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.Since the People's Government claimed to have abolished allforms of torture, the officials simply called such methods "punishment" or"persuasion."84This savagery's main purpose was to instill fear, first in opponents ofthe regime and then in society in general.Another goal was to destroypeople's personalities, to dehumanize and "bestialize" them by fear andtorture.By these methods, Mao wanted to turn of China's entire popula-tion into a herd of animals he might control.The important turning point that gave life to Mao's totalitarian proj-ect was China's "Cultural Revolution."The Cultural Revolution: China's Communal FollyFollowing the disaster of the Great Leap, Mao announced that he was"high above daily politics." He decided to withdraw from matters of stateto concentrate on so-called "greater and more important issues." Mao's si-lence ended in 1966.He announced that the Chinese revolution had notyet achieved success because he, the "great helmsman," had not com-pletely instilled Communism in people's minds; that even in the highestechelons of the state, there were elements who did not understandCommunism.A cultural revolution was needed to correct this situation. Red Terror in Asia133The shock of the Cultural Revolution was to destroy the wholeChinese state and society.Mao's suggestions had great influence on theignorant youth in the low ranks of the Communist Party.They becameknown as the Red Guards and began wreaking terror in all parts of thecountry.Singing "The East is Red," they marched through the streets,ready to display their aggression and arrest everyone they thought wasanti-Communist.Thousands of high-level bureaucrats, university pro-fessors, scientists and intellectuals were arrested, humiliated after un-dergoing horrible tortures, and executed.Even Liu Shaoqi, one of Mao's closest friends and a former chairmanof the People's Republic of China, was arrested on Mao's orders, publiclybeaten, subjected to long torture and thrown into a cell where he re-ceived no medical attention and died in agony.Deng Xiaoping was oneof Mao's oldest comrades, among those who were going to take over therule of China after Mao.His son Pufong, a brilliant physics major atBeijing University, was interrogated by the Red Guards.During theprocess, he was sodomized, beaten to a pulp, and later thrown out thewindow of the interrogation chamber.Although he survived, his backwas broken and he spent the restof his life in a wheelchair withan impaired hearing.85A witness describes the inhu-man torture inflicted on a uni-versity professor during theCultural Revolution:The Cultural Revolution was a mur-derous frenzy designed to destroyevery idea and every person op-posed to Communist ideology.Thepropaganda poster on the right de-picts this feast of bloodshed: anti-Communists being crushed by thefists of Red Communists. THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION: AMADNESS THAT TERRORIZED CHINAThe Red Guards recognized Mao's RedBook as their only guide.During theCultural Revolution, they overwhelmedthe country with blood and fear.Propaganda posters also depicted theRed Guards' barbarism.In the poster attop, university professors, arrested andtortured by the Red Guards, are depictedas parasites that degenerate society.Young members of the Red Guards brain-washed by Mao's Communism. UNIVERSITYPROFESSORSBEINGEXECUTEDThroughout theCulturalRevolution, RedGuards torturedtens of thou-sands.University pro-fessors, states-men, artists andwriters were ar-rested, and pub-licly humiliatedwith insultingplacards hungaround theirnecks, beforebeing executed. 2143Another political execution in China: Awoman named Wang Shouxin was ar-rested as an opponent of the regime,bound by soldiers, forced to her knees andkilled with a single bullet.As a rule, the5money to buy the bullet for executions likethese was taken from the victim's family. Red Terror in Asia137I ran inside.On the athletic field and farther inside, before a new four-storyclassroom building, I saw rows of teachers, about 40 or 50 in all, with blackink poured over their heads and faces so that they were now in reality a "blackgang." Hanging on their necks were placards with words such as "reactionaryacademic authority so-and-so," "corrupt ringleader so-and-so," "class enemyso-and-so," "capitalist roader so-and-so": all epithets taken from the newspa-pers.On each placard was a red cross, making the teachers look like con-demned prisoners awaiting execution.They all wore dunce caps painted withsimilar epithets and carried dirty brooms, shoes, and dusters on their backs.Hanging from their necks were pails filled with rocks.I saw the principal: thepail around his neck was so heavy that the wire had cut deep into his neckand he was staggering.All were barefoot, hitting broken gongs or pots asthey walked around the field crying out: "I am black gangster so-and-so."Finally, they all knelt down, burned incense, and begged Mao Zedong to"pardon their crimes."I was stunned by this scene and I felt myself go pale.A few girls nearlyfainted.Beatings and torture followed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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