Tao Zhu | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
陶铸 | |||||||||
 Tao Zhu | |||||||||
| Head of thePublicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party | |||||||||
| In office December 1966 – 1967 | |||||||||
| Preceded by | Lu Dingyi | ||||||||
| Succeeded by | Geng Biao | ||||||||
| Standing Secretary of theSecretariat of the Chinese Communist Party | |||||||||
| In office June 1966 – 1967 | |||||||||
| Preceded by | New title | ||||||||
| Succeeded by | Position revoked | ||||||||
| President of theJinan University | |||||||||
| In office June 1958 – January 1963 | |||||||||
| Preceded by | Li Shouyong | ||||||||
| Succeeded by | Chen Xujing | ||||||||
| First Secretary of Guangdong | |||||||||
| In office July 1955 – February 1965 | |||||||||
| Preceded by | Ye Jianying | ||||||||
| Succeeded by | Zhao Ziyang | ||||||||
| Chairman of theGuangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference | |||||||||
| In office January 1955 – December 1960 | |||||||||
| Preceded by | New title | ||||||||
| Succeeded by | Ou Mengjue | ||||||||
| Governor of Guangdong | |||||||||
| In office September 1953 – August 1957 | |||||||||
| Preceded by | Ye Jianying | ||||||||
| Succeeded by | Chen Yu | ||||||||
| Political Commissar of thePLA Guangdong Military District | |||||||||
| In office June 1952 – July 1954 | |||||||||
| Commander | Huang Yiping [zh] | ||||||||
| Preceded by | Tan Zheng | ||||||||
| Succeeded by | Song Weishi [zh] | ||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||
| Born | (1908-01-16)16 January 1908 | ||||||||
| Died | 30 November 1969(1969-11-30) (aged 61) | ||||||||
| Party | Chinese Communist Party | ||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||
| Children | Tao Siliang | ||||||||
| Alma mater | Whampoa Military Academy | ||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 陶铸 | ||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 陶鑄 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Tao Jihua | |||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 陶际华 | ||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 陶際華 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Art name | |||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 剑寒 | ||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 劍寒 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Tao Zhu (Chinese:陶铸;pinyin:Táo Zhù;Wade–Giles:T'ao Chu; 16 January 1908 – 30 November 1969) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and senior political leader who served as a member of thePolitburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. A veteran of the early Chinese Communist movement, he participated in theNanchang andGuangzhou uprisings and held key leadership positions in various Chinese regions. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Tao held prominent roles includingVice Premier of the State Council, becoming a major figure in both party and military affairs. He was purged during theCultural Revolution and placed under strict house arrest, dying in 1969 before being posthumously rehabilitated in 1978.
Tao Zhu was born on 16 January 1908 into a poor intellectual family in Langshu Village, Shidongyuan inQiyang County, Hunan. In 1914, at the age of six, he followed his father Tao Tiezheng to study at a private school inWuchang. In 1915, asYuan Shikai intensified repression against revolutionary forces, Tao Tiezheng moved the entire family away fromWuhan and returned to their home county of Qiyang, where he and a close friend founded a modern-style school named Wenchang Pavilion Academy. Tao Zhu then continued his primary education at Wenchang, where his father served as headmaster.[1] In 1918, Tao's father and his third paternal uncle were killed by Xiao Miaonan, a subordinate of theBeiyang warlordWu Peifu. As a result of the family’s sudden poverty, he was forced to leave school. He was later introduced by relatives to study vocational skills for several years. In 1926, Tao entered the Fifth Class of theWhampoa Military Academy inGuangzhou. In the same year, his classmates encouraged him to join theChinese Communist Party.[1]
In early April 1927, he was assigned to Wuhan to take part in the propaganda corps of the Political Department of theNational Revolutionary Army. After the collapse of theFirst United Front between theKuomintang and the Communist Party, Tao joined the Guard Regiment of theFourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army and subsequently participated in theNanchang Uprising and theGuangzhou Uprising.[1]
