The World : Mao Widow Reported Free

Mao Tse-tung’s widow, Jiang Qing, has been freed from prison and is being treated for throat cancer at a Beijing hospital, an official magazine reported. Chinese Youth, a monthly publication of the Communist Youth League, made the disclosure in its latest edition in reply to a letter. It gave no further details. Jiang, 74, a former Shanghai actress, and three radical allies, known as the Gang of Four, were arrested soon after the death of Mao in 1976. She was tried and sentenced to death--commuted to life in prison--for counterrevolution and was blamed for some of the worst excesses of the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. Justice Ministry officials had no comment on the report.