Project 571 Outline
Encyclopedia
Project 571 was the numeric codename given to an alleged plot or coup d'etat
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

against Chinese leader Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...

 in 1971 by the supporters of Lin Biao
Lin Biao
Lin Biao was a major Chinese Communist military leader who was pivotal in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeastern China...

, then Vice-Chairman of the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...

. The operations were supposedly led by Lin's son, Lin Liguo
Lin Liguo
Lin Liguo was the son of the Chinese Communist military leader Lin Biao and the person in charge of Project 571 Outline, a plotted coup against Mao Zedong....

, a high-ranking officer in the People's Liberation Air Force. The alleged plot ultimately failed and was followed by an apparent attempt by Lin's family to flee the country. Lin, his wife and son died in a plane crash over Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

 on 13 September 1971.

Genesis of the plot

On March 21, 1971, Lin Biao
Lin Biao
Lin Biao was a major Chinese Communist military leader who was pivotal in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeastern China...

's son Lin Liguo
Lin Liguo
Lin Liguo was the son of the Chinese Communist military leader Lin Biao and the person in charge of Project 571 Outline, a plotted coup against Mao Zedong....

, along with high-ranking military officers Zhou Yuchi, Yu Xinye and Li Weixin, are said to have gathered in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

 to plot a secret coup against Mao Zedong. There is no evidence, credible or other, to support the contention that Lin Biao was at all involved in any stage of the planning. Upon dissecting the political situation, the alleged plotters ascertained that in the scope of Chinese authority and power, Lin Biao was, at the time, second only to Chairman Mao. However, his authority was in danger of slowly eroding. The "power of the literati" (represented by Zhang Chunqiao
Zhang Chunqiao
Zhang Chunqiao was a prominent Chinese political theorist, writer, and politician...

, Yao Wenyuan
Yao Wenyuan
Yao Wenyuan was a Chinese literary critic, a politician, and a member of the "Gang of Four" during China's Cultural Revolution.-Biography:...

 et al.) was coming to the fore, creating a possibility that Lin might be replaced by Zhang Chunqiao.

The alleged plotters are said to have analyzed the succession issue, and concluded that there were three likely outcomes: the first was Lin Biao would be peacefully succeeded, the second was that he would be forcibly replaced and the third likelihood was that he could take pre-emptive action to avoid being deposed and seize power for himself. The conspirators are said to have contemplated two options, one of which was to eliminate Mao Zedong.

Creation of Project 571

According to the Chinese official version of events subsequently drawn up by Zhang Chunqiao
Zhang Chunqiao
Zhang Chunqiao was a prominent Chinese political theorist, writer, and politician...

 et al. under Mao's personal supervision, the plotters concrete plan would need to be put to paper, and a team to indoctrinate the armed forces about the plan would need to be organized. Lin Liguo
Lin Liguo
Lin Liguo was the son of the Chinese Communist military leader Lin Biao and the person in charge of Project 571 Outline, a plotted coup against Mao Zedong....

 decided the plan would be called "Project 571", a play on its near-homonym
Homonym
In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that often but not necessarily share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings...

 "armed uprising" .

From March 23 to 24, Yu Xinye - close to Lin's son - drafted the Project 571 Outline, the original manuscript of which was said to have been recovered after the coup allegedly came to naught. In the Outline, Lin Liguo et al. had listed a total of eight ways to eliminate Mao Zedong. Among them were detonating his train, a railway bridge, using napalm, or even simply a handgun to assassinate him.

After the alleged plotters had died together with Lin in the air crash on 13 September or been arrested, Mao Zedong permitted the Project 571 Outline papers to be circulated among Cadres in the Communist Party
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...

 at even the county level.

Communist officials eventually commented as follows on the Project 571 Outline: "It is obviously is written from an extreme counter-revolutionary standpoint, seeking to use the dissatisfaction of the masses" and "sullied the People's democratic political power". Most seriously, using "bring down the modern Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang , personal name Ying Zheng , was king of the Chinese State of Qin from 246 BC to 221 BC during the Warring States Period. He became the first emperor of a unified China in 221 BC...

 - B-52" as their slogan and creed, and conspiring to foment an armed counter-revolutionary coup, to kill the People's beloved Chairman Mao and to establish a fascist dictatorship. The Outline contains some language censuring Zhang Chunqiao, illustrating the schism between the two counter-revolutionary groups of Lin Biao and the 'Gang of Four
Gang of Four
The Gang of Four was the name given to a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution and were subsequently charged with a series of treasonous crimes...

'. It also reflects certain truthful situations, such as cadres being under pressure. However, this is no way can be used to prove the correctness of the counter-revolutionary assertions" and so forth.

Explanation of codes used in the outline

  • "B-52" referred to Mao Zedong.
  • "Main enemy fleet" referred to Mao's supporters.
  • "Wang, Chen and Jiang" were Wang Weiguo, Chen Liyun and Jiang Tengjiao, some of Lin Biao's supporters.
  • "Project 01" references a dispatch telegraph whose design was masterminded by Lin Liguo.
  • Eda Island, site of the Japanese naval academy where Kamikaze
    Kamikaze
    The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....

     pilots were indoctrinated in the spiritual training of Bushido
    Bushido
    , meaning "Way of the Warrior-Knight", is a Japanese word which is used to describe a uniquely Japanese code of conduct and a way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry. It originates from the samurai moral code and stresses frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and...

    .
  • "Death before dishonor", a slogan that Chiang Kai-Shek
    Chiang Kai-shek
    Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....

    used to train his cadres.

Notable effects

Mao Zedong, in order to explain the origins of the Lin Biao coup to the Communist Party cadres, was compelled to release the Outline papers to the inner party members. Objectively, this served to lift the curtain to reveal the behind-the-scenes machinations in the Party, showing the hidden unrest.

External links

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