The one-hundred-year history of the Communist Party of China is not only a history of revolution and revival, but also a cruel history.

From Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution to Deng Xiaoping’s Tiananmen repression and Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party did not hesitate to take whatever measures they deem necessary to ensure and continue to hold power.

This is most obvious in the case of party members being purged.

From general Peng Dehuai, who was tortured for opposing Mao Zedong’s disastrous economic policies, to Premier Zhao Ziyang, who was erased by history for seeking to compromise with protesters when Deng supported guns and tanks, and Zhou Yongkang, the former security minister who reportedly threatened Xi Jinping Promoted but imprisoned for corruption—political cleansing is a long-standing tradition of the CCP.

Here are some of the most famous people who have been cleansed:

Peng Dehuai

As one of China’s greatest military leaders, Peng fell out of favor when criticizing Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward, an economic plan in the late 1950s that tried to push China into the country through collectivization of agriculture and steelmaking in the backyard furnace. In the industrial age, as many as 30 million people died of starvation in the end.

Peng, who led the Chinese army in the Korean War and signed an armistice agreement to end hostilities, was appointed Minister of Defense in 1954. But he was dismissed after he called the policy of the Great Leap Forward unrealistic.

He was also one of the first victims of the Cultural Revolution, an extreme violent movement that began in 1966 when the fanatical Red Guards loyal to Mao Zedong began to destroy all the remains of Chinese feudal culture and eradicate the enemy in the eyes of the chairman.

According to the People’s Daily, Peng was arrested in 1966, imprisoned and tortured, and the Red Guards beat him until he “fractured” his back. He died in solitary confinement in 1974.

Liu Shaoqi

From left: Zhou Enlai, the top leader of the Communist Party of China, from the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 to his death, Chinese Premier Chen Yun, Chinese President Liu Shaoqi, and China’s leading theorist Mao Zedong during the Communist Party’s Central Committee meeting in Beijing in 1962. The communist revolution, The Chairman of the Communist Party of China and the Chairman of the Republic had a conversation with the “modernizer” Deng [Xinhua/AFP]

Liu, once regarded as Mao’s heir, is another famous victim of the Cultural Revolution.

Liu, who succeeded Mao as the head of state of China in 1959, was condemned by the Red Guards as a “traitor, traitor, and worker” and a “capitalist roader” who tried to defeat the communist revolution. He was removed from office and expelled from the party in 1968.

He died in 1969, but his death was not announced until 1974.

Deng Xiaoping

People walk past the posters of the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who launched the “Reform and Opening” program in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China on December 13, 2018 [File: Thomas Peter/Reuters]

As the founding revolutionary of the Communist Party, Deng was eliminated from the party twice during the Mao Zedong era (1949-1976).

During the Cultural Revolution, Deng’s economic pragmatism and relationship with Mao’s opponents in the Communist leadership, including Liu Shaoqi, caused him to lose his party position. Subsequently, he was sent to work in a tractor factory.

In 1973, Mao Zedong returned Deng Xiaoping to the leadership, appointed him the deputy prime minister, and gave him day-to-day control of the government. But only four years later, Mao Zedong purged Deng Xiaoping again, this time because Mao was worried that Deng Xiaoping would change some of his radical policies.

After Mao Zedong’s death, Deng became China’s supreme leader—even though he did not hold the highest position in the CCP—and remained the most powerful person in China until his death in 1997.

Lin Biao

In 1959, Chinese Marshal Lin Biao succeeded Peng Dehuai as China’s Minister of Defense.

He played a key role in the Cultural Revolution and was later considered Mao Zedong’s successor.

But according to Edward JM Rhoads, a professor of history at the University of Texas, by 1971, Lin He’s army had accumulated political authority beyond Mao Zedong’s imagination. To avoid being purged, Lin desperately planned a coup but failed. The Chinese government later stated that Lin was killed in a plane crash in Mongolia on September 13, 1971 while fleeing to the Soviet Union.

Jiang Qing

On Friday, December 5, 1980, Chairman Mao Zedong’s widow Jiang Qing appeared at the opening of the Beijing Supreme People’s Court Special Court [File: AP]

Mao’s third wife Jiang Qing and her three aides were expelled from the party after Mao died in 1976.

As part of the Gang of Four, Jiang was arrested for his role in the Cultural Revolution and tried for treason and other crimes against the state. The organization was blamed for causing 34,375 deaths and persecution of hundreds of thousands.

According to reports, Jiang said during the trial: “I am Chairman Mao’s dog. I will bite whoever he tells me to bite.”

Jiang was sentenced to a suspended death sentence, which was later reduced to life imprisonment.

She committed suicide in 1991.

Chen wedding

As Mao Zedong’s political secretary, Chen was the main translator of revolutionary leadership thought.

He was sentenced to 18 years in prison for crimes committed during the Cultural Revolution.

