High-Level Politics as Blood Sport | Generated by AI
Question: Is politics usually very fierce, like in the case of Mao Zedong and Lin Biao, where Lin allegedly wanted to kill Mao and then died in a plane crash?
Answer:
Yes, politics at the highest levels—especially in authoritarian and one-party systems—has often been extremely fierce, brutal, and even deadly throughout history. The Mao–Lin Biao incident is one of the most dramatic examples from 20th-century China.
Quick background on the Mao–Lin Biao case (1971)
- Lin Biao was Mao Zedong’s officially designated successor after the Cultural Revolution began in 1966. He was written into the Communist Party constitution as Mao’s “close comrade-in-arms and successor.”
- By 1970–1971 relations soured. Mao began criticizing Lin and his supporters (especially Lin’s powerful military faction).
- According to the official Chinese version (released after 1971): Lin Biao, together with his wife Ye Qun and son Lin Liguo, plotted a coup codenamed “Project 571” to assassinate Mao (methods allegedly included bombing Mao’s train, air strikes, or poisoning).
- The plot supposedly failed, and on September 13, 1971, Lin, his family, and several aides tried to flee China on a Trident jet (air force plane 256). The plane crashed in Mongolia at Undurkhaan after running out of fuel. Everyone on board died.
- China’s official narrative: Lin was a traitor who died while fleeing after his coup failed.
- Alternative theories (common among historians outside China):
– The plane may have been shot down on Mao’s orders.
– Lin may have been trying to flee because he already knew he was being purged.
– Some details of “Project 571” might have been exaggerated or fabricated after the fact to justify the purge of Lin’s faction.
Whatever the exact truth, thousands of military officers connected to Lin were arrested, imprisoned, or executed in the following years. Politics under Mao routinely ended with purges, forced suicides, or mysterious deaths (Liu Shaoqi, Peng Dehuai, He Long, etc.).
Broader pattern
This kind of extreme internal violence is not unique to China:
- Stalin’s Soviet Union: almost the entire original Bolshevik leadership executed or murdered (Trotsky ice-axed in Mexico, etc.).
- North Korea: Kim Jong-un had his uncle Jang Song-thaek executed and many senior officials purged.
- Ancient Rome: emperors and senators regularly assassinated each other.
- Even in modern democracies, politics can be ruthless (assassinations of JFK, RFK, Gandhi, Rabin, etc.), but outright lethal purges inside the ruling elite are rarer because power is constrained by law and elections.
So yes—especially in systems where power is highly concentrated and there is no peaceful way to change leadership—politics at the very top has very often been a blood sport. The Mao–Lin Biao story is an extreme but not isolated example.