Chinese Gang of Four's "golden pen" dead at 74

BEIJING — Yao Wenyuan, the last living member of the Gang of Four blamed for the chaos and political extremism of China's decadelong Cultural Revolution, has died, state media reported Friday. He was 74. Yao died Dec. 23 of diabetes, the official New China News Agency said in a short dispatch.

Yao was the primary propagandist for the Gang of Four, which has come to personify the fanaticism of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution that left thousands of people dead and the nation's economy in shambles. Many observers say the arrest and imprisonment of the foursome decades ago allowed the Communist Party to avoid taking responsibility for the disastrous policies of its founding father, Chairman Mao Tse-tung.

Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, wielded enormous power in the name of her husband. Wang Hongwen, party vice chairman, was the ranking official. Zhang Chunqiao was seen as the brains of the group. Yao was known as the man with the golden pen.

In 1981, a trial that riveted the nation delivered Yao a 20-year prison sentence, the lightest among the four. He was released in 1996.

Qing, whose death sentence had been reduced to life in prison, apparently hanged herself in 1991. Wang, 58, died of cancer in 1992. Zhang, 88, died of cancer in April.