Lin Biao

Military Genius and Loyal Subordinate

Lin Biao was born in 1907 in Hubei province and joined the Communist Party in 1925. He emerged as one of the most brilliant military commanders of the civil war era, leading the Northeast Field Army to decisive victories that secured Manchuria for the CCP and set the stage for the final defeat of the Nationalists. After 1949, he led the Chinese forces that intervened in the Korean War. Plagued by genuine ill health — a chronic sensitivity to light, water, and wind that kept him largely confined to his residence for years — he nonetheless became one of the most politically powerful figures in the PRC after Mao.

The Cultural Revolution and the Little Red Book

Lin Biao was the most enthusiastic institutional promoter of the Mao cult. As Defence Minister from 1959, he transformed the People's Liberation Army into a laboratory of Maoist ideological indoctrination, publishing the "Quotations from Chairman Mao" — the Little Red Book — for distribution throughout the military and eventually across the entire country. When the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, the PLA under Lin's control provided the organisational backbone for the Red Guard movement. At the Ninth Party Congress in 1969, Lin Biao was formally designated Mao's "closest comrade-in-arms and successor" and his status was written into the Party constitution — an unprecedented honour.

The Lin Biao Incident

By 1970–71, Mao had grown suspicious of Lin's power and ambitions. The exact sequence of events remains opaque, but on the night of 12–13 September 1971, Lin Biao, his wife Ye Qun, and their son Lin Liguo boarded a Trident jet at Beidaihe and fled. The plane crashed in the Mongolian steppe near Öndörkhaan, killing all nine people on board. The official account — that Lin was attempting to flee to the Soviet Union after a failed coup attempt against Mao — remains the standard narrative, though historians dispute its details. For weeks, the Chinese public was kept in the dark about the death of the man designated as Mao's successor.

Aftermath

The Lin Biao incident was a profound shock that shattered the credibility of the Cultural Revolution. If Mao's "closest comrade" had been a traitor, what did that say about the entire movement he had championed? The incident accelerated the rehabilitation of pragmatic officials including Deng Xiaoping and created political space for the Zhou Enlai–Kissinger diplomatic opening. Lin Biao was posthumously expelled from the Party and condemned as a traitor, counter-revolutionary, and would-be usurper. His image was systematically removed from official photographs and publications.