Guangxi Massacre

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The Guangxi Massacres ( Chinese廣西 大 屠殺 / 广西 大 屠杀) were a series of events that included lynching and direct massacre in Guangxi during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976).

According to official figures, the death toll is estimated at 100,000 to 150,000. The types of killings included beheading, beatings, stoning, drowning, cooking and evisceration. Massive cannibalism occurred in certain areas, including Wuxuan County and Wuming County , even though there was no famine. According to public records, at least 137 people - possibly several hundred - were consumed by others. At least thousands of people participated in this cannibalism.

According to researchers, the cannibalism killed 421 people in a single county alone. There have been reports of cannibalism in dozen of Guangxi counties.

After the Cultural Revolution, people involved in this massacre received only minor sentences (during the " Boluan Fanzheng " period). In Wuxuan, with 38 victims, fourteen perpetrators have been prosecuted and sentenced to up to 14 years in prison, while ninety-one members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have been expelled from the party. Officials were either downgraded or received a cut in their salaries.

Historical background

Wei Guoqing

In 1966, Mao Zedong started the Cultural Revolution . Since March 1967, two factions among troops and civilians have gradually formed in Guangxi, China . One faction (known as "United Headquarters" for short) unconditionally supported Wei Guoqing - then chairman of Guangxi and high-ranking CCP official - to lead the Guangxi Revolution, while the other faction (known as "4.22") disagreed and asked Wei to be self-critical first. Clashes between the two factions and massacres soon erupted in rural Guangxi.

In February 1968 the "Guangzhou Military Region (廣州 軍區 / 广州 军区)" ordered the troops supporting the "4.22 Faction" to move away from the region. In April 1968, Huang Yongsheng , the head of the Guangzhou Military Region, declared that the "4.22 faction" was a " counter-revolutionary organization " and began massive repression (the Guangdong massacre was also taking place at the same time ). Since the summer of 1968, the massacre had spread from rural areas to cities in Guangxi.

Methods of killing

Killing methods in the massacre included decapitation, beating, live burial, stoning, drowning, cooking, group slaughter, evisceration, digging up hearts, livers, genitals, cutting off meat, blasting with dynamite, and more.

  • In one case, a person was tied to dynamite on their back and was blown to pieces by other people - just for fun.
  • In another case from 1968, "A geography teacher named Wu Shufang (吴树芳) was beaten to death by students from Wuxuan Middle School. The body was carried to the flat stones of the Qian River, where another teacher was forced to have the heart and liver Back at school, the students grilled and ate the organs. "

Death toll

First study group

In April 1981, an investigation group of over 20 people was formed on behalf of the Central Disciplinary Control Commission , the Ministry of Public Security and four other organizations. In June 1981, the investigation concluded that the death toll was over 100,000, while some officials and civilians privately claimed the death toll was 150,000, 200,000, or even 500,000.

Second study group

In March 1983, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party formed another study group of 40 people. In January 1984, the investigation concluded that 89,700 deaths could be identified by name and address, over 20,000 people were missing, and over 30,000 deaths could not be identified by name or address.

Massive cannibalism

Wuxuan of Guangxi, where cannibalism prevailed during the Cultural Revolution. The picture shows Chairman Mao Zedong's quotes on a street wall in Wuxuan.

Cannibalism occurred in Guangxi during the Cultural Revolution. According to scholar Zheng Yi (郑义), who carried out detailed research on the subject in the late 1980s and later smuggled some copies of official documents into the United States , at least 137 people - perhaps hundreds more - were being eaten by others. Thousands of people participated in cannibalism. Documents also record a variety of forms of cannibalism, including eating people as an after-dinner snack, cutting off the meat at large parties, splitting the meat so each person can take a large chunk home, barbecuing or frying the liver and so on.

According to Yan Lebin (晏乐斌), a member of the Ministry of Public Security who joined both investigation groups:

In 1968, 38 people were eaten in Wuxuan County, and 113 county officials participated in the consumption of human flesh, hearts, and livers. Chen Guorong (陈国荣), a farmer from Guigang County , who happened to be passing Wuxuan, was caught by the local militia and killed because he was fat. His heart and liver were taken out while his meat was being distributed to 20 people. A female militia leader ate a total of 6 human livers, cut off the genitals of 5 men, and soaked them in alcohol that she would later drink, claiming these organs were beneficial to her health. The behavior of eating human flesh, heart, and livers has occurred in many Guangxi counties including Wuxuan, Wuming, Shangsi, Guigang, Qinzhou, Guiping, and Lingyun.

