Tao Zhu (Chinese: 陶铸; pinyin: Táo Zhù; Wade–Giles: T'ao Chu; 16 January 1908 – 30 November 1969) was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party .

Tao Zhu
陶铸
Tao Zhu
Head of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party
In office
December 1966 – 1967
Preceded byLu Dingyi
Succeeded byGeng Biao
Standing Secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party
In office
June 1966 – 1967
Preceded byNew title
Succeeded byPosition revoked
President of the Jinan University
In office
June 1958 – January 1963
Preceded byLi Shouyong
Succeeded byChen Xujing
First Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
In office
July 1955 – February 1965
Preceded byYe Jianying
Succeeded byZhao Ziyang
Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
In office
January 1955 – December 1960
Preceded byNew title
Succeeded byOu Mengjue
Governor of Guangdong
In office
September 1953 – August 1957
Preceded byYe Jianying
Succeeded byChen Yu
Political Commissar of the PLA Guangdong Military District
In office
June 1952 – July 1954
CommanderHuang Yiping [zh]
Preceded byTan Zheng
Succeeded bySong Weishi [zh]
Personal details
Born(1908-01-16)16 January 1908
Qiyang County, Hunan, Qing China
Died30 November 1969(1969-11-30) (aged 61)
Hefei, Anhui, China
Political partyChinese Communist Party
Spouse
(m. 1932; died 1969)
ChildrenTao Siliang [zh]
ParentTao Tiezheng
Alma materWhampoa Military Academy
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTáo Zhù
Wade–GilesT'ao Chu
Tao Jihua
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTáo Jìhuá
Art name
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinJiàn Hán

Biography

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Tao was born in Qiyang County, Hunan, on 16 January 1908.

He was imprisoned in Nanjing by the Kuomintang government from 1933 to 1937. As for many other cadres, during the Rectification Campaign having been in a KMT prison was a reason to suspect him as a spy and he was put under investigation.[1]: 556–557 

Tao Zhu was Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee and Commander of the Guangzhou Military Region. He became implicated during the Gao Gang affair but was protected from criticism by Mao Zedong. In 1958, during the initial stages of the Great Leap Forward, he participated enthusiastically in the "anti-hoarding campaign" in Guangdong, believing that reported production figures were real, and that the observed food shortage was only due to peasants' hoarding. Within a year, he realized his mistake as his campaign was not able to discover stored food supplies in villages; in fact, most peasants were starving. In the 1959 Lushan Conference, he initially sympathized with Peng Dehuai in his criticism of the Great Leap Forward. However, after a harsh reaction from Mao Zedong, Tao Zhu switched sides and joined up in Mao's attack on "right-leaning opportunists", submitting a list of his own officials that he identified as "opportunists". Nonetheless, in Guangdong, Tao's government took steps to reverse the damage of the Great Leap Forward by expanding individual peasant ownership of land and allowing emigration to Hong Kong.

He later became First Secretary of the Central-South region, and in 1965 was moved to Beijing to replace Lu Dingyi as Director of the Central Propaganda Department when Lu was purged for not adhering strongly to the Maoist line. Tao was a Vice Premier of the State Council and Secretary of the Central Secretariat of the CPC, as well as an advisor to the Cultural Revolution Group.

In May 1966, Tao Zhu was promoted to No. 4 in the party, behind Mao Zedong, Lin Biao and Zhou Enlai. That allowed his protégé, Zhao Ziyang, to take over as head of Guangdong province. Tao became a member of the Politburo Standing Committee at the Eleventh Plenum in August 1966 at the outset of the Cultural Revolution.

Tao and Zhao were among the most enthusiastic of the early pro-Red Guard CPC leaders, but quickly fell from favour because they tried to control the excesses of the radical leftists led by Zhang Chunqiao and Jiang Qing.[2] During an enlarged Politburo meeting in 1966 he was attacked by Wang Li, a junior member of the CRG, for curtailing revolution with the excuse of protecting production.[3]: 69  In mid-December he was again attacked by the CRG for allegedly protecting Wang Renzhong. At first he was protected by Mao Zedong, with Mao criticising Jiang Qing actions, but the CRG continued their attacks. He defended treating the cases of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping as contradictions among the people, this caused Mao's displease and, despite the encouragement of Zhou Enlai and Lin Biao to adopt a more passive attitude, the attacks by the CRG persisted.[3]: 70–71  He was labelled "the proxy leader of Liu-and-Deng-roaders" and a "Khrushchev-style ambitionist" by leading radical leftists [1]: 557  and placed under house arrest in early 1967. Oddly enough, Mao continued criticising Chen Boda and Jiang Qing for excesses on handling his case, but nothing was done to protect him.

While under house arrest, Tao was diagnosed with gallbladder cancer, but was initially denied medical treatment. Zhou Enlai eventually intervened to arrange an operation, but by then Tao's cancer was too advanced to treat successfully, and Tao died in a hospital. Tao's family was not allowed to see him either on his deathbed or after his death.[4] He was posthumously exonerated in 1978, after Deng Xiaoping rose to power. He was remembered as a man of great integrity.

Tao's daughter, Tao Siliang, became a Chinese politician in the late 1980s, leading several government initiatives in public health and the import of Western medical technology.

References

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  1. ^ a b Hua, Gao (2018-11-15). How the Red Sun Rose: The Origin and Development of the Yan'an Rectification Movement, 1930–1945. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. ISBN 978-962-996-822-9.
  2. ^ Vogel, Ezra, Canton Under Communism: Programs and Politics in a Provincial Capital, 1949-68, Harper & Row (New York), 1969 SBNN: 06-131629-6, p. 326-327
  3. ^ a b Teiwes, Frederick C.; Sun, Warren. The Lin Biao Tragedy: Riding the Tiger during the Cultural Revolution.
  4. ^ Chung, Jang. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. Touchstone: New York, NY. 2003. ISBN 0-7432-4698-5. p.391.
Military offices
Preceded by Political Commissar of the PLA Guangdong Military District
1952–1954
Succeeded by
Government offices
Preceded by Governor of Guangdong
1953–1957
Succeeded by
Assembly seats
New title Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
1955–1960
Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by First Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
1955–1965
Succeeded by
Preceded by Head of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party
1966–1967
Succeeded by
Educational offices
Preceded by
Li Shouyong
Abolished since 1949
President of the Jinan University
1958–1963
Succeeded by