Lin Biao

Lin Biao

Lin Biao was the son of a farmer. He was born in Wuhan, China, in 1908. He joined the Socialist Youth League and attended the Whampoa Military Academy. It was there that he met Zhou Enlai. In 1926 he took part in the Northern Expedition which was aimed at curbing the power of the warlords who had risen to power since the collapse of the Ching Dynasty in 1911.

In 1934 he set out with Mao on the Great March.

Lin Biao was instrumental in developing the Red Army's military tactics, in particular guerrilla warfare. These were first used against the Japanese and then against the Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-Shek. In 1938 he was seriously wounded.

In 1945 he was given command of the North Western People’s Liberation Army. He did not attack the cities but concentrated on winning the support of the people in the country and small towns. In this he was highly successful. That enabled him to isolate and defeat units of the Nationalist Troops one by one until he eventually controlled the whole of Manchuria.

His army went on to help in the capture of Beijing, Wuhan and Guangzhou until finally, in 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic of China.

In 1955 he was promoted to the rank of Marshal after commanding the Chinese Army in Korea.

In 1966 Mao launched the Cultural Revolution to consolidate his power and to reclaim the revolution. To achieve this he unleashed the youth of the country as the Red Guards. Lin Biao, who was by then the Minister of Defence, gave speeches to schools urging the students to criticise anyone who were suspected of counter-revolutionary activities.

Lin Biao supported Mao and ensured that the army remained loyal. In 1967 Mao ordered the Red Army to take control of the Red Guards who by then had splintered into many factions and were out of control.

The Red Army forced millions of Red Guards to move to the country, thus destroying their unity and power.

At the 9th Party Congress in 1969, Lin Biao was nominated as Mao’s successor. The military had gained effective control of the party. In the Spring of 1969 during a border conflict with Russia, Lin Biao declared marshal law. He used this power to purge many of his rivals.

Mao became suspicious of Lin’s power and moved against him. He was supported by Premier Zhou Enlai and probably the faction headed by Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing. However, Mao’s assistant Chen Boda supported Lin. This splintered the Chinese leadership and threatened Mao’s power.

At the party plenum in 1970 Mao openly critised Chen Boda as a way of indirectly criticising Lin Biao. Chen disappeared shortly after. Then in September 1979 Lin was killed in a plane accident in Mongolia. The official reason given was that he was attempting to flee to Russia.

In the months that followed, virtually all the military high command was purged.

Lin’s fall from grace disillusioned many people who had supported Lin and looked up to him. Lin had been a strong supporter of the Cult of Mao. Many of his supporters had helped to purge challengers to Lin’s power and were now left to question their actions.

 Poster ordering the criticising of Lin Biao

'jiang gu shi'

 讲故事

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