Rendered into English by Samuel C. H. Ling (凌崇熙)
I. Preface
Following the occupation of the Chinese mainland by the Communists, it was believed either naively or wishfully by not a few people that Mao Tse - tung might be weaned away from the Kremlin. Further, it was hoped that, through sincere efforts directed to the pursuit of peace, it was still possible to avert a catastrophe the like of which defies imagination. Any illusion that may still exist as to the real nature of Communism or of the Communist rulers should be dispelled once for all by the following account of the reign of terror instituted by Mao Tse - tung and his henchmen.
It should now be clear to all that to entertain the possibility that Mao Tse - tung would ever emerge as an Asiatic Tito is bound to fall into the realm of fantasy. He had led, with a singleness of purpose, the 450,000,000 Chinese to the brink of war. Inside the Iron Curtain, opposition is effectively silenced and dissidents are ruthlessly liquidated. The Chinese people, who have an innate love of peace and a hatred of war and all acts of violence, are today forced to go on the war - path, because their Communist masters must hark to the order’s handed down by the arch - aggressors of the Kremlin.
As is to be expected, this line of policy has brought about a unbridgeable gulf between the peace-loving Chinese people and their Communist masters, a gulf that has been further widened by what has transpired since the outbreak of the Korean War. During the past year, the Chinese Communists have twice issued orders legalizing the execution of those who fail to toe the Communist line. The first was issued on July 23,1930, only 29 days alter the outbreak of the Korean War, while the second was issued on February 21, 195l. Both of these orders were directed against "counter-revolutionaries."
Except the Soviet Union, no other country has ever before issued such diabolical orders affecting the lives of so many people. According to these orders, any person who fails to dance to the Communist tune is a "counter-revolutionary." For him, the punishment is death.
What prompted the Communists to institute this reign of terror? Far from being a haphazard coincidence, these acts of terror were nicely timed to synchronize with the global strategy of International Communism. Because the Soviet Union is bent on creating world war, the Chinese Communists, who arc at the beck and ca1l of the Kremlin, must condition the peace-loving Chinese people to the rigors of war.
The participation of the Chinese Communists in the Korean War on the side of North Korea has brought nothing but disaster to China. The Chinese people, laboring under the multiple burdens of the draft, monetary "contributions" and crushing taxes, are looking forward to the return of the Nationalist Government tand victory of the United Nation in Korea. It is precisely for the purpose of stifling this strong under - current of hope that the Communist pogroms owe their being.
II. Motives behind Purges
The motives behind the Communist purges may be listed as follows:
1. Consolidation of power. The Communists, despite the grandiose promises made before they came into full power, have won little support from the masses. In an editorial appearing in the Peiping People's Daily News on December 28, 1950, the Communist rank and file were roundly berated for allowing themselves to be lulled by aspirations for peace which, according to the same editorial, can have no place in liberated areas. From this, it is evident that the Chinese people on the mainland entertain no great love for their Communist masters. Mao Tse - tung himself has said that it would not be possible for the Communists to remain in power unless the people were made to acclimatize themselves to drastic government measures during the revolutionary stage.
It is interesting to note that by counter-revolutionaries is meant all those who are the least dissatisfied with the Government, not excepting members of the Communist Party. Better than any one else, the Communists now that it was through underhand methods that they came into power. Once in power, not only have they failed to fulfill promises made, but have created seething discontent by adopting policies country to the interests of the people. To forestall any possibility of resistance arising out of discontent, the Communists have no alternative but to adopt drastic measures to cow the masses into submission.
Nor is this all. To consolidate their power, the Communists deem it necessary to overthrow the whole historical and cultural tradition of China in order to make way for a system better tailored to the Stalinist design. Although this line of policy runs contrary to Chinese tradition, it must, in all fairness, be said that a large number of the people did try their best to open their hands, to "reform". Unfortunately, in the eyes of the Communists, even their best is not good enough. According to Communist reasoning, all those over 40 years of age must have already acquired thought patterns insusceptible to change. Therefore, to eliminate such obstacles to "social progress", the only answer is to kill and kill and kill.
2. Preparation for war. According to Stalin's time-table, world war is about to break. As the lackeys of Stalin, the Chinese Communists must undertake the design to prepare the people for war on the side of the Soviet Union against the United States, However, the average Chinese has not forgotten the Soviet Union's recent acquisition of territory and property at the expense of China. Nor has he forgotten the enormous relief and rehabilitation supplies made available to China by the United States after World War II. To make the people fight on the side of their plunderers against their benefactors, the Communists have found it necessary to back lip their masters' orders with nothing less than the threat of death.
