Mao: The Unknown Story

WITHIN DAYS THE Lius’ telephones were cut off. House arrest was now total, with the walls covered with enormous insulting posters and slogans. On 1 April, Mao made Liu’s purge official to the general public by having him condemned as “the biggest capitalist-roader” in People’s Daily. Right after this, Kuai organized a rally 300,000 strong to humiliate and abuse Guang-mei. Chou discussed the details with Kuai beforehand, and on the day itself Chou’s office kept in constant contact by phone with Kuai’s group. Mme Mao added her personal touch by telling Kuai: “When Wang Guang-mei was in Indonesia, she lost all face for the Chinese. She even wore a necklace!” Mme Mao also accused Guang-mei of wearing traditional Chinese dresses “to make herself a whore with Sukarno in Indonesia,” and told Kuai: “You must find those things and make her wear them.” Mme Mao had been bitterly jealous of Guang-mei being able to wear glamorous clothes when she went abroad as the president’s wife, while she herself was cooped up in China, where these things were not allowed.

Kuai recalled that Mme Mao “was telling me explicitly, in effect, to humiliate Wang Guang-mei … We could insult her any way we wanted.” So a traditional Chinese tight dress was forced on to Guang-mei, over her padded clothing, making her body appear bulging and ugly. A string of ping-pong balls was hung around her neck to signify a pearl necklace. The whole rally was filmed by cameramen, undoubtedly for Mao, as it could not have been done without his authorization.

But the Maos failed to break Guang-mei. During the pre-rally interrogation, she showed extraordinary fearlessness — and a quick wit — and defended her husband eloquently. When she was hauled onto the stage to face the crowd’s blood-curdling screams and upthrust fists, her interrogators asked her: “Aren’t you scared?” Her calm answer impressed them: “No, I am not.”

Decades later, Kuai spoke with admiration about Guang-mei: “She was very strong … She stood straight, and refused to bow her head when ordered to. The students went at her with force, great force. She was pushed down to her knees … but instantly she stood up straight. Wang Guang-mei would not be cowed. She was full of bitterness against Mao Tse-tung, only she could not say it straight out.” Afterwards, she wrote to Mao to protest.

Liu did likewise, again and again. Mao’s response was to ratchet up the punishment, leaving detailed instructions with the Small Group before he left Peking on 13 July. The moment he was gone, several hundred thousand Rebels were summoned to camp outside Zhongnanhai, blasting insults like “pile of dog shit” at the Lius through scores of loudspeakers. Liu’s subordinates were dragged outside the walls of Zhongnanhai to be denounced in a sort of grotesque road show.

At the height of this, Liu was presented with a demand to “bow your head obediently and admit your crimes to Chairman Mao.” This was purportedly in the name of some Rebels, to pretend that it had come from “the masses.” But it was presented to Liu by Mao’s chamberlain and chief of the Praetorian Guard, Wang Dong-xing, which left no doubt who was the puppeteer. Liu turned the demand down flat. Anticipating the worst after this defiance, Guang-mei held up a bottle of sleeping pills in front of her husband, offering to commit suicide with him. Neither spoke a word for fear of bugging, which would almost certainly have led to the pills being confiscated. Liu shook his head.

Knowing how much Liu’s strength had come from his wife, Mao ordered the couple separated. On 18 July, they were told they would be denounced at separate meetings that evening. More than three decades later Guang-mei wrote about the moment:

I said: “It looks as if it really is goodbye this time!” I just couldn’t stop my tears falling …

… For the only time in our lives, Shao-chi did my packing for me, and he folded my clothes neatly. In the last few minutes, we sat gazing at each other … Then he who rarely cracked a joke said: “This is like waiting for a sedan-chair to come and carry you off [to be married]!” … We burst out laughing.