---
title: Kang Sheng
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/kang-sheng/
description: 3 verified quotes from Kang Sheng, Head of the CCP security and intelligence apparatus; adviser to the Cultural Revolution Group; Politburo Standing…
section: FRAME
---

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[Quotes](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/) · China

# Kang Sheng

Head of the CCP security and intelligence apparatus; adviser to the Cultural Revolution Group; Politburo Standing Committee member (1966-1975) · China

On the regime page: [People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/peoples-republic-of-china-mao/#kang-sheng)

3 quotes, oldest first. [Filter with other speakers](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/#speaker=kang-sheng).

1. **Content note:** Remark about the use of machine guns by factions. The words are shown as they were said or written. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) — > “Not spears. We now have the machine guns.” — English: Union Research Institute, Hong Kong (CCP Documents of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1967, 1968, pp. 520-534). Original-language text not found. — September 5, 1967 · Speech · Peking, meeting with representatives from Anhui — Jiang Qing had just warned the delegates against stirring up fights by wearing fighters' caps and raising spears; the transcript records Kang Sheng, whom she calls 'Old K'ang' and the translator identifies as K'ang Sheng, interrupting. The remark was made during armed factional fighting in several provinces. — Interjection recorded in Jiang Qing's talk at a conference of representatives of Anhui, 5 September 1967 (circulated by the CCP Central Committee General Office), in CCP Documents of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1967 (Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1968), pp. 520-534 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/jiang-qing/1967/september/05.htm)
2. **Content note:** Crude nickname for a rival faction. The words are shown as they were said or written. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) — > “To be fair, you of the good group had also sent someone to collect material, as the Fart Faction had done.” — English: Union Research Institute, Hong Kong (CCP Documents of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1967, 1968, pp. 520-534). Original-language text not found. — September 5, 1967 · Speech · Peking, meeting with representatives from Anhui — Kang Sheng's question to the Anhui delegates about whether their faction, as well as the rival one, had sent people to collect compromising material on members of the Cultural Revolution Group. 'Good' and 'Fart' are the nicknames of the two Anhui factions in the translation. — Interjection recorded in Jiang Qing's talk at a conference of representatives of Anhui, 5 September 1967, in CCP Documents of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1967 (Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1968), pp. 520-534 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/jiang-qing/1967/september/05.htm)
3. > “They wish to control the movement all over the country.” — English: Red Guard publication Long Live Mao Tse-tung Thought, as reproduced in Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung vol. 9 (Marxists.org). Original-language text not found. — July 28, 1968 · Private-remark · Peking, meeting of Mao and the Cultural Revolution Group with Red Guard leaders Verified (secondary source) — Said of student groups from Guangxi staying at a Peking institute, during the meeting at which Mao told Red Guard leaders that workers' propaganda teams were being sent into the universities to end factional fighting. — Dialogues with responsible persons of the Capital Red Guards Congress, 28 July 1968, from the Red Guard publication Long Live Mao Tse-tung Thought, English text on Marxists.org (Mao Selected Works, vol. 9) [Source](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-9/mswv9_81.htm)