Battle for China's Past : Mao and the Cultural Revolution

Cultural Revolution radicals in Beijing. Qi was arrested at Mao’s
instruction in January 1968 when Mao saw the danger of a backlash
within the army against the Cultural Revolution. Qi was subsequently
imprisoned for 18 years. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that he
would not have any personal interest in defending Mao. Qi first of all
dismissed the notion of a ‘private doctor’ or ‘personal physician’ by
saying that Mao did not have a private doctor. Every one was ‘public’
in those days and Li Zhisui was one of a team of medical staff who
looked after all the personnel at the Zhongnanhai compound until
1957. Later Li was recommended by Wang Dongxing to be Mao’s
health-maintenance doctor, a Chinese version of a general practitioner.
Second, Qi thinks Li was a good doctor professionally but politically
naïve and ignorant, and therefore had no knowledge or expertise to
comment on Chinese politics.
Qi gives some examples. Regarding the Great Leap Forward Li did
not know or does not say that it was in fact Mao who first made
suggestions to cool down the CCP elite and to make corrections to
rectify the exacerbated situation. Regarding the Cultural Revolution:
aside from his account of the support-the-left activities (zhi zuo)
in which he [Li] personally participated, most of the Cultural
Revolution part of his memoirs consists of stuff gleaned from
newspapers, journals and other people’s writings. To make
Western readers believe that he had access to core secrets, Li
fabricated scenarios, resulting in countless errors in the
memoirs.
(Qi 1996: 187)
Qi thinks ‘It’s really preposterous’ (1996: 189) that Li claims that he was
present at so many meetings because even Mao’s most trusted Red
Army veteran doctor Fu Lianzhang, who had been on the Long March
and later was promoted to be Deputy Health Minister, was not allowed
such access. Nor were Mao’s personal secretaries and bodyguards. Up
to the beginning of the Cultural Revolution even Wang Dongxing, the
chief of Mao’s personal guards, was not allowed such access.
The politics of sex
THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST
Qi lived ‘in the vicinity of Mao Zedong for many years’ (Qi 1996: 192)
and had frequent contacts with all the people who worked for Mao.
Therefore he should have known if Mao had been fooling around with
women. Qi does think that Mao should not have married He Zizhen
when his first wife Yang Kaihui was arrested by the local KMT warlord
but still alive. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 Qi
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