Cruelly mutilated bodies - nearly 100 of them had washed into Hongkong and Macao waters by the closing days of July - gave the lie to Communist-sympathizing wishful thinkers who have so often sought to soft pedal the degree and extent of Chinese mainland violence.
Most of the corpses were trussed - hands and feet or neck and feet. Many had died from torture. Broken bones were common. Others had been shot. Most were dead before they were thrown into China's Pearl River or one of its tributaries. The Pearl flows into the sea via a complicated estuary system between Hongkong and Macao.
The bodies found by authorities of the British and Portuguese colonies probably were a mere fraction of the total. Many corpses were washed out to sea. Passengers on Hongkong-Macao ferries sighted scores. Travelers told of seeing upriver portions of the Pearl and other streams chock-full of this tragic human flotsam.
What could be seen at Hongkong and Macao mattered most, however, because no one could maintain that this was just another anti-Communist atrocity story. The evidence was photographic and of sufficient volume to document the stories of civil war and anarchy that were coming out of Kwangtung and half a dozen other provinces. In one night alone, the Red Guards of the East Wind faction in Canton reportedly killed some 500 members of the rival Red Flag group and slipped the bodies into the Pearl.
At first the Communists tried to ignore the bodies. When the number washed to the sea grew too large, they started offering the equivalent of US$2.50 or more for the recovery of each corpse. The bodies pulled out of the rivers of South China were buried in mass graves. One report said more than 7,000 bodies were taken from the water at Wuchow near the Kwangsi-Kwangtung border, a city that witnessed some of the heaviest fighting of the mainland struggle. Another 1,000 were reported recovered at Tsaoching in Kwangtung.
Allegations of torture did not come from propagandists. The doctors examining the bodies in Hongkong told what had happened to the victims and hundreds of photographs bore out the autopsy findings. Mutilations were common. Those who died quickly were fortunate. John Gittings wrote in the British-owned Far Eastern Economic Review of Hongkong, a periodical that presents extensive coverage of mainland developments, "The fact that most of the bodies are bound disposes of any wishful thinking that they might be straightforward victims of a natural disaster."
Almost all of the bodies were those of young men. Many presumably had been killed in a Maoist versus anti-Maoist Red Guard factional struggle that appeared out of control in Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Fukien, Yunnan and several other South China provinces. Mao had not been able to organize "revolutionary committees" to control the last three of those four provinces. The committee in Kwangtung had never won command of the situation there. Canton was one of the centers of conflict. Only in the frontier areas of Tibet and Sinkiang had Mao failed as completely as in South China.
Wuchow in Kiangsi was described as a smoking ruin. Rockets stolen from Hanoi-bound arms shipments were fired into Liuchow. Radio Moscow said that a Kwangtung purge had taken 20,000 lives. Maoists lashed out at the Republic of China and claimed that "Kuomintang agents" and "class enemies" were responsible for their troubles. Mao courts and revolutionary committees identified suspects as "Kuomintang agents" and passed out death sentences.
Mao Tse-tung repeatedly ordered intervention by the "people's liberation army". But except in a few instances, the PLA showed an inclination to stay out of the battle. The issue was in doubt and the PLA was divided against itself. Fighting among PLA factions was reported in several provinces.
President Chiang Kai-shek described the mainland turmoil as "civil war" within the Chinese Communist camp. Observers who once thought Mao was firmly in the saddle had begun to have their doubts.
John Hughes of the Christian Science Monitor wrote: "What is clear is that the so-called leftist faction in (Red) China, symbolized by Chairman Mao's wife Chiang Ching, is pressing its campaign against rightists and more conservative elements. Bitter clashes and bloodshed are admitted.
"Toward the end of last year, following a violent summer in which some parts of (Red) China bordered on anarchy, the extremists on the left were reined in. The army and Premier Chou En-lai, in a coalition of moderate forces, appeared to take control and to be bent on restoring order.
"Since March of this year, however, the leftists, under the banner of Mr. Mao himself, his wife Chiang Ching, and his designed successor, Marshal Lin Piao, have renewed their offensive.
"Probably their aim is to purify and refine into more militant form the 'revolutionary committees' which have been set up."
Robert S. Elegant wrote from Hongkong: "The 'great alliance' of different factions, blessed by Peking to make peace, has broken down.
"The continuing struggle is almost devoid of political or even practical objectives. Young workers and students attack each other largely because such pointless 'struggle' has become a conditioned reflex - a normal way of life - under the great proletarian cultural revolution.
