Zhang Chunqiao

Zhang Chunqiao 张春桥
Born	1 February 1917 Juye, Shandong, Republic of China
Died	21 April 2005 (aged 88) Jiangyin, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China
Cause of death	Cancer
Nationality	Chinese
Ideology	Marxism–Leninism Mao Zedong Thought Anti-revisionism
Political party	CPC

Zhang Chunqiao was a Chinese polititian, leading member of the Gang of Four and director of the Shanghai Revolutionary Committee. He is considered by many Maoists to be the best potential succesor to Mao Zedong

Early Life

He was born in Juye, Shandong Province, Republic of China into a wealthy landlord family, other than that not much is known about his early life except for that he would eventually drift towards Marxism-Leninism and give up his capital. Zhang joined the Shanghai chapter of the League of Chinese Left-Wing Writers in 1936

Joining the Communist Party of China

In 1938 he would travel to Yan’an and join the Communist Party of China. During the war against Japan he became a cadre of guerrillas operating in Japanese controlled territory in north and east China. In this time he would begin to read Stalin, Mao and others as to deepen his understanding of Marxism. He would eventually become the editor-in-chief of Jin-Cha-Ji Daily and New Shimen Daily. In the People’s Republic of China, he held positions such as the president of Liberation Daily, member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, head of the Propaganda Department and alternate member of the Municipal Party Committee. His article 'Do Away with the Ideology of Bourgeois Right' gained him attention from Mao Zedong and Jiang Qing, the article was praised by Mao and eventually published in the People’s Daily in 1958.