Mao Anying

Mao was born at Central South University Xiangya Hospital in Changsha, Hunan Province. His mother, Yang Kaihui, second wife of Chinese Leader Mao Zedong, was executed by the Kuomintang in 1930. He and his younger brother, Mao Anqing, escaped to Shanghai, where they attended a kindergarten run by the Communist underground. In Shanghai, they lived with Pastor Dong Jianwu (董健吾), who was a Communist party member.[1]

Mao and his wife Liu Songlin

Mao later studied with his brother Anqing at Interdom in the Soviet Union under the name "Sergei Yun Fu".[2]

During the Second World War, Anying and his brother Anqing joined the Soviet Red Army. Anying served as an artillery officer in the fight against the Third Reich in Poland.[3]

By November 1950, Mao was serving in the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA), as a secretary and Russian translator for PVA commander Peng Dehuai.[4] Mao was stationed at a PVA headquarters, in caves near an old gold mining settlement. On the evening of 24 November, two United Nations (UN) aircraft, P-61s on a photo reconnaissance mission, were seen overhead.[5] However, the caves offered excellent protection from UN air attacks.

According to multiple Chinese eyewitnesses, sometime between 10:00am and noon on 25 November, four Douglas A-26 Invaders dropped napalm bombs in the area.[6][7] One of the bombs destroyed a makeshift building near the caves, killing Mao and another officer. Several conflicting reasons have been given as to why Mao was in the building, including suggestions that he was cooking food in violation of Chinese Army regulations,[1][5][8] fetching documents, or sleeping late due to night duties.[6]

The only unit operating the A-26 in Korea at the time was the 3rd Bomb Group, of the United States Air Force (USAF). (Some accounts have claimed, most likely incorrectly, that the pilot responsible was Captain G. B. Lipawsky of the South African Air Force.[9] However, the only aircraft flown by South African pilots in Korea was the Mustang fighter bomber, which was unlikely to have been mistaken for the larger, twin-engine A-26s.[6])

Some Chinese netizens would commemorate the day of Mao's death as "Chinese Thanksgiving" by eating and sharing photos of egg fried rice, which Mao was supposedly cooking at the camp.[10]

Mao was apparently buried in Pyongyang, in the Cemetery for the Heroes of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, although some sources claim that his body was later shipped to Beijing. Some sources claim that Peng Dehuai's fall from grace after the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution was connected to Mao Anying's death, for which Mao Zedong supposedly held Peng responsible.

• Chiang Wei-kuo