On the Ground in China

Dear Readers,

As I approach my retirement, I find it crucial to explore one last story, the story of the Cultural Revolution. China has been faced with an enormous set of challenges over the past few decades, from successfully reworking class within the countryside, to rooting out intellectual Rightists, China has overcome many hardships. During the final years of Chairman Mao’s rule, he unleashed his last and most important campaign: the Cultural Revolution.

The Chairman has passed away, and with party support to discuss the Cultural Revolution’s effects freely, I feel for the first time I can share my thoughts on the Cultural Revolution’s shortcomings. The gap between the countryside and urban centers persists, the youth have been disenfranchised by Party antics, and now we must evaluate the success of the Chairman’s goal to create a communist nation and inspire the youth to carry on China’s revolutionary processes.

The importance of peasants and rural life as the beating heart of China’s revolution dates to Mao’s experience during the Shanghai massacre in 1927. Once taking power, the Chairman has consistently advocated for the peasants, from Land Reform, to sending intellectuals down to the countryside during anti-Rightist campaign, through his latest attempt at empowering China’s youth in the Cultural Revolution. I have had the privilege of receiving an advanced copy of Liang Heng’s manuscript Son of the Revolution, which has provided an invaluable insight into the life of someone growing up during this turbulent period. Liang was the son of intellectuals, his father was a reporter for the Hunan Daily, and his mother was a local bureaucrat. During the Cultural Revolution, his family was swept up in the high tide of violent revolutionary activity from the Red Guards, eventually being sent to the countryside in Mao’s attempt to curb the violence. Liang felt the Cultural Revolution was turned inside out disenfranchising many young intellectuals, they signed up for work in the countryside because “they were exhausted, they had unhappy lives at home, and they had nothing to do at school.” It is evident through Liang’s account, the motivation to engage in rural work was not because of feeling inspired by Chairman Mao, but because they had no other choice, as they looked for a more stable life within the countryside. This mindset turned out to be misguided, Liang was struck by the poverty so many peasants faced, the lack of abundant food reserves and the means to purchase fertilizers for everyday life. Upon arrival the peasants remarked that “We’ve got to give you food, find you a place to work. What kind of help is that?” Peasants felt burdened by the untrained workers that were sent down to the countryside, they were already struggling to get by, and the requisitioning campaigns added to the burdens so many peasants faced. Consequently, this reveals the gap between urban centers and the rural countryside remained prevalent socially and economically. Peasants had no extra food to give, nor did they have the time to adequately train the unskilled intellectuals.

Youth became disenfranchised by the Cultural Revolution as they were given a central role by our great Chairman, but he pulled the rug out from underneath their feet once the revolution started to become excessively violent. At first, youth enthusiastically responded to the Chairman’s policies of rooting out intellectuals as they were following what Mao’s directives over radio broadcasts. China’s youth during this period were the first generation to grow up after the revolution, by giving them the opportunity to participate in revolution, Mao unleashed a charged and extremely enthusiastic group of people that ended with disastrous consequences. Factional violence and civil war among different youth groups with different interpretations of the Chairman’s policies brutally ripped China apart. Schools closed, people were struggled against, and many died. One Red Guard even enjoyed beating people of interest, revealing the gap between the empowered youth and their target groups. Liang Heng remembers feeling immense “disappointment,” when Chairman Mao called for a stop to the fighting and for the Red Guards “to go up to the mountains and down to the countryside.” His sisters and family felt incredible despair and anguish at the thought of spending the remainder of their lives in the countryside. Many peasants disliked the Party’s program to send the Red Guards to the countryside, because they had to Liang’s father, a stout supporter of the Party, had trouble defending Communist Party directives to confiscate livestock and grain upon understanding the scale of poverty within the countryside when compared to the relative prosperity found within urban centers. With Chairman Mao’s passing, the question becomes how the new regime will bridge the gap between urban centers and the countryside and empower the youth to become enthusiastic and productive members of society.

