On the Ground in China

Hello Comrades,

I hope, as always, you are staying safe and being a loyal revolutionary. Over the past decades, I fear I have not been the perfect Chinese citizen, and I fear Chairman Mao would be disappointed in me. As some of you may not know, I have been blessed with a child who is in perfect health. Whenever he gets out of line and misbehaves, I tell him how “Chairman Mao would be disappointed” in him. Just the other night, when he was misbehaving, I told him how Mao would be disappointed in him, and then it dawned on me: would Chairman Mao be disappointed in me? It didn’t take long before I realized that Mao would, in fact, be disappointed in me using my position as a journalist to discuss matters that I had no business discussing. Comrades, the realization that my beloved Mao would be disappointed in me hit me like a truck and shocked me to my core. In my last blog post, I may have inadvertently hinted that I believed policies made by Chairman Mao were the cause of the great famine we experienced rather than the unforeseen natural disasters, which were the actual cause of the death and despair we experienced. During the years of famine, I fear that I was angry that my family in the countryside was starving, and I let this anger cloud my judgment. Since I have realized my wrongdoings, I have gone back and reread the Little Red Book over and over again. When Mao said, “If we have shortcomings, we are not afraid to have them pointed out and criticized because we serve the people” (LRB 122), I felt he was speaking directly to me. Ignoring my mistake would be wrong, and through the words of Mao, I have found that I must realign myself with the savior of our nation, Chairman Mao, through further studying of his work as well as searching for those in our country who are counterrevolutionary. Through studying Mao, I feel a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and I can serve my party in a new way: weeding out those who don’t honestly believe in everything Chairman Mao has done for us.

Until next time, 

Zeng Yongzheng

Before we commence with this struggle session, I want to state that no one is perfect, and myself and the rest of my comrades are able to change for the better. Ever since the campaign of “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom” a decade back in 1956-57, thought reform was at the center of our desires. Liang Hang, the son to his famously castigated mother, reminds us that this, “led the Communist Party to..launch a mass movement to suppress “rightists” inside and outside the Party in 1957-58.”  I stand here today, to affirm my allegiance to the communist party, allegiance to reforming my thoughts and beliefs, and  allegiance to helping the party shine the spotlight on any rightist and expose them for their true bourgeoisie nature. 

I have made mistakes like many of us have, but I have owned up to them, and commit to internal thought reform. I have written blogs critiquing land reform, life in Yennan, and the three years of great disasters. Specifically, in my Second Blog Post, I ignorantly wrote: “there is no room for critique in Yennan, and the peoples needs wont be prioritized.” For this damming mistake, I have been enrolled in reeducation school, and would do no such thing again. After being reeducated, I truly take accountability for my actions and equally understand it is my duty to expose any of my comrades who I suspect could benefit from reeducation immediately. 

After being reeducated, I am one of most loyal individuals in our commune, but I feel my allegiance to the party has unfortunately not spread contagiously, with many of my comrades seeming like rightists. For example, Cui Shuli, commented on my recent blog post, writing: “I can not agree with you in fear of being labeled a Rightist; however, the problems you lay out are indeed destroying our nation.” From this comment alone, Cui Shuli is sure deserving of investigation for being a rightist for being untrustworthy. Mao An Li should also be guilty as a rightist. For he has had the audacity to criticized our leader and chairman for causing the famine, instead of appropriately admitting and blaming the fault on great natural disasters. He wrote: “The Chairman’s efforts have failed miserably, resulting in one of the largest famines in history.” Another of my comrades, Ran Ang-Rui must be investigated immediately. In his biography, he admitted he was skeptical of the Revolution, and pessimistic of its sure potential, writing: “The tension in the city is palpable and I’m concerned that this talk of revolution will cause more problems than it will solve for my country.” Lastly, Liu Rui Bao bourgeoisie family history should merit immediate reeducation. In his biography he wrote, “My background largely consists of traders…taking advantage of increasing trade…my family [would]…profit through the labor of others…I stand as a consequence of my origins.” Although he is accepting of his past, that is far from enough action, and far from the actions of a true communist. Overall, I have been reeducated and reformed myself, and it is due time we all shift our attention and work to castigate to my comrades who I and other suspect of being rightists!

Thank you for following my blog for the last few decades and trusting me to provide you with the unadulterated truth of the glory of the Chinese Communist Party as well as our fearless leader, Chairman Mao. With the guiding lights of Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought, I thought myself immune to the pestilence of capitalist greed. Regrettably, I was wrong, and my apparent lack of revolutionary fervor has left me unknowingly susceptible to the ills of society that I was supposed to be warning and fighting against. 