According to Song Yongyi (宋永毅), a Chinese historian who worked at California State University, Los Angeles :

Independent researchers in Guangxi counted a total of 421 people eaten in a single county. However, there have been reports of cannibalism in 27 counties in Guangxi. There was a man who was allegedly in what is known as the fifth category who was beaten to death. He had two children, one of eleven and one of 14. The local officials and the armed militia said it was important to exterminate such people, so they not only killed these two children but also ate them. This took place in Pubei County , Guangxi, where a total of 35 people were killed and eaten. Most of them were wealthy landowners and their families. There was a landowner named Liu Zhengjian whose entire family was wiped out. He had a 17-year-old daughter, Liu Xiulan, who was raped by nine people [19 times], who then ripped open her stomach and ate her liver and breasts. There have been so many incidents like this.

According to Frank Dikötter , Department of Humanities at Hong Kong University , Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution in Stanford and winner of the 2011 Baillie Gifford Prize :

Throughout 1967 and 1968 there were factions in the countryside that not only physically eliminate each other, but in some small towns literally ritually eat each other. In other words, eliminating your class enemy is not enough. You have to eat the hearts of the enemy, so there are very well-documented cases of ritual cannibalism. There was a hierarchy in the consumption of class enemies. Leaders feasted on the heart and liver mixed with pork, while ordinary villagers were only allowed to peck on the arms and thighs of the victims.

Public responses

Witnesses and researchers

  • In 2016, Agence France-Presse (AFP) interviewed a local named Luo who replied, “Cannibalism? I was here then, I went through it. But Wuxuan has developed rapidly in recent years and now. This story has no meaning. "
  • In 2016, a senior official of the 1980s official investigation group told AFP: "All of the cannibalism was due to class struggle and was used to express a kind of hatred. The murder was horrific, worse than beasts."
  • In 2016, Ding Xueliang (丁学良), a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , told AFP: "This was not cannibalism because of economic hardship, like during a famine. It was caused not for economic reasons, but political ones Events, political hatred, political ideologies and political rituals. "
  • In 2013, Yang Liping (杨丽萍), a notable Chinese dancer, claimed she saw cannibalism during the Cultural Revolution, but not necessarily in Guangxi. She stated, "I am pessimistic about humanity and pessimistic about people. Because we went through the Cultural Revolution, we have become very vigilant. I am very vigilant, vigilant as a peacock. Be careful because humans are the most terrible animals. Otherwise if Michael Jackson had n't died ... I've seen people eat people and people hurt people just like I do now. Nowadays people can hurt you anytime, but they don't even know why they hurt you. "
  • 1997 wrote Key Ray Chong, a professor of history at the Soka University that: "During the Cultural Revolution knew some Chinese officials of this horror, the equivalent of the Nazi Holocaust in the 1940s and the killing fields of Pol Pot in the 1970s. But they were silent on the subject. "
  • In 1995, Carnegie Mellon University professor Donald S. Sutton wrote in his research paper, "Did cannibalism actually take place in Wuxuan? ...... That the incident actually did occur was confirmed by John Gittings, a scholar and journalist , who recently visited Wuxuan, independently verified. A local employee spoke lightly of the murders and cannibalism - wrote down his name and address when asked - and added with a touch of pride, 'In Wuxuan ... we have more People than anywhere else in China. ' ( The Guardian , Nov. 27, 1993). "

