Zhang Bojun, Vice Chairman of the Democratic League of China – The Top Rightist Who Has Not Been Rehabilitated Yet
In 1957, the Chinese Communist Party launched an “anti-rightist” campaign to purge independent thinking among intellectuals, and more than 3 million intellectuals were branded as “rightists”.
Zhang Bojun, who studied in Germany, lived in the same dormitory with Zhu De, the head of the “Ten Marshals” of the CPC, and was introduced by him to join the CPC. After returning to China, he first worked as a professor at Sun Yat-sen University, then participated in the Northern Expeditionary War and the Nanchang Riot. After the failure of the riots, Zhang Bojun left the CCP and in 1928, he and Tan Pingshan and others conceived the “Chinese Revolutionary Party” in Shanghai, which was later reorganized as the “Provisional Action Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang”. In 1933, Zhang Bojun and his party participated in the “Fujian Mutiny” launched by Li Jishen, Jiang Guangnai and Cai Tingkai against Chiang Kai-shek. After the defeat, Zhang Bojun fled to Hong Kong together with others, but always insisted on cooperating with the Chinese Communist Party.
Afterwards, Zhang Bojun, Zhang Lan, Shen Junru and Huang Yanpei established the “Comrades’ Association for the Unification and Establishment of the People’s Republic of China” and used his position to spare no effort to seize power for the CPC. After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhang Bojun became a member of the central government, a member of the Council of State, vice chairman of the Democratic League of China, chairman of the Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, minister of transportation, and president of the Guangming Daily.
After the anti-rightist movement began, Zhang Bojun, who sincerely believed in Mao and the CPC, not only criticized the CPC at a meeting held by the United Front Work Department, but also put forward the idea of a “political design institute”. He said, “Now there are many design institutes in industry, but there are no design institutes for many facilities in politics. I think the CPPCC, NPC, democratic parties and people’s groups should be the four design institutes in politics. These design institutes should play more of a role. Some political capital construction, to be given to them in advance to discuss, three stinkers, synthesize a Zhuge Liang.” “Now the university is very dissatisfied with the party committee system, there should be a broad discussion, the system can be supplemented, because we are all going the way of socialism. Engage in this way, the content of democratic life will be enriched.” “The State Council often meets to come up with finished products for us to express our opinions, and such formalistic meetings can be held less often.” “The Party and the government should be determined to check the problems left in the suppression, the three anti-revolutionaries, and the purge, and the check should be prepared and made properly.” And so on.
Soon, Zhang Bojun’s speech was published in the People’s Daily, which became the incriminating and qualifying material for its classification as the head of the rightists.
On January 26, 1958, all of Zhang Bojun’s positions were revoked. After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, Zhang Bojun was censored and criticized. A few years ago, the article “Writing History and Remembering the Deceased Zhang Yihe Hooks the Soul with the Pen” disclosed that when the Cultural Revolution raided his home, “dozens of trucks drove out, carrying all of Zhang Bojun’s books” and “several criticism sessions were held” and “Zhang Bojun’s daughter-in-law ran from the house. Zhang Bojun’s daughter-in-law ran out of the house and was dragged back by the Red Guards”.
On May 17, 1969, he died of stomach cancer. His second daughter, Zhang Yihe, wrote in remembrance of her father, “After the rightist movement, he changed from a busy politician to a lonely thinker. From then on, the soul could not rest in its own shell.” Implicated by his father, Zhang Yihe was sentenced to twenty years in prison for “active counterrevolution” during the Cultural Revolution, and spent ten years in jail.
In 1980, the leaders of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee summoned Zhang Bojun’s wife, Li Jiansheng, and Zhang Yihe to convey the decision that Zhang Bojun’s rightist affiliation could not be corrected, saying, “Many of the materials used to classify Mr. Zhang Bojun as a rightist were inaccurate, ranging from the ‘Political Design Institute’ to the textual reform. ‘ to the textual reform, all of which could not be established, and the ‘rotating seat’ was said by Mr. XX during the criticism of the rightists, and was also wrongly counted against Mr. Zhang. Now that we have reorganized the materials, the main material used to characterize Mr. Zhang as a rightist is xxx’s denunciation material, i.e., Zhang Bojun’s words such as ‘the Communist Party is one God plus three million puritans’.”
One sentence sentenced Zhang Bojun to death, and I wonder if Zhang Bojun knows that the true nature of this “God” is the Satan who vowed to destroy mankind.
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