Greetings Tongzhimen,

As this tumultuous period finally comes to a close I now have the opportunity to reflect on the Cultural Revolution and the extent to which it achieved its two ambitious, main goals of closing the gap between the cities and the countryside and creating revolutionary successors from the urban, educated youth. Looking back, the two goals of the Cultural Revolution were only partially achieved and resulted in many negative consequences. 

Mao attempted to bridge the long-standing socioeconomic gap between the rural and the urban communities through the “Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside Movement”. Educated urban youth like students, teachers, and professionals were sent to the countryside to help solve the labor shortage rural communities were facing, while at the same time establishing an appreciation of rural life among the educated urban youth. Connecting urban and rural communities is a noble goal however the movement had a lot of unintended consequences. The educated urban youth were ill-prepared for the harsh conditions of the countryside. The propaganda the party published gave the educated urban youth a false image of prosperous and advanced rural communities, the reality of poor village life hit them very hard as they had to live with no electricity or running water. The first round of the campaign was voluntary and when reports on the reality of the villages returned nobody wanted to go, but by then the campaign was no longer voluntary. The educated urban youth also were not physically strong and did not know the required farming techniques and skills but still required sustenance from the rural families, proving to be counterproductive. The mass migration to the countryside disrupted the education of an entire generation of urban youth, and the consequences of this will not be fully realized until years later when the generation ages. The generation was also isolated from their families and old urban social networks, leading to isolation and for some individuals serious psychological issues like depression and disillusionment. 

One successful initiative under this broader movement was Barefoot Doctors, the mobilization of doctors and medical professionals into rural communities. Historically, rural populations had poor or non-existent healthcare, and by providing medical care and teaching medical knowledge to locals in these rural communities the quality of healthcare improved.    

The physical embodiment of urban, educated revolutionary successors was the Red Guards. These groups were mostly comprised of high school and university students who all unwaveringly followed Mao Zedong thought. They were the army that helped advance the Cultural Revolution. The Red Guards would engage in mass mobilization, confront perceived class enemies, and propagate Maoist thought. The intense ideological indoctrination and cult of personality surrounding Mao created a generation of individuals deeply loyal to Mao. They saw him as the supreme leader whose guidance was unquestionable. However, power struggles and extreme violence among revolutionary groups emerged, with each group claiming they loved Chairman Mao more. Innocent civilians were afraid to go out during the day for fear of being caught in the crossfire. Under the slogan “Attack with Words, Defend with Guns” the groups justified the fighting as members would acquire a range of weapons including grenades, bayonets, machine guns, cannons, tanks, and anti-aircraft missiles. Violence intensified until these groups were abolished by Mao. The cost of ideological conformity in the short term is the underdevelopment of the youth in the long term as political activism was prioritized over education. Mao radicalized the urban youth and destroyed independent thought, making it arduous to take a pragmatic approach after the Cultural Revolution.    

The Cultural Revolution pursued the admirable goals of closing the gap between urban and rural China and creating a new generation of revolutionary successors. Despite the consequences, it made minimal progress toward narrowing the divide between the rural and urban was effective in producing educated, urban youths who would become revolutionaries.

Dear Tongzhimen, 

It has been many years since I started reporting to you as a young student, and I have come to give my final report on our Cultural Revolution, the Gang of Four, and the effect of their horrid crimes in the past few years. Although our great Chairman Mao intended for the urban youth, who were in desperate need of revolutionary education, to become one with the peasantry and end our cultural divide, it did not come to fruition. This is by no fault of his own, of course. Instead, deep-seated cultural divides and fervent chaos launched by Jiang Qing and others are to blame. 

Years ago, during one of my family’s daily Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong readings, I recall being struck by this quote: “How should we judge whether a youth is a revolutionary? How can we tell? There can only be one criterion, namely, whether or not he is willing to integrate himself with the broad masses of workers and peasants and does so in practice. If he is willing to do so and actually does so, he is a revolutionary; otherwise he is a non-revolutionary or a counter-revolutionary.” Back then, I was eager to support Mao’s decision in 1968 to send our youth to the countryside to do what I did all those years ago and integrate themselves into our revolutionary mindset. Since then, I have had the fortune to speak to those who experienced this journey, such as fellow journalist Liang Heng, who has illustrated the reality of the Cultural Revolution that I did not experience in his memoir, soon to be released. 