"Canton is the vortex of the maelstrom which sweeps Kwangtung and adjoining provinces. Several floods, inundating rice fields at this peak harvest time, intensify the people's suffering. Since farmers are hoarding food supplies, the cities are beginning to suffer shortages of staples."
Farmers and others responded rarely or not at all to summons to work on flood control projects in South China. This was likely to deplete the fall harvest.
Hongkong authorities were keeping a close lookout for signs of another mass escape attempt similar to that in April and May of 1962. There has been an increase in the flow of refugees into Hongkong. A number of young men have dared long swims in order to reach freedom. Communist border guards seemed to have their orders from Peiping. Those caught approaching the border are imprisoned or shot. There has been no repetition of relatively free access to the barbed wire barricades that refugees are prepared to brave in the hope of escape from Maoist tyranny.
Some students of Chinese Communism were of the opinion that the Maoist control apparatus in Peiping was not overly concerned about events in South China. This line of thinking held that Mao could regain control through the PLA whenever he wished and was pursuing a policy of population reduction through Red Guard violence. But if Mao could really command the south, he would be able to complete the organization of "revolutionary committees" and summon the Ninth Communist Party Congress. He had hoped to call the meeting before October 1 but now is reportedly compelled to aim for a date in the spring of 1969. Mao needs the Congress to legitimize the control committees, complete the destruction of the old "government" apparatus of Liu Shao-chi and implement the new Maoist tyranny.
Bodies are floating down mainland rivers to Hongkong (File photo)
South China events seem most accurately defined as the start of mainland-wide civil war. As President Chiang put it in a Captive Nations Week message July 19, "The flames of anti-Communist and anti-Maoist undertakings are rising higher and higher throughout the mainland. Bodies of victims of armed struggle have been washed down China's rivers to Macao and Hongkong, attesting to the fierceness of the fighting and the extent of the turmoil. The Peiping regime is a decaying organism that soon will fall apart in all its rottenness. This collapse can be expedited with a fatal thrust from forces of freedom waiting on the mainland periphery."
Nothing like the headless, legless, horribly mutilated corpses floating down mainland rivers has been known to the civilized world since Hitler's gas chamber murder of 6 million Jews and the Chinese Communist execution of 20 million or more "capitalists" in the process of usurping mainland power. Those now dying torture-deaths include the "young generals" that Mao was saying - only a year or two ago - would inherit the mantle of Communist power. The people of the mainland are learning tragically, murder by murder, that Communism holds nothing in store except suffering, pain and an ever-tightening enslavement.
Following is a day-to-day record of the more important events of the June-July period on the Chinese mainland and periphery:
June 20
Radio Hupeh told of widespread infiltration by anti-Maoists and hinted that the province's rural areas were dominated by Maoists. Led by Wang Jen-chung, purged political commissar of Wuhan city, the anti-Maoists were said to be committing acts of murder, sabotage and looting.
Canton reports told of a clash between rival Red Guard units at the main railroad station. The city's trade union building was said to have burned to the ground. Travelers from Canton claimed that the "people's liberation army" executed anyone caught armed and on the streets after curfew. Several victims were tied together and crushed under an armored car.
June 21
Red Guard sources said "premier" Chou En-lai had told Guard units in Sinkiang to desist from violence or face charges of making a counter-revolution. He said Guards had ransacked homes and stormed an air force headquarters to steal weapons and ammunition.
Travelers from South China said more than 100,000 persons had been driven from their homes by flooding of the East River. The Pearl River was said to have reached flood stage.
June 22
Nineteen young Chinese swam more than 24 hours to reach an island in Hongkong territory. They said they were running away from gang war in Kwangtung.
Production at Communist-leaning movie studios in Hongkong remained at a standstill. Companies do not know what kind of pictures to make. Anything attempted in the last year has proved objectionable to the Maoists. Most stars are either in jailor have deserted the Communists and departed for Taiwan or some other free world destination.
A Hongkong newspaper said Peiping agents in Canada were buying "strategic atomic spare parts" in the United States. One Chinese-American was reported under questioning by U.S. authorities.
June 23
Communist broadcasts told of increased anti-Mao activities and sabotage in Shanghai, Nanking, Wuhan and Changsha. Harvest of summer crops was said to be lagging in the Shanghai area.
Moscow Radio predicted a new and large-scale purge in the PLA. Mounting violence in Tibet, Kwangtung and Szechwan was attributed to army dissatisfaction with the Maoists. The Russians also claimed that Mao was trying to establish a military dictatorship to defend the "great proletarian cultural revolution".
