(Minghui.org) China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) was a decade of chaos. Almost everyone, from high officials to ordinary citizens, was encouraged to attack each other. Even family members turned against one another.
Sixty years have passed, and although many people regret the huge losses, few have reflected on the underlying causes of the great catastrophe.
Teenage Girls Became Murderers
Shortly after the Cultural Revolution began, the Girls’ High School Affiliated with Beijing Normal University (currently known as Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University) served as a focal point for the Red Guards, led by children of high-ranking officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Bian Zhongyun, the school’s vice principal, was targeted in the afternoon on August 5 1966.
Bian Zhongyun, one of the first educators beaten to death during the Cultural Revolution
The students initially beat Bian with batons. They later poured ink on her, and some even trampled on her. By 5 p.m., Bian had lost consciousness and suffered from incontinence. Although a hospital was directly across the street from the school, Red Guards prevented school staff from sending her there. When she was finally taken to the hospital after 7 p.m., her body was already rigid.
Decades later, in 2014, Song Binbin, one of the leading Red Guards involved in the incident, apologized over the wrongdoings she had committed against those teachers. Bian’s husband, Wang Jingyao, posted a response online refusing to accept the apology.
“Until the August 5 incident is fully investigated, I do not accept any hypocritical apology from these Red Guards,” he wrote. “This was a crime, not a mistake. Criminals should be held accountable.”
However, no one investigated Song or the other Red Guards. The reason is simple: Song Renqiong, Song Binbin’s father, was a general in the People’s Liberation Army, and later became the Minister of the CCP Central Committee’s Organization Department. According to witnesses, Deng Rong and Liu Tingting also participated in the beating. Deng Rong was a daughter of Deng Xiaoping, the top CCP leader after the Cultural Revolution. Liu Tingting’s father was Liu Shaoqi, China’s chairperson during that time.
This helps explain why this incident was never fully investigated, as Bian’s husband had hoped. Stepping back, an underlying issue emerges. How did these teenage girls turn into murderers?
Reaping What You Sow
Needless to say, the direct cause of the incident was Mao Zedong’s direction on the Cultural Revolution. A deeper reason was the CCP’s doctrine of class struggle and brutality.
Before and after coming to power, the CCP often depicted landlords and capitalists as evil, which justified their mistreatment and killing. According to historian Song Yongyi, Liu Shaoqi and his wife actually established a systemic way of mistreating opponents during the Four Cleanups Movement in 1964. Together, the couple led the campaign that resulted in 78,000 deaths, and the targeting of more than 5.3 million people.
In this context, it was not surprising that Liu Tingting followed suit and did the same two years later when the Cultural Revolution began. Ironically, Mao started the Cultural Revolution partly to target Liu. But Liu was unaware, and even hosted the meeting in May 1966 to announce Mao’s order to launch the campaign.
There is a saying, “You reap what you sow.” When the Red Guards targeted Liu one year later in the summer of 1966, Liu grabbed a copy of the Constitution from the table and declared, “I am still the Chairman of the People’s Republic of China! You may insult me personally, but you cannot insult the State! The Constitution guarantees the rights of every citizen; by violating the Constitution, you will be held accountable!” However, his attempt was fruitless—the Red Guards hesitated for a while, but then continued.
Looking back, however, one may find that Liu himself had contributed to the lawless chaos in China. For example, during a work report presented by Supreme Procurator-General Zhang Dingcheng back in 1955, Liu issued a definitive directive, “If a Party committee decides that an arrest is warranted, the Procuratorate must stamp its approval with its eyes closed.”
“While acting in this manner may occasionally result in errors—matters which can be clarified internally within the Party—externally, the Procuratorate must step forward and shoulder the responsibility,” he explained. “If the Procuratorate fails to serve as the Party's shield, those who advocate democracy will exploit this fact to oppose the Party. The ultimate consequence is not different from Procuratorate itself opposing the Party.”
What Liu did not anticipate was that when the state apparatus became a well oiled killing machine, anyone—including himself—could become its victim. Three years later, in November 1969, Liu died in misery.
Tragedy Continues
After the Cultural Revolution ended, Deng Xiaoping and other officials tried to make some corrections—but only superficially. Since the killing machine remained intact—gaining even more power as time continued—it crushed the democratic movement in 1989—and has suppressed Falun Gong since 1999.
The persecution of Falun Gong lacks any legal or moral basis. Rooted in traditional Chinese culture, the meditation system of Falun Gong improves mind and body through five sets of exercises and following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. However, with core values of hatred and brutality, the totalitarian CCP cannot tolerate it, and has been persecuting the practice for the past 27 years. Jiang Zemin, the former CCP leader who launched the suppression in 1999, even issued an order against practitioners to “defame their reputations, bankrupt them financially, and eliminate them physically.”
