Mao’s Widow Reported Near Death by Cancer

Jiang Qing, Mao Tse-tung’s widow and leader of the Gang of Four that presided over purges during the 1966-76 Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, is suffering from cancer and near death, according to a newspaper that reached Peking today.

“Jiang Qing, serving a jail term on charges she took part in a counterrevolutionary organization, is undergoing treatment for cancer of the throat in a high-grade individual ward in a Peking hospital,” said a report in the Dec. 28 edition of Weekly Digest, published in eastern China’s Anhui province.

“According to reports, she is already close to death,” the newspaper said of Mao’s widow.

Jiang, 73, a former actress, was the chairman’s fourth wife. She wielded vast powers and once was regarded as the most powerful woman in China.

Sentenced to life in prison for crimes committed during the Cultural Revolution, Jiang was held for years in Qincheng Prison, 30 miles north of Peking. But unconfirmed reports said she has been allowed to spend her final days at her daughter’s Peking home.

Jiang and her three male associates were arrested in October, 1976, a month after Mao’s death. The four were sentenced Jan. 25, 1981, in what was described as China’s “trial of the century.” The televised drama ended with the handcuffed Jiang being forcibly dragged from the courtroom screaming, “Long live the revolution.”