As an old woman in the city of Beijing, I was lucky to be relatively unaffected by the campaign. Sure, my neighbors, sister-in-law, and nephew were accused of being counter-revolutionary and sent to the countryside, but I was left unscathed. Meeting with Liang Heng was a huge wake-up call into the shortcomings of the campaign. He was initially untrusting of me due to my lack of struggle during the last decade, but he soon told me about his experiences and let me read his memoir pre-release anyway. During the revolution, Liang Heng and his father were split up from their family, struggled against, and were sent to live and learn from the peasants due to their counter-revolutionary ideals. Right off the bat, Liang described to me the obvious divide between the peasantry and the unwelcomed outsiders. As a child, he was spit on, called a “stinking intellectual’s son,” and his new peers were told “to avoid becoming friends with us at all costs, lest we contaminate them with our “bad thought.” Growing up, this same divide was constantly present in Liang’s life. He couldn’t play basketball for the country, court the girl he liked, or support his family because of their counter-revolutionary intellectual background and their time spent in the countryside. 

It is sad to see this anti-intellectualism is still around decades after I experienced it in Yenan. I believe this deep-rooted anti-intellectual mindset that has been cultivated in China is one of the main catalysts to the failure of the Cultural Revolution, specifically its goal to bridge the gap between peasant and urban populations. It seems as if Liang Heng is one of millions of comrades who have been negatively affected by the destructive overly-political culture of the sixties. Luckily, times are changing, and hopefully for the better this time. Farewell to my loyal readers. 

Your Devoted Comrade,

Cui Shuli

Tongzhimen, 

 

I guess you could say the dust has settled. It has been a few months since the great Chairman Mao passed away. Every morning and every evening I grieve the loss of the Chairman. There will never be anyone quite like him. I know that for the greater good of our country, we must move on to continue to achieve the things that the Chairman would have wanted for us. 

 

I recently met with my long-time friend Liang Heng, whom I have known for decades. He shared with me that he was in the final stages of publishing a memoir of his and his family’s experiences during the Cultural Revolution. Liang Heng was kind enough to allow me to read a copy before he published it. I brought the manuscript back home and spent the following week reading it. I decided to schedule another meeting with Liang Heng as he said some things that fascinatingly criticized the Cultural Revolution. 

 

There was one quote Liang Heng wrote that struck me in a way few remarks on the Cultural Revolution had. On page 207 of his manuscript, he writes “Why should two good people like my parents be forced to divorce each other? Why should Liang Fang raise a machine gun against her fellow teenagers? Why did the peasants fear the cadres so terribly if they were representatives of our great Communist Party? Why were people so determined to make me and Peng Ming look like counterrevolutionaries when we wanted only to contribute to our country? Why had the Revolution given us all so little when we had sacrificed everything for it?” [Heng 207] What I loved about this quote was that it posed so many questions about the Cultural Revolution, including implying that perhaps there were corrupt Cadres within the party. Never implying that the great late Chairman Mao was responsible for such problems was right. 

 

One of Liang Heng’s greatest frustrations of the Cultural Revolution was the arbitrary arrests and smear campaigns against Liang Heng, his family, and millions of other individuals. [Heng 83] The Cultural Revolution created a sort of cutthroat environment that promoted and praised those who reported anyone whom they suspected of being counterrevolutionary. It was also clear that so much of Liang Heng’s frustration came from this feeling that though they gave so much to the party, they were never rewarded. 

 

Liang Heng’s quote, “Why should two good people like my parents be forced to divorce each other?” was very telling of what happened to families like his during the Cultural Revolution. Liang Heng explained to me what his sister Liang Feng had told him. “Then Liang Fang explained all in a breath that she and Liang Wei-ping were going to the countryside, and Father suddenly seemed wearier than I had ever seen him. “This family will be scattered all over the place,” he sighed. “But ‘The home of a Revolutionary is the four seas.” [Heng 145]  Liang Heng himself was one of the millions of young people sent down to the countryside to learn from the peasants. “Reform” meant learning from Dazhai, the model agricultural commune in the North, where work points depended on good political performances, and “class struggle” was life’s main theme.” [Heng 182]  It was this very initiative in the Cultural Revolution that many felt was detrimental to not just family life, but also a significant burden on the peasants. The vast majority of young people like Liang Heng were simply not experienced at all in terms of farmwork and this made life even more difficult for many peasants now expected to provide food and shelter for people who could not contribute.