With approximately 100 million Dafa practitioners in China, this catastrophe has brought immeasurable suffering to countless families. Among them is the family of Mr. Qu Hui from Dalian City, Liaoning Province. Mr. Qu worked as a cargo clerk at Dalian Seaport, while his wife Ms. Liu Xinying was a nurse at Dalian Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital. Together, they had a lovely daughter.
Mr. Qu and his wife Ms. Liu Xinying had a daughter.
Several months after the persecution began, in January 2000, the couple traveled to Beijing to appeal against the persecution of Falun Gong. Mr. Qu was arrested and taken to Dalian Port Detention Center, followed by detention at Dalian Labor Camp. On March 19, 2001, guards tortured practitioners at the facility one by one in an attempt to force them to renounce their faith.
“I was also dragged into that room at 9:00 p.m. The officers tortured me without interruption until 8:00 a.m. I don't know how many electric batons they used on me. My body was covered with wounds from their clubs. My buttocks was beaten so severely that the wounds festered. My knees were swollen from being beaten, and my back was broken. I spat blood and lost consciousness again and again,” Mr. Qu recalled.
After Mr. Qu regained consciousness, a doctor named Han Qiong inspected him, and said to the officers, “He’s all right. You can continue beating him.” While hitting Mr. Qu, an officer named Qiao Wei grinned and said to those watching, “For years my cravings [for beating] have not been satisfied like they are now.”
As a result of the brutal torture, Mr. Qu sustained a fractured cervical vertebrae, and in January 2000 he became a paraplegic. The wounds on his genitals—from electric shocks—became infected. His body became swollen and he developed a high fever. Because his lungs were failing and he was unable to breathe, doctors cut open his trachea and inserted a breathing tube. His kidneys were also failing, so doctors inserted a catheter. He had severe and persistent diarrhea, and was kept alive by intravenous drips. He poor body developed bedsores everywhere.
From that time until his death in February 2014, Mr. Qu was cared for by his wife. They couple suffered immeasurable pain. Several months after Mr. Qu passed away, Ms. Liu was also arrested and sent to Shenyang Women’s Prison. When their daughter sought justice, she was harassed by police at school. After continued detention and torture, plus endless harassment, Ms. Liu also left this world in grief in April 2023.
The Freedom of Our Soul
The above includes only two of the countless, tragic stories unfolding in China. One question remains: Who is ultimately responsible for these losses?
From Song Binbin to the guards in Dalian Labor Camp, many believed they were following the Party closely and carrying out orders—but a large number of innocent people lost their lives. Although China’s labor camp system officially ended in December 2013, tragedies like those suffered by Mr. Qua and his family continue to this day in detention centers, prisons, and brainwashing centers. The question is, why is this still happening?
“Slave—in the past, I always believed that I had absolutely nothing to do with this word; yet, I had undeniably lived as a slave for ten years,” wrote renowned writer Ba Jin when reflecting on the Cultural Revolution. “I was one of those spiritual slaves at that, utterly resigned to my servitude. This realization filled me with profound anguish! My heart struggled within me; I felt the philosophy of slavery binding my entire being as tightly as iron chains—I was no longer myself.”
In the Manifesto of the Communist Party published in 1848, Karl Marx wrote, “A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism.” Seventy years later, in 1918, this spectre brought a catastrophe to the Soviet Union. Another 30 years later, it caused a bigger, more devastating nightmare in China. Everyone who joins the CCP or its junior organizations (Youth League and Young Pioneers) must pledge their unwavering loyalty to the Party during the initiation ceremony. Through this ritual, they become spiritual slaves who obey, which includes killing Falun Gong practioners.
“I distinctly remember having once transformed from a human into a beast; some told me this was nothing more than a ten-year dream. Would I dream again? Why wouldn’t I? My heart still aches; it is still bleeding,” Ba Jin continued. “But I refuse to dream any longer. I will not forget that I am a human being, and I am resolved never to revert to a beast”
That explains why over 460 million Chinese people have now renounced their memberships in the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Only by severing ties with the CCP can we regain independent thoughts, reclaim humanity, and cherish virtue.
I also believe this not only involves the Chinese people, since the CCP has ramped up its efforts to gain global influence. Soon or later, everyone may have to choose a side—siding with the CCP, or following their conscience.
All content published on this website is copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
Category: News Commentary
