[2005.05.19]Zhang chunqiao张春桥

Obituary讣告Zhang Chunqiao 张春桥
May 19th 2005
From The Economist print edition
Zhang Chunqiao, a member of the Gang of Four, died on April 21st, aged 88
张春桥,“四人帮”成员之一,死于4月21日,终年88岁

IT TOOK almost three weeks for China’s state news agency to announce the death of Zhang Chunqiao. When it came, a mere four sentences described his career as “one of the culprits of the Lin Bao and Jiang Qing Counter-revolutionary Clique”. And that, indeed, was how most Chinese had last seen him, at his televised show-trial in 1981. Manacled, rumpled, with his spectacles askew, he had looked both pathetic and desperate. And no wonder. With the other members of the Gang of Four, Mao Zedong’s chief henchmen (only one of whom now survives), he had faced charges of ultimate responsibility for the persecution of 729,511 people, and the deaths of 34,800 of them, during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76.
中国官方媒体在张春桥去世的三个星期后,才对外发布了消息。在这仅有四句话的新闻中,将他说成是“林彪江青反革命集团的主犯之一”。事实上,绝大多数中国人对他的最后印象是在1981年电视上的法庭公审。在那次审判中,他手带镣铐,衣着凌乱,眼镜歪斜,神情看起来既可怜又绝望。作为毛泽东的主要追随者,他和四人帮的其他成员(尚有一人还活着)不得不面临着审判,被指控的罪名是在66-76年的“文革”期间,对729,511人的迫害及34,800人的死亡负有完全的责任。

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