Obituary: Wang Guangmei

Wang Guangmei, former first lady of China. Died aged 85.

Wang Guangmei, persecuted during the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution with her husband, President Liu Shaoqi, has died.

Chinese state media have not reported her death from heart and kidney failure, apparently to avoid rekindling unwanted memories of her bitter experiences during the Cultural Revolution, which Mao unleashed to get back at Liu and other political rivals for taking away his day-to-day running of the country.

Wang reportedly incurred the wrath of Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, for wearing a pearl necklace at a time when fashion, make-up and women's accessories were considered bourgeois decadence.

She was forced by Red Guards to wear a necklace of ping-pong balls when she was purged in 1967, and spent 12 years in jail.

Her husband was purged and died in prison in 1969, but she did not know about it until years later.

Liu was posthumously rehabilitated in 1980, four years after Mao's death.

Liu replaced Mao as president in 1959 on grounds that the chairman's 1958 Great Leap Forward campaign to overtake Britain's economy was a disaster and led to a man-made famine which killed about 30 million people.

After her release, Wang dedicated her life to poverty alleviation. She was nominated last month for the 2nd China Poverty Eradication Awards.

Wang received a master's degree in physics from the Fu Jen Catholic University in Beijing in 1945, before devoting herself to the communist revolution.

- REUTERS