After graduating from Sichuan University, he went to northern Jiangsu Province after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War to participate in guerrilla activities.
In 1967, Cao was deposed and arrested alongside the rest of the Municipal Committee in the wake of the January Storm.
During a struggle session, Cao was forced by the left-radical rebels to kneel on an overhead maintenance vehicle with his arms tied behind his back and a wooden sign hung around his neck, and paraded through busy downtown areas such as Nanjing Road, an act which exposed him to many risks of physical injury.
[2] Cao was imprisoned for six years up till his transferring to the Municipal May 7 Cadre School for labour in May 1973 as a result of there being insufficient evidence for him to be labelled as a traitor.
[1][2] Cao Diqiu died in Shanghai on 29 March 1976 after almost a decade's worth of torment in the form of struggle sessions and character assassination.