17 Facts About Xie Fuzhi

Xie Fuzhi was a Chinese Communist Party military commander, political commissar, and national security specialist.

Xie Fuzhi was born in 1909 in Hong'an County, Hubei and died in Beijing in 1972.

Xie Fuzhi joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1931, at the age of 22.

Xie Fuzhi's unit was involved in the victorious Huai Hai Campaign against the right-wing Kuomintang, after which it was merged into the newly formed 14th Army of the 2nd Field Army as the 41st Division.

Xie Fuzhi emerged from the post-liberation reorganization as Political Commissar of the 4th Army, 2nd Field Army.

Xie Fuzhi served with his former co-commander General Chen Geng, and concurrently as Deputy Political Commissar of the 3rd Army, 2nd Field Army under General Chen Xilian, later to become another Cultural Revolution military figure in support of Chairman Mao.

Xie Fuzhi became first secretary of the CPC Yunnan Committee, serving in these capacities until 1959, when by decision of Mao he replaced Luo Ruiqing as Minister of Public Security.

Xie Fuzhi was elected member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party at the Eight National Congress in 1956, and a member of the Central Military Commission.

Xie Fuzhi gave a speech in the summer of 1966, in his capacity as Minister of Public Security, that essentially gave carte blanche to the Red Guards to confiscate and kill their opponents.

The Gang of Four, Xie Fuzhi's allies, had similar ideas about creating a paramilitary force to balance the power of the PLA.

Xie Fuzhi was a member of the powerful Cultural Revolution Group.

In 1967, as it was happening throughout the country starting from Shanghai, in Beijing all power was passed to a new revolutionary committee, of which Xie Fuzhi was elected chairman.

Xie Fuzhi was preferred over CPC Beijing Committee Secretary Li Xuefeng who was deemed to be too hostile to the Red Guards.

Xie Fuzhi was first political commissar of the Beijing Military Region.

Xie Fuzhi remained in charge of state security until his sudden death in 1972.

Xie Fuzhi died before the denunciation of the Gang of Four in 1976, but he was identified in official documents, along with Kang Sheng, as equally responsible for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and guilty of "anti-party activities".

Xie Fuzhi was posthumously expelled from the Party in 1980 and his ashes were removed from the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery.