Smashing the Gang of Four

Smashing the Gang of Four
Smashing the Gang of Four
Simplified Chinese	粉碎四人帮
Traditional Chinese	粉碎四人幫
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Fěnsuì Sìrénbāng
Huairen Hall incident
Simplified Chinese	怀仁堂事变
Traditional Chinese	懷仁堂事變
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Huáirén Táng Shìbiàn
Huairen Hall coup
Simplified Chinese	怀仁堂政变
Traditional Chinese	懷仁堂政變
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Huáirén Táng Zhèngbiàn
October 6 coup
Simplified Chinese	十月六日政变
Traditional Chinese	十月六日政變
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Shíyuè Liùrì Zhèngbiàn

Smashing the Gang of Four
Smashing the Gang of Four
粉碎四人帮; Part of Cultural Revolution
Date	October 6, 1976
Location	Beijing, China
Caused by	Short term Dissatisfaction over the Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend; Death of Premier Zhou Enlai and the subsequient 1976 Tiananmen incident; Death and state funeral of Mao Zedong; Wang Hongwen setting up a duty room in the General Office without the approval of the Politburo; Long term Dissatisfaction over the Cultural Revolution; Dissatisfaction over the expansion of the powers of the Gang of Four and the Rebel Faction;
Resulted in	Successful: Gang of Four arrested The end of the Cultural Revolution; Hua Guofeng becomes the paramount leader; The Gang of Four and their supporters arrested and tried by the Special Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court; Expose, Criticize, and Investigate Movement; The Central Working Group enters Shanghai to crush an armed rebellion plot; Long term Deng Xiaoping becomes the paramount leader; Beginning of Boluan Fanzheng; Beginning of Redressing Wrongful Convictions; Beginning of reform and opening up; The Sixth Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee adopts the Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the People's Republic of China;
Parties
Politburo; Central Military Commission Central Guard Bureau; PLA Beijing Garrison; Beijing Military Region;	Gang of Four Unsuccessful participants: Shanghai militia (attempted armed rebellion); Tsinghua University militia; Peking University militia;
Lead figures
	Hua Guofeng; Ye Jianying; Wang Dongxing; Li Xiannian; Wu De; Geng Biao; Chen Xilian; Su Zhenhua; Wu ZhongSupport staff:; Zhang Yaoci; Wu Jianhua; Qiu Weigao Arrested Wang Hongwen; Zhang Chunqiao; Jiang Qing; Yao Wenyuan; Mao YuanxinArrested in Shanghai; Chi Qun; Xie Jingyi; Xu Jingxian; Ma Tianshui; Wang Xiuzhen; Jin Zumin
Units involved
	PLA Unit 61889 A tank regiment in the Shenyang Military Region
Casualties
Arrested	Members of the Gang of Four (Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao, Jiang Qing, Yao Wenyuan) and Mao Yuanxin were arrested along with other their supporters
Charged	Case of the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary group Organizing and leading a counter-revolutionary group; Conspiracy to overthrow the government; Inciting armed rebellion; Counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement; False accusations and frame-ups; Counter-revolutionary assault; Trial results The Gang of Four were expelled from the Chinese Communist Party and removed from all public office.; The Gang of Four were sentenced to suspended death sentences, life imprisonment, fixed-term imprisonment, and additional deprivation of political rights.;

The Smashing of the Gang of Four (also known as the Huairen Hall incident, the Huairen Hall coup, or the October 6 Coup) was a bloodless coup d'état in Zhongnanhai, Beijing on 6 October 1976, in which Premier Hua Guofeng joined forces with Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Ye Jianying and Wang Dongxing, together with other important figures in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the government and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), to arrest and detain the Gang of Four as well as Mao Yuanxin, Mao Zedong's nephew who acted as his liaison to the Central Committee.

In the early morning of the next day, Hua Guofeng was elected as acting chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and acting chairman of the Central Military Commission at a secret enlarged meeting of the Politburo, ending the Cultural Revolution launched by Mao. Later, the Gang of Four and their followers were subjected to political purges, with some being criminally prosecuted.
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