Mao: The Unknown Story

After brutal denunciation meetings, the Lius were put in separate virtual solitary confinement. They met again only once, when they were dragged in front of a kangaroo court as a couple, on 5 August, the first anniversary of Mao’s written tirade against Liu. Mao’s point man Kuai had prepared a big event at Tiananmen Square, where a stage had been specially constructed for the Lius to be paraded in front of an organized crowd of hundreds of thousands. In the end, Mao vetoed the idea. He could not risk this being seen by foreigners. If they were to witness the savagery towards his former closest colleague, here in the heart of Peking, i.e., clearly backed by him, the whole charade could easily backfire. Not least, this could affect foreign Maoists, many of whom had already been alienated by Mao’s Purge. Nor could Mao risk the Lius speaking. Mao could count on the Lius to produce sharp rebuttals, as they had done in letters to himself and in their retorts to Rebels. Mao did not dare risk a Stalin-type show trial. So the Lius ended up receiving their salvo of abuse only inside Zhongnanhai, from Praetorian Guards dressed in mufti and from Zhongnanhai staff.

On that day, 5 August, the “capitalist-roaders” Nos. 2 and 3, Deng Xiao-ping and Tao Zhu (Liu was the “No. 1”), were denounced outside their own houses too. They had both fallen into disgrace, like many other old Mao favorites, because they had declined to cooperate with Mao’s Great Purge. But as Mao did not hate them as much as he did Liu, they were treated less fiercely. Tao Zhu’s wife, Zeng Zhi, was an old friend of Mao’s, and was spared. She recounted a telling episode which reveals how precise Mao’s control was. While her husband was being beaten up, she was allowed to sit down. A militant woman was about to set upon her when Zeng Zhi noticed a man in the audience shaking his head at the woman, who promptly backed off.

Zeng Zhi knew that Mao’s “friendship” and protection could vanish as soon as she did anything that displeased the Great Helmsman. Later, when her terminally ill husband was sent into internal exile, she was given the option of accompanying him. Both she and her husband knew that if she did so she would lose Mao’s goodwill, which would ruin her and their only daughter. So the couple decided she should not go with him, and he died in exile alone.

At the kangaroo court inside Zhongnanhai on 5 August 1967, Liu stood his ground and gave succinct answers; but as soon as he tried to say more, Little Red Books rained down on his head, and he was shouted down by the crowd yelling mindless slogans. The Lius were punched, kicked, “jet-planed,” and had their hair pulled ferociously back to expose their faces for photographers and a film crew. At one moment, the meeting was adjourned and an order was given by a Mao point man to make it more ferocious for the cameras. The film shows Liu then being trampled on the ground. In a supreme act of sadism, the Lius’ six-year-old daughter and their other children were brought to watch their parents being assaulted. The whole vile episode was also attended by Mao’s special observer — his own daughter Li Na.

Mao may have derived satisfaction from the Lius’ ordeal, but he can hardly have failed to register that they were not crushed. At one point, Guang-mei tore free and clung to a corner of her husband’s clothes. For a few minutes, under a rain of kicks and punches, the couple held each other’s hands tight, struggling to stand up straight.

Guang-mei was to pay a hefty price for her courage. A little over a month later, she was charged with spying for America — plus, for good measure, Japan and Chiang Kai-shek. For twelve years, until after Mao’s death, she was locked up in the top-security prison, Qincheng, where for long periods she was not allowed even to walk, so that years later she still could not stand up straight. She remained undaunted. Her case team called for her execution. Mao said “No.” He did not want her put out of her misery so soon.

Guang-mei’s siblings were incarcerated, as was her septuagenarian mother, who died in prison a few years later. The Lius’ children became homeless, and were subjected to beatings and imprisonment. One son of Liu’s from a previous marriage committed suicide. Meanwhile, Liu’s house, a short walk from Mao’s, was turned into a uniquely Maoist slow-death cell.