Rather than “immerse (myself) among [the masses],” I instead mistakenly believed myself to be some form of authority and selfishly clung to my position as a reporter (LRB 56). Despite being born a peasant, I left my people behind for school in Beijing when it came to rebuilding China in the hopes of bettering only myself. I have spent my time writing, as I foolishly thought this would be more beneficial to society than working hard in the field or a factory to feed the country and make it prosper. I have inadvertently led the masses astray with my misleading mentions of supposed flaws in the Party, misconceptions borne from my own misunderstanding and miseducation rather than the actual actions of the CCP. I did not allow myself to “learn from [the masses]” and thought myself worthy of guiding them, relying on my own flawed reason rather than the genius theories of our Chairman and his Party (LRB 57). 

I published divisive ideas about the position of women and portrayed the Party in a sexist manner, a title which their egalitarian legislation and campaigns have proven they do not deserve. I naïvely criticized the Cause’s use of violence, as if there was any other acceptable response to the years of oppression our people have faced and would have continued to face if the CCP did not carry out an “armed struggle” (LRB 28). Any perpetuation of doubt regarding the capabilities of Mao and the Party was completely unintentional, but this ignorance is no excuse when the path to liberation and enlightenment was made so easily accessible to me through the many educational campaigns carried out by the CCP.

My past behavior is inexcusable, but I hope I will be given the chance to prove myself loyal to the great Communist Cause and do my part in spreading the revolution across the world so that all can be as liberated and advanced as China under Mao and the Party.

Dear Tongzhimen,

All that I have ever wanted was to see the people of the great nation of China thrive. I have dedicated every waking hour for the past several decades–as a young college student who took on this job as a reporter to immerse myself in revolutionary ideas and practice, as a migrant to Yenan, and as a member of a work team in the land reform campaign–to the maintenance of the revolutionary cause. As dedicated as I have always been, I must admit that despite my earnestness, there have been times when I have unwittingly begun to stray towards the Capitalist Road. When I witnessed firsthand some of the hardships that people have faced, including women being subjected to continual patriarchal oppression, middle peasants being mislabeled as landlords and struggled against during land reform, and villagers facing hunger and disease during the three years of natural disasters, my natural impulse was, of course, to look for reasons why things had gone astray. I did this out of a deep love for the people of China. However, I have since realized, after reading my copy of Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong until its pages have become frayed and its margins are filled up with my notes just as Lei Fang does, that some of my reporting may have misattributed fault or blame to certain Party policies themselves. This is the gravest of errors, and I will spend the rest of my life repenting now that I have learned.

The Chinese Communist Party provides the answer to every last one of China’s woes. As Mao writes, “Without the efforts of the Chinese Communist Party, without the Chinese Communists as the mainstay of the Chinese people, China can never achieve independence and liberation, or industrialization and the modernization of her agriculture” [Mao, 10]. The hardships that some people have faced are all in service of the greater good: “Wherever there is struggle there is sacrifice, and death is a common occurrence. But we have the interests of the people and the sufferings of the great majority at heart, and when we die for the people it is a worthy death” [Mao, 82]. During my reporting on land reform, I noticed that some local conditions were not conducive to the Party’s grand narrative of struggle–not all villages had evil, bloodsucking tyrant, large landlords, for instance. I thought this was a weakness, but Mao explains in his writings that the whole of the nation must always be put first, “if the proposal is not feasible for the part but is feasible in the light of the situation as a whole, again the part must give way to the whole. This is what is meant by considering the situation as a whole” [Mao, 110]. I have let myself forget that “a revolution is not a dinner party,” let myself get wrapped up in Soviet Revisionism and the Capitalist Road [Mao, 14]. I am not afraid to acknowledge the mistakes that I have made, and I am dedicated to change. Let us move forth with the great revolution, and Long Live Chairman Mao!

Sincerely, Lei Ju

Comrade reporters, as your editor, I have a great responsibility to determine what developments you are dispatched to investigate. I was the person who hired each and every one of you, placing great value on the geographical and class diversity that you represent.  I guide the content and the direction of our newspaper, On the Ground in China, and I am deeply proud of how that publication has provided in-depth, in-person testimony from people all over China.  But I have asked you here today to confess that I am guilty of crimes against you, crimes that may have led your thoughts and words perilously close to the Capitalist Road or back to the values of our pre-revolutionary feudal past.

Your trust in me has been so complete that you may not have even noticed that my egregious errors began when you were all still young, inexperienced reporters. As our beloved Chairman Mao has written, “The young people are the most active and vital force in society.  They are the most eager to learn and the least conservative in their thinking…” (LRB, 290). He also rightly says that “quite a number of young people are unable to see the contrast between the old China and the new,” (LRB, 289) but how could you do that if the adults around you, especially your editor, set a bad example?

I thought that by giving you a choice of assignments that explored both the positive and negative aspects of various campaigns and policies of the Chinese Communist Party that I was ensuring neutrality and objectivity in our publication.  Neutrality and objectivity?!  How can anyone be neutral when it comes to the policies of the CCP and to the ongoing struggle against Soviet Revisionism and the Capitalist Road??  As far back as Chairman Mao’s talks at the Yan’an Conference on Literature and Art in 1942, the Chairman urged all writers to become part of his “cultural army” (Cheek, 113).  I know that you have all answered his call to go out among the workers, peasants, and soldiers to observe and try to understand their valuable experiences, but because of my direction, some of you have neglected to use your work to become part of the revolutionary machinery, to act, in Mao’s precious words, “as a powerful weapon in uniting and educating the people…[to] help the people achieve solidarity in their struggle against the enemy” (LRB, 301).  Indeed, some of you have deliberately sown doubt in their minds. I am thinking about those of you who are the spawn of landlords or Rightists, or who have even questioned the Party’s policies instead of blaming reactionary local cadres.  You know who you are.

You undoubtedly are wondering how on earth I could have done such a thing.  Believe me, I have spent countless days trying to answer that question, but truly, there is no adequate answer. When I realized the full depth of my transgression, I followed Lei Feng’s example and took out my copy of Mao’s Selected Works and my treasured little red book of Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, and read deep into the night.  Once again, I realized that my position as your editor brings with it the heaviest of responsibilities, and I hope that you will support me as I work to reform my thoughts. As Chairman Mao has written, “If we have shortcomings, we are not afraid to have them pointed out and criticized, because we serve the people!”  I am not afraid and I WILL learn from my mistakes, and guide all of you to do the same.  Our newspaper will be in the vanguard of Chairman Mao’s cultural army!  Long Live Chairman Mao!!

My Friends, since I have last written a great many calamities have befallen our nation. The promise of collectivization which promised so much has been struck with a run of such poor luck as has not been seen in this country since the era following the collapse of the Qing. These are evil days. A few years ago, the Party, headed by Chairman Mao, began pushing for the rapid and total collectivization of the Agricultural sector and for the revolution of techniques vital to raising the output of our farms and our industry. I am no longer of an age where I can easily go out into the countryside to see for myself the progress being made in these endeavors, but I have asked my son to go in my stead; the things he has told me I do not find heartening. I must preface my following statements by saying that I know that collectivization is successful in other parts of the country, I have seen for myself the success of the new methods and measures. I have seen the trucks bring grain in from the country, place it into the large silos before moving it to trains bound for the Soviet Union or beyond. My son, however, has told me that the villages he has visited are racked with famine and drought or else flooding, and everywhere the stench of starvation and disease. He told me of an Incident where he happened upon a pack of creatures, he at first believed to be wild dogs scrounging in the ditch on the side of the road, upon further investigation he found them to be children, collecting the grasses and wildflowers they could. When he spoke to them, they told him they came from an orphanage in the nearby village and that they had snuck out to find something to supplement the small grain ration they were allotted. In another village, he encountered a family which was so desperate that when he shared a loaf of bread, he had been carrying for the road they attempted to offer him one of their children in compensation. The family had been on the road for some weeks following the total collapse of their harvest, trying to reach the place where the trucks had taken their food but were now too weak to continue. I am an old man. I remember such times when people placed great stock in the Mandate of Heaven. That certain regions of this country have failed so drastically in meeting the projections and promises of the collectivization that has seemed so successful across the board, perhaps there is some truth to the old superstitions.  Perhaps those local leaders that have clearly so poorly implemented the practices and policies of the Party have brought down the wrath of the heavens on the regions under their control. If this country is ever going to have the universal growth in wealth that has been shown to be possible, then we must ensure that the lowest levels of the government are loyal to the revolution and to the will of the people. We must apply more pressure on them to better emulate the Chairman and his confidants in being a guiding light, a beacon around which the people can rally rather than stealing grain and terrorizing the people.

 

Comrades, I expect we shall hear in the future of atrocities being committed by the cadres in the countryside which have lost sight of the revolution, but we must not allow these naysayers and traitors to the revolution dissuade us from our ultimate goals. Be well, I shall write more when I have the time.

Dear Tongzhimen, 

Once again, my correspondence is infrequent, but take it as a sign of the prosperity of the People’s Republic of China and the Party! The last you heard from me, I moved back to my beloved city of Beijing, where I started writing all those years ago. It is almost unbelievable to imagine the immense change our great nation has gone through in the past thirty years. Of course, anyone can see that the last three years have been hard, for some more than others. I have immense faith in the Party, especially Chairman Mao, and their efforts to get everything back on track! However, society will forever be changed if my observations in the countryside are accurate. 

I truly believe the worst is behind us. Unfortunately, the combination of natural disasters and Mao’s great campaigns, such as collectivization, the Four Pests, and the mass steel melting movements in the countryside, have had detrimental effects on the health and wellness of our country and people. Until 1959, I had no idea anything was wrong until millions of people rushed into Beijing looking for food. This caused me immense worry. As you know, my family is located in the countryside in Anyang. I was eager to return home and investigate other areas to see why this mass exodus was occurring. What I found in 1959 was horrific. All around me, there were almost too many problems to report on in my village, and others I passed through on my way back to Beijing to write this. 

First, I noticed the lack of housing and basic necessities. In 1958, my village, like many others, collectivized all private property, and communal housing was developed. However, many were left homeless and left to survive in the elements if they were not fit for agricultural production in the eyes of the greedy cadres who do not reflect the values of our beloved Party. When I arrived, I learned my elderly father was cast out of the village commune in 1958 by the cadres due to his inability to work. There was no reason to do this because I have been told the Henan province is now completely infertile and unworkable due to over-irrigation. After visiting other villages, I heard many of the same cruel and tragic tales. Furthermore, many families lack clothing, blankets, and other essentials. I have witnessed women working fields with no tops and orphans running around entirely naked. Much of the melted steel that these people donated for the backyard steel furnace campaign has been rendered useless. Just years earlier, I was teaching these same cadres and communes how to implement policies that have so deeply strained the countryside. The Great Leap Forward did not aim to cause these issues, and I believe our great Chairman Mao had no knowledge that these greedy cadres and a lack of revolutionary spirit would convolute his policies. Little did I know that homelessness was the least pressing problem I would soon find.

I quickly came to understand why so many peasants were rushing into urban areas, a total lack of food, and utter inhumanity. Unfortunately, it seems repeated years of bad weather and the quick transitions to CCP collectivization campaigns have rendered the countryside with barely enough grain to feed themselves, let alone export it to the cities and debt-collecting countries such as the USSR. This is not because Mao is ignoring their plight. I have visited numerous towns in which the cadres over-report their grain production to placate the leaders with false numbers that leave their village with no leftover grain and even more problems. In every village I went to, there were starved bodies piling up, some even being eaten for food or dug up and boiled for ineffective fertilizer. The makeup of our nation will forever be changed as children, and the elderly have become the most likely to die in these horrible times. Besides the constant visage of death, there is a health crisis among the living. In the countryside and in the cities, the healthcare system has collapsed. People are suffering en masse from edema, babies are developing rickets, and women have a multitude of gynecological problems, including infertility! My sister-in-law can no longer produce milk for her 2-week-old baby. These are dire times indeed.

Fortunately, the Party seems to be making moves towards recovery after these three years of struggle. No thanks are needed to our former ally, the USSR, who have shown they would rather exacerbate our plight than help us in our time of need. We are incredibly fortunate to have such thoughtful leadership, and it is exciting to see we will soon be able to resume the work we had started all those years ago in Yenan. Although our nation will not be as it was before due to immense population loss, economic decline, and agricultural problems, I am sure we will come back stronger from these Three Hard Years. 

To Future Prosperity,

Cui Shuli

Hello tongzhimen, 

 

I write to you again at a difficult time. After returning to headquarters in Beijing and following the mass collectivization in the countryside, those of us in the city began to notice shortages of rice and the like. It had not affected us so greatly that we could not go on, as I recall my father telling me of famines past in our hometown, but I was curious to investigate as the targets for grain this year had been high. Not hearing much awry in the papers, I took it upon myself to venture into the countryside and hear from those producing the crops.

It was a staggering scene in the Gaoguanzhai township. While locals said that the harvest had been prosperous in the warmer seasons, they did not have enough food to eat as the year went on. Even emergency rations were not enough, and the scene became desperate, with those sowing corn eating the kernels as they did so. Every family I spoke to had at least two members who had passed, almost always from starvation. Even those alive were unseemly, emaciated or with swollen legs. Women suffered greatly, as the nutrients that they needed to menstruate, carry children, and breastfeed were not available. This affected their children in turn, and many babies had bowed legs. Families suffered, and divorces grew out of necessity. 

While natural disasters and bad crops have commonly led to famines in our history, I believe there are more reasons for what we see now. The Soviets did not want the Chinese people to surpass them in strength and prosperity, so they gave misguided instructions on engineering and agriculture and asked for too much in return for grain and loans. If the Soviets truly supported China, they would have backed our struggle against the Nationalists, but they did not. Our farming techniques are superior to the Russian’s, and Lysenko’s lies led us to ruin, hindering seed growth. Lysenko’s false promises gave collectives great ambition, leading them to compete with higher and higher projections of grain output that never came.

 

Although Mao’s guidance is infallible, there are many in our nation who infect and undermine the Great