In the autumn of 1951, in the production-enhancing and saving campaign launched to support resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea, a large number of amazing phenomena of embezzlement and waste and bureaucracy occurred in various places. On December 1, the Party Central Committee made the "Decision on Implementing Simplified Military and Administration, Increase Production and Saving, Oppose Corruption, Oppose Waste and Oppose Bureaucracy". The "Three Anti-" movement, which lasted for three years, was launched across the entire Party.
In this campaign, the major corruption cases of Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan, who shocked the whole country, were exposed. Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan were old party members who joined the party in 1931 and 1933 respectively. Both of them were cadres who had experienced the severe tests of the agrarian revolution, the anti-Japanese war and the war of liberation. Before the incident, one was the secretary of the Tianjin Prefectural Committee and the other was the specialist of the Tianjin Regional Administrative Office. However, they quickly corrupted in just over two years after entering the city and eventually ended up being ruined.
In October 1952, the two were executed after public trial. At that time, Liu Qingshan was 36 years old and Zhang Zishan was 38 years old.
This case is called "the first anti-corruption case in the Republic". The two gunshots of Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan shooting were as deafening as a warning bell. As time goes by, the case has been adapted into novels, films, and dramas, and its warning and educational significance has lasted forever.
revolutionary heroes fell into the quagmire of corruption
revolutionary era, whether in the War of Resistance Against Japan or the War of Liberation, Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan had fought bravely, established remarkable achievements, and gradually grew into the party's senior cadres.
In August 1949, the Tianjin Prefectural Committee and the Tianjin Special Administrative Office were established in Yangliuqing Town . In September of the same year, Liu Qingshan was appointed as the secretary of the Tianjin Prefectural Committee and in August 1951, he was appointed as the first deputy secretary of the Shijiazhuang Municipal Party Committee. During this period, Zhang Zishan served as deputy secretary of the Tianjin Prefectural Committee, specialist of the special agency, and secretary of the Tianjin Prefectural Committee.
During the more than two years he served as the secretary of the Tianjin Prefectural Committee, Liu Qingshan rarely appeared in the offices of the prefectural committee. Instead, he lived in an elegant and elegant two-story western-style building, No. 18 Machang Road, Tianjin City, on the grounds of recuperation. This building is therefore called "Liu Gongguan". At that time, the Tianjin Prefectural Committee had only one American Jeep seized in the war, and this car became Liu Qingshan's special car. After moving into No. 18 Machang Road, he thought the worn-out American Jeep was not worthy of the prosperity of Tianjin City, so he simply used more than 300 million yuan (old coins, 1 yuan is equivalent to 10,000 yuan old coins) to buy two American luxury cars from Hong Kong.
Compared with Liu Qingshan, who never goes to the government office all day and does not hide his extravagant style, Zhang Zishan, who is in the regional administration, seems to be diligent, but his squandering and extravagance is no less than Liu Qingshan. Zhang Zishan confessed that he had to smoke eight or nine high-end cigarettes every month, his clothes ranged from coarse cloth to fine cloth and then fur, and his diet was fine grain, and he was essential for wine and meat. He was not allowed to sit in a car when he was there. He changed five cars in two years...
According to later verification by the task force, Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan lived in corrupt lives and squandered public funds of 378.25 million yuan. Among them, Liu Qingshan embezzled 183.99 million yuan and Zhang Zishan embezzled 194.26 million yuan. In order to eliminate the evidence of corruption, Zhang Zishan burned 378 documents at one time.
On December 4, 1951, the Hebei Provincial Party Committee's "Resolution on the Exiting Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan's Party" disclosed that Liu Qingshan had a few catchphrases: "I won the world, shouldn't it be enough to enjoy it?" "The revolution is victorious, I should enjoy it!" It is this kind of enjoyment idea that has caused the two revolutionary heroes to slide into the quagmire of corruption, and Liu Qingshan even fell to the point of addiction to drugs.
At the beginning of the founding of New China, the whole country was devastated and everything was in trouble. In order to make up for the country's financial shortcomings, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and party organizations at all levels have called on party and government organs to carry out production movements. This is an emergency measure implemented in a specific historical period to solve the country's financial difficulties, but Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan regarded it as a way to make money.
From the spring of 1950 to November 1951, Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan stole the total national property of 17.16 billion yuan (according to the currency standards and market price index at the time, 17.16 billion yuan could be purchased by 17.1 billion yuan in cash in the name of production from the business agency). At the same time, they colluded with prodigal businessmen to speculate and make huge profits for individuals to squander, causing the country's property to lose 2.1 billion yuan, with an extremely bad impact.
Arbitrary acts corrupt the party style and political style
Influenced by Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan, the party style of the party organizations in Tianjin was seriously corrupted. Many party members and cadres are filled with bad habits of being rich, enjoyment, and life, and corruption, squandering and other phenomena are very serious. Later, after investigation and punishment, the main leading cadres of 10 of the 14 counties and towns in Tianjin were punished.
A clerk of the Tianjin Regional Finance Committee found that there were problems with Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan in financial reimbursement. He reported it directly to Zhang Zishan, but was scolded by Zhang Zishan. The clerk argued with reason and had a big fight with him, which resulted in long-term exclusion and attack. Lu Tie, deputy director of the Organization Department of Tianjin Prefectural Committee, was often excluded in his work due to his repeated opposition to Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan's embezzlement of public funds for the so-called "organizational production", and was transferred to the Anci County as the county party secretary, becoming a dissident that Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan excluded in the prefectural committee.
