Former officer recalls his part in 1927 murder case
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Lu Quanfa (center) gives a talk to police officers in Jing’an District on Tuesday.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
Lu Quanfa gives the talk to dozens of young police officers in Jing’an District on Tuesday.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
The warrant of arrest issued to Lei Hengcheng in 1952 preserved by police in Jing’an District.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE
Li Dazhao, one of the main founders of the Communist Party of China.
Shanghai police held a special event on Tuesday to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Li Dazhao, one of the main founders of the Communist Party of China.Li was killed at the age of 38 on April 28, 1927, in Beijing, and Lei Hengcheng, one of the masterminds behind Li's arrest and murder, was arrested in Shanghai in 1952. One of the police officers who arrested Lei was Lu Quanfa.Lu, now 89 years old, was a former vice director of the Public Security Bureau of Jing'an District. He gave a talk about the arrest of Lei on Tuesday.In the autumn of 1952, the Xincheng public security bureau, later renamed the Jing’an bureau, received a letter about the whereabouts of Lei. In 1927, Lei had led military police to search the Soviet embassy and arrested Li Dazhao and dozens of others who were hanged days later.The letter claimed Lei was pretending to be a monk called Liao Ming, a Zen master, and was lodging in an area popularly known as “Malisi” in Shanghai, which was near the current Chongqing Road N.Lu, 19 years old at the time, was given the task to investigate the claim with two colleagues.
Lu Quanfa (front row, right) in his younger days.
The letter revealed a number of details about the monk. He was said to be wearing a gold watch, a gift from an emperor from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and to have a few gold teeth."Those details were the key clues for me to identify him," Lu recalled.Lu and his colleagues soon located Lei, who was known to be a fortune teller by residents and went by the name Zhao Zhi’an in the household registration records.In order to confirm his identity, Lu pretended to be a customer and knocked on Lei’s door.The person in front of him matched all descriptions, but Lu needed to doublecheck a key detail.“If his precious watch had a portrait of the emperor on it, then we would be absolutely sure that he was Lei,” Lu said. “I asked him the time, and took the opportunity to verify his gold watch.”Yes, he must be Lei.
A photograph of Lei Hengcheng at the time of his arrest.
After his arrest, Lei confessed and was later executed. Lu still clearly remembers the scene at the execution."He looked very calm, knelt on the ground and begged the executioner not to hit him in the head,” he said. “I think he hoped to keep his face intact and die gracefully."Dozens of young police officers working in Jing’an District were listening to Lu’s recounting of the story on Tuesday.Lu also recalled the working conditions of the police at that time.“The whole bureau had only one Jeep, so we were often sent on foot to tasks despite the distance,” he said. “We even had to truss up suspects with shoelaces sometimes.”Lu hoped his young colleagues today could cherish their working conditions and keep making efforts to serve the people and society.Wang Shuokai, a police officer at the event, said he was inspired by Lu’s talk.“Li Dazhao embodied the spirit of the Chinese revolutionaries, and Lu Quanfa was an example of a police officer of loyalty and excellence,” he said. “We, as a new generation of police officers, should take up the responsibility to make Shanghai a more orderly and safer city for all its people.”
