Zhang Chunqiao, a member of the Gang of Four during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and mid 1970s which triggered unprecedented political upheaval in China, has died of cancer in Beijing. He was 88.
According to a brief Xinhua report yesterday, Zhang died on April 21. He was described as 'a main criminal of the counter-revolutionary clique' led by former military leader Lin Biao and Jiang Qing , Mao Zedong's third wife.
Together with Jiang and his close associates in Shanghai, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen , Zhang formed what became known as the Gang of Four, which dominated China's politics for a decade between 1966 and 1976. Jiang killed herself in 1991 and Wang died a year later. Only Yao is still alive.
Xinhua's announcement puts an end to the mystery surrounding this chapter in modern China's history. Reports had suggested Zhang died in prison in the early 1990s.
The political clique was officially blamed for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, launched by Mao as part of his campaign to consolidate power and purge political rivals within the party.
Zhang, born in 1917 in Shandong province, became deputy head of the Cultural Revolution Group, the right-hand man to Jiang in 1966 and was one of the founders of the Shanghai Commune in 1967.