Gao Gang
In 1962, he was accused of leading an anti-party clique for supporting the "Biography of Liu Zhidan", and purged from all leadership positions. The biography, written by Li Jiantong () to commemorate Xi's former comrade who died a party martyr in 1936, was alleged to be a covert effort to subvert the party by rehabilitating Gao Gang, another former comrade who had been purged in 1954. Xi Zhongxun was forced to undergo self-critique and in 1965 was demoted to the position of a deputy manager of a tractor factory in Luoyang. During the Cultural Revolution, he was persecuted, jailed and spent long periods in confinement in Beijing. He regained his freedom in May 1975 and was assigned to another factory in Luoyang.