China: Mao Zedong's chief bodyguard dies aged 100

The principal bodyguard of Mao Zedong, Communist China's founding father, and a key player in the ouster of the 'Gang of Four' that paved the way for reformists to take over, died today at the age of 100.
Wang Dongxing served as the deputy chairman of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) in the past.
He was "an excellent CPC member, time-tested loyal communist fighter and proletarian revolutionist," state-run Xinhua news agency quoted a CPC statement as saying.
Wang was head of Mao's personal bodyguard between 1947 and 1976 and his chief of staff for several years. So much so that Mao once remarked that "I don't trust other people. I'm used to Dongxing being by my side," the Southern Weekly newspaper said.

However, in October 1976, less than a month after his mentor's death, Wang played a leading role in staging a coup against the 'Gang of Four', a group of close conservative allies of Mao led by his widow Jiang Qing who were instrumental in the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, the South China Morning Post reported.
Wang was promoted to vice-chairman of the CPC the next year but had to resign in 1980.
It was after Mao's death, that Deng Xiaoping, the reformist leader managed to take control of the party and reverted its policy from one of hardcore communist ideology to reform and opening which in the last three decades played a decisive role in transforming China into the world's second largest economy.

In his twilight years, one tradition Wang maintained each and every year was to visit the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall in Beijing on Mao's birthday and also on the day he died, to leave floral wreaths or baskets of flowers, the Post report said.