Heilongjiang Revolutionary Committee

The Heilongjiang Revolutionary Committee was a revolutionary committee that had administered Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China between 1967 and 1979.

Heilongjiang Revolutionary Committee
Overview
Type	Provincial revolutionary committee
Elected by	State Council (de facto) Heilongjiang Provincial People's Congress (suspended)
History
Established	1967
Disbanded	December 1979
Leadership
Chairman	Yang Yichen (final)

Heilongjiang Revolutionary Committee after the seizure of power in 1967

History

After the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, the government of Heilongjiang was constantly attacked by the Red Guards, especially the rebels, and many leaders were criticized by the Red Guards, paralyzing the government.^[1][2]

On January 31, 1967, the Red Guards in Heilongjiang gathered and announced the establishment of the Revolutionary Committee of Red Revolts. On February 2, the People's Daily and the People's Liberation Army Daily published a joint statement entitled with "A New Dawn on the Eastern Horizon" congratulating the establishment of the new governing body. On March 23, it was announced that the name changed to Heilongjiang Revolutionary Committee.^[3] Pan Fusheng and Wang Jiadao served as the director and first-deputy director.^[4] By May 31, 1968, all 82 people's committees at all levels in Heilongjiang Province, including prefectures, cities, special districts, and counties, had been seized of their powers and revolutionary committees established.^[5][6]

After the establishment of the Heilongjiang Revolutionary Committee, around the question of who was in power, the rebels split into two rival organizations: those who opposed the entry of Zhao Qufei, a former member of the Provincial Party Committee, into the leadership of the Revolutionary Committee, formed the "Harbin Bombardment Liaison Station" ("Bombardment Faction"). The other side was the "Joint Command for Defending the Revolution in Three Combinations" ("Command Faction"), which was supported by Pan Fusheng to fight against the "Bombardment Faction" at the Harbin Institute of Technology and some rebel leaders in the former provincial party committee organs.^[6] The factional struggles later developed into the use of tanks and armored vehicles, etc.^[7] From June to October 1967, several large-scale fights between the two factions in Harbin resulted in the deaths of 20 people, injuries to more than 240 people, and the disabling of more than 50 people. In Jixi City in May of the same year, a two-faction fight resulted in nine deaths and 44 serious injuries. In Tangyuan County, there were 10 fights between the two factions, resulting in 24 deaths, more than 340 injuries and 4 disabilities.^[8]

In September 1967, Zhou Enlai, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, summoned representatives of the "Command Faction" and the "Bombardment Faction" to Beijing for negotiations, and in December, the "Twelve Agreements" were signed to attempt to form a grand coalition.^[9] However, due to Pan Fusheng's insistence on centralization of power, the grand coalition could not be achieved; in 1968, Pan Fusheng suggested that there were "secret agents tripping over his feet" in Heilongjiang Province, and demanded that "we dig up the ground three feet and find out the class enemies below the horizon". More than 1,200 people were arrested for the "counter-revolutionary class revenge cases," and more than 29,000 "escaped capitalist roaders" were arrested too, involving as many as 50,000 cadres. On February 4, 1969, Pan Fusheng announced the discovery of the "Treason Group" at an expanded meeting of the Heilongjiang Revolutionary Committee, and branded Ouyang Qin, Li Fanwu, Chen Lei and 12 others as the main members of the "Treason Group"; 168 leading cadres at all levels in 10 provinces and cities were affected. More than 80,000 cases of injustice and more than 4,000 unnatural deaths were caused throughout the province.^[8]

The institutional setup of the Heilongjiang Revolutionary Committee was not sound at the time of its creation. Pan Fusheng and Wang Jiadao, in their names, sent a telegram to the Party Central Committee on February 8, 1968, requesting the formation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Heilongjiang Core Group, with Pan and Wang nominating themselves as the head and deputy head of the group. on January 16, 1969, the first meeting of the CCP Heilongjiang Core Group was held under the chairmanship of Pan Fusheng, and since then, applications for membership of the Party in the districts, municipalities, counties, and large-scale factories, enterprises, higher education institutes and scientific research institutes have been approved one after the other. On March 28, 1970, the Central Committee replied to the Heilongjiang Core Group, approving the addition of Liu Guangtao (the second political commissar of the provincial military district) as the deputy head of the Core Group of the Provincial Revolutionary Committee. On May 26, the Central Committee approved the appointment of Pan Fusheng as the head of the Core Group of the CCP Heilongjiang Revolutionary Committee.^[1]

