February Struggles in 1967

The open and face-to-face struggle of the older generation of proletarian revolutionists against the “Gang of Four”. Around February 1967, Chen Yi, Tan Zhenlin, Xu Xiangqian, Nie Rongzhen, Ye Jianying, Li Xiannian, Li Fuchun, Yu Qiuli, Gu Mu and other members of the older generation of proletarian revolutionaries and some members of the Political Bureau waged an open and sharp criticism against the “Left” mistakes of the “Cultural Revolution” and against Chen Boda, Kang Sheng, Xie Fuzhi and Zhang Chunqiao who controlled the Central Cultural Revolution Group. After the launching of the “Cultural Revolution”, especially after the "January Seizure of Power" in Shanghai in January 1967, the chaos and disasters caused to the Party and the state made a group veteran Party leaders and cadres begin to reflect on, resist and struggle against negative trends.

On January 19 and 20, 1967, at the Enlarged Meeting of the Central Military Commission, Ye Jianying, Xu Xiangqian and Nie Rongzhen resolutely disagreed with the army to carry out the "Four Elders". Ye Jianying, Xu Xiangqian denounced Jiang Qing, Chen Boda, Kang Sheng and others for trying to disrupt the army, which had disastrous results, known as the Beijing Jingxi Hotel Incident.

On February 11 of the same year, Zhou Enlai chaired a meeting of leading comrades of the Party, government and army and members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, in Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, during which Ye Jianying, Xu Xiangqian and Nie Rongzhen severely criticized Chen Boda, Kang Sheng and Zhang Chunqiao for creating trouble in the Party, the government, the army, as well as for establishing the Shanghai Commune and arbitrarily changing the state system.

On February 16, the meeting in Huairen Hall, during which the two sides discussed whether the “Cultural Revolution” needed the leadership of the Party, whether veteran cadres should be overthrown, whether the army should be stable and other major principles, and the struggle reached a fever pitch when Tan Zhenlin, Chen Yi and Li Xiannian said they wanted to fight with Jiang Qing and others to the end, which is known as the “Huairen Hall Incident”. Afterwards, due to the misleading preemptive reports given by Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Li, Mao Zedong could not tolerate the denial of the “Cultural Revolution”, and severely criticized the veteran comrades who displayed resisting attitude at the meeting of the Political Bureau.

The February resistance by veteran leaders was falsely labelled as "February adverse current" by the Central Cultural Revolution Group, which launched a nation-wide wave of “counter-attack the top-down restoration attempt of adverse current", which started attacks and repression against veteran comrades and massive persecution of Party and state leaders at all levels. From then on, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee practically ceased to operate, and the Central Cultural Revolution Group completely replaced the Political Bureau, which worsened the chaotic situation. Later, Mao Zedong's views on the "February adverse current" had gradually changed, affirming that the struggle carried out by the older comrades was "an important resistance" and said that this was “no secret", and evaluated that the nature of the struggle was that the older comrades opposed overthrowing everything.

In 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC officially declared that the judgement as "February adverse current" to be completely reversed. In fact, the "February Resistance" embodied the fearless character of a large number of veteran cadres who stood up selflessly at a critical moment for the Party and the state, regardless of personal safety, and paved the way for the prelude for the Party’s resisting and opposing the mistakes of the “Cultural Revolution”.