Chen Boda
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- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Chen.
Chen Boda (simplified Chinese: 陈伯达; traditional Chinese: 陳伯達; pinyin: Chén Bódá) was born in 1904 in Hui'an (Fujian province, China) and died on 20 September 1989 in Beijing.
He was a member of the Chinese Communist Party, a secretary to Mao Zedong and a prominent member of the leadership during the Cultural Revolution, chairing the Cultural Revolution Group.
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[edit] Early life
Chen Boda was a communist organizer who participated in the 1926–1927 Northern Expedition and later went to Moscow to study for four years. In 1930, Chen Boda returned to China to teach in Beijing. From 1937 on, he worked as a teacher in Yan'an.
[edit] Role in the post-1949 government
In 1951, he wrote an article with the title Mao Zedong's theory of the Chinese Revolution is the combination of Marxism-Leninism with the Chinese Revolution and a book entitled Mao Zedong on the Chinese Revolution. These works made him one of the most important interpreters of Mao Zedong's thoughts, and in the 1950s he became Mao's personal secretary and close associate, authoring several key policy documents.[1] In 1958, he became the editor of the party journal Hongqi (The Red Flag).
During the Lushan Conference (July 1959), because Mao was no longer the head of the CPP at this time (Liu Shaoqi was in place), and as he didn't want to lose credibility in front of the CCP, he used Chen Boda to criticise Peng Dehuai.[2]
[edit] The Cultural Revolution
From 1966 until 1969, Chen Boda was to play an important role in the Cultural Revolution. In May 1966, he was placed at the head of the newly formed Cultural Revolution Group, a body established to oversee and direct the course of the Cultural Revolution.[3] In time, this group would rise to become the most important political body in China, surpassing even the Politburo Standing Committee in importance.[4] Furthermore, Chen Boda was also placed as head of the Communist government's propaganda machine alongside Jiang Qing when the previous leader, Lu Dingyi, was deposed in 1966.[5] He also became a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo.[6]
However, as the Cultural Revolution Group began to appear too radical for the liking of the leadership in Peking, its influence began to wane, and it was formally dissolved at the CCP's Ninth Congress in the Spring of 1969.[7] This marked the end of Chen Boda's involvement in the Cultural Revolution. As the leadership became more moderate in its outlook and the initial aims of the Cultural Revolution were sidelined, Chen's radicalism caused concern, and he was condemned as a 'revisionist secret agent' by the CCP's Tenth Congress in 1973.[8]
[edit] Later life
After the Cultural Revolution, he was tried by the post-Mao government as a collaborator with the Gang of Four.[9] He was sentenced to eighteen years in prison, but was released shortly afterwards due to his ill health. He died on the 20th September, 1989.
[edit] References
Biogrpahy of Chen Boda at China Vitae
- ^ Meisner, M; 'Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic since 1949'; Free Press (2006); p. 151
- ^ "The turmoil ages of China" by Wang Nianyi
- ^ Guillermaz, J; 'The Chinese Communist Party in Power, 1949-1976'; Westview Press (1976); p. 401
- ^ MacFarquhar, R and Schoenhals, M; 'Mao's Last Revolution'; Belknap Harvard (2006); p. 155
- ^ Meisner, M; 'Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic since 1949'; Free Press (2006); p. 332
- ^ Meisner, M; 'Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic since 1949'; Free Press (2006); p. 403
- ^ MacFarquhar, R and Schoenhals, M; 'Mao's Last Revolution'; Belknap Harvard (2006); p. 156
- ^ Guillermaz, J; 'The Chinese Communist Party in Power, 1949-1976'; Westview Press (1976); p. 461
- ^ Meisner, M; 'Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic since 1949'; Free Press (2006); p. 461
