Member of 'Gang of Four' Yao Wenyuan dies
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-01-06 15:41

Yao Wenyuan, member of the Gang of Four that terrorized China during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, has died. He was 74.

Yao Wenyuan. [Qianlong file]

Yao died of diabetes on December 23, 2005.

He was sentenced to twenty years imprison by a special tribunal of the Supreme People's Court in 1976, with political rights deprived for five years. He was released from prison in October 1996 after serving full jail term.

Yao was born in 1931 in Zhuji, Zhejiang Province and joined the Communist Party of China in 1948.

He was expelled from the Party in July 1977 after the Gang of Four was smashed, and was deprived off all his posts.

Yao joined up with Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao and Wang Hongwen to form a clique, and the four unleashed chaos nationwide during the 10-year period.

Yao was the last member of the Gang of Four, which refers to Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao, Jiang Qing, Yao Wenyuan.

The youngest gang member, Wang Hongwen, died of liver cancer in a Beijing hospital in 1992 while serving a life sentence.

Zhang Chunqiao died of cancer on April 21, 2005, at age of 88. He was given death sentence with a two-year reprieval by a special tribunal of the Supreme People's Court in January 1981, and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment with political rights deprived for life in January, 1983, and was commuted again to 18 years in prison with political rights deprived for 10 years.

Jiang Qing was sentenced in 1981 to death with two-year reprieval. But the verdict later commuted to life in prison. Ten years later she hanged herself while on medical parole.