The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957 (51 page)

12
    
Sun Nainai, Xushui, interviewed in 2006; the practice of burying people alive in the region was also noted by Raymond J. de Jaegher,
The Enemy Within: An Eyewitness Account of the Communist Conquest of China
, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1952, pp. 112–14; Liu Shaoqi reprimanded his colleagues for the practice in 1947, as we see below on p. 73.

13
    
Jack Belden,
China Shakes the World
, New York: Harper, 1949, p. 33.

14
    
John Byron and Robert Pack,
The Claws of the Dragon: Kang Sheng, the Evil Genius behind Mao and his Legacy of Terror in People’s China
, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992, pp. 125–6; Roger Faligot and Rémi Kauffer,
The Chinese Secret Service
, New York: Morrow, 1989, pp. 103–4 and 115–18.

15
    
Zhang Yongdong,
Yijiusijiu nianhou Zhongguo nongcun zhidu biange shi
(A history of changes in the Chinese countryside after 1949), Taipei: Ziyou wenhua chubanshe, 2008, pp. 23–4; Luo Pinghan,
Tudi gaige yundong shi
(A history of the campaign for land reform), Fuzhou: Fujian renmin chubanshe, 2005, pp. 182–4 and 205; on land reform as a political device to overthrow traditional elites one should also read the many essays of Qin Hui, for instance Bian Wu (Qin Hui), ‘Gongshe zhi mi: Nongye jituanhua de zai renshi’ (The myth of the commune: Revisiting the collectivisation of agriculture),
Ershiyi shiji
, no. 48 (Aug. 1998),pp. 22–36, and Qin Hui,
Nongmin Zhongguo:
Lishi fansi yu xianshi xuanze
(Peasant China: Historical reflections and realistic choices), Zhengzhou: Henan renmin chubanshe, 2003.

16
    
Report by Liu Shaoqi at the National Conference on Land Reform, Aug. 1947, Hebei, 572-1-35, two versions of the same speech in documents 1 and 3, pp. 33–4; this report is also quoted in a much more detailed context in a chapter on land reform by Yang Kuisong,
Zhonghua renmin gongheguo jianguo shi yanjiu
(Studies on the history of the founding of the People’s Republic of China), Nanchang: Jiangxi renmin chubanshe, 2009, vol. 1,  p. 55.

17
    
Zhang Mingyuan, ‘Wo de huiyi’ (My recollections), p. 259, quoted in Zhang Ming, ‘Huabei diqu tudi gaige yundong de zhengzhi yunzuo (1946–1949)’ (Land reform in North China, 1946–1949),
Ershiyi shiji
, no. 82 (April 2003), pp. 32–41; on Shandong, see Zhang Xueqiang,
Xiangcun bianqian yu nongmin jiyi: Shandong laoqu Junan xian tudi gaige yanjiu
(Village change and peasant memory: Studies on land reform in Junan county, Shandong), Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2006.

18
    
Liu Tong,
Zhongyuan jiefang zhanzheng jishi
(A historical record of the civil war in the central plains), Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2003,pp. 317–18, quoted in Luo,
Tudi gaige yundong shi
, p. 273.

19
    
Renmin ribao
, 30 March 1951, p. 2, quoted in DeMare, ‘Turning Bodies and Turning Minds’, p. 5.

20
    
Brian Crozier,
The Man who Lost China: The First Full Biography of Chiang Kai-shek
, New York: Scribner, 1976, p. 352.

21
    
Bo,
Ruogan zhongda shijian yu juece de huigu
, vol. 1, pp. 115–28.

22
    
Mao Zedong quoted in a speech by Deng Zihui on the spirit of the Third Plenum of the Seventh Central Committee of the CPC, 10 July 1950, Hubei, SZ1-2-15, p. 29.

23
    
On Guangdong see Shaanxi, 9 Sept. 1950, 123-1-83, p. 164; on the south-west see
Neibu cankao
, 27 July 1950, pp. 93–4; the numbers for tax collection are in
Neibu cankao
, 14 Sept. 1950, p. 67.

24
    
Reports on grain requisitions, 3 and 8 Feb., 13 and 19 March and3 May 1950, Hubei, SZ1-2-32, pp. 33, 36, 66–7, 69–70, 72–4 and 83–4; Report on land reform by the South China Bureau, 13 Dec. 1951, Gansu, 91-18-532, pp. 22–5; on Guizhou, see the pioneering article by Wang Haiguang, ‘Zhengliang, minbian yu “feiluan” ’ (Grain procurements, popular revolts and ‘bandit disorder’),
Zhongguo dangdaishi yanjiu
, no. 1 (Aug. 2011), pp. 229–66.