American sources said the Peiping regime was resorting to jail terms and death sentences to stop the flow of refugees to Hongkong. Chou En-lai confirmed an increasing food shortage and said additional purchases abroad would be necessary.
June 24
Red Guard terror increased in Canton and Kwangtung. All-night curfews were in effect. Two factories and two police stations had been burned down in recent days.
The bodies of six Chinese were hauled from Hongkong waters. All apparently had been killed before being thrown into mainland rivers, whence the bodies were washed to the sea. Hands and feet were tied. Apparently the six were victims of the factional struggle in South China.
June 25
Tseng Sheng, the purged "mayor" of Canton, was reported to have escaped the mainland and to have left Hongkong for Russia. He was accompanied by six other Kwangtung anti-Maoists. He was Kwangtung's second-ranking Communist. The provincial "governor", Tao Chu, also was a purge victim.
June 26
Conditions in Kwangtung were becoming chaotic. Hundreds were reported dying nightly and the PLA was not intervening. The count of bodies picked up in Hongkong and Macao waters rose to 28 and dozens more were sighted. Visitors to Canton heard gunfire daily and said hospitals were overcrowded. Both Radio Canton and Radio Kwangtung accused anti-Maoists of fomenting the violence. Communist publications described the clashes as "civil war". Families were torn apart in the factionalism; not only were children pitted against parents but wives against husbands.
Secretary General U Thant extended the United Nations first conference invitation to the Chinese Communists. It was to observe a meeting of non-nuclear states scheduled for Geneva from August 29 to September 28. A U.N. spokesman said the Peiping regime was described as a "power" rather than a "state" and maintained that dispatch of the form invitation had no connection with the question of Chinese representation at the United Nations. Chinese Ambassador to the U.N. Liu Chieh expressed regret at the move and said that Peiping's acceptance would doom the conference.
New Zealand's annual report on external affairs upheld the policy of nonrecognition toward Peiping and said this was the view of the United Nations in general.
June 27
Kwangtung conflict spilled over into Kwangsi province. Wall posters claimed thousands had been killed and wounded. Some Communist newspapers called for intervention by Mao Tse-tung. Heavy fighting took place in Wuchow, an industrial and communications center near the Kwangsi-Kwangtung border. The dead were said to total 1,200. Two of the warring Canton forces were identified as the Red Flag and East Wind Red Guards.
Peiping detained its 13th Britain and fourth ship's officer since the start of the "cultural revolution". He was Capt. P.M. Will of the motor vessel Kota Jaya, held at Tangku near Tientsin. No charges were announced.
June 28
Free Chinese intelligence sources said Mao Tse-tung is planning a Fourth International as the "true successor" to the Comintern. All Communist parties except that of the Soviet Union will be invited to send observers to the Ninth Communist Party Congress late in 1968, the sources said. The new International supposedly will be established when the Congress adjourns.
June 29
Travelers told of Red Guard clashes in which mortars and hand grenades were used. The fiercest struggles were said to have taken place in Wuhan. "Young generals" were battling in Peiping and a number of college and university buildings were destroyed. Communist gunboats were patrolling the Pearl River picking up the bodies of many killed in Kwangtung fighting.
Rail traffic was disrupted in the mainland's three southern provinces, delaying war shipments to Hanoi. Both civil strife and floods were responsible.
Peiping reports told of the suicide of Kuo Sze-ying, the son of "vice premier" Kuo Mo-jo, who has been attacked by the Red Guards. The son was said to have been arrested and charged with membership in the anti-Mao "April 14" organization made up of the children of top-ranking Peiping functionaries.
Mao was said to have ordered attacks on modern painters and their work. Hsu Pei-hung, famous for his paintings of horses, was beaten to death by Red Guards and the grave of Chi Pai-sze, the dean of Chinese modern painters, was desecrated.
June 30
Eight more bodies washed down the Pearl River to Hongkong and Macao, raising the count of corpses to 44. A defector from the mainland said 237 persons had been massacred near Canton.
Chinese Communist broadcasts urged the mobilization of men and materials to fight floods in South China. Heavy losses were expected to rice and peanut crops.
July 1
Moscow reported that a Chinese Communist intercontinental ballistic missile was ready for testing. Washington said it had no confirmation.
Thirty Red Chinese vessels backed by a gunboat abducted more than 50 fishermen and 14 sampans from Hongkong waters. The kidnapping was believed connected with the fishermen's role in helping refugees escape from the mainland. The British sent a minesweeper and six armed police launches into waters near Hongkong to protect other fishing craft.
