My canine reference in yesterday's post was not an idly sexist remark. Plenty of Chinese considered Jiang to be a bitch, though more politely she was thought of as the 'white-boned demon.' I was however referencing a famous remark made by Jiang during her trial, which essentially implicated Mao as the major player behind the Cultural Revolution. She said:

"I was Chairman Mao's dog. I bit whomever he asked me to bite."

Despite her well-documented complicity in the crimes committed during that period, it seems to me that she also took the fall for her husband's leading role. Mao acted and he didn't act. Sometimes he just let things happen, which made him doubly culpable. The CCP did not want to strike the memory of Mao down and Jiang and the Gang of Four had the whole weight of historical judgement dumped on them.

Below, a lovely snap of Jiang and Mao in Yu'nan in 1938.