When Mao Zedong’s bodyguard, Wang Dongxing, who has died aged 99, joined the plot to arrest Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, and her associates in the “Gang of Four” after Mao’s death in China in 1976, he knew it was a high-risk affair. Assembling a group of special forces officers under his command, he made them swear an oath of loyalty and secrecy. He also instructed them to shoot to kill if there was any armed resistance.
In the event no blood was shed: Jiang’s three close associates were lured to a high-level meeting ostensibly to discuss the building of Mao’s mausoleum and the publication of his latest works. They were quickly nabbed when they entered a building in the Zhongnanhai leadership compound next to the Forbidden City, and Jiang was seized separately.
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