Dictator wife Jiang Qing: "I was Mao's dog"

Like a fury, Jiang Qing barks into the microphone. Again and again she clenches her fist, hateful eyes flash out behind the lenses. It is 1966, the year in which China's Great Chairman Mao Zedong called for the Cultural Revolution. And his wife Jiang Qing wants to power himself. The woman, who sees herself as Mao's "mouthpiece," soon leads a relentless campaign of extermination in the public eye.

All relics of the past should disappear. Books end up at the stake, monuments are overturned, traditional operas and plays are banned. Numerous intellectuals, professors and teachers are pilloried and tortured to death.

At that time, Jiang Qing (born Li Shumeng) has been married to Mao for nearly 30 years. As a third-rate actress, she had caused a stir in Shanghai mainly through affairs with men. As soon as she confessed to Major Chairman Mao at Yan'an Communist Party headquarters, he too soon succumbed to her charm. The other women around him wore short hair and battle suits. The pleasure-seeking Jiang Qing on the other hand put on make-up and wanted to go dancing.

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The other comrades, the young Starlet was a thorn in the eye. But Mao prevailed. He divorced his then wife and married in 1939 the distinctive beauty. He gave her the name Jiang Qing, which means "green river". She was 24, Mao nearly twice her age.

"He was the father figure she never had," explains biographer Ross Terrill in the recently aired ZDF documentary "Madame Mao - Rise and Fall of Jiang Qing." Her real father, a violent alcoholic, had badly abused her as a child. Since then she has been feverishly seeking recognition. And seized every opportunity to attract attention to other people.

Cheated on by Mao

The communists in Yan'an demanded an extremely high price for their consent to the marriage. For at least 20 years she was not supposed to appear in public with her husband. She was also denied any political activity. After all, she reached that at the headquarters of the Communists was allowed to dance from then on. Also love songs from Hollywood movies were played. Her husband Mao did not care much about her. Instead, he went to bed with other women.

So humiliated, Jiang Qing developed ever greater lust for power and a growing hatred of female competition. The role of the good wife in the background did not suit her, especially since Mao left her more and more to the left. By the fifties at the latest her love had long gone out.

"But she had no choice, she could not go anywhere," explains biographer Terrill. "Beijing was her last stop, and she was trapped in good and bad times in this marriage with Mao Zedong."

Vendetta Cultural Revolution

However, Jiang Qing Mao soon found himself an instrument for securing his power in the state. His plan to industrialize China as quickly as possible had proved to be a momentous failure. The "Great Leap Forward" campaign, initiated in 1958, led to a gigantic famine with up to 40 million victims. Mao then resigned as President, but continued to hold the strings in the background.

And Jiang Qing should help him eliminate hated opponents during the Cultural Revolution. She now saw her chance to finally be in the political spotlight as Mao's allies. She had to destroy the culture that used to mean a lot to her.

Those who love the old forms of opera, theater, music and film are not a good communist, she explained. Already at the beginning of the sixties she had started to write so-called model-traders. Communist heroes always triumphed over capitalist villains in these plays. However, eyewitnesses report that she secretly continued to watch Hollywood films behind closed doors.

"Sex only works in the beginning"

Her unrestricted control over Chinese culture gave her a position in public that she had always sought. She no longer needed Mao's attention. "Sex works only in the beginning, in the long run it is power that keeps the interest in life," she said.

At the behest of Mao and Jiang Qing, fighters of the "Red Guards" spread fear and terror. Even former companions who had fallen into disfavor by now were sentenced to death by their fast food courts. By 1976, as part of these persecution campaigns, an estimated two million people were killed.

"I once referred to Jiang Qing as a 'goddess of revenge," says biographer Ye Yonglie. "She was very petty and vicious all her life, and when she came to power, she paid it home to everyone."

"Demon with white bones"

Her blind hatred was directed, inter alia, against the wife of Liu Shaoqi, who was appointed in 1959 in Mao's post as President. Wang Guangmei, wearing a tight robe on a state visit, was now paraded in an angry mob in Beijing in high heels and high heels. Around her neck she had to wear a chain of ping-pong balls. Wang Guangmei was imprisoned for 12 years and her husband died in detention.

The hated by the people "Madame Mao" became more powerful and came as the first woman in the Politburo. The plan to inherit her husband in office, however, did not work: After Mao's death on 9 September 1976, Jian Qing itself was the victim of their opponents, led by Deng Xiaoping, who was to rule China until 1997.

As a "demon with white bones", the public now condemned the erstwhile First Lady. She was sentenced to death in a spectacular process that millions of people were watching on television. However, as Mao's widow's execution seemed too delicate, the sentence was turned into life imprisonment.

Always following Mao Zedong's orders, she defended herself in front of a total of 35 judges. "I was Mao's dog, the 'big chairman' told me to bite, and I bit into it."

In 1991, Jiang Qing was released from prison to house arrest. She was weakened by a cancer and completely disillusioned. The land that once dominated her had become foreign to her. Ten days later she hanged herself in her bath with a noose she had made out of handkerchiefs.