Through all of his frustrations, it became clear to me that Liang Heng felt that the cultural revolution did little to close the gap between peasants and the urban, educated youth. The cultural revolution and its initiatives simply highlighted the vast differences between the two groups and in many cases, may have increased tensions as sides grew increasingly frustrated with each other over the years. Additionally, the Cultural Revolution did not inspire quite the type of revolutionary spirit that many had hoped. Instead, the Revolution, after the passing of the great Chairman Mao, left many feeling exhausted and defeated. 

 

Tongzhimen, it has been the honor of my life to serve you, the people, over the last few decades. My reporting was not always perfect, I made my mistakes. But it was you, the readers who stood with me at every step. Thank you. 

 

One final time,

Gao An Zhi

Dear Tongzhimen,

It is now past my time and I am saddened to say that my time as a journalist is coming to a close and it is time for the younger generations to take over. In my old age, I’ve lived through many campaigns promoting Mao into Chinese society. China is in a completely different position today than it was during my childhood because of the work of Mao and the Communist Party. My last duty as a reporter is to bring to you the information of how the latest campaign, the Cultural Revolution, has affected China. Comrade Liang Heng has been kind enough to give me an advanced copy of his memoir. This manuscript gives a closer look into how his family was affected throughout the Mao years and serves as a general example of typical experience. 

The Cultural Revolution aimed to reduce the gap between life in the countryside and in urban areas as well as creating revolutionary successors from the urban youth. However, it was ambiguous whether the goal of this Cultural Revolution was achieved. There are a few points to keep in mind from Liang Hengs experience to completely understand the process of the Cultural Revolution. A situation that he faced was getting accused of being a May Sixteenth conspirator. To preface, the school had stopped classes for a special announcement about this counterrevolutionary movement. The school even put lock boxes around so that students could report people who they thought were conspirators. Liang Heng was reported as a counterrevolutionary and so they locked him in a room until he would confess. This lasted for days as he would be hit and discriminated against by the whole school for his ‘bad thought.’ The following quote is what Liangs’ thoughts were after he was told that he had one more time to confess before he would be sent to jail; “I realized that I could die. I could unscrew that lightbulb and put my hand there where the current flowed and I would be dead. I should never again be tormented by memories of Mother’s humiliated and accepting face as Father cursed her for betraying the Party’s faith in her.” (Liang, 206)  The thing that hurt him the most was that even his friends betrayed him because of the way the society thought about the Cultural Revolution. This situation created a distant relationship between people who were once close together. 

Liang had already lost his sisters to the countryside and both of his parents due to the political tension. The party terminated the family structure and the old Chinese traditions were slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past. The family and individual was virtually broken down completely and people turned to work as their identity. With this being said, it brought young workers together but in other circumstances it forced out the older population. Liang Hengs father was an example of this as he says “if I can’t work, I’m a useless man.” (Liang, 229) His father, who was rejected by the party earlier in his life, was forced to live in his past as he saw that he couldn’t make any contributions. As a result of his sickness, he had to retire from his work and the party forced him to move into a tiny room distant from the revolution. He would have to live the rest of his life full of emptiness and could not contribute to the revolution even though he wanted to.

The Cultural Revolution could be embodied in two slogans that Liang had stated in his memoir.  “The Farther from Home, the Nearer to Chairman Mao” and “The Poor and Lower-Middle Peasants Are Closer Relatives than Mother and Father” (Liang, 146). The mobilization of the educated urban people to the countryside was a huge part in contributing to the revolution as well as picking out the ‘counterrevolutionary’ ideas that people were demonstrating in everyday life. Pointing out other people’s mistakes was a big part in getting rid of the four olds and attempting to bring in the new traditions and culture to China.