In 1929, Tao served concurrently as Secretary-General and Secretary of theFujian Provincial Party Committee, as well as Director of the Organization Department of the Fujian Provincial Committee. In May 1930, he personally led a twelve-man raid onXiamen Prison, successfully rescuing more than forty imprisoned Communist Party members without any casualties on his own side. During the operation, more than twenty guards of the Kuomintang were killed. The incident, later known as the 'Xiamen Prison Break', caused a nationwide sensation at the time.[1][2] Following his escape, Tao went travelled toZhangzhou in 1930 to preside over the reconstruction of the CCP Southern Fujian Special Committee. In December of the same year, he presided over the formation of the first detachment of the Southern Fujian Red Army Guerrilla Force.[3]
In 1933, Tao went to work at the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party inShanghai, but was discovered by theNationalist government and arrested. He was imprisoned inNanjing by theKuomintang government from 1933 to 1937. In 1937, following negotiations betweenZhou Enlai,Ye Jianying and the Kuomintang,Huang Wenjie carried out a prison rescue on 26 September, freeing seven prisoners, including Tao.[1]
After his release from prison, Tao was immediately assigned toHubei, where he served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee and concurrently as Head of the Propaganda Department. Following theBattle of Wuhan in October 1938, local guerrilla forces were organized in central Hubei and the Ezhong Guerrilla Base Area was established in theDahong Mountains. From there, the forces launched a night attack on Japanese-occupiedYunmeng County. Subsequently, Tao Zhu joined the Jin–Yu–ENew Fourth Army Detachment organized byLi Xiannian and served as the political commissar of the detachment. In 1940, Tao Zhu arrived inYan’an. Shortly thereafter, he served successively as Secretary-General of theCentral Military Commission, Secretary-General of theGeneral Political Department and in 1943 as Head of thePropaganda Department.[3] During theRectification Campaign, as many other cadres that spent time in a KMT prison, he was suspected of being a spy and was put under investigation.[4]: 556–557
In 1945, Tao Zhu attended theSeventh National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. The congress decided to launch guerrilla warfare in the Hunan–Guangxi–Vietnam Border Region. Tao served as deputy secretary of the party organization of the border region and as deputy political commissar of the Third Detachment of the southernEighth Route Army.[3] After the surrender of Japan in August 1945, Tao was ordered to proceed toNortheast China, traveling across theTaihang Mountains,Jizhong andJidong regions toShanhaiguan. In mid-September he arrived inShenyang, where he was appointed Secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee and took part in theSiping Campaign, assuming responsibility for logistical organization, including the supply of ammunition and the evacuation and transport of wounded soldiers. In September 1947, he concurrently served as political commissar of the Seventh Column of theNortheast Democratic United Forces. After theLiaoshen Campaign, he was appointed Secretary of the Shenyang Municipal Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Shenyang Military Control Commission.[3]
In January 1949, Tao left Shenyang together with theNortheast Field Army and became Deputy Director of the Political Department of the Northeast Field Army. He advanced to Shanhaiguan and participated in thePingjin Campaign. On 21 January, in his capacity as plenipotentiary representative of the Pingjin Front Headquarters of thePeople’s Liberation Army, he entered Beijing to negotiate withFu Zuoyi. The two sides announced the “Agreement on the Peaceful Settlement of the Beiping Question” the following day. Tao Zhu subsequently reorganized the surrendered Kuomintang forces in Beijing, thereby enabling the city to avoid destruction by war. In May 1949, Tao was appointed a member of the Central China Bureau of theCentral Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and concurrently served as Deputy Director of the Political Department of the Central China Military Region and the Fourth Field Army, where he was responsible for taking over administration of three urban districts in Wuhan.[3]
In October 1950, Tao was ordered by theCentral People’s Government to go toGuangxi, where he presided over campaigns to suppress banditry, leading operations to eliminate remnant Kuomintang forces and local armed groups. and rapidly restore social order. One year later, he was transferred to work inGuangzhou. On 15 December 1951, Tao was appointed as Secretary of the South China Branch of the Central Committee and concurrently as Political Commissar of theSouth China Military Region. In May 1953, he concurrently assumed the post of Acting Chairman of the People’s Government of Guangdong Province.[1]
Tao was appointed as Secretary of theGuangdong Provincial Committee and Commander of theGuangzhou Military Region in 1953.[1] He became implicated during theGao Gang affair but was protected from criticism byMao Zedong. In 1958, during the initial stages of theGreat 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 1959Lushan Conference, he initially sympathized withPeng Dehuai in his criticism of the Great Leap Forward. However, after a harsh reaction fromMao 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 toHong Kong.[5][6][7]
