4-7 Murder, They Said

Four: Villain Holding Sway

7: Murder, They Said




After Yang Shangkun was forced to step down, Jiang Zemin was still very much afraid of him. Zeng Qinghong expressed his view, that if Yang was not done away with, he could eventually cause trouble. But it’d be risky for Jiang and Zeng to take action against Yang, while Deng Xiaoping was still alive.
When Deng passed away in Feb. 1997, 92-year-old Yang Shangkun was still in good health.



He had long been displeased with Jiang’s arbitrary promotion of generals, bribing people for support, and attacks on those who disagreed with him. Yang would often rebuke Jiang at gatherings of senior cadres.



One day in the latter half of 1998, during a large gathering of senior military cadres not attended by Jiang, Yang again criticized Jiang. He said that if Jiang as the Chairman of the CMC was to continue as he was, the military would be ruined.
Zeng Qinghong’s informants had by that time infiltrated everywhere.


Yang’s words thus were...