Dear Tongzhimen,

I am saddened that my time to productively serve the Party as a journalist is coming to a close, but I recognize that it is time for the vigorous younger generation to take my place, and I know that they have been trained well. For my last assignment, I am incredibly grateful that I was able to read an advanced manuscript of Liang Heng’s forthcoming memoir. I feel as though the experiences of Liang Heng and his family members throughout the Cultural Revolution serve as an illuminating microcosm of the general national experience of the Cultural Revolution, specifically the way in which familial and personal relationships have been frayed, and sometimes even outright shattered. People’s fears of becoming the next targets of struggle meant that they had to pursue self-preservation over anything and everything else, including their bonds with other people.

There is one passage in particular from the memoir which I find particularly vital when it comes to our understanding of the past several years. A teenage Liang Heng, separated geographically from his mother and his sisters, and isolated socially from his father, began a new semester at school in the countryside. He stumbles upon a boarded up storeroom full of books published before the Cultural Revolution [Liang, 201]. He and his fellow classmates form a secret society of sorts around this discovery: “my fellow thieves and I held discussions on literature and even began to write poetry, meeting on the windy river banks but never feeling cold” [Liang, 202]. This seems to be a moment in which Liang Heng was able to forge a genuine community with others, but it is incredibly short lived. Liang Heng is soon accused of being a May Sixteenth Conspirator, and just like that, his new friends turn on him, as if the bond they’d shared had simply never existed.

Liang writes, “I think what hurt the most was the way my friends betrayed me. Every time Liu came in, he had new ‘evidence’ in his hand, reports tucked into the locked boxes by the people I had trusted most. The people I had defended in fights turned me in, the people with whom I had stolen food. My literary friends told of our book thefts and our poetry meetings; my homeroom teacher wrote about my ‘bad thought’” [Liang, 205].

This passage is heartbreaking, yet it is merely one instance of many within the memoir. Liang Heng’s father divorces his mother after she is labeled a Rightist, in a desperate attempt to preserve the safety and reputation of his children [Liang, 13]. When a critical eye is soon turned upon Liang Heng’s father himself, Liang Heng is ostracized from his school community, and his father is isolated from his former coworkers and colleagues, who he’d spent years working alongside [Liang, 59]. The most heartbreaking fact, however, is that these experiences of ostracization from both family members and friends were far from unique to Liang Heng’s family; I have spoken to many tongzhimen with strikingly similar experiences.

Throughout the many twists and turns of the Cultural Revolution, if people wanted to keep themselves safe, they needed to turn their backs harshly upon those who were criticized as being Capitalist Roaders or Soviet Revisionists or intellectuals or proponents of the Four Olds, even if they were best friends, spouses, or flesh and blood. A former landlord, Li Maoxiu, who went through immense physical torture during the Cultural Revolution, recounted to me his desperate attempts to protect his son, and how painful it was: “in China, fathers and sons traditionally have close ties, but now you had to end your relationship. It was really sad, but you just had to do it. After my son was struggled against for the first time, I claimed that our relationship had been broken off. Awful things would have happened to him if I hadn’t done that” [Williams, 1:17:30].

I also spoke with a woman who had been a student during the Cultural Revolution, and she told me a story which rattled me to my core. She explained, “In my class, there was a student whose grandfather had owned a big fabric store, so he was a capitalist. I heard that everyone was to go to their house to criticize him. I got there late, and by the time I had arrived, the capitalist had been beaten to death” [Williams, 1:21:55]. She went on to say, “students and probably Red Guards from the neighborhood… got involved. All those people beat him to death, including his own granddaughter, my classmate” [Williams, 1:22:35]. These harrowing stories illustrate the fact that the Cultural Revolution turned friend against friend, spouse against spouse, brother against brother, and even parent against child. I find the dissolution of familial and communal bonds to be one of the most important takeaways from the Cultural Revolution, and one of the nation’s core focuses as we move forward must be to restore trust in the institutions of the family and the local community.

I cannot express how thankful I am that I have maintained such a loyal readership throughout these past several decades. I hope that we can now all come together to mend the divisions which have arisen within our great Chinese society, and come back stronger than ever before. Now that the Gang of Four has been arrested, I have faith that we will be able to accomplish this.

