1.
SCU INT Prosecutor speaking in Chinese, reading indictment.
0.11

2.
SV PAN People listening in court.
0.27

3.
SCU Prosecutor continues speech.
0.34

4.
SCU Former Secretary of Chairman Mao, Chen Boda, speaking from dock.
0.48

5.
SV Chen answering questions of defending lawyer. (4 shots)
1.14

6.
GV Court in session.
1.22

7.
CU Former Air Force Commander Wu Fuxian speaking in Chinese.
1.34

8.
SCU Judge speaking.
1.55

9.
SV Wu leaving court.
1.57




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TELERECORDING

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Two defendants in China's counter-revolution trial pleaded guilty on Thursday (18 December) after they heard their cases summed up by defence and prosecution in what the Chinese judicial system calls debate. Mao Tsetung's former political secretary, Chen Boda, accepted responsibility for the death of nearly 3,000 people and former Air Force Commander Wu Fuxian claimed he was unwittingly involved in Lin Piao's abortive assassination and coup attempt in 1971.

SYNOPSIS: The prosecution claimed Chen Boda was personally responsible for framing and persecuting 84,000 Communist Party officials by making deliberately false accusations against the party hierarchy in northern Hebei Province. As a result, the court heard, 2,995 people died. Chen was accused of also having framed and persecuted the former head of state, Liu Shaoqui, who died in jail after being purged early in Mao's Cultural revolution of 1966-76.

The prosecution alleged that ten years ago, Chen conspired with former Defence Minister, Lin Piao, to oust Liu and replace him with Lin The attempt failed and Chen dropped out of sight.

Chen was presumed dead until he reappeared for the trial. With his defence counsel, he asked for clemency, pointing in mitigation to the subordinate role he played to Mao's widow, Jiang Qing. Chen was the chief architect of Mao's image, as political secretary and later editor of the party journal Red Flag.

Another court heard the case of former Air Force Commander Wu Fuxian. Wu is accused of taking part in an abortive plot by Lin Piao to assassinate Mao. Wu was charged with handing over control of the air force to Lin's son, Lin Liguo, who then planned the abortive coup. Lin Piao and his son allegedly fled to the Soviet Union when the assassination attempt failed. Official reports suggest the two died when their plane crashed in Mongolia. Wu claimed he had no idea they planned the coup, and like Chen, asked for leniency.