Ji Dengkui

Ji Dengkui (; 17 March 1923 – 13 July 1988) was a Chinese political figure during the Cultural Revolution. He was a member of the 10th and 11th Politburos of the Communist Party and was a protégé of Mao Zedong in Mao's later years. He served in a number of important government and military posts, including member of the Central Military Commission, Political Commissar of the Beijing Military Region, and Vice Premier of the State Council. After Mao's death in 1976, he supported Mao's designated successor, Hua Guofeng, in purging the Gang of Four. Two years later, Deng Xiaoping ousted Hua from his leadership position, and Ji, labelled the "Little Gang of Four" together with other prominent Hua supporters, was forced out of politics.

Early life Ji Dengkui was born in Wuxiang County, Shanxi province on 17 March 1923. After the eruption of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, he joined the anti-Japanese resistance before turning 15, and the Chinese Communist Party the following year. During the Anti-Japanese War and the subsequent Chinese Civil War, he served in various party positions including Party Secretary of Lushan County in Henan province. Although he participated in some battles during the wars, he frankly admitted that he had little military experience, even after Mao Zedong appointed him to top military posts of China in the 1970s.

Ji worked at Luoyang Mining Equipment Factory, which was built in the mid-1950s as one of the key industrial projects which the USSR helped build during China's First Five-Year Plan.

He served as the Party Secretary of Luoyang prefecture during the Great Leap Forward (1958 to 1961), and avoided implementing the catastrophic policies of other local leaders which caused extensive famine in Henan, especially in Xinyang prefecture. Few people died of hunger in Luoyang, while more than a million people starved to death in the infamous "Xinyang Incident".

Mao Zedong visited Henan more than ten times before the start of the Cultural Revolution, and summoned Ji Dengkui for reporting whenever he was in the province. Although Mao was 30 years older than Ji, he publicly referred to Ji as his "old friend". Ji rose quickly within the party ranks, first to the provincial party committee as an alternate party secretary, and later to the national government. According to Yu Guangyuan, who was in the same Northwest Group at the Conference, Ji remained noticeably passive throughout these sessions. "Among the 35 members in northwest group," recounts Yu, "34 of them spoke actively." Ji was also named, after his fellow Vice Premier Wang Dongxing was criticized by Hu Yaobang and Yu Guangyuan's reformist camp. Eventually, Ji Dengkui, Wang Dongxing, Wu De, and Chen Xilian, the four high-ranking allies of Hua, were labelled the "Little Gang of Four" and dismissed from the most important of their political posts. Although the decision was made in 1978, it was not made public until February 1980, at the Fifth Plenum of the Party Congress.

Ji was reassigned a researcher at the Research Center of Rural Development in China in 1982. He died of an illness on 13 July 1988, at the age of 65.