Guangdong Cultural Revolution Massacre


The Guangdong Cultural Revolution Massacre was a series of massacres that took place in Guangdong Province of China during the Cultural Revolution. There were 80 counties in Guangdong during the Cultural Revolution, and according to the 57 county annals which became available during the "Boluan Fanzheng" period, massacres occurred in 28 of the counties with six counties recorded a death toll of over 1,000—the average death toll among all the 28 counties was 278. The massacre in Yangjiang was the most serious, with over 2,600 deaths in Yangchun County alone. In addition, massacres also occurred in some cities of Guangdong; in the capital city Guangzhou, for example, the massacre targeting the prisoners of Laogai resulted in the deaths of at least 187-197 people within a week of August 1967.
Most of the Cultural Revolution massacres in Guangdong took place from July to October, 1968, and were led and organized by the provincial and local revolutionary committees. The Guangdong massacre was among the most serious collective killings in China at the time, and was related to the Guangxi Massacre. There were two major types of massacres in Guangdong: one type targeted members of the Five Black Categories as well as their relatives, and the other type was related to political persecutions. Moreover, in Hainan Island, which was an administrative region of Guangdong Province at the time, massacres also occurred in places such as the Dan County.
After the Cultural Revolution, some of the victims in the massacres were rehabilitated by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China as well as the Guangdong Provincial Committee of CPC during the Boluan Fanzheng period. In January 1980, the Guangdong Revolutionary Committee was removed and the People's Government of Guangdong was re-established.

Historical background

Clashes between two factions

In May 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in mainland China. In early 1967, local governments and committees of the Communist Party in Guangdong were paralyzed due to the power-seizure movement by the "rebel group ", and the society was in chaos. On March 15, Mao deemed military control needed in the province, appointing Huang Yongsheng as the director of the Military Control Commission. In 1967, two factions in Guangdong—the "Red Flag faction ", which was a rebel group, and the "East Wind faction ", which was a conservative group and supported the military control—often went into large-scale violent struggles.
Zhou Enlai, then Premier of China, had made several attempts to mitigate the situation since April 1967, demanding in November the establishment of the "Guangdong Revolutionary Committee". In the meantime, Huang Yongsheng also tried to negotiate with the leaders from both factions, hoping to achieve a "grand revolution union ".

The Guangdong Revolutionary Committee

In February 1968, the Guangdong Revolutionary Committee was established, with Huang Yongsheng being the chairman of the committee; Huang was also the commander of the Guangzhou Military Region and personally supported the East Wind faction. However, organized defiance from the Red Flag faction persisted, and as a result the violent struggles continued while societal order did not re-establish in the following three months. Meanwhile, in May 1968, Mao Zedong launched the "Cleansing the Class Ranks", a nationwide political purge that resulted in the persecution of at least tens of thousands in Guangzhou alone, many of whom with foreign ties were persecuted to death.
Starting from July 1968, the Guangdong Revolutionary Committee as well as the Guangdong military took advantage of two directives from the Central Committee of CPC,'' using them as excuses for racking down the Red Flag faction, and thereafter collective killings became prevalent in Guangdong. The peak of the massacre lasted from July to October in 1968.

The massacres

Yangjiang Massacre

According to the committee of the Communist Party of China in Yangjiang, at least 3,573 people died in the Yangjiang Massacre.
The methods of slaughter included beating with hoes or clubs, gun shooting, drowning, stabbing, stoning, exploding with fireworks, burning with kerosene, live burial, and so on.

Guangzhou Laogai Fan Incident

The Guangzhou Laogai Fan Incident, or the incident of Laogai prisoners, took place in Guangzhou in August 1967. The incident lasted for around a week, and was caused by rumors that the Laogai prisoners were released from prisons in northern Guangdong and Guangzhou was about to be looted. As a result, local civilians exhibited extreme act of violence towards strangers for the sake of self-protection. According to researchers, at least 187-197 people were killed in the massacre, most of whom were local citizens living in Guangzhou or its rural areas. Many bodies of the victims in the massacre were hung up on trees or utility poles along the streets.

Anti-Peng Pai Incident

The Anti-Peng Pai Incident, or the Case of Peng Pai's relatives, was a major "wrong" case in Shanwei, Guangdong during the Cultural Revolution, targeting relatives of late Peng Pai, who was a pioneer of the Chinese peasants' movement and one of the leaders of Communist Party of China at its earlier stage. In the incident, Peng Pai was labelled as a "traitor" and "opportunist". Starting August 1967, a massacre broke out and lasted for around half a month, causing the deaths of over 160 people; in addition, over 800 were crippled for life and over 3,000 were injured. The cousin and the nephew of Peng Pai were killed in the massacre, while Peng's mother was persecuted; the head of Peng's nephew was cut off by the perpetrator and displayed to the public for three days. In August 1968, Peng Hong, the third son of Peng Pai, was killed and buried secretly.
Some Chinese researchers have pointed out, however, that Peng Pai imposed "Red Terror" policies when he was leading the peasants' movement and after he established the "Hailufeng Soviet", which killed thousands of landlords and resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people, and thus the Anti-Peng Pai Incident was a retaliation from the local citizens.

Dan County Massacre

During the Cultural Revolution, massacres broke out in Dan County and Dongfang County of Hainan Island, which was an administrative division of Guangdong Province at the time. In March 1967, local Military Control Commission announced that three mass organizations in Dan County were "counter-revolutionary organizations". In April 1968, the local revolutionary committee was established and in August, the local military began its massacre towards members of the counter-revolutionary organizations, killing over 700 people in total. Moreover, more than 50,000 people were jailed, some 700 houses were burned down, and thousands of people were permanently disabled.

Other areas

According to a research paper by Andrew G. Walder of Stanford University and Yang Su of UC Irvine, the following six counties in Guangdong reported a death toll of over 1,000 due to the Cultural Revolution:
CountyParent CityNumber of abnormal deaths
YangchunYangjiang2,600
WuhuaMeizhou2,136
LianjiangZhanjiang1,851
MeiMeizhou1,403
GuangningZhaoqing1,218
LianQingyuan1,019

Death toll

During the Cultural Revolution, Guangdong recorded one of the highest numbers of "abnormal deaths" in China:
In September 1971, the "Lin Biao incident" broke out and Huang Yongsheng, then chairman of the Guangdong Revolutionary Committee, was removed from his post and was arrested as an ally of Lin. In August 1973, Huang was expelled out of the Communist Party of China. In September 1976, Mao Zedong died and in October, the Gang of Four was arrested, putting an end to the Cultural Revolution.
During the Boluan Fanzheng period, Xi Zhongxun, then Provincial Secretary of the CPC in Guangdong, was in charge of the rehabilitation of the victims, receiving support from the Central Committee of CPC. In January 1980, the Guangdong Revolutionary Committee was removed and the People's Government of Guangdong was re-established. In 1981, Huang Yongsheng was sentenced to 18 years in prison and died in 1983.