At that time, Li Kecai, a member of the Tianjin Prefectural Committee and deputy commissioner of the Administrative Office, was excluded by Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan many times for adhering to the principle, but he did not surrender. In early 1951, he began to report to his superiors the problems of Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan. Although it has gone through many twists and turns, it has gradually attracted the attention of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee.
In the summer of 1951, the Hebei Provincial Party Committee decided to mobilize Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan's work, but at this time both of them hoped to stay and transfer each other away. No one could bear to leave the "fat meat" now. In the end, the two had an internal strife and the problem of "organizational production" was gradually exposed. Finally, Liu Qingshan was transferred to the deputy secretary of the Shijiazhuang Municipal Party Committee and Zhang Zishan was appointed as the secretary of the Tianjin Prefectural Party Committee. However, this abnormal phenomenon caused by the transfer made the Hebei Provincial Party Committee further realize the seriousness of the problems of Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan.
In November 1951, the Hebei Provincial Party Committee dispatched an inspection team, led by the Minister of the Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee and the Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection to file a case for investigation by the Tianjin Prefectural Committee. Soon, they learned about the facts of Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan's violations of laws and discipline in "organizational production" and their corrupt and degenerate behavior in life.
On November 21, the third Party Congress of Hebei Province was held in Baoding . When the conference began discussion, Li Kecai was the first to speak, exposing the corruption of Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan. On November 29, Zhang Zishan, who was a representative of the Party Congress and head of the Tianjin regional delegation, was arrested at the meeting; on December 2, Liu Qingshan, who had just returned to China with the Chinese Youth Friendship Delegation, was arrested.
convened a public trial meeting and sentenced to death
On the day Zhang Zishan was arrested, the North China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee discussed the request of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee and made a written report to the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao Zedong.
On November 30, Mao Zedong pointed out in his instructions to forward the report drafted by the Central Committee: "Liu Qingshan, former secretary of the Tianjin Prefectural Committee of North China and Zhang Zishan, current secretary, are both major corruption offenders. They have discovered and started to deal with it. We believe that the policy of the North China Bureau is correct. This matter has warned the Central Committee, the Central Bureau, the branch bureau, and the provincial, municipal and district party committees that we must pay serious attention to the fact that cadres are corrupted by the bourgeoisie and have serious corruption. Pay attention to discovery, exposure and punishment, and must be dealt with as a big struggle."
On December 4, the Hebei Provincial Party Committee passed the decision to expel Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan from the party. Subsequently, the Hebei Provincial Party Committee decided to form the "Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan's Corruption Case Investigation and Handling Committee" with Yang Xiufeng, the governor of , as director and Xue Xun, the Provincial Party Committee Organization Minister, as deputy director, to go to Tianjin to thoroughly investigate the case.
10 days later, the Hebei Provincial Party Committee proposed a handling opinion on Liu and Zhang to the North China Bureau: "We agreed to be sentenced to death."On December 20, the North China Bureau proposed its handling opinions on Liu and Zhang to the central government after research: "In order to safeguard national laws and regulations and educate the Party and the people, we agreed in principle to impose the corruption offenders of Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan to death (or suspended for two years), and the provincial people's government will ask for permission after approval by the Government Council. ”
When Zhou Enlai sent the report to Mao Zedong and solicited opinions, Mao Zedong said two words: “ death penalty ! "
After the news of Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan being executed spread, it caused a great shock among the cadres and masses in Hebei Province. Although the vast majority of cadres, especially those in Tianjin, applauded, a considerable number of people had the idea of "showing mercy under the knife". In particular, some cadres who had been born and died with Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan felt sorry, thinking that "in his thirties were a good year, and he killed them as soon as he said he could kill them. It was a pity that they should give them a chance to make meritorious service." "I hope the central government can show mercy under the knife."
At 12:00 on February 10, 1952, The public trial of the corruption criminal Liu organized by the Hebei Provincial People's Court The Qingshan and Zhang Zishan Conference were held at the Baoding City Stadium, and more than 20,000 people attended the conference that day. The Hebei Provincial Party Committee broadcast the public trial meeting live through the radio, and millions of cadres and masses heard the justice trial.
At 1:30 pm, Song Zhiyi, President of the Hebei Provincial People's Court, announced that Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan were sentenced to death, and executed immediately, and all the property of the two criminals was confiscated. Subsequently, Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan were taken to the Dongguan Grand Collegiate Field in Baoding City to carry out a firing execution. Before the
public trial meeting, someone asked whether it could be told to Chairman Mao not to shoot and give them a chance to correct the situation. The opinions were reflected to Mao Zedong, and Mao Zedong said: "Do you want them or China? It is precisely because of their high status, great contributions and great influence that they must be determined to execute them. Only by executing them can we save 20, 200, 2,000, and 20,000 cadres who have made various mistakes of different degrees. "
Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan cases were a major case discovered and handled in the "Three Antis" movement, which had a huge boost to the in-depth development of this movement and set off the first anti-corruption and corruption storm in the history of the Republic. By October 1952, the "Three Antis" and "Five Antis" movement ended. 9,942 corruption victims sentenced to imprisonment in the "Three Antis" movement and sentenced to life imprisonment. 67 people and 42 people sentenced to death. This struggle punished a large number of corruption elements, purified the party and government organs, and laid the foundation for a good social atmosphere in the 1950s.
On April 21 of the same year, the " Regulations on Punishing Corruption of the People's Republic of China " was promulgated and implemented. This is the first regulation specifically for punishing corruption in the New China.
Author | Law Daily All-Media Reporter Wen Yuanhao
Source | Rule of Law Daily
Editor | Qu Yang Li Weiyi Luo Qi
