Xi Jinping returned to his small village in Shaanxi a changed young man. The news that he had seen his father sent a clear signal to the village. There was obviously something going on in Beijing. The peasants were eager to hear as much as they could from him upon his return.
Xi Jinping had even more shocking news for the local officials. Mao’s hand-picked successor, Lin Biao, had died in a plane crash in Outer Mongolia, then a Russian satellite country on the Chinese border with its semi-autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. What in the world was Lin Biao doing flying there? On the tragic night of the 13th of September 1971, Lin Biao took his wife and his only son, along with a small entourage of close supporters and family, and secretly boarded a British-made Trident passenger jet airliner, one of thirty-three ordered for the Chinese air force and the national civilian airline.
Nobody knew exact how they died. There was much exciting speculation in Beijing. Some said the Trident had been deliberately shot down by a Chinese missile. Some said they had lost their orientation and had flown out of China unknowingly. The official version was that Lin Biao was trying to defect to Russia and the aircraft had run out of fuel. The story sounded like a political thriller full of tension and mystery and intrigue.
What Xi Jinping reported to the locals was too shocking to believe. Why Lin Biao? Wasn’t he in second place, right after Mao, in the Party’s inner circle? Hadn’t Mao pursued and persuaded him to take on this position? Wasn’t Lin Biao present at every one of Mao’s public appearances, always making sure he got their ahead of Mao so he could be seen and photographed welcoming and greeting Mao? Why go to the Soviet Union? Wasn’t Russia still the enemy of China following their armed border confrontation in 1969? If this were true, how could Chairman Mao, their revered leader, have hand-picked such an evil person to lead China in his eventual absence?
Soon classified documents came from Beijing proving what Xi Jinping had said was correct. According to official Communist Party documents, Lin Biao was a traitor and had tried to flee China following a failed coup attempt against Mao Zedong. Lin, his wife Ye Qun who was also a powerful Politburo member, and their son, an Air Force officer had laid plans to assassinate Mao by blowing up his train. Unaware of the supposed plot against him, Mao nevertheless changed the travel route of his train, thus avoiding the attack, and made it back to Beijing unharmed. His bodyguards foiled several more attempts over the next twenty-four hours, and all evidence pointed to Lin.
Supposedly Lin Biao and his family thought they might have enough support in the military to flee to south China and engage Mao loyalists militarily with support from the Soviet Union. But when they heard that Zhou Enlai had discovered their intention and was investigating it, Lin Biao abandoned this plan and knew he now had to escape. His plane crashed, the official documents stated, because it ran out of fuel before it could reach the Soviet Union, killing all on board. Forensic tests conducted by the Russians at the crash site confirmed that Lin Biao and his family had died in the crash.
Further, Beijing decreed that Lin Biao’s photos should be taken down immediately and all references to him, written or spoken, should cease. Anything associated with Lin Biao became taboo and forbidden.
The Central Party’s document stated Lin Biao was driven by a morbid ambition for power and that he tried to assassinate Mao. Mao saw through his plan and so he cowardly ran away and died trying to reach China’s enemy, the Soviet Union. A very bizarre story! But at that time most people believed it. They didn’t dare to ask many probing questions such as Mao’s seeming lack of wisdom and insight in promoting such a person to the top of power in the first place. Such questions were never raised. Most people believed every word coming from Beijing, and these words were few and well chosen by the Party’s propaganda team. The local people in Liangjia River village must have had a thousand questions, many not voiced, for Xi Jinping. He certainly could not answer all of them, but as a person with special connections to the inner circle of power, the young Xi Jinping stood out much clearer; he was someone now, and his demeanor was different as well. But just who was he?
Having come back from Beijing, Xi Jinping started to change. The first thing he did was apply for membership in the local Communist Youth League. His application was rejected. Membership wasn’t automatic, even in this remote area of China. Supposedly the reason for his rejection was because of his father’s fallen status. But it could have been for a different reason related to Xi Jinping himself. Did the local people trust him?
Xi Jinping did not give up and applied for a second time. And a second time he was rejected again. Determined, he continued to try. As Xi Jinping has said later in his career, he then had a long conversation with one of the local Youth League members. This conversation began the build-up of a close relationship with this leader, and being impressed, he decided to help the young man. He told Xi Jinping that the trouble with his Youth League application was not just his father; it was also because his files sent from Beijing were very damaging.
Included in his files were details of Xi Jinping’s arrest by the Beijing police and spending some months in the youth re-education facility when he had tried to leave Liangjia River and illegally fled back to Beijing. What additional details may have been in his files are unknown. According to an interview given years later, Xi Jinping persuaded this man to destroy his files by burning them. His friend in the local Communist Youth League burned them for him. A piece of history went up in flames and stays mysterious till today.
Such was the persuasive ability of the young Xi Jinping. With the damning records gone and obvious high level local support, the local Communist Youth League decided to take him in at last. Xi Jinping was very proud of his action and the fact that he had persuasive powers over those supposedly above him, and he has told this story to the public without hesitation.
Having achieved the first step of Youth League membership, Xi Jinping was next chosen as “Activist of Educated Youth”. Loosely translated, the title “Activist” meant that he worked hard and talked loudly to others about what the Party newspapers were saying, primarily a lot of Marxist jargon.
Xi also worked hard as a laborer in his village alongside the peasants. At least he tried. He was assigned to work on the infrastructure of the commune’s fields, one of the hardest jobs in the countryside. The local peasants still remember that for a year he wasn’t able to carry two buckets on a yoke across his shoulders. He often slipped and fell going downhill, spilling out all the water or grain contents in his buckets to the chagrin and amusement of his co-workers.
But for what Xi Jinping lacked in physical skill he more than made up for in determination. He was determined to prove himself. As the village peasants recalled, in one year’s time he could carry a one hundred kilogram sack of grain while walking five kilometers at one go. In winter time he joined the peasants to build a canal. He was the first one to jump into the icy, muddy water to empty the canal.
He was trying to blend in with the peasants, but his privileges never left him and now followed him here. The corn flour he got was pure flour, while the peasants got flour with bran. He now lived independently. He had his books and read often till late into the night using an oil lamp in his cave. He read and re-read Marx, Lenin, Mao’ works and some scientific school books he had brought with him from Beijing. The books made him very different from the illiterate villagers around him. And he was very protective of his precious books. The locals recalled that Xi Jinping could become very angry if anyone dared to touch his books.
Xi Jinping knew by instinct how to please the local people. He entertained them with his story-telling prowess, though what he said to them, we don’t know. According to his own claims, the local people liked him and respected him. He was regarded as an able young man. The local officials would even consult with him if they had some conundrum to sort out. Indeed he had a lot to offer, coming from Beijing with his very high-level family background. His family once hosted all of the leading political