Peiping refused to accept U Thant's invitation to observe the Geneva conference of non-nuclear powers. This was the response from the Peiping cable office: "The People's Republic of China has no relations whatsoever with the United Nations. We therefore refuse to accept the June 25 cable of U Thant." Ambassador Liu Chieh said the rejection was typical of the contempt in which the Chinese Communists hold the United Nations.
July 2
Kwangtung sources said that the PLA had been factionalized and that weapons were being secretly supplied to anti-Maoists as well as Maoists. Hundreds more were reported killed and wounded in Kwangtung fighting. Factories were shut down for lack of raw materials and because workers were afraid to travel to work. Farm and fisheries production was down. Food was short in Canton. The death toll passed the 1,800 mark in Wuchow. The authorities offered from US$2.50 to $4 to those picking up bodies in Kwangtung and Kwangsi. "Escape companies" were established by public officials of the two provinces. The price for arranging a flight to Hongkong or Macao was between US$165 and $1,500. Payments had to be made to Hongkong or Macao agents before the escape.
July 3
Hongkong sources asserted that Mao had been compelled to delay the Ninth Party Congress until next spring. The decision supposedly was based on inability of the "revolutionary committees" to win control of mainland provinces and municipalities.
Peiping said that Russo-American agreement to begin talks on nuclear missile limitation is part of a conspiracy aimed at Red China.
July 4
Reports reaching Hongkong indicated that the PLA split had resulted in battles between army elements. Red Guard posters demanded that the military stop engaging in factionalism. Canton was described as a "dead city" in which people kept to their houses after 2 in the afternoon.
A Communist pamphlet reaching Hongkong said that Mao had ordered an end of factional conflict and told workers, farmers and military to "work together as a team". Intelligence sources said that Mao fears further army manifestations of factionalism and instability will destroy the structure of mainland Communism.
Thailand's deputy defense minister, Tun Dawee Chullaspya, said that captured Communist documents had revealed that terrorists in Thailand, Malaysia, Laos and South Vietnam were receiving their orders from Peiping or Hanoi.
Two British ship captains reaching Hongkong said the Chinese Communists compelled them to confess to charges brought against them while at Hsingkang, the river port of Tientsin. One of them said he didn't even know what law he was supposed to have broken.
Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Nobuhiko Ushiba told Chinese Ambassador Chen Chih-mai that any diplomatic approaches to the Peiping regime had been made in a private capacity. The Japanese official was referring specifically to reports made by Vice Foreign Minister Shuji Kurauchi after a trip to Africa and Europe.
July 5
Radio Moscow claimed thousand of bodies had been washed up along the West River in Kwangtung. National Government sources interpreted this as indicating that mainland struggle was nearing a climax.
Hanoi revealed that the Chinese Communists had urged continuation of the war until the United States was decisively defeated. The North Vietnamese used the same news agency dispatch to publicize Soviet support of peace moves.
Peiping ordered Vickers-Zimmer Ltd. of Great Britain to pay an indemnity of £ 650,000 and get its employees out of Red China within 10 days. A 1964 contract with the company was nullified on grounds of fraud. Two Vickers-Zimmer officials earlier had been charged with espionage. One was sentenced to a jail term and the other expelled.
July 6
Travelers from the mainland reported that more than 60,000 had been killed in two months of Kwangtung factional struggle. "Defense minister" Lin Piao was said to have ordered the 64th Army into the South China province because of the failure of provincial military authorities to intervene. Incipient military revolution was reported from Fukien.
The body count in Hongkong and Macao reached 60. Most of the victims had been murdered.
Radio Moscow told of continued fighting in Tibet, Mongolia and Kwangsi province bordering North Vietnam. Minorities of these areas were said to be demanding that their leaders be returned to positions of authority.
A Hongkong newspaper, quoting a "secret document", said the Chinese Communists were recruiting an additional 600,000 men for their armed forces as a result of Lin Piao's warning that the United States planned to escalate the Vietnam war and reopen the Korean conflict. A quota of 78,000 was said to have been set for Kwangtung.
Moscow charged that shipments of aid to North Vietnam via the mainland railroad system had come to a standstill for several weeks because of civil strife. Additionally, the Peiping regime was charged with obstructing Russian shipments as a protest against the Paris peace talks.
Liu Sze-kun, a leading concert pianist, was arrested at a small seaport in Kwangtung while preparing to escape to Hongkong. A Hongkong newspaper said Liu, whose arms were broken by Red Guards in Peiping some months ago, was returned to Peiping for trial.
