Project 571 Locomotive...... Gubei, Shanghia 2013

The Project 571 outline was not written in the form of a practicable military plan, but more as political declaration. The military plans contained in the outline were below the standards that could have been expected from Lin Biao, one of modern China's most successful generals. Following Lin's death in 1971, the Chinese government initially charged Lin Biao with personally planning Project 571. According to the modern standard Chinese narrative of Lin Biao's plot, Lin Biao became aware that Mao no longer trusted him after the Second Plenum of the 9th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1970, and he harbored a strong desire to seize supreme power. So, in February 1971, Lin and his wife Ye Qun, who was then a Politburo member, began to plot Mao's assassination. Lin's subordinates planned to assassinate Mao by sabotaging his train before he returned to Beijing, however, Mao unexpectedly changed his route on September 11, 1971. After September 12, a massive purge of the armed forces took place. All military officials identified as being close to Lin or his family which was most of China's high military command, were purged within weeks of Lin's disappearance. Within a month of Lin's disappearance, over 1,000 senior Chinese military officials were purged. After Mao Zedong was confident that all of the alleged plotters were either dead or arrested, he had copies of the Project 571 Outline widely circulated among cadres in the Communist Party. This was the locomotive which Lin planned to sabotage and kill Mao.......By failing to assassinate Mao and blow up this train, the coup attempt associated with Project 571 failed. Available as 8 x 11 or 11 x 17 b & w or color photo on Hahnemuhle Museum Etching Fine Art Inkjet Paper, and each photograph or print is personally approved and hand-signed by me, the artist.