Guangdong Cultural Revolution Massacre

The establishment of the Guangdong Revolutionary Committee (1968).

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 (造反派)", and the society was in chaos. On March 15, Mao deemed military control necessary in Guangdong, appointing Huang Yongsheng as the director of the Military Control Commission.[13][14] In 1967, two factions in Guangdong—the "Red Flag faction (红旗派)", which was a rebel group, and the "East Wind faction (东风派)", which was a conservative group and supported the military control—often went into large-scale violent struggles.[2][15][16]

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".[2][16] In the meantime, Huang Yongsheng also tried to negotiate with the leaders from both factions, hoping to achieve a "grand revolution union (革命大联合)".

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.[17][18] 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.[1][2] 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.[19][20]

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 (July 3rd Public Notice and July 24th Public Notice[21]), using them as excuses for cracking down the Red Flag faction, and thereafter collective killings became prevalent in Guangdong.[2][4][16] The peak of the massacre lasted from July to October in 1968.[1][2]

According to the committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Yangjiang, at least 3,573 people died in the Yangjiang Massacre.[4][6]

• The massacre in Yangjiang County took place from January 1, 1968, to mid-January 1969, killing 909 people.
• The massacre in Yangchun County began on September 23, 1967, killing 2,664 people.

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.[6][22]

The Guangzhou Laogai Fan Incident (广州吊劳改犯事件/广州打劳改犯事件), or the incident of Laogai prisoners, took place in Guangzhou in August 1967.[7][23] The incident lasted for around a week and was caused by rumors that the Laogai prisoners were released from prisons in northern Guangdong and that Guangzhou was about to be looted.[7][23] 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 (some say around 300[24]), most of whom were local citizens living in Guangzhou or its rural areas.[7][23][25] Many bodies of the victims in the massacre were hung up on trees or utility poles along the streets.[7]

The painted picture of Peng Pai

The Anti-Peng Pai Incident (反彭湃事件), or the Case of Peng Pai's relatives (彭湃亲属案件), was a major "wrong" case in Shanwei, Guangdong during the Cultural Revolution, targeting relatives of the 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.[26] In the incident, Peng Pai was labelled as a "traitor" and "opportunist".[26] 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.[11] 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.[11] In August 1968, Peng Hong (彭洪), the third son of Peng Pai, was killed and buried secretly.[11][27]

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". The policies killed thousands of landlords and resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people, and thus the Anti-Peng Pai Incident was essentially retaliation from the local citizens.[28][29][30]

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.[10][31] In March 1967, the local Military Control Commission announced that three mass organizations in Dan County were "counter-revolutionary organizations".[10] In April 1968, the local revolutionary committee was established and in August, local military began its massacre targeting members of the counter-revolutionary organizations, killing over 700 people in total.[4][5][10] Moreover, more than 50,000 people (some says 5,000[4][5]) were jailed, some 700 houses were burned down, and thousands of people were permanently disabled.[10]

The map of municipalities of Guangdong.

According to a research paper (2003) 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:[8]