THE investigation by the Central Commission for Inspecting Discipline and the voluminous historical evidence provided by some veteran revolutionaries have disproved the charges of "renegade, traitor and scab" imposed on Comrade Liu Shaoqi. The recent Fifth Plenary Session of the 11th Party Central Committee decided to redress the frame-up and rehabilitate Comrade Liu Shaoqi's reputation.

Born in 1898 in Ningxiang County, Hunan Province, Liu Shaoqi was former Vice-Chairman of the C.P.C. Central Committee and Chairman of the People's Republic of China. He joined the Chinese Socialist Youth League in 1920 and the Communist Party of China in 1921, and had assumed important leading positions in the Party. He was overthrown during the Cultural Revolution and died on November 12, 1969.

A year's thorough investigation of the case, the commission declared, has proved that the charge made against him by Lin Biao, Jiang Qing, Chen Boda, Zhang Chunqiao and company is utterly groundless.

The so-called "investigation report" about the Liu Shaoqi case which this gang provided in 1968 charged that Liu Shaoqi "was arrested, turned traitor and surrendered to the enemy; he served as traitor and scab." It resorted to underhanded means of fabricating materials, forging evidence, extracting confessions by compulsion and giving them credence, and withholding testimony offered by those who knew the truth. The "investigation report" was directed mainly against Liu Shaoqi's activities in 1925, 1927 and 1929.

The 12th Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Party in October 1968, the commission continued, adopted a resolution in accordance with this "investigation report," officially imposing the charges of "renegade, traitor and scab" on Comrade Liu Shaoqi, expelling him "from the Party once and for all and dismissing him from all posts both inside and outside the Party." This resolution was adopted at a time when the Party Central Committee's work and Party life were in a state of extreme abnormality. This was the biggest frame-up in the history of the Chinese Communist Party.

Recently, Xinhua News Agency published three articles which shed light on the truth about Liu Shaoqi's revolutionary activities in 1925, 1927 and 1929.

1925. The May 30 massacre took place in Shanghai when the imperialists killed many Chinese people. Liu Shaoqi, then 27 years old, was vice-chairman of the executive committee of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. Following the Party Central Committee's instruction, he took part in leading the general strike launched in Shanghai by workers, shopkeepers and students against imperialism, which was known as the May 30 Movement. He suffered from serious illness due to prolonged and heavy overwork. In November the same year, he returned to Changsha, Hunan Province, for recuperation, and was arrested the following month by the reactionary local warlord Zhao Hengti. Trade unions all over the country and other organizations sent in telegrams denouncing Zhao Hengti and demanding the release of Comrade Liu Shaoqi. Awed by the power of the masses, Zhao Hengti set Liu Shaoqi free in February 1926 but expelled him from the province.

Afterwards Liu Shaoqi went to Guangzhou where he continued to take part in leading the general strike waged by workers in Guangdong Province and Xianggang (Hongkong) against imperialism.

Numerous historical data show that the charges made against Liu Shaoqi by the "investigation report" that he was "afraid of struggle," and was guilty of "capitulation" and "betrayal," are a sheer and deliberate slander.

1927. On April 3, an incident took place in Hankou in which Chinese were killed by Japanese sailors. At that time, Liu Shaoqi took part in leading the struggle against the Japanese imperialists on behalf of the trade union. The "investigation report" accused Liu Shaoqi of being "head of the workers movement group of the Kuomintang Central Committee," "a secret agent," "a traitor," who was "arrested later on," in order to hoodwink the people. After re-examination, all these were found to be sheer fabrications, for they were in the false confessions obtained from Ding Juequn who had been forced and coerced to write them under unbearable conditions.

As to the charge of persuading the worker pickets to lay down their arms, this was all due to the Right opportunist line pushed by the Party Central Committee headed by Chen Duxiu, which had submitted itself to pressure from Wang Jingwei's Wuhan government. The main responsibility lay with the Party Central Committee. To shift the blame onto Liu Shaoqi is vilification.

1929. Liu Shaoqi was then secretary of the underground Man-zhou provincial committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Shenyang. He was arrested in the Fengtian Textile Mill on August 22 that year. The "investigation report" accused him of "confessing his true identification" and "betraying the organization" after he had been arrested with the result that "many Communists were killed."

The fact is that Liu Shaoqi and Meng Yongqian, who was then head of the organization department of the Manzhou provincial Party committee, were released by the Manzhou authorities half a month later because no proof could be found.

All the false confessions by the original witnesses under coercion and inducement contradicted the information forwarded by those who knew the situation. Before the "investigation report" was written up, the main witness, Meng Yongqian, had rejected the false statement he had written under coercion. He had, later on, written more than 20 statements for this purpose. But all this was held up by the investigation group controlled by Lin Biao, Jiang Qing and their gang and never reached the Party Central Committee.

Many comrades who worked underground for the Party in Manzhou and who are still alive have proved that no other comrade was involved after Comrade Liu Shaoqi had been arrested. So there was nothing to the charge that "many Communists were killed" because of the incident.

(NO. 12 MARCH 24, 1980)