July 7
Mao Tse-tung was reported to have accused army generals of trying to blackmail him. A Hongkong newspaper said he then stalked out of a Peiping meeting with the military leaders. Mao demanded "honest answers and effective action" in establishing "revolutionary committees" and assuring their control of provinces, cities and autonomous areas.
Internal strife was reported from many parts of the mainland. Army troops faced Red Guards and workers in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, and casualties and damage were heavy. Canton remained an embattled city.
Attacks on Nieh Yung-chien, head of the "national defense science committee" and sometimes called the father of Red China's atomic bomb, grew more bitter. Chou En-lai was said to be having trouble saving Nieh.
Researchers at Stanford University submitted a study indicating that the Chinese Communists will have ballistic missiles in numbers sufficient to threaten the United States within four years. Peiping also is expected to be building nuclear-armed submarines by that time.
Chinese Communist troops were guarding the Canton-Hongkong railroad because of the increasing number of robberies. The Communists permitted 47 kidnapped fishermen to return to Hongkong territory but still held a number of others.
Peiping assailed the Soviet Union for releasing a U.S. plane carrying more than 200 military personnel en route to Vietnam. Freeing of the transport, which strayed over Russian waters and was forced down in the Kurile Islands, was described as a "Soviet revisionist shameless act of slavishly kneeling down before U.S. imperialism".
July 8
Twenty-nine administrative districts of the Chinese Communists have been ordered to "purify the rank and file", according to Hongkong sources. The purification, which is expected to take the form of a new purge, was to include "revolutionary organizations" as well as older administrative organs.
Peiping charged that Kuomintang operatives were active in many parts of South China. Some of those in Kiangsi were identified as high-ranking officers of the National Armed Forces.
July 9
Chou En-lai admitted serious disruption of arms shipments to North Vietnam. He told transport workers that ports and railroads were paralyzed as a result of factional struggle. He mentioned bottlenecks at Liuchow in Kwangsi as the worst of those involving railroad transportation and Dairen as the most troubled port.
London reports said the Soviet Union had deployed missiles in Outer Mongolia with sufficient range to hit targets on much of the China mainland as well as American bases in Okinawa.
July 10
Liu Shao-chi, the "president" Mao wants to get rid of, was charged by Peiping with attempting to remake the "New China News Agency" in a "lively, buoyant, attractive" mode. The self-confession of purged Lu Leng-hsi, a former chief editor of People's Daily, charged that Liu wanted NCNA to emulate Western agencies.
Mainland editorials and broadcasts intended for domestic consumption demanded that the Red Guards stop their rampages. The Guards were credited with "originally rendering meritorious service". But now they are "creating splits, inciting struggle by force, swindling others and sabotaging the great cultural revolution", the Maoists said.
Canton wall posters said Liu Shao-chi had tried to commit suicide. He was said to have been placed under close surveillance.
A mass grave near Canton was described by travelers. People called it the "ten thousand grave". Canton was described as full of refugees without food, shelter or hope as fighting between Red Guard factions continued.
Hongkong authorities released two ranking Communists who had been held since last summer without trial. They were Chung Ah-chun, former secretary of the Chinese Communist General Chamber of Commerce, and Cheung Cho-hang, one of the ranking members of the committee that directed last year's anti-British riots. About 20 other top Reds are still held.
July 11
Mao's wife Chaing Ching was said to be emerging as a rival to Lin Piao. The Maoist organ Wen Hui Pao of Shanghai called on the people to "learn from Chiang Ching" and called her "by far the most correct, the bravest, the firmest, the most honest and fervent Communist fighter in the struggle against the enemy". Such adulation previously was reserved for Mao and Lin, his successor. Chiang Ching is believed to have engineered the dismissal of Yang Cheng-wu, former army chief of staff, who wanted to terminate mainland purges. Since then the army has been standing aloof from factional struggles that are tearing the Communist system of administration and control to pieces.
Peiping said Communist guerrillas had executed "a number of local despots, enemy spies and secret agents" in southern Thailand. Several provinces were specifically mentioned.
July 12
Telltale corpses continued to float down mainland rivers to the sea. All but 10 of the bodies pulled out of Hongkong waters had been trussed with rope.
Radio Moscow said anti-Maoists had seized control of Wuchow, about 120 miles west of Canton, after bloody clashes that took the lives of hundreds. Some 3,000 Maoists were said to have been arrested.
