Sufan movement

The Sufan movement (simplified Chinese: 肃反; traditional Chinese: 肅反; "against counterrevolutionaries") was a political campaign against political opponents in the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong.[1] The term "sufan" is short for "肅清暗藏的反革命分子", and can roughly be taken as referring to a 'purge' of hidden counterrevolutionaries.[2] Mao directed 5 percent of counter-revolutionaries to be eliminated.[3][4] The Sufan movement lasted from July 1955 to late 1957,[5] during which 214,000 people were arrested and approximately 53,000 died.[6][7][8][9]

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On 1 July 1955, the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee issued a "Directive on launching a struggle to cleanse out hidden counter-revolutionary elements" (關於開展鬥爭肅 清暗藏的反革命分子的指示).[5] On 25 August 1955, it issued "The directive on the thorough purge and cleansing of hidden counter revolutionaries" (關於徹底肅清暗藏反革命分子的指示). The targets of directives like these were individuals inside the communist party, the government bureaucracy, and military personnel. This was in contrast to the earlier Zhen Fan movement that had mainly targeted former Kuomintang personnel.[9]

The targets of Sufan

Historically, the earliest Chinese communist Sufan had been initiated by Zhang Guotao in 1932.

The People's Daily, in an attempt to provide justification for the purge, reported that ten percent of Communist Party members were secret traitors and needed to be purged. This number appears to have been taken as a quota for the number of arrests that needed to occur.[10]

There were three categories of Sufan targets:

  1. Ex-Kuomintang personnel, regardless of war captive or surrender.
  2. Anyone with landlord or wealthy families.
  3. Non-Communist intellectuals.[9]

The Sufan movement was a sequel to the campaign of criticizing Hu Feng,[9] and finally ended in late 1957.[5]

Death toll

Chinese scholars have pointed out that during the Sufan movement, over 1.4 million intellectuals and officials were persecuted, 214,000 people were arrested, 22,000 were executed and a total of 53,000 died.[4][6][7][8][9][11]

Jean-Louis Margolin writes in The Black Book of Communism that one source indicates 81,000 arrests during the campaign (which he claims is rather modest), while another gives 770,000 deaths. He concludes that there is no way to determine which is accurate.[12]

See also

References
  1. Lieberthal, Kenneth. (2003). Governing China: From Revolution to Reform, W.W. Norton & Co.; Second Edition.
  2. According to Lin Yutang Archived 31 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine, 肅 (su) can be translated as 整肅 [zheng3su4]2, v.t., (in communist China) to purge.
  3. Wagner, Rudolf G.; MD, Professor of Chinese Studies Rudolph Wagner; Wagner, Sieglinde (1992). Inside a Service Trade: Studies in Contemporary Chinese Prose. Harvard Univ Asia Center. ISBN 978-0-674-45536-8. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  4. Zhu, Zheng. "陆定一和尤金谈肃反运动". Yanhuang Chunqiu (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  5. "1955年7月1日 中共中央发出《关于展开斗争肃清暗藏的反革命分子的指示》". The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 30 June 2020.
  6. Wang, Gongbiao (2015). "日本侵略軍與中共暴政對中國人民造成傷害的比較". Yibao (议报) (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  7. Chen, Zhaonan (9 June 2018). "陳昭南專欄：遇到中共就失憶！國民黨還能騙自己多久？". Storm Media Group (風傳媒) (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 5 July 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  8. Luo, William (30 March 2018). 半资本主义与中国 （Semi-Capitalism in China） (in Chinese). 世界华语出版社. ISBN 978-1-940266-12-1. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  9. "China's Continuous Revolution". University of California Press. Archived from the original on 1 July 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  10. Jean-Luc Domenach, "Chine: L'archipel oublie" (Paris: Fayard, 1992) , p. 118
  11. "遒真言实：世界史头号罪人——不反毛，天理不容！". Beijing Spring (in Chinese). 8 October 2016. Archived from the original on 24 September 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  12. Stephane Courtois, et al. The Black Book of Communism. Harvard University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-674-07608-7 p. 485

External sources
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