Who was Xin Ziling?
Xin Ziling (1935-2021) from Anxin, Hebei Province, was the director of the editorial department at the National Defense University of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
After retiring, he wrote numerous works that recorded historical truths and advocated political reforms, including The Complete Biography of Mao Zedong, The Fall of the Red Sun, and The Code to Unlock the Black Box of the Cultural Revolution. He also published articles in overseas journals, calling for genuine constitutional reform.
Xin Ziling became famous for his book The Fall of the Red Sun, which criticized Mao Zedong, and for supporting former Premier Wen Jiabao’s calls for political reform. Because of his status as a “Party insider,” his critiques carried significant weight until he was placed under various forms of surveillance and restricted from speaking in his later years.
In 2011, at the invitation of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Xin Ziling delivered a speech entitled “The Situation and Future,” citing data indicating that 30.04 million people died of starvation during the Great Leap Forward, bringing the total to 37.558 million when combined with those who died in 1962.
Xin Ziling also quoted an unnamed American official as saying that “China’s problem was actually quite simple. It is roughly rooted in the monopoly of power by ‘approximately 500 privileged families,’ forming a core of interests for about 5,000 people.”
These public remarks immediately led to his being monitored, subsequently subjected to isolation, investigation, and house arrest for five years.
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