The Mao Case

Jiao.”
    “Why?”
    “She may have it.”
    “Something from Mao — the Mao material, you mean?”
    “Yes, you could say that.”
    “Did Shang, Qian, or Jiao ever show this material to anyone?”
    “No. Not that we are aware of.”
    “Then there may not even be any such material.”
    “Why would you think that?”
    “With someone like Shang, a popular movie actress, her home must have been thoroughly ransacked and searched by Red Guards.
     They never found anything, right? The Mao material — whatever it could be — wasn’t something like a life-saving imperial decree
     like in ancient time. Even if it existed, it didn’t save her; if anything, it probably only caused her trouble. How would
     she have been able to leave it to her daughter Qian? And how could Qian, dying in an accident, have given it to her daughter
     Jiao?”
    “Comrade Chief Inspector Chen!” Huang obviously was not pleased with Chen’s response. “We cannot afford to overlook this possibility.
     There are some quite suspicious things about Jiao. About a year ago, for instance, she suddenly quit her job and moved into
     a luxurious apartment. Where did the money come from? Now she’s regularly attending parties with people from Hong Kong, Taiwan,
     or Western countries. What is she really up to? What’s more, the host of these parties, a certain Mr. Xie, is someone who
     bears a deep grudge against Mao. So she could be trying to sell the Mao material for a large advance.”
    “An advance for a book? If she has the money already, I don’t think we can do anything about it. The publisher would now have
     the material — the Mao material.”
    “Perhaps not yet, or not entirely. Something might have been arranged, out of consideration for her safety. If such a book
     were
published while she was in China, she could get in trouble. She knows better —”
    “Has she applied for a passport?”
    “No, not yet. If she did anything too obvious, it wouldn’t do her any good.”
    It sounded like a conspiracy scenario to Chen. The minister must have some reason to be concerned, but Chen had many questions.
    “Why the sudden attention to this?” Chen resumed after a pause. “Shang died years ago.”
    “It’s a long story but, in short, it’s because of two books. The first one is entitled
Cloud and Rain in Shanghai.
You must have heard of it.”
    “No, I haven’t.”
    “You are too busy, Chief Inspector Chen. It’s a best seller about Qian, and about Shang too.”
    “Really? A best seller?”
    “Yes. And then the other book is the memoir by Mao’s personal doctor.”
    “That one I’ve heard of, but I haven’t read it.”
    “With that book we learned our lesson the hard way. When the doctor applied for a passport so he could go to the States for
     health reasons, we let him go. His book was then published there. It’s full of fabrications about Mao’s private life. However,
     readers are so interested in those horrible details that they swallow them without a hiccup. The book is selling like hotcakes
     all over the world. In some languages, it has been reprinted ten times in one year.”
    Chen had heard stories about Mao’s private life. In the years shortly after the Cultural Revolution, when Madam Mao was denounced
     as a white-bone devil, lurid details about her life as a third-rate movie actress started coming out, with some particulars
     having direct or indirect connection to Mao. The Beijing authorities soon put an end to the “hearsay.” Since, after all, there’s
     no separating Madam Mao from Mao.
    “So these two books have led us to be concerned about the possibility that Jiao might have something left behind by Shang.
     Something that she could use against the interest of our Party.”

    “I’m still lost, Minister Huang.”
    “I don’t think we need to go into details on the phone. You’ll learn more from the case file compiled by Internal Security.”
    “Internal Security is already investigating?” Chen said, frowning. Internal Security was usually assigned the most sensitive
     political cases. “If so, why call me in?”
    “They’ve been following Jiao for weeks, but without success. So their plan is to take tougher measures, but some leading comrades
     in Beijing don’t think that’s a good idea. Comrade Zhao, the ex-secretary of the Central Party Discipline Committee, is one
     of them. Indeed, we have to think about repercussions. Both Xie and Jiao are known in their circles and have