25
    
Neibu cankao
, 2 Sept. 1950, pp. 7–8.

26
    
Shaanxi, 1 Feb. 1951, 123-1-151, pp. 33–8.

27
    
Report from the East China Bureau, 5 May 1950, Shaanxi, 123-1-83, pp. 1–7.

28
    
In the case of Hubei, the provincial party committee expressed the need to carry out land reform as a specific strategy to cope with popular rebellion in a series of documents in Hubei, 3 and 8 Feb., 13 and 19 March and 3 May 1950, SZ1-2-32, pp. 33, 36, 66–7, 69–70, 72–4 and 83–4.

29
    
Sichuan, 12 Sept. 1951, JX1-177, p. 18; Report on land reform from the Teng County Party Committee, 27 Jan. and 2 Feb. 1951, Shandong, A1-2-68, pp. 61 and 64–5.

30
    
Report from Guizhou, 12 April 1951, Sichuan, JX1-839, pp. 127–8.

31
    
Neibu cankao
, 2 June 1950, p. 10.

32
    
Cheo,
Black Country Girl in Red China
, pp. 161–2; Old Sun, born 1918, Xushui, Henan, interviewed in 2006.

33
    
Reports on Yunyang, 12 and 30 May and 10 June 1951, Hubei, SZ1-5-75, pp. 37–8, 41–4, 58–60;
Neibu cankao
, 24 Aug. 1950, pp. 65–6;
Neibu cankao
, 9 Sept. 1950, pp. 46–7; Report on land reform by the South China Bureau, 13 Dec. 1951, Gansu, 91-18-532, pp. 22–5.

34
    
Sichuan, 9 Dec. 1951, JX1-168, p. 72; 4 Nov. 1951, JX1-168, pp. 16–17; 5 March 1951, JX1-837, pp. 124–5.

35
    
Instructions from Li Jingquan, 21 April 1951, Sichuan, JX1-842, p. 3.

36
    
Report from Luotian, 1 Aug. 1951, Hubei, SZ1-2-60, pp. 79–85.

37
    
Yang Li,
Dai ci de hong meigui: Gudacun chenyuan lu
(Thorny rose: The tragedy of Gudacun), Guangzhou: Zhonggong Guangdong shengwei dangshi yanjiushi, 1997, pp. 100–16; Zheng Xiaofeng and Shu Ling,
Tao Zhu zhuan
(A biography of Tao Zhu), Beijing: Zhonggong dangshi chubanshe, 2008, pp. 230–1; Yang,
Zhonghua renmin gongheguo jianguo shi yanjiu
, vol. 1, p. 150; Yue Sai, ‘Wo qinxian qinjian de Zhonggong tugai zhenfan sharen shishi’ (I personally witnessed killings by the communist party during land reform and the campaign to suppress counter-revolutionaries),
Kaifang
, March 1999; on overseas Chinese in Guangdong see Glen D. Peterson, ‘Socialist China and the
Huaqiao
: The Transition to Socialism in the Overseas Chinese Areas of Rural Guangdong, 1949–1956’,
Modern China
, 14, no. 3 (July 1988), pp. 309–35.

38
    
Shandong, October 1948, G26-1-37, doc. 2, pp. 49–50; Financial report on Shandong by Kang Sheng, 1 Jan. and 4 Sept. 1949, Shandong, A1-2-19, pp. 68–9 and 119; Report on the Jiluyu region, 1 Feb. 1949, Shandong, G52-1-194, doc. 5, p. 7; on the impoverishment following land distribution, see also Gao Wangling and Liu Yang, ‘Tugai de jiduanhua’ (The radicalization of the land reform movement),
Ershiyi shiji
, no. 111 (Feb. 2009), pp. 36–47.

39
    
Report from the South-west Bureau, 27 June 1951, Sichuan, JX1-809, pp. 42–4.

40
    
Correspondence between the Ministry of Culture and the Provincial Bureau for Cultural Affairs, Shandong, 19 Sept. 1951, A27-1-230,pp. 69–72.

41
    
Frederick C. Teiwes, ‘The Establishment and Consolidation of the New Regime, 1949–57’, in Roderick MacFarquhar (ed.),
The Politics of China: The Eras of Mao and Deng
, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997,  p. 36; see also David Shambaugh, ‘The Foundations of Communist Rule in China: The Coercive Dimension’, in William C. Kirby (ed.),
The People’s Republic of China at 60: An International Assessment
, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2011,pp. 21–3.

5: The Great Terror

1
      
Mao Zedong quoted in a speech by Deng Zihui on the spirit of the Third Plenum of the Seventh Central Committee of the CPC, 10 July 1950, Hubei, SZ1-2-15, pp. 19–47; needless to say, these uncensored quotations are substantially different from the published speech in Mao’s collected writings.

