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TIME: Almanac 1993
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TIME Almanac 1993.iso
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061791
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0617544.000
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1992-08-28
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943b
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23 lines
MILESTONES, Page 79
DEATH CONFIRMED. Jiang Qing, 77, widow of Mao Zedong who
wielded vast and malevolent power in the last decade of Mao's
life; last month, by her own hand; in Beijing. Reported in last
week's issue of TIME, her death was later confirmed by the
official Chinese news agency. A Shanghai stage and film actress,
Jiang met and captivated Mao in the late 1930s, leading him to
abandon his second wife. Jiang emerged from the shadows in 1966
to become a scolding, polemical leader of Mao's Cultural
Revolution. In 1980, after the rise of Deng Xiaoping, she and
three allies (known as the Gang of Four) were tried for
"conspiring to subvert the government." Jiang explained, "I was
Chairman Mao's dog. Whomever he told me to bite, I bit." She
received a death sentence in 1981, which was commuted to life
imprisonment.