The Enforcer from Fragrant Hill

Just 27 days after Mao Tse-tung's death last September, Wang Tung-hsing, a close confidant of Mao's since the 1930s, set out on what seemed like a simple courtesy call on Mao's politically ambitious widow, Chiang Ch'ing. Accompanied by some aides from one of his commands, the elite 15,000-man palace guard, Wang strode into Mme. Mao's sumptuous villa in the Forbidden City -- and promptly arrested her. A few hours before, he had taken into custody Party Vice Chairman Wang Hung-wen and two other Politburo figures -- the other three members, along with Mme. Mao, of the celebrated Gang of Four.

With that swift work, the short, stocky, usually smiling Wang disposed of the leaders of the radicals in the post-Mao struggle for power in China and opened the way for the triumph that Chairman Hua Kuo-feng and his so-called moderates celebrated at the eleventh Party Congress. There, Wang also got his reward: he was named one of the four party vice chairmen and placed on the Standing Committee, which runs China's 35 million-member party -- and thus the nation itself. Along the way Wang also got a personal encomium from Chairman Hua, who praised the immense internal-security apparatus headed by Wang -- singling out its work in keeping "China and its leadership" from falling into the hands of the Gang of Four.

Western observers are uncertain whether Wang is emerging as a Chinese version of Lavrenti Beria, the Soviet security chief who rose to power under Stalin and was later executed. But Wang surely has the potential. From his tightly guarded headquarters in Fragrant Hill Park, a sprawling, tree-lined compound of antenna-covered villas and underground facilities about a half-hour drive from downtown Peking, Wang runs the Chinese equivalents of the U.S.'s FBI, Secret Service and CIA. His path to Fragrant Hill began early in the 1930s when, as a country-boy corporal in the Communist forces fighting the Nationalist regime, he became Mao's personal bodyguard. He quickly rose to command Mao's entire security force; in a legendary 1947 operation, he managed to save Mao, Chiang Ch'ing and Chou En-lai from capture by Nationalist troops in their cave headquarters in Yenan.

Wang has also been credited with bringing down Defense Minister Lin Piao in 1971. According to the official Chinese version, Lin had been caught plotting against Mao and was accidentally killed in a plane crash over Mongolia, probably while fleeing to the Soviet Union; in fact, Western specialists have suspected the "crash" was the result of sabotage -- Wang's work, in short.

Some Western analysts believe that Wang's next assignment will be to prevent the reoccurrence of the widespread strikes, riots and armed rebellions that have plagued the country since it be came clear that Hua was winning the leadership struggle. To accomplish this he can call on at least a half-million security troops under his command. He apparently also supervises several secrecy-shrouded police organizations; these include the dreaded Ministry of Public Security, which maintains Peking's totalitarian rule, partly through the aid of a vast system of forced-labor camps, where millions are imprisoned.

Wang has other credentials that make his a name to be reckoned with in any speculation about the next generation of power in Peking. One is his age: at 61, he is a stripling compared with Defense Minister Yeh Chien-ying, 79, and Deputy Premier Teng Hsiao-p'ing, 73. Wang also has the power to establish watchdog committees to monitor the loyalty of high party and military officials. Finally, there is his long career at the heart of China's security apparatus. Says a Nationalist Chinese official: Wang "knows where all the bodies are buried. "

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.