2
      
Mao Zedong, ‘Don’t Hit Out in All Directions’, 6 June 1950,
Selected Works of Mao Zedong
, vol. 5, p. 34.

3
      
Report from the South China Bureau, 21 Dec. 1950, Guangdong, 204-1-34, p. 50; Report on Guangxi, March 1951, Guangdong, 204-1-34, pp. 16–24; the quotation is from Mao Zedong, ‘A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire’, 5 Jan. 1930,
Selected Works of Mao Zedong
, vol. 1, p. 124.

4
      
Instructions from Mao Zedong, 3 Jan. 1951, Sichuan, JX1-836, p. 10; Report on Guangxi from inspection team, March 1951, Guangdong, 204-1-34, pp. 16–24 and 69–70; the telegram Tao wired to Mao is quoted in Yang,
Dai ci de hong meigui
, p. 111; while this telegram may be apocryphal, the figure of 430,000 pacified and 40,000 killed appears in Report from Guangxi Provincial Party Committee, 7 July 1951, Sichuan, JX1-836, pp. 78–82.

5
      
Report by Luo Ruiqing, 23 Aug. 1952, Shaanxi, 123-25-2, p. 357.

6
      
The quotation comes from Zhang Guotao, an ex-Politburo member and military leader who fell foul of Mao and was interviewed in Hong Kong in ‘High Tide of Terror’,
Time
, 5 March 1956; on Dzerzhinsky, see Faligot and Kauffer,
The Chinese Secret Service
, p. 345.

7
      
Hubei, 21 Nov. 1950, SZ1-2-32, pp. 7–13; Report on Labour Camps, 8 June 1951, and Report from Li Xiannian on the Campaign against Counter-Revolutionaries, 1951, Hubei, SZ1-2-60, pp. 51 and 115; Report by Luo Ruiqing, 23 Aug. 1952, Shaanxi, 123-25-2, p. 357.

8
      
Orders from Ye Jianying to Tao Zhu and Chen Manyuan, 10 May 1951, Guangdong, 204-1-34, pp. 1–5 (Ye Jianying was Tao Zhu’s immediate superior as leader of the Central and South China Bureau); Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping, Rao Shushi, Deng Zihui, Ye Jianying, Xi Zhongxun and Gao Gang, 20 April 1951, Sichuan, JX1-834, pp. 75–7.

9
      
Mao’s Comments on Report from Henan, 11 March 1951, Sichuan, JX1-836, p. 17; Mao’s instructions to Luo Ruiqing, 30 Jan. 1951, Sichuan, JX1-834,p. 9; see also Comments by Mao, 20 Jan. 1951, Shaanxi, 123-25-2, p. 40.

10
    
Orders by Mao Zedong transmitted to Li Jingquan, 18 Feb. 1951, Sichuan, JX1-807, pp. 89–91; this form of government in Nazi Germany has been called ‘working towards the Führer’ by Ian Kershaw, and Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals have proposed calling it ‘working towards the Chairman’ in the case of the Cultural Revolution, Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals,
Mao’s Last Revolution
, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006.

11
    
Order from Mao, 14 April 1951, Shandong, A1-5-29, p. 124; this comment is different from the version printed in Mao Zedong,
Jianguo yilai Mao Zedong wengao
(Mao Zedong’s manuscripts since the founding of the People’s Republic), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 1987–96, vol. 2, pp. 215–16, as is the case in many other of Mao’s directives used in this chapter; the central directive dated 21 May 1951 is in Mao,
Jianguo yilai
, vol. 2, p. 319.

12
    
Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping, Rao Shushi, Deng Zihui, Ye Jianying, Xi Zhongxun and Gao Gang, 20 April 1951, Sichuan, JX1-834, pp. 75–7; the exact formulation is three out of five military regions that encompassed several provinces each; in Guizhou the number given was 29,000; see Investigation Report on Guizhou, 7 July 1951, Sichuan, JX1-839,pp. 250–2.

13
    
Minutes of the Third National Conference on Public Security, 16 and 22 May 1951, Shandong, A1-4-9, p. 38; see also Shandong, A51-1-28,p. 215; Luo Ruiqing’s talk at the Government Administration Council,3 Aug. 1951, Shandong, A51-1-28, p. 212.

14
    
Sichuan, 20 March 1953, JK1-729, p. 29; this document is dated 1953, when the judicial authorities looked into some of the most egregious abuses that took place during the terror in 1951.

15
    
Report from Qian Ying, secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, to Zhu De, 25 March 1953, Sichuan, JK1-730, p. 35.