Hu Yaobang

On March 25, 1987, Hu Yaobang, the former general secretary of the Communist Party of China, had not appeared in public since December last year. He stepped down from an important position in January and reappeared in Beijing on March 25, 1987.Post when students demand democracy [Neal Ulevich/AP Photo]

Once a right-hand man of Deng Xiaoping, Hu served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1980-87.

In early 1997, after weeks of student demonstrations demanding greater political freedom, Hu was removed from the party’s top position and was marginalized for tolerating “bourgeois liberalization” or the influence of Western democracy.

It was Hu’s death in 1989 that triggered a student-led democratic protest in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Hu is also believed to have helped correct the political fate of Xi Jinping’s father, Xi Zhongxun, who was sentenced to prison during the Mao Zedong era.

Hu Yaobang ended President Xi’s 16-year party cleansing and restored his party status in Guangdong. This paved the way for the continuation of President Xi’s power and influence, and also paved the way for Xi’s rise to ultimate power in China today. the way. ,” China observer Bonnie Girard said in an article published in The Diplomat magazine in 2018.

Zhao Ziyang

In the early morning of May 19, 1989, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Zhao Ziyang went to Tiananmen Square to call on the students to go on a hunger strike [AP Photo/Xinhua]

In 1989, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhao, a reformist leader, was purged for refusing to declare martial law and sending troops to suppress the democratic protests in Tiananmen Square that year.

He later wrote in his memoirs: “I told myself that no matter what, I would not become the general secretary of mobilizing the army to suppress students.” In the early morning of May 19, 1989, Zhao even went to the square to beg the students to leave the school. area.The next day, Beijing declared martial law, two weeks later, soldiers entered the square and Fire, Killing hundreds of people, if not thousands.

Zhao was placed under house arrest and never appeared in public again.

Since then, his name has been mostly deleted from Chinese news media, history and websites.

When he died in 2005, the official obituary only referred to him as a comrade, and did not mention that he had helped lead the country for nearly 10 years.

Zhou Yongkang

In 2015, Zhou, the former head of China’s security department, was sentenced to life imprisonment for taking bribes, corruption, and abuse of power.

He is the highest-ranking figure in Xi Jinping’s comprehensive fight against corruption.

Zhou’s son and wife were also jailed for corruption in 2016. Reuters reported that the Chinese authorities seized $14.5 billion from the Zhou family and arrested or interrogated more than 300 relatives, political allies, protectors and political allies of the Zhou family.

This screenshot taken from a closed-circuit television screen shows Zhou Yongkang, the former head of security in China, who was tried by the Tianjin Intermediate People’s Court on June 11, 2015 [CCTV/AFP]

On October 15, 2007, Zhou Yongkang, then Minister of Public Security, attended the opening ceremony of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing [File: Jason Lee/ Reuters]

A senior CCP official later stated at the 2017 party congress that Zhou and five others conspired to seize power from Xi Jinping. They are the famous politician Bo Xilai, the Politburo member Sun Zhengcai, the former assistant to the president Ling Jihua, the late army general Xu Caihou and the former general Guo Boxiong.

Bo Xilai was the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee in Chongqing and was expelled from the party in 2012. Dramatic scandal His wife was accused of murdering a British businessman. The following year, he was sentenced to prison for corruption, bribery and abuse of power.

Caihou died during a corruption investigation, and the remaining three suspected of anti-Xi were also imprisoned for corruption.

Sun Zhengcai

Sun Zhengcai, a former Chinese political star and a competitor for the Chinese president [File: Wei Yao/AFP]

As a former Politburo member, Sun was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018 for taking bribes.

He was once considered a competitor for the party’s top leadership.

A senior CCP official said at the party’s 2017 congress that Sun and five others conspired to seize power from Xi Jinping.

Ling Jihua

As a former senior aide to former Chinese President Hu Jintao, Ling was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016 for taking bribes, abusing his power, and illegally obtaining state secrets.

His wife testified in a trial against him.

In the same year, Ling’s younger brother Ling Qi was also sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison for accepting bribes.

A senior CCP official said at the party’s 2017 congress that Ling Jihua was one of six people conspiring to usurp Xi Jinping’s power.

Xu Caihou

On March 14, 2012, Xu Caihou, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, which controls the Chinese army, and Bo Xilai, secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee, attended the closing meeting of the National People’s Congress held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China [File: Vincent Thian/AP]

Xu, a former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, was expelled from the Communist Party of China in 2014 on suspicion of taking bribes. The following year, he died of bladder cancer.

When announcing his death, the Chinese military said that Xu’s “tragic and shameful life” was over.

A senior CCP official stated at the party’s 2017 congress that Xu was one of six people who conspired to usurp Xi Jinping’s power.

Guo Boxiong

Guo, a former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016 for taking bribes.

A senior CCP official stated at the party’s 2017 congress that Guo was one of six people conspiring to usurp Xi Jinping’s power.