3. Implementation of land reform. The Communist firmly hold that land reform necessitates the liquidation of some 10,000,000 land owners, Further, they claim that the issue in question is not the simple redistribution of land, but a war to be waged between one class of people against another.
Mass meetings staged by one class of people against another are but a commonplace throughout the mainland. They are all modeled after the same pattern. Landowners would be bound with a rope and made to kneel on a platform to confess the "wrongs" or "crimes" they have committed. Then some people from among the audience would demand that the accused landowners be given capital punishment. The Communists are convinced that measures less drastic would not suffice to eliminate the remnants of the "conservative influence" and to silence opposition.
With purges on the rampage, people on the mainland have learned to accustom themselves to the prospect of sudden death. Communist General Chen Yi himself was able to boast, evidently with ample justification that chances to elude the Communist dragnet are extremely slight. The following is a list of the types of people, together with their estimated numbers according to the Communists, who are most likely to become victims of the purges;
(1) Those who must be liquidated in order to enforce land reforms:
(a) Landowners and people of good repute among the rural population. In the eyes of the Communists, they are a hindrance to Communist revolutionary progress. Composing 4 per cent of the peasant population, they are estimated by the Communist to number roughly 10,000,000.
(b) Intellectuals in the rural areas and former stewards of landowners. They are considered the accomplices of landowners and agents of the National Government. They are estimated to number 500,000.
(c) Representatives of popular opinion. They were formerly members of the hsien councils before the Communists came to power. Taking number of hsien throughout the country to be 2,000, and the average number of council members in each hsien to be 50, a total of 100,000 are likely to be purged.
(d) Wealthy and well-to-do farmers. Judging from what has happened in Hunan and other provinces, such farmers have been labeled "landlords" and have been placed on the black list. According to an estimate made by the Communists themselves, their number comes to about 30,000,000.
(2) "Secret agents"
(a) All those previously connected with the National Government. They are considered unreliable and uncooperative. Even those who have gone over to the Communist camp are considered no better than counter-revolutionary opportunists. Since November, 1950, many of the 1,000, 000 people under this category have been arrested and executed.
(b) Administrative workers in rural areas. They formed the lowest echelon in the National governmental system and arc considered potential fifth communists by the Communist in the event of a counter-attack on the mainland by the National forces from Taiwan. If there are five such administrative workers in each village, their tall number is likely to exceed 2,000,000 throughout the mainland.
(c) Religions leaders and leaders of various societies. Because some of them have shown an unwillingness to cotton to the Communists, they have been condemned as "local toughs" and have accordingly become candidates to the Communist purge. So far, about 1,000 such leaders, including Leng Kai-tai of Chengtu and Wang Chung-lin of Peiping, have been arrested and executed.
(d) People of free professions. According to the Communists, these people are steeped in the concept of liberalism and are therefore potential cultural fifth columnists. Those who have been arrested and executed include Chao Fei, a reporter in Canton, and Chien Chang-shi, publisher of Central Daily News at Kunming.
(3) Anti-Communist elements:
(a) People equipped with arms. On the occasion of the so - called National Day of the puppet regime, it was, announced that over 1,200,000 such armed "bandits and secret agents" had been rounded up and executed.
(b) Dependants of government servants in Taiwan. During the past year, 13,000 dependants of government servants now on Taiwan have been executed.
According to the above figures, those who have been placed on the Communist purge list, number approximately 50,000,000. This number does not include the host of dependents of victims who have fallen prey to the Communist purge and who, consequently, have lost all possible means of support. Neither does this number include those who are facing the prospect of almost certain death as a result of the commandeering of foodstuffs, the draft, starvation and other privations.
III. How the Communists Eliminate Their Enemies
1. Organization of identification corps. Identification corps arc organized to ferret out landowners and wealthy farmers in the cities that they may be liquidated.
2. Dealing with "criminals". During the past year, at least 1,000,000 people accused of being "Nationalist secret agents" have been arrested. Following the promulgation of the "Regulations Governing the Punishments of Reactionaries" secret orders were issued by the Communist Political Affairs Yuan to mass execution agencies to get on with their job.
According to these orders, those who have been sentenced would be summarily executed in public. Those who have been sentenced to long prison terms as well as those who have not yet been sentenced but who are of no further use to the Communists would be secretly executed.
3. Registration of "potential secret agents". People who are compelled to have themselves registered are as follows: Those previously engaged in investigation work under the National Government; members of various political councils; those who have undergone training in the Central Training Corps or provincial training corps; village elders; and those who have served in the National army, the gendarmerie or the police force.
