After being labelled a traitor for years, Lin Biao has been quietly restored as one of the mainland's top military heroes in a new exhibition celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army.
The exhibition opened in Beijing yesterday. Lin's portrait was included among the so-called 10 marshals who are considered the PLA's founders.
Lin was killed in September 1971 when his plane crashed in Mongolia after an alleged coup attempt against Mao Zedong had failed. Lin had been honoured in 1955 as one of the top marshals. Although his name was still included in secondary school history textbooks, his picture was rarely displayed publicly on the mainland.
Jiang Tinyu, a senior researcher at the Chinese Military Museum, was quoted by Xinhua as saying that not displaying Lin's picture was inconsistent with an objective view of history. 'With objective thinking, we decided to put the picture of Lin Biao together with the other nine marshals,' Mr Jiang said. 'We have to show history as it was.'