The military and terror campaigns to consolidate control in China

Reunification in Guangdong

This had been the GMD base for the last few years with Guangzhou as it’s capital. They made little effort to defend it as most key officials fled for Taiwan as soon as Beijing was lost so Guangzhou was captured just two weeks later. There were more bases that had to be tackled in the far south and west so fighting went on until 1950.

Reunification campaign in Xinjiang

The population was 80% Uyghurs and Russia had been fostering the area into a potential buffer state. In late 1949 Peng and the PLA captured Urumqi the provincial capital and offered Uyghur bosses important party posts to reduce resistance. Han Chinese were then brought in for construction projects to further dilute Uyghur control.

Reunification campaign in Tibet

Tibet had been operating independently since 1913 and announced it’s intention to resist Chinese invasion. With all other nations busy or uninterested Tibet stood alone through the 6 month long invasion. Resistance failed and the Dalai Lama fled to India

Labelling

Using the system put in place by the GMD of household registration the communists would label every person based on their background and life currently. There were 60 categories of good, middle, and bad then simplified into red or black - friend or foe- children would take on the label give to the head of their household so these could last generations

Danwei

Cadre controlled work unit that distributed food ration cards a few times a month to the workers in their unit. This was a method of enforcing compliance as those that would not remain loyal would not be given food stamps. Professionals were not attacked straight away but most joined communist re-education programs in libraries and halls to prevent persecution further down the line.

Dangan

A list compiled of all the actions a person had taken and all their known affiliates. This could be used to stop people getting a certain job or lead to persecution if for example they were known affiliates with a GMD member.

Cleaning up of petty criminals

Mostly thieves, beggars, and prostitutes were internally deported mostly to the western regions or sent to Laogais. This was not an easy task as most just drifted back as soon as possible and the Laogais were soon full. Once the PLA began to reduce troop number the task only got more difficult. This initiative was popular with the people as it was an act of restoring order after decades of chaos and crime.

The crackdown on the triads

In Shanghai and Guangzhou particularly the triad organized crime gangs were operating massive operations of bandits. The PLA went into all major cities arresting 150,000 triads and executing at least half of them the rest would be sent to the Laogais

Mao’s Great Terror

Once the Americans passed into North Korea it became a real fear for the CCP that China would be next. To make this less possible they began culling ‘counter-revolutionaries’. Mao suggested 1 in every 1000 person being killed would be a good target but left it to local leaders to carry out as to share the blame. In 1951 Rao Shushi suggested to Mao that the purges should look inwards to the party. By the summer of that year the arrests had to be paused briefly as the prisons were full and more people had to be executed to fit the new ones. Members of the youth league hoping to build their party career were forced to watch live executions to build their revolutionary fortitude. It is estimated 2 million people were killed and millions more were imprisoned, surveilled, or outcast because of their ‘black’ label which would lead to future consequences. As there was such a high chance of being betrayed by friends and reported to the authorities people became more isolated simply to survive.

Assassination leads to retaliation

The assassination of a top military official at a concert in March 1951 led to the terror spreading into general urban life. Quickly Mao organised an operation with police sweeping 16 cities simultaneously arresting 17,000.

Tao Zhu

Known as the tank he was detached to the Guangxi province to deal with the lingering GMD members and high number of bandits. Over the next year he killed 46,000 bandits a huge number in the sparsely populated area.

Luo Ruiqing

Head of security in Beijing he would convey the wishes of Mao to the security leaders in each province. His actions forced the Hubei security leader to ramp up the killings from 220 in January 1951 to 45,000 by October

Slowing down of the Great Terror and beginning of the Three antis campaign

The great terror was clearly getting out of hand so Mao put the breaks on as best he could. In place of it the three antis campaign appeared targeting corruption, waste and delay. Using the methods from the previous rectification campaign denounciations would be made over the smallest things and the accused would then be forced to confess in front of large crowds. Those accused of small scale crimes were called ‘flies’ and those causing larger issues were called ‘tigers’

Zhang Zishan and Liu Qingshan

The catalyst for the three antis campaign these two were found to have been embezzling huge amounts of party funds in Tianjin and Mao insisted on their execution to make an example of them.

Bo Yibo

Former guerilla fighter turned minister of finance he was put in charge of the three antis campaign. By February he argued he had hunted down 100,000 ‘tigers’ in east China. It was clear there couldn’t possibly be this many people committing such financial crimes of such a scale but fear prevented people from standing up for each other.

The Five antis campaign

After January 1952 the purge was widened to become the campaign against bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, fraud and economic espionage. This was aimed at removing bourgeoisie elements that had been allowed to stay and settle the party in. Denunciation boxes were set up so workers could report their managers for investigation. These managers would then be forced into admitting to a crime they may of never even heard of. Top party officials were also arrested like Gao Gang and Rao Shushi accused of infringing on the ban on factions.

Effects of the antis campaign

It is estimated 1% of victims were shot, 1% were sent to Laogais, 3% were jailed for more than ten years and the rest were fined. However, suicides exploded due to the humiliation and nets were installed and parks were patrolled to stop people hanging themselves on trees. Some succeeded like Gao Gang and the Dean of the Shanghai Law College.

The Development of the Laogai system

These were framed as re-education camps but were really labour camps where 9 in 10 prisoners were political prisoners. They contributed 700 million yuan to the economy and were put to work in the most dangerous tasks like mining or clearing malaria infested swamps. Due to the backlog from the sudden filling of prisons in the Great Terror it could be years of imprisonment before a charge was even formally made. In 1955 new purges ballooned the population by a further 300,000 with none having a trial merely just being held until the police or militia decided to let them go. It is estimated 25 million people died in Laogais in the period 1949-76

Guanzhi

System of placing released thought criminals under public supervision by placing convicts under the control of local cadres to be wheeled out as a scapegoat whenever the people were angry or to complete menial tasks the cadre wanted them to do.