Smashing the Gang of Four

The 1976 political campaign in China that followed the arrest of the Gang of Four and marked the end of the Cultural Revolution.

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Arrest of the Gang of Four: The October 1976 detention of Jiang Qing and three allies, ending their political control in China. The arrests supplied the decisive event that the campaign presented as the defeat of radical politics.
Mao Zedong: A Chinese communist revolutionary who founded the People's Republic of China and led it from 1949 until 1976. His death opened the succession struggle that made the Gang of Four vulnerable.
End of the Cultural Revolution: The termination in 1976 of the decade-long political upheaval launched by Mao Zedong. The campaign made the arrest a public marker of the upheaval's conclusion.
Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China: A 1981 Chinese Communist Party resolution that assessed Mao Zedong's leadership and the Cultural Revolution. It fixed an official historical judgment that went beyond the campaign's immediate denunciations.
Hua Guofeng: A Chinese Communist Party leader who succeeded Mao Zedong and ordered the Gang of Four's arrest. He authorized the arrests and led the campaign that consolidated the post-Mao succession.
Cultural Revolution: A mass political movement launched by Mao Zedong in China in 1966 and formally ended in 1976. The campaign declared the radical phase of this upheaval over.
Deng Xiaoping: A Chinese Communist leader who became China's paramount leader after Mao Zedong's death. The anti-radical turn helped create political space for his later return and reforms.
Mao Zedong's Legacy: The contested political and historical influence of Mao Zedong's leadership and ideas. The campaign condemned radical successors while preserving Mao's status in official memory.
People's Daily: The official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. Party media broadcast the accusations and framed the arrests as a victory for the revolution.
Gang of Four: A political faction led by Jiang Qing that wielded influence in China during the late Cultural Revolution. The campaign took its name and central target from this faction.