4. Registration of the members of "reactionary parties". Members of the Kuomintang, the Youth Party, the Democratic Socialist Party and the San Min Chu I Youth Corps are required to have themselves registered.
5. Census taking. In rural areas as well as in the cities, a certain number of families are grouped together to form a unit. If one family of a unit fails to register, all the other families of the same unit are to be executed.
6. Public trials. The trials of the so - called "local toughs" and "landlords" are conducted in public by Communist workers and are enlivened by tortures.
7. Indirect victims of Communist policies include the following:
(1) Victims of the Korean War. About 500, 000 have been conscripted and sent to North Korea to fight against the United Nations. Doctors, nurses, students and laborers total another 500,000.
(2) Those who have died as a result of overwork. To boost protection, laborers are made to work from 11 and 17 hours a
Day. Last year, 669 laborers in Shanghai died of exhaustion during a ten - month period. In the Northeastern provinces 80, 000 railway workers out of 130,000 were on sick leave in June, 1950. In Heng-yang, 1,000 out of 4,000 railway workers were on the sick list at one time. One-third of the railway workers in Taiyuan collapsed through exhaustion.
(3) Slave workers. Those who refuse to cotton to the Communists and farmers who attempt to escape following the enforcement of "land reforms" are to be sent en masse to Siberia and Eastern European countries as slave laborers.
IV. Communist Atrocities
1. According to reports given by people who have escaped from Hwei An Hsien in Fukien, 300 people were shot between February 3 and February 9, 1951 in that district.
2. Over 200 government officers and soldiers interned by the Communists were shot in Haimen, Chekiag, in November, 1950.
3. Chang Yu-chiu, 70, Vice-Chairman of the Kukong Hsien Council, was frozen to death after being tried as landlord on February 5, 1951.
4. Recently, Li Yu-yung of Shanghai was arrested for having in his possession a copy of HongKong newspaper containing a statement made by President Chiang Kai-shek. He was executed together with 47 other people accused of similar charges.
5. In Paoshan Hsien near Shanghai, over 200 village elders and landowners were recently executed. In addition, over 300 were executed en masse for expressing opinions unfavorable to the Communists.
6. In Kaoyao hsien, Kwangtung, several handed people, including men of property and former members of militia corps, were arrested between January 1 and January 12, 1951. Owing to limited capacity of the prisons, a good many of them were executed without the benefit of a trial.
7. In Kukong, Kwangtung, over 950 landowners and wealthy farmers were arrested in February 1951, and were brought to "public trials" and before the so-called "People's Courts". Among those executed was one Hsu Lien-fen. The next day, Hsu's wife and six children committed mass suicide. The only survivor was his youngest child of three. The wife of one Ho Chung -yao, a landowner who had fled to Hongkong before the arrival of the Communists, was put in a cage and dumped into a pool. Later on, she was beaten to death by members of the "Women's Council". Her 12-year-old son was also severely beaten up.
8. In Chekiang Province, where the third phase of the Communist liquidation program was in progress, all those who had been educated and were over 25 years of age and who had shown the slightest resistance to Communist measures were liquidated.
9. Between August and December, 1949, National air forces made raid on Wenchow causing heavy causualties among the Communist troops. Those among the injured who required lengthy treatment were taken to the suburb and shot.
10. All those of high repute who command respect of the masses are called "benevolent czar" and executed.
11. Many of those who failed to "contribute" the required quota of foodstuffs to the Communists and who had no means of escape had no choice but to commit suicide.
12. Following the promulgation of the "Regulation Governing the Punishment of Reactionaries" on February 21, 1951, 96 people were arrested in Canton on March 9 and 10, 1951, and executed in public. In addition, according, to the leftist Hongkong Sing Tao Jih pao of March 17, 1951, several thousand people were executed in Canton during the first two weeks of March 1951.
According to Communist estimates, l, 300,000 people have been executed since the establishment of the Communist regime in October, 1949. Besides the figures already published, a large but undisclosed number of people, including those who had gone over to the Communists but failed to win the confidence of their new masters were put to death. As the Communist blood purge is raging savagely without any sign of mitigation, the number of victims is becoming increasingly bigger every day. Though accurate figure is not available, a conservative estimate has it that since the communists came to power till March 1951, those who were deprived of their lives by the Mao's "New Democratic" regime must have numbered well over 1,500,000. If such a regime is called a democracy, there can be no worse mockery of the name.