Michael Y. M. Kau - The Lin Piao Affair: Power Politics and Military Coup

First published in 1975, this book is concerned with the facts and implications of the case of Lin Piao and his army, as well as with the broader question of military intervention in the authoritarian polity of developing countries. A wide range of materials is presented, including top-secret documents of the CCP Central Committee, Lin Piaos own writings and speeches from the 1966-1970 period, pertinent material from the Tenth Party Congress, and press criticism. In their introduction, the author provides a thorough critical analysis of the case of Lin Piao and of the dynamic of power politics that emerged from the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s.

First published in 1975
by International Arts and Sciences Press, Inc.

This edition first published in 2016 by Routledge
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1975 International Arts and Sciences Press, Inc.

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A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 7392807

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-20389-1 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-315-47041-2 (ebk)

EDITED BY MICHAEL Y. M. KAU

The Lin Piao Affair

Power Politics and Military Coup

INTERNATIONAL ARTS AND SCIENCES PRESS, INC., WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.

Copyright 1975 by International Arts and Sciences Press, Inc., 901 North Broadway, White Plains, New York 10603

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-92807
International Standard Book Number: 0-87332-065-4

Printed in the United States of America

To my parents, v.o.p.

Writing Group of the Liaoning Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party

Red Flag

Hsiao Pin

Party Committee of a Certain PLA Regiment Stationed in Peking

Tien Chih-sung

Wang Pi-cheng

Chou En-lai

Wen-hui Daily

Mass Criticism Group of Peking University and Tsinghua University

[Reported by Lin Tou-tou]

If the drama of Mao Tse-tungs tireless striving for the ideal of continuing the revolution and transforming Chinese society is fascinating to the Western student of Chinese politics, the collateral struggle over policy and power is probably even more so. One recent development in this saga is of course the startling rise and fall of Lin Piao, the minister of defense and official successor-designate to Mao up until his mysterious death on September 13, 1971.

The Ninth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, held in 1969, officially proclaimed Lin Piao to be Comrade Mao Tsetungs close comrade-in-arms and successor. Lin and the army under his command were praised for having consistently held high the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung thought and for having most loyally and resolutely carried out and defended Maos proletarian revolutionary line. Yet, at the Tenth Party Congress, a scant four years later, Lin was publicly labeled the bourgeois careerist, conspirator, double-dealer, renegade and traitor and stood accused of having engineered a military coup detat in an attempt to split the Party, assassinate Mao, and restore capitalism in China. Even his death was unusually dramatic. He was reported to have died in a plane crash in Mongolia in an attempt to escape to the Soviet Union after his coup plot was aborted.

Indeed, the dramatic development of the Lin Piao affair, together with the great political turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, challenges many of the theories and assumptions about the patterns and processes of the Chinese political system which Western scholars had formulated prior to 1966. More specifically, Lin Piaos military coup attempt raises serious questions about the civil-military relationship and the tradition of the multifunctionality of the Red Army in China. The Maoist model of army-building calls for the military to perform a wide variety of nonmilitary tasks, while insisting that the civilian Party control of the army be maintained. In Maos own words, the army should function not only as a fighting force but also as a working force; and the Party commands the gun and the gun shall never be allowed to command the Party.

This book focuses on the background events and politics of Lin Piaos abortive military coup and its aftermath. The book is also concerned with the broad critical questions concerning the role of the military in the Chinese Communist political system, which has been under strain since the mid-1960s, the escalation of power politics triggered by the Cultural Revolution, and the crisis of political succession now confronting the aging Mao.

The Editor s Introduction presents a reconstruction and critical analysis of the Lin Piao affair based on sources and information gathered inside and outside China. Since no definitive work on a case as intriguing as that of Lins can be undertaken without unrestricted access to all relevant documents and evidence in China and, more importantly, since this fact is not likely to change for the foreseeable future, this volume also assembles a wide range of important source materials crucial to an understanding of the case. They include top-secret Party documents, Red Guard publications, press and secret criticisms of Lin, as well as a comprehensive collection of Lins own speeches and instructions from the 1965-1970 period. It is hoped that by making this set of important materials readily available in a single volume to students of Chinese politics, this book will stimulate more interest and further research on the perplexing case of Lin Piao. The value of the materials contained here transcends the Lin Piao affair itself, however. They offer most revealing information about and valuable insights into many other important questions of the past two decades, ranging from factional politics to Maos authoritarian rule, from the disputes over economic and military priorities to the controversies over the role of individuals in history.