.

Peng Dehuai Chinese general and politician

Peng Dehuai was a prominent Chinese Communist military leader, who served as China's Defense Minister from 1954 to 1959. Peng was born into a poor peasant family, and received several years of primary education before his family's poverty forced him to suspend his education at the age of ten, and to work for several years as a manual laborer. When he was sixteen, Peng became a professional soldier. Over the next ten years Peng served in the armies of several Hunan-based warlord armies, raising himself from the rank of private second class to major. In 1926 Peng's forces joined the Kuomintang, and Peng was first introduced to communism. Peng participated in the Northern Expedition, and supported Wang Jingwei's attempt to form a left-leaning Kuomintang government based in Wuhan. After Wang was defeated, Peng briefly rejoined Chiang Kai-shek's forces before joining the Chinese Communist Party, allying himself with Mao Zedong and Zhu De.

Cultural Revolution

When the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, Qiu was labelled a counter-revolutionary element and targeted by the rebels in the GLD. He was subject to physical abuse and torture, fainting many times. [2] Qiu appealed directly to Lin Biao for help, who arranged his dramatic rescue. In the early hours of 25 January 1967, Lin's men took him from the GLD compound and moved him to a safe location in the Western Hills. Qiu called the day his "rebirth". [1]

After Qiu's release, marshals Liu Bocheng, Nie Rongzhen and Ye Jianying visited Qiu as he was undergoing treatment. The senseless mistreatment of Qiu was one of a series of events that pushed marshals Nie and Ye to voice their displeasure with the Cultural Revolution during the February Countercurrent, the last serious phase of dissent in the senior ranks of the party during the movement. Zhou Enlai himself asked Qiu to be restored in his leadership position in the GLD. On Qiu, Zhou commented, "the logistics department is like a smaller State Council, comrade Qiu has helped me with many things." [2]

In May 1967, Lin Biao appointed Qiu, together with Li Zuopeng and Wu Faxian, leaders of the "proletarian revolutionaries of the armed forces." In return, Qiu helped to persecute Lin's enemies and consolidate Lin's power in the PLA. He authorized the torture of 462 people in the GLD, eight of whom died as a result, [1] including lieutenant generals Fu Lianzhang and Tang Ping. [4] He also attacked General Xiao Hua, director of the PLA General Political Department (GPD), and wreaked havoc in the GPD. [1]

At the 9th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1969, Qiu and many other PLA generals emerged as the main beneficiaries of the Cultural Revolution after the destruction of the old guard. Qiu was elevated to the CPC Central Committee as well as the Politburo. [1] Qiu's political fortunes, however, were short-lived. When Lin Biao fled the country in September 1971 in an event still shrouded in mystery, Qiu was implicated by association. [5] He was relieved of his duties on September 24, 1971, then sent to confinement in a military base in Shunyi while the authorities sorted out the consequences of the incident. Qiu was then expelled from the party in 1973. [5]

Trial, prison, and release

Qiu was considered one of the main culprits of the so-called "Lin Biao-Jiang Qing Counter-revolutionary clique" and went on trial along with the Gang of Four in 1981. Of Lin Biao's inner circle, Qiu was said to have a good attitude during the proceedings, openly confessing to the charges and kneeling in front of Lt. Gen. Tang Ping's widow to seek her forgiveness. [4] On January 25, 1981, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison (including time served since 1971). [5] [1] He was released in 1987 after serving his full sentence, and resettled in Xi'an where he reunited with his family and was afforded some basic benefits from the state as well as a living stipend of about 200 yuan a month. As his health worsened in 2001, he was sent to Peking Union Medical College Hospital for treatment, and died there in 2002. [5]

Autobiography

Qiu wrote an autobiography, released in Hong Kong in 2012, which includes details on the intrigues of the Cultural Revolution and his relationship with Lin Biao. In it, Qiu portrays himself as a bulwark against the political machinations and ambitions of Jiang Qing. [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Guo Jian; Yongyi Song; Yuan Zhou (2015). Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 264. ISBN   978-1-4422-5172-4.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Yu Jie (August 16, 2012). 周恩来不是人民的总理，而是毛氏的家臣 ——从《邱会作回忆录》看周恩来在中共政权中的作用 (in Chinese). Radio Free Asia.
  3. 1 2 3 Gu Baozi (24 January 2011). 林彪后勤部长花花太岁邱会作浮沉录. Sina (in Chinese).
  4. 1 2 Xia Fei (March 12, 2007). 邱会作浮沉录. People's Daily (in Chinese).
  5. 1 2 3 4 林彪大将邱会作的晚年生活 2002年病逝. Phoenix News (in Chinese). January 4, 2009.
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