After the end of the North China Rectification Conference chaired by Zhou Enlai, he sent someone to Heilongjiang Province in February to deal with the issue of Pan Fusheng.^[10] From March 16 to June 6, the Core Group of the CCP Heilongjiang Revolutionary Committee held a meeting of party members and cadres at the county level and above in order to expose and criticize the issue of Pan Fusheng.^[11] In August 1971, the Third Representative Assembly of the CCP Heilongjiang Province was held, and the CCP Heilongjiang Provincial Committee was reorganized, with its offices still located in the Provincial Revolutionary Committee. In June 1973, the offices of the CCP Heilongjiang Provincial Committee were set aside from the Provincial Revolutionary Committee.^[1]

After the fall of the Gang of Four, the Revolutionary Committee continued to use the name, but its composition had changed fundamentally: the rebels were gradually purged, and the institutional setup of the Provincial Revolutionary Committee was bascially restored to the same state as that of the Heilongjiang Provincial People's Committee prior to the Cultural Revolution. From December 21 to 26, 1979, the Second Session of the Fifth People's Congress of Heilongjiang Province decided to abolish the Heilongjiang Revolutionary Committee and restore the People's Government of Heilongjiang.^[12]

Leadership

Directors

• Pan Fusheng (March 1967 – August 1971)
• Wang Jiadao (August 1971 – February 1977)
• Liu Guangtao (February 1977 – December 1977)
• Yang Yichen (December 1977 – December 1979)

References

1. Wang, Peile; General Office of the People's Government of Heilongjiang Province, eds. (December 2001). 黑龙江政府志 [Record of the Government of Heilongjiang]. Heilongjiang People's Publishing House. pp. 464–465. ISBN 7-207-05306-1.
2. Pancov, Aleksandr Vadimovič; Levine, Steven I. (2013). Mao: the real story (1 ed.). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. pp. 522–523. ISBN 978-1-4516-5449-3.
3. Wang, Peijie (11 October 2017). Revolutionary Committees in the Cultural Revolution Era of China: Exploring a Mode of Governance in Historical and Future Perspectives. Springer. p. 4. ISBN 978-3-319-57204-8. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
4. Wang, Peijie (11 October 2017). Revolutionary Committees in the Cultural Revolution Era of China: Exploring a Mode of Governance in Historical and Future Perspectives. Springer. p. 32. ISBN 978-3-319-57204-8. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
5. Wang, Peile; Compilation Committee of Local Records of Heilongjiang Province, eds. (June 2003). 黑龙江省志 第60卷 政权志 [Heilongjiang Provincial Records, Volume 60: Political Power]. Heilongjiang People's Publishing House. pp. 522–523. ISBN 7-207-04799-1.
6. Compilation Committee of Local Records of Heilongjiang Province, ed. (May 1999). 黑龙江省志 第1卷 总述 [Heilongjiang Provincial Record Volume 1: General Description]. Heilongjiang People's Publishing House. p. 349. ISBN 7-207-03948-4.
7. Gu, Lijuan (December 2003). 中共党史若干理论研究 [Some Theoretical Studies on the History of the Chinese Communist Party]. Northeast Forestry University Press. pp. 314–315. ISBN 7-81076-521-3.
8. Organization Department of the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party; Party History Research Office of the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party; Heilongjiang Provincial Archives, eds. (May 1992). 中国共产党黑龙江省组织史资料 1923-1987 [Historical Materials of the Organization of the Chinese Communist Party in Heilongjiang Province 1923-1987]. Heilongjiang People's Publishing House. p. 379. ISBN 7-207-02190-9.
9. Gu, Lijuan (December 2003). 中共党史若干理论研究 [Some Theoretical Studies on the History of the Chinese Communist Party]. Northeast Forestry University Press. p. 316. ISBN 7-81076-521-3.
10. Zhang, Xiangling, ed. (June 1986). 黑龙江四十年 [Forty Years of Heilongjiang]. Heilongjiang People's Publishing House. p. 364.
11. Zhao, Peixing; Party History Research Office of the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the CCP, eds. (October 2003). 中共黑龙江简史 1923-2003 [A Brief History of the Chinese Communist Party in Heilongjiang 1923-2003]. Central Literature Publishing House. pp. 255–256. ISBN 7-5073-1426-X.
12. Editorial Committee, ed. (September 2009). 当代中国的黑龙江 下 [Contemporary China: Heilongjiang 2]. Hong Kong Motherland Press. pp. 41–42. ISBN 978-7-80170-845-8.