Kang Sheng

Kang Sheng
康生
Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party
In office
9 October 1959 – 16 December 1975
ChairmanMao Zedong
Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
In office
3 January 1965 – 16 December 1975
ChairmanZhu De
Vice Chairperson of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
In office
17 April 1959 – 20 December 1964
ChairmanZhou Enlai
Director of the Central Social Affairs Department
In office
1939–1945
Personal details
Born4 November 1898
Zhucheng, Weifang, Shandong, Qing dynasty
Died16 December 1975(1975-12-16) (aged 77)
Beijing, People's Republic of China
Political partyChinese Communist Party (expelled posthumously)
Spouse(s)Chen Yi (陳宜)
Cao Yi'ou (曹軼歐)
OccupationIntelligence Chief, Spymaster
Nickname“China's Beria”

Kang Sheng (Chinese: ; pinyin: Kāng Shēng; 4 November 1898 – 16 December 1975), born Zhang Zongke (simplified Chinese: 张宗可; traditional Chinese: 張宗可; pinyin: Zhāng Zōngkě), was a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official, best known for having overseen the work of the CCP's internal security and intelligence apparatus during the early 1940s and again at the height of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A member of the CCP from the early 1920s, he spent time in Moscow during the early 1930s, where he learned the methods of the Soviet NKVD and became a supporter of Wang Ming for leadership of the CCP. After returning to China in the late 1930s, Kang Sheng switched his allegiance to Mao Zedong and became a close associate of Mao during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War, and after. He remained at or near the pinnacle of power in the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1975. After the death of Mao and the subsequent arrest of the Gang of Four, Kang Sheng was accused of sharing responsibility with the Gang for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and in 1980 he was expelled posthumously from the CCP.[1]