Farewell, Lei Ju

Dear fellow comrades,

Given the changing circumstances, I understand the importance of engaging in self-reflection. As a reporter, it is my duty to offer an accurate viewpoint on the subjects I investigate, not only for my own benefit but also for the individuals who peruse my published writings. I acknowledge that my previous evaluation of the land reform was founded on a narrow comprehension. Upon contemplation of my critique, I now realize that I failed to fully grasp the obstacles China was confronting during that period. A considerable portion of the article was dedicated to expressing apprehensions regarding violence and the fragmentation of the community.

However, In the words of great Chairman Mao, “A revolution is not a dinner party … A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.” I failed to realize that communities can be repaired and that evil needed to be removed from society before we could move forward together toward a communist future. 

Looking back, I realize that my initial concerns were exaggerated, and my analysis did not fully appreciate the overarching goals of the land reform. The reform aimed to address inequality and poverty faced by our poor rural peasant backbone. The redistribution of land proved to empower these millions of poor peasants and was the first step of the socialization of agriculture where “social conditions are being created for a tremendous expansion of … agricultural production.” Although I briefly touched upon the success of land redistribution it wasn’t given the attention it deserved. I now have a more complete understanding. By not delving into the positive aspects and long-term advantages of land reform I failed to provide a comprehensive understanding to my readers and overlooked essential elements in the broader narrative of our development. 

I understand the importance of growing as a writer and embracing a nuanced approach in my work. As a journalist, it is essential that I admit when I make a mistake. Moving ahead I must prioritize providing in-depth and thoughtful analyses that take into account the aspects of the topics I cover. In hindsight, I realize that my previous critique of land reform was narrow-minded. Gaining an understanding of the complex matters involved I now understand the importance of conscious self-reflection. Moving forward I aspire to approach my future work with insight and a sincere dedication, providing my readers with an informed perspective.

 Sincerely, 

Hu Fan

Dearest tonghzimen,

 

I write today in reflection of my role as a reporter during these glorious past years. When I entered this position, though I knew that our nation was changing, nothing could have prepared me for the movements ahead. Looking back now, I am so grateful to have been able to experience the vital energy of Yenan, the success of Mao and the Chinese Communist Party against the Japanese devils and the indulgent Nationalists, and see so many amazing feats of the party take place such as land reform and the Great Leap Forward.

I also come to you today, penitent, as in reviewing my past publications, I realized in horror that I had sometimes doubted the actions of the party. As reporters, we take the great responsibility of correctly documenting events and accounts while giving our readers hope in the revolution. However, I fear that I may have sown doubt in such great movements such as land reform.

Although my family has historically been peasants, my father found some success in industry and was able to buy more land when I was young. Though I welcomed the liberation of land reform, I was concerned that men like him would be impacted. I now realize the error of my ways, As our Chairman has said, “In class society everyone lives as a member of a particular class, and every kind of thinking, without exception, is stamped with the brand of a class” (LRB, Ch.2). Since my terrible revelation, I have been working to radically reform my thought. I think of every fear, every predisposition of mine, denounce those that stem from my class background, and seek Mao’s guidance from the “Little Red Book” to know how I should think. 

I confess that although I criticized the actions of corrupt cadres, I never criticized Mao. The reality is that ten percent of every group consists of rightists, and I have long been wary of those who undermine party action or seek to enrich themselves through it rather than supporting  the people. I too have been harboring concerns about some within our midst, who have been all too quick to doubt Mao for any little thing that may go wrong. How could we doubt our great Chairman? Yet some have not listened to my warnings. As Mao as said, we must “learn from past mistakes to avoid future ones” and “cure the sickness to save the patient” (LRB, Ch. 27).

My comrades, I come to you today to right my wrongs and offer my apologies for not following the teachings of our great Chairman Mao to the best of my ability. It is my job as a reporter to give factual and credible information that supports the health of our Party and that of China. However, at times, I have not done my great duty and have instead disparaged the campaigns while only thinking of myself and my family. Mao himself has said, “Taught by mistakes and setbacks, we…become wiser and handle our affairs better. It is hard for any political party or person to avoid mistakes, but we should make as few as possible. Once a mistake is made, we should correct it, and the more quickly and thoroughly the better. [LBR 126]. Now is my time to correct my mistakes. 

