Fifty years ago | Power struggle in China had begun 2 years ago

Tokyo, November 9: Though the ouster from power of the four Shanghai radicals, led by Mao Tse-tung’s widow, Chiang Ching, became known to the outside world only last month, an acute power struggle within the Chinese Communist Party had been going on for nearly two years with Chairman Mao himself ranged against the gang of four, as they have now come to be known. Some light on this hitherto hidden aspect has been thrown by an editorial carried by the Liberation Army Daily, official organ of the People’s Liberation Army.

According to the editorial, the gang of four had been engaging over a period of time in an attempt to usurp top party and State leadership. Mao, however, saw through the plot and made it impossible for their schemes to be achieved.