Liu Shaoqi, President of the
People's Republic of China, 1959-1968.
With wife Wang Guangmei as young
revolutionaries.
As Mao's hand-picked successor above, and below.
1959. "Liu Shaoqi saves the peasants."* Visiting
his home province to see for himself the starvation
caused by Mao's Great Leap Forward, the worst
man-made calamity in human history. Thirty
million died. Liu stood up to Mao, the G.L.F. was
halted, and Mao stepped down from day-to-day
rule, ceding authority to Liu who became President.
Mao's hatred of Liu began then. The Cultural
Revolution was Mao's revenge and Liu Shaoqi it's
main target.
1960.
The handsome president, his wife
and a daughter.
Above, the state visit to Indonesia that was to be
the beginning of the end for Liu and Wang. Below,
Wang struggled at Tsinghua University. The string
of ping-pong balls are a mock pearl necklace to
criticize the fashionable form-fitting dress she
wore in Jakarta. Wang would spend twelve
years in prison.
Liu, surrounded by rabid Red Guards waving
Little Red Books outside his residence in Zhongnanhai.
Moments later he was knocked to the ground.
1969. The official death photograph. Liu was
imprisoned, tortured, and denied medication
and treatment. His family was not notified of
his death for three years.
1980. Posthumous rehabilitation and a state funeral.
Widow Wang Guangmei formally receiving
Liu Shaoqi's ashbox.
people to death at that
time. So I exaggerated
and said that I had
beaten three people
to death."**
-Liu Tingting, one of
Liu Shaoqi's daughters,
to a classmate in 1967 on
rumors that she had killed
people in "Red August."
Pictured above in Morning
Sun.
with an apartment on Park Avenue in New York City.
The woman in the fashionable scarf second from
right is identified as Liu Ting in the caption to
this photograph as it appears on the internet.
I am not sure however. The woman is a daughter
of Liu Shaoqi but it may not be Ting. At far left
is Wang Guangmei, Liu Shaoqi's wife. To her left
is former P.R.C. president Jiang Zemin. The
occasion was the fiftieth anniversary celebration
of the founding of the People's Republic.
*Jasper Becker, Hungry Ghosts.
** Liu Tingting also attended the Girls Middle School Attached to Beijing Normal University where Bian Zhongyun was the assistant principal. She was only fourteen years old at the time and was one of those who struck Teacher Bian. She was only recognized because of her famous father and did not play a significant role in the beating of Bian. See posts here August 5, 2007, January 6, 2008.
