Mao Anqing, 84, Chairman Mao's Second Son, Is Dead

Mao Anqing, 84, Chairman Mao's Second Son, Is Dead

BEIJING, March 24 (AP) — Mao Anqing, the only known surviving son of Mao Zedong, has died, a government news agency reported Saturday. He was 84.

Mao Anqing died Friday, the China News Service said, without citing a cause. He had no role in government, suffered from psychiatric problems and was believed to have spent much of his adult life in mental hospitals.

Chairman Mao with his son Anqing

Born in 1923, Mao Anqing was the second son of Mao and his first wife, Yang Kaihui, while they were activists. Ms. Yang was executed in 1930 by the then-ruling Nationalist government.

In 1936, Mao Anqing and his older brother, Anying, were sent first to Paris and then to Moscow. They returned in 1947 before the Communists’ 1949 victory in a civil war that overthrew the Nationalists.

Mao Zedong also had two daughters, Li Na and Li Min. Some say Mao might have had other children while on the run from Nationalist forces in the 1930s and left them with peasant families. But none of those children have been found.

Mao Anying was killed fighting in the Korean War in the 1950s. Mao Zedong died in 1976

New York Times