Rival Red Guard factions in Canton held rallies at which they pledged to destroy each other. Nearly 100 bodies were found in one stream in Kwangtung.
London said that Hanoi had dispatched a mission led by Deputy Premier Le Thanh Nghi to Peiping to seek additional military and economic aid. The Red Chinese were said in a more amenable mood as a result of the lack of progress at Paris.
A Red Guard pamphlet charged Chou En-lai with secretly supporting Liu Shao-chi. Chou was called "a capitalist at heart and an enemy of Mao Tse-tung and the young generals".
Japan's Communist Party told the Chinese Communist Party to mind its own business after Peiping charged that the Japanese Upper House election was a farce. The JCP said the Chinese Reds do not understand the role of elections in political struggle.
July 13
Red Guard units were fighting with weapons ranging up to light machine guns in the struggle for control of Wuhan. The Yangtze River was said to be clogged with corpses. Army warehouses were looted in the Guards' search for weapons.
Air Force General Yu Li-chin was arrested last March for trying to smuggle Liu Shao-chi out of the mainland, according to a Red Guard publication reaching Hongkong. The plan was for Liu to set up a government-in-exile to overthrow Mao Tse-tung. The paper did not say what had happened to Yu.
July 14
Two hundred were killed in a four-hour battle between the rival Canton factions of the Red Guard. The city's Hall of Culture was badly damaged.
Chinese Communist gunboats seized another 40 Hongkong fishing sampans and their crews in waters near Macao.
July 15
Mainland turmoil was said to be most intense in Fukien and Kwangsi provinces. Fighting was reported at Soochow, the capital, and Amoy in Fukien. Amoy is within shelling distance of the Kinmen (Quemoy) island complex held by the National Government. In Wuchow (Kwangsi) more than 40,000 people were homeless and 2,000 buildings had been destroyed.
July 16
A mainland radio station calling itself the "Voice of the People's Liberation Army" was heard calling on the Communist armed forces to prepare for a "true revolution against Mao Tse-tung, Lin Piao and Chiang Ching", who were accused of "usurping Communist power, lying to the people and cheating the PLA". Hongkong sources said the transmitter was almost certainly located on the mainland.
All of the mainland has been plunged into armed rebellion and anarchy, said a Hongkong newspaper. It told of a recent clash in Ichang, Hupeh, that took the lives of thousands. Radio Moscow said anti-Maoism had spread from the cities to farm villages. Travelers reaching Hongkong reported that PLA troops opened fire on 300 acid-throwing anti-Maoists who attempted to raid a warehouse. Anti-Maoists were trying to tie up public transportation in Canton. More than 50 bus drivers were said to have been killed and 30 others were missing.
Two more escapees reached Hongkong by swimming across a bay. The Hongkong government said it plans to release during the next year most of those who were arrested in connection with the 1967 Communist-directed riots. Of the 1,826 detained, 1,097 already have been set free.
July 17
Hongkong sources told of serious clashes in Szechwan, Kansu and Heilungkiang as well as Fukien, Kwangsi and Kwangtung. Summer harvests were affected.
Three employees of Vickers-Zimmer flew out of Red China on a Pakistani plane.
July 18
The body count from mainland rivers reached 71 at Hongkong and Macao. Of the last two found in Hongkong, one was naked and the other headless. Both were bound.
Communist broadcasts and travelers from the mainland agreed that the PLA had been ordered to intervene in the Kwangtung violence. Troops erected barricades at main intersections and the portals of Canton. Army movements were reported at Nanning and Wuchow in Kwangsi. Trains carrying war supplies to North Vietnam were guarded by the PLA.
Hongkong reports told of an anti-Maoist attack on Liuchow, a transportation hub of Kwangsi, with rockets stolen from munitions intended for Hanoi. Travelers said that more than half of the city was destroyed.
A Hongkong newspaper said "foreign minister" Chen Yi had been dispatched to Nanking to prevent a threatened revolt by lower echelon divisional and regimental army commanders. Old-line officers were said to be afraid of the influence of Chiang Ching. Mao was reported to have pledged their safety.
July 19
Factional battles were reported between military units in Liuchow, Wuhan and Chengtu and Chckiang province. In Canton, the military district was said to be in conflict with the "revolutionary committee". Troops from the north were sent into Kwangtung and Kwangsi.
The Yangtze river reached flood stage and threatened serious damage in Anhwei. Also at the danger level was the Huai. Earlier reports of floods had come from Hunan, Kwangsi, Fukien, Kwangtung, Kweichow and Kwangsi.