The Gang of Four on Trial

By Richard Bernstein

After many delays, the "evildoers "finally enter the dock

The long parade of limousines and buses knifed through Peking's wintry smog just before 3 p.m. As police and soldiers kept away curious bystanders, sober-faced men and women emerged from the cars, strode through the gates of the public security compound at No. 1 Zhengyi (Justice) Road near Tian'anmen Square and entered a large, brightly lighted courtroom. After taking their seats, the 35 judges and 880 "representatives of the masses" looked on impassively as the ten defendants were led into the court by bailiffs to hear the charges against them.

Thus began the long-awaited trial of China's notorious Gang of Four and six other high-ranking "evildoers." The carefully orchestrated courtroom drama, which is expected to last for several weeks, is the most important show trial to take place in the 31 years that the Communist Party has ruled China. The most celebrated defendant is Jiang Qing, 67, the widow of Mao Tse-tung, who, along with her allies in the Gang of Four,* led Mao's reckless and violent Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. They were arrested four years ago, shortly after Mao's death in 1976. Also on trial are a group of senior military officials who allegedly plotted with the late Defense Minister Lin Biao to assassinate Mao in 1971 and seize supreme power for themselves.

The defendants had not been seen publicly since their arrest. Jiang Qing, a onetime film actress, seemed almost defiant as the trial opened. Her jet-black hair was pulled severely back behind her ears; she marched into the courtroom with her head regally erect and then alternately smirked and yawned during the reading of the indictment, apparently to show contempt for the proceedings. Still, there were some reports that at one point she broke down and cried. Other defendants seemed tired and worn from their long imprisonment. Two members of the Gang, Zhang Chunqiao and Wang Hongwen, had shaved heads. Two other defendants, including Chen Boda, 76, who had been Mao's personal secretary and a theoretician of the Cultural Revolution, had to be helped to their places before the bar by two guards.

Portions of the 20,000-word indictment were printed in China's press before the trial started; they accused the defendants of a host of heinous crimes that took place during the Cultural Revolution. The charges specify that 727,420 Chinese were "persecuted" during that period, and that 34,274 died, though the often vague indictment did not specify exactly how. Among the chief victims: onetime Chief of State Liu Shaoqi, whose widow Wang Guangmei, herself imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution, attended the trial as an observer.

The indictment describes two plots by the "Jiang Qing-Lin Biao counterrevolutionary clique" to seize power. Lin Biao's effort to have Mao assassinated in 1971, for example, was known as "Project 571." The indictment alleges that Lin, who was then Mao's official heir, plotted to kill the Great Helmsman while he was on an inspection tour of southern China. The plan was to attack Mao's special train "with flame throwers and bazookas, to dynamite the railway bridge [over which the train was to pass], bomb the train from the air, blow up the oil depot near the train stop in Shanghai, and then assassinate the Chairman in the ensuing commotion." The indictment sheds no light on how the Great Helmsman, whose improbable code name to the conspirators was "B-52," managed to survive that elaborate plot, or even whether an attack was ever mounted.

Jiang Qing is not accused of conspiring with Lin Biao, or with other members of the Gang of Four who allegedly planned an armed rebellion to "usurp power" in 1976, when Mao was close to death. Instead, the charges against her focus on her systematic persecution of creative artists during the Cultural Revolution. Among other things, she is accused of hiring 40 people in Shanghai to disguise themselves as Red Guards and ransack the homes of writers and performers. The apparent purpose: to find and destroy letters, photos and other potentially damaging materials on Jiang Qing's early career in Shanghai, which she wanted to keep secret.

Despite the seriousness of the accusations against her, Jiang Qing appeared unrepentant. She has not confessed her guilt, something that the Chinese press has emphasized to show her bad attitude.

There have been reports that she plans to defend herself by cloaking herself in Mao's mantle, saying that she did only what he approved. As the trial got under way, Jiang Qing dismissed her assigned team, deciding instead to represent herself.

There is virtually no doubt what the verdicts will be -- guilty as charged. The judges, who are mostly party or military officials rather than professional jurists, are unlikely to ignore the well-known goals of China's strongman, Vice Chairman Deng Xiaoping, and his powerful allies. One is to discredit permanently the Gang of Four and other radicals who not only purged the current leaders but also brought China to the edge of chaos. An other is to lower public esteem for Mao without discrediting the Great Helmsman entirely.

Indeed, perhaps the only real question about the trial was what the sentences would be, and Chinese officialdom last week provided some ominous clues.

"We're going to nail them to history's pillar of shame," predicted Peking's People's Daily. Zhang Youyu, China's most famous lawyer and legal scholar, was quoted as saying that "no sentence could be considered too heavy." He added that "just because we have a principle of leniency does not mean that some counter- revolutionary criminals cannot be sentenced to death."

The three others: former Politburo members Zhang Chunqiao, 63; Yao Wenyuan, 49; and Wang Hongwen, 45.

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