media

  • In 2016, the Irish Times stated, "Horrible stories abound. There were stories of cannibalism in Guangxi Province in which the" bad elements "were publicly slaughtered and more than 70 victims were eaten in Wuxuan."
  • In 2016, The Guardian stated that "Perhaps the worst hit region was southern Guangxi Province, where mass murders and even cannibalism were reported."
  • In 2013, China's official Renmin Wang and other media reprinted the China Youth Daily article, "In some places like Guangxi, people's hearts and livers were eaten after they were beaten to death. Such cannibalism was widespread in the region ! " The article states that "Has any country ever experienced a cultural revolution like ours in human history in the 20th century? The only comparable thing is the Nazi era in Germany . So far, however, we have not even had a decent historical review or reflection. "
  • In 2001, Time Magazine stated that, "The Mao Zedong Cultural Revolution was an outbreak of ideological zeal, mass hysteria and downright brutality that killed an estimated 10 million Chinese and ruined the lives of millions more. Now are stories of even more terrible excesses from the years between 1966 and 1976 came to light: allegations of cannibalism involving hundreds of men and women who, in the name of revolutionary purity, violated the most powerful taboo of humanity. "
  • In 1996, the Washington Post stated , "The [Communist] Party wishes to block any in-depth analysis of the role of the late Chairman Mao Zedong and numerous party members. Full disclosure of the truth could destroy the poor legitimacy to which the party still holds."
  • In 1993, Newsweek stated that "The reports were staggering. Headmasters killed, then cooked and eaten by students in school playgrounds. Government-run cafeterias where human bodies are hung from meat hooks and distributed to staff .... ... Documents smuggled out of China last week described the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution in grotesque detail. "
  • In 1993, the New York Times stated: "The incidents reported by Guangxi were apparently the largest episodes of cannibalism in the world in the last century or more. They also differed in that participants were not motivated by starvation or psychopathic illness. Instead, they appeared the actions to be ideological: cannibalism, which according to the documents was taking place publicly, was often organized by local Communist Party representatives, and people apparently participated together to show their revolutionary enthusiasm.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c 张鸣 ： 不 反思 “文革” 的 社会 ， 就是 个 食 人 部落 - 文史 - 人民网. Retrieved March 21, 2020 (Chinese).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Chronology of Mass Killings during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) | Sciences Po Mass Violence and Resistance - Research Network ( en )
  3. ^ A b c d Donald S. Sutton: Consuming Counterrevolution - The Ritual and Culture of Cannibalism in Wuxuan . Guangxi (China) May to July 1968. In: Comparative Studies in Society and History. tape 37 , no. 1 , 1995, ISSN  0010-4175 , pp. 136-172 , doi : 10.1017 / S0010417500019575 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h Interview: 'People Were Eaten by The Revolutionary Masses' ( en ) Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Nicholas D. Kristof: A Tale of Red Guards and Cannibals (en-US) . In: The New York Times , January 6, 1993. Retrieved November 30, 2019. 
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Lebin Yan: 我 参与 处理 广西 文革 遗留 问题. Retrieved March 21, 2020 (Chinese).
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g How political hatred during Cultural Revolution led to murder and cannibalism in a small town in China ( en ) In: South China Morning Post . May 11, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  8. ↑ a b c d Cannibalism in China 50 years on ( en ) May 22, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  9. ↑ a b Daniel Southerl: DEVOURING THEIR OWN (en-US) . In: Washington Post , July 7, 1996. Retrieved November 30, 2019. 
  10. ↑ a b c BARBARA RUDOLPH: Unspeakable Crimes . In: Time . June 24, 2001, ISSN  0040-781X .
  11. ↑ 人 变成 了 兽 —— 宋永毅 谈 文革 期间 广西 人 吃 人. Retrieved March 24, 2020 (Chinese (China)).
  12. ↑ Frank Dikötter. Retrieved March 24, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Newly Released Documents Detail Traumas Of China's Cultural Revolution. Retrieved March 24, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Jonathan Mirsky: Mao devours his foes. Retrieved March 24, 2020 .
  15. ↑ a b c Le Point magazine: La Révolution culturelle chinoise et ses. May 16, 2016, accessed March 24, 2020 (French).
  16. ↑ 杨丽萍 ： 我 对 人性 是 悲观 的 但 我 崇尚 自然 - 文史 - 人民网. Retrieved March 24, 2020 .
  17. ↑ 《年代 访》 对话 杨丽萍 ： 纷乱 世界 我 看到 万物 真相 _ 文化 频道 _ 凤凰网. Retrieved March 24, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Key Ray Chong: Scarlet Memorial: Tales of Cannibalism in Modern China (review) . In: China Review International . 4, No. 2, 1997, ISSN  1527-9367 , pp. 599-602. doi : 10.1353 / cri.1997.0150 .
  19. ↑ Clifford Coonan Beijing: The Cultural Revolution: a storm that swept through China. Retrieved March 24, 2020 .
  20. ^ Tom Phillips: The Cultural Revolution: All you need to know about China's political convulsion . In: The Guardian . May 11, 2016, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed March 24, 2020]).
  21. ↑ 学者 ： 20 世纪 可 与 "文革" 比拟 的 是 德国 纳粹 时代 _ 新闻 频道 _ 中华网. Retrieved March 25, 2020 .
  22. ↑ 张鸣 ： 不 反思 “文革” 的 社会 就是 个 食 人 部落 _ 频道 _ 腾讯 网. Retrieved March 25, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Marcus Mabry On 1/17/93 at 7:00 PM EST: Cannibals Of The Red Guard. January 17, 1993, accessed March 24, 2020 .