3. Jiang Qing (Chiang Ch’ing, Lan Ping, Li Jinhai)
Born: March, 1914 – Zhucheng, Shandong Province, China
Died: May 14, 1991 – Beijing, China
Hold on tight because we are jumping to the XX century. The third place on our list of 10 most evil female rulers in history belongs to Jiang Qing, the Chinese celebrated actress, better known as Madame Mao. She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party and founder of the People’s Republic of China. Wondering why Jiang is on this list? Well, she was on the mission with an explicit goal – to promote Mao’s Communist ideology. It seems that she got it all wrong when it comes to understanding the term – promote! During the decade of the Cultural Revolution, she got rid of their political rivals without slightest hesitation! As for her supporters – the radical Communist leaders – she gathered them in a group known as the Gang of Four. Yao Wenyuan, Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao and Madame Mao were the brains of the operation that resulted in persecution of more than 700 000 people, including more than 30 000 of them who were persecuted to death. Following Mao’s death in 1976, she was arrested together with her accomplices. After initial death sentence, a few years later she was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1991, she killed herself.
