Lin Biao incident

Uncommon card · No. 146787

On 13 September 1971, the aircraft transporting Lin Biao, the sole vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, crashed near Öndörkhaan, Mongolia. Lin and several members of his family were travelling on board a Hawker Siddeley Trident jetliner of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). All nine people on board were killed in the crash. As Vice Chairman, Lin Biao had been the official heir to Chairman Mao Zedong since 1966. From 1970, a rift developed between on one side Lin and his power base in the Army and Politburo, and on the other side, Mao, his allies Jiang Qing and Zhou Enlai, and their People's Liberation Army (PLA) factions. Issues included Lin's growing power in the PLA and his prominent role in Mao's cult of personality, which Mao had criticized as excessive. The crash was a key event at the midpoint of the ten-year Cultural Revolution, following which the Gang of Four gained prominence. According to the Chinese government, Lin Biao was attempting to defect to the...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Christian Volpati, Public domain