It is sad to say I have not been a founding believer of the Chinese Communist Party. In 1950, I doubted Marxist teachings and the goals of the Communist Party. Although I was present in Yenan, I was simply reporting rather than spreading the words of Mao in the party’s time of need against the Japanese imperialists and the Nationalist Party. Furthermore, I was firm in my criticism of the Agrarian Reform Acts of 1950 and did not agree with the mass-line teachings. Mao has repeated time and time that “The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.” [LBR 62]. However, I saw the sexual violence and corruption while I was on village work teams and started to doubt the campaigns, fearing the same happening to my family and my village. I was wrong to think these actions of a few reflected the teachings and values of the many within the Party. I have since realized this mistake and dedicated my career to spreading the benefits of the CCP’s campaigns rather than sitting worrying about my well-being and that of my family. I understand not to “divorce myself from the masses” because the end goal will be the success of China through the teachings of the Communist Party [LBR 84].    

 

  

Comrades! I would be remiss if I were to never acknowledge my own failings, both large and small, my long tenure as a journalist has seen me crawl through the muck and back. Although I often attempted to keep my integrity as a journalist, and as a socialist, my failures have mounted over the years to a point where I wonder what impact I have left on this world. Now provably false, although I may no longer hold these beliefs, did I lead any of you readers down a path contrary to what we have fought for? Have I myself been at least a contributor to a fall of productivity and faith in the party? I would like to take this time to dissect some of my wrongdoings, and what I now believe are the true answers.

I’d like to discuss my most recent coverage at the backend of the Great Famine, during the meet of seven thousand. I placed far too much faith in the likes of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, both of whom have time and time again espoused and enacted policies contrary to the idea of a Socialist China, working for the benefit of the Chinese people. We now know that Mao had not stepped aside for who he saw as good men, no, he was pushed out by these revisionists! Thinking of the progress lost by this grabbag for power by those more interested in their own advancement, it’s horrifying. Chairman Ma has previously discussed the consequences of allowing counter-revolutionaries to have their way, even to say their piece:

 

“If, in the absence of these movements the…. counter-revolutionaries bad elements and monsters were allowed to crawl out while our cadres were to shut their eyes to all this and in many cases fail even to differentiate between the enemy and ourselves but were to collaborate with the enemy and were corrupted, divided and demoralized by him, if our cadres were thus pulled out or the enemy was able to sneak in, and if many of our workers, peasants, and intellectuals were left defenseless against both the soft and the hard tactics of the enemy, then it would not take long, perhaps only several years or a decade, or several decades at most, before a counter-revolutionary restoration on a national scale inevitably occurred, the Marxist-Leninist party would undoubtedly become a revisionist party or a fascist party, and the hole of China would change its color.” (LRB 25-26)

 

My other major failing, as I have seen it, is from long ago, back during the Jiangxi Soviet, when I tempered my view of the Chairman heavily. I discussed what I viewed to be “authoritarian tendencies” the words coming from a man jealous of the prowess he saw before him no doubt. Mao has proved this claim to be wrong time and time again, showing that he forwards the movement of the people first and foremost, and will refuse to rest even when the going gets tough. A true leader, who we all aspire to be, he no doubt has power over many people. But would I say he uses that power to control the lives of the many for some power fantasy? Absolutely not! 

Just as it is important to listen to the wise words of the party is just as important to check your thoughts and actions, both recent and in the past. Have you evolved past any previous misgivings? If you worked actively against the interests of the Chinese people have you worked towards rectifying that mistake, whether it be through labor or acknowledgment to your peers, working forward with renewed vigor? It is important we check in on one another, correcting mistakes when possible and working together towards the Chairman’s vision of our future, a bright future in a socialist paradise. Work and hardship are the only way to accomplish our goals, are you willing to commit fully, and without any reservation to the cause?