Qiu Huizuo

Qiu was born in Xingguo County, Jiangxi Province on April 16, 1914. He was schooled in a local sishu (private school specializing in education in Chinese classics). He joined the militia forces in his home county in 1929 at the age of fifteen. He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1932. In 1934–35, he took part in the Long March. According to Qiu's autobiography, shortly before the Communists' forced exodus from their base in Jiangxi, he was almost executed by party intelligence officials who thought he possessed too much sensitive information regarding military logistics. However, on the way to his execution, he ran into Zhou Enlai, who spared his life and put him under the wing of the logistics head Ye Jizhuang. ==Early People's Republic==

After the CCP won the Civil War and established the People's Republic of China, Qiu was appointed Director of the Political Department of the South China Military Region, serving under commander Ye Jianying and deputy commander Huang Yongsheng. In 1955, Qiu was appointed deputy director and political commissar of the PLA General Logistics Department (GLD), working under director Hong Xuezhi. He also attained the rank of lieutenant general, when the PLA awarded military ranks for the first time in 1955. At the Lushan Conference in 1959, Defence Minister Peng Dehuai was purged for criticizing Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward and replaced by Lin Biao. Hong Xuezhi was also dismissed for following Peng's lead, and Qiu was named head of the GLD. ==Cultural Revolution==

When the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, Qiu was labelled a counter-revolutionary element and targeted by the rebels in the GLD. He was subject to physical abuse and torture, fainting many times. He also attacked General Xiao Hua, director of the PLA General Political Department (GPD), and wreaked havoc in the GPD. He was relieved of his duties on September 24, 1971, then sent to confinement in a military base in Shunyi while the authorities sorted out the consequences of the incident. Qiu was then expelled from the party in 1973. ==Trial, prison, and release==

Qiu was considered one of the main culprits of the so-called "Lin Biao-Jiang Qing Counter-revolutionary clique" and went on trial along with the Gang of Four in 1981. Of Lin Biao's inner circle, Qiu was said to have a good attitude during the proceedings, openly confessing to the charges and kneeling in front of Lt. Gen. Tang Ping's widow to seek her forgiveness. On January 25, 1981, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison (including time served since 1971). He was released in 1987 after serving his full sentence, and resettled in Xi'an where he reunited with his family and was afforded some basic benefits from the state as well as a living stipend of about 200 yuan a month. As his health worsened in 2001, he was sent to Peking Union Medical College Hospital for treatment, and died there in 2002. ==Autobiography==

Qiu wrote an autobiography, released in Hong Kong in 2012, which includes details on the intrigues of the Cultural Revolution and his relationship with Lin Biao. In it, Qiu portrays himself as a bulwark against the political machinations and ambitions of Jiang Qing. ==References==