He later became First Secretary of the Central-South region, and in 1965 was moved toBeijing to replaceLu Dingyi as Director of the Central Propaganda Department when Lu was purged for not adhering strongly to the Maoist line. Tao was appointed as a Vice Premier of the State Council and Secretary of the Central Secretariat of the CPC, as well as an advisor to theCultural Revolution Group in 1965. In May 1966, he was promoted to No. 4 in the party, behindMao Zedong,Lin Biao andZhou Enlai.[1] That allowed his protégé,Zhao Ziyang, to take over as head of Guangdong.[8] Tao became a member of the Politburo Standing Committee at the Eleventh Plenum in August 1966 at the outset of theCultural 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 byZhang Chunqiao andJiang Qing.[9]
From June to July 1966,Liu Shaoqi andDeng Xiaoping submitted to Mao Zedong a draft notice on how to conduct theCultural Revolution in industry, transport, and construction, emphasizing phased implementation, leadership oversight, and the principle of “grasp revolution, promote production.” Mao approved the document and ordered its rapid distribution. Tao Zhu strongly supported this approach and later authored twoPeople’s Daily editorials reiterating the same line. However, theCentral Cultural Revolution Group (CCRG) accused him of “using production to suppress revolution.” During an enlarged Politburo meeting in 1966, he was attacked byWang Li, a junior member of the CRG, for curtailing the revolution with the excuse of protecting production.[10]: 69 In mid-December he was again attacked by the CRG for allegedly protectingWang Renzhong. At first, he was protected by Mao Zedong, with Mao criticising Jiang Qing's 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 displeasure and, despite the encouragement ofZhou Enlai andLin Biao to adopt a more passive attitude, the attacks by the CRG persisted.[10]: 70–71 He was labelled "the proxy leader ofLiu-and-Deng-roaders" and a "Khrushchev-style ambitionist" by leading radical leftists[4]: 557 and placed under house arrest in early 1967. Oddly enough, Mao continued criticisingChen Boda andJiang Qing for excesses on handling his case, but nothing was done to protect him. From late 1966 into early 1967, Tao Zhu’s conflict with Jiang Qing and the CCRG intensified. He was publicly labeled the “largest conservative royalist” and an executor of the “bourgeois reactionary line.” In January 1967, following mass denunciations and demonstrations in Beijing, Tao lost his personal freedom and was placed under house arrest inZhongnanhai. Zhou Enlai later stated publicly that there was no basis for distrusting Tao. Throughout 1967–1968, Tao was repeatedly subjected to struggle sessions and public criticism, including denunciations at a large-scale rally inTiananmen Square in August 1968.[11][12][13][14]
During a period of strict house arrest, Tao was diagnosed by doctors withgallbladder cancer, but was initially denied medical treatment. Zhou Enlai eventually intervened to arrange an operation, but by that time Tao's cancer had progressed to an incurable stage. On 15 October 1969, he was ordered to leave Beijing and relocate toHefei, Anhui, where he had to fend for himself while suffering from severe illness and extreme mental distress, which left him bedridden. Tao died in hospital on 30 November 1969 at the age of 61.[1] His family was not permitted to visit him during his final illness or after his death.[15] He was posthumously exonerated in 1978, afterDeng Xiaoping rose to power. He was remembered as a man of great integrity.[16]
In 1932, while in Fujian, Tao marriedZeng Zhi.[17] The couple had a daughter,Tao Siliang, who was born in 1941 inYan'an. Tao Siliang became a Chinese politician in the late 1980s, leading several government initiatives in public health and the import of Western medical technology.[18]
Tao's former residence at his birthplace in Qiyang, Hunan, is currently a memorial hall honoring him. It is classified as a keynational priority protected and ared tourism site in Hunan.[19]
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Political Commissar of thePLA 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 theChinese People's Political Consultative Conference 1955–1960 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | First Secretary of theGuangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party 1955–1965 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Head of thePublicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party 1966–1967 | Succeeded by |
| Educational offices | ||
| Preceded by Li Shouyong Abolished since 1949 | President of theJinan University 1958–1963 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
