Mao Anying (Chinese: 毛岸英; pinyin: Máo Ànyīng; 24 October 1922 – 25 November 1950) was a Chinese military officer. He was the eldest son of Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui. Educated in Moscow and a veteran of multiple wars, Mao was killed in action by a United States napalm strike during the Korean War.
Mao was born at Central South University Xiangya Hospital in Changsha, Hunan Province. His mother, Yang Kaihui, the second wife of Communist Leader Mao Zedong, was executed by the Kuomintang in 1930. He and his younger brother, Mao Anqing, escaped to Shanghai. Their father was in Jiangxi province at the time. They were enrolled in the Datong Kindergarten, which was run covertly by the Chinese Communist Party for the children of CCP leaders and operated by Dong Jianwu under the alias "Pastor Wang". In 1933, after the Kuomintang expulsion of the CCP from the Jiangxi Soviet, support for the Datong Kindergarten dried up, and Mao and his brother ended up on the streets.
In 1936, Mao was located by Dong and Kang Sheng and taken to Moscow, where he was enrolled with his brother Anqing at Interdom in the Soviet Union under the name "Sergei Yun Fu". His stepmother, He Zizhen, would join them there after being wounded in battle; although Mao's father had left his mother for He, Anying had a good relationship with their half-sister Li Min, who joined them in 1941.
During the Second World War, Anying successfully petitioned Joseph Stalin to allow him and his brother Anqing to join the Soviet Red Army. Mao graduated from the Frunze Military Academy and the Lenin Military-Political Academy in 1943 and served as a deputy politics department commander of a tank platoon for the 1st Belorussian Front in the fight against the Third Reich in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the final Battle of Berlin.
Following VE Day, Anying was reassigned to the Soviet Far East, where he took part in the Soviet-Japanese War. During the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation, he was praised for his role during military operations in Chahar Province and the Greater Khingan Range, for which he received the Soviet military decorations of the Order of the Red Star and the Medal "For Battle Merit".
In 1946, Mao returned to Yan'an, where he served under Kang Sheng in fighting against the Kuomintang and defeating them in Shanxi Province, reaching the rank of Major General in the People's Liberation Army. Upon his return to Beijing, Mao became a Secretary and Translator for Li Kenong in the CCP's intelligence bureau, the Central Social Affairs Department, and also the Deputy Secretary of the CCP Branch for the Beijing General Machinery Factory.
In June 1950, Mao requested to join the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) in the Korean War. PVA commander Peng Dehuai and other high-ranking officers, fearing Mao Zedong's reaction if his favorite son was to be killed in combat, had long opposed allowing Mao to join the PVA and tried to prevent him from entering. Mao Zedong overrode Peng, who allegedly shouted, "He is Mao Zedong's son. Why should it be anything else?" Peng instead had Mao assigned to himself as his secretary and Russian translator, under the pseudonym "Secretary Liu" at the PVA headquarters, located in caves near an old gold mining settlement in Tongchang County. This location was far from the front lines of the war. However, the United States completely controlled the airspace.
On the evening of 24 November, two UN aircraft, P-61s on a photo reconnaissance mission, were seen overhead. According to multiple Chinese eyewitnesses, sometime between 10:00 am and noon on 25 November, four Douglas B-26 Invaders dropped napalm bombs in the area.One of the bombs destroyed a makeshift building near the caves, killing Mao and another volunteer, Gao Ruixin.
Soviet intelligence had alerted Beijing to the United States' discovery of the PVA headquarters' location two days earlier, and on the night of 24 November the headquarters staff including Mao had been discussing intelligence reports. Explanations of Mao and Gao being in the building when the bomb struck include that Mao was cooking fried rice, which some have claimed was in violation of PVA regulations, or fetching documents.
One Chinese newspaper reported that Douglas MacArthur had personally ordered a targeted assassination of both Mao Anying and Peng Dehuai, but this was dismissed by veterans.
According to one account Peng witnessed the explosion and, realizing Mao was in danger, tried to run towards him but was physically restrained by his guards. Peng screamed, "if you don't let go, I'll kill you!" to which the guard responded, "if you kill me, I still won't let go". Mao's body was reportedly burnt beyond recognition and was identifiable only by a Soviet watch given to him by Joseph Stalin. Peng immediately reported Mao's death to the Central Military Commission, but Mao Zedong's personal secretary Ye Zilong hid Peng's telegrams until after a few days Zhou Enlai told him "Don't hide it. There's no way to hide it forever. Tell the Chairman." Others have claimed that Mao Zedong was only informed of his son's death in January 1951 when Peng Dehuai returned to Beijing.
When Mao Zedong heard the news from Ye, he is said to have been silent for three or four minutes before saying: "It's war. There will always be sacrifices. This is nothing." Later, Mao Zedong is reported as telling Peng Dehuai: "On the battlefield, sacrifices cannot be avoided." When Peng raised the question of whether or not Anying's body should be brought home, Mao Zedong interrupted him saying that many heroic young people had been sacrificed in Korea and his own son should not be treated differently to them but should be buried together with them in Korea.
Mao was buried in Pyongyang, in the Cemetery for the Heroes of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army.
The fried rice story has never been confirmed. The Chinese Academy of History has supported earlier clarifications that the attack was a planned one, citing declassified documents showing that the United States had intercepted radio communications leading to discovery of the headquarters' location, and dismissed identification of fried rice as the reason for Mao's death. The Wall Street Journal alleged that the Academy was rewriting history.
The only units operating the B-26 in Korea at the time were the 3rd Bomb Group and 452nd 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. 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 B-26s.
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Quotations related to Mao Anying at Wikiquote