or Chiang Ch'ing orig. Li Jinhai
born 1914?, Zhucheng, Shandong, China
died May 14, 1991, Beijing
Third wife of Mao Zedong and member of the radical Gang of Four .
Jiang married Mao in the 1930s but entered politics only in the 1960s. As first deputy head of the Cultural Revolution , Jiang acquired far-reaching powers over China's cultural life and oversaw the total suppression of a wide variety of traditional cultural activities. Arrested after Mao's death and accused of fomenting the widespread civil unrest that characterized the Cultural Revolution, she refused to confess guilt and received a suspended death sentence that was commuted to life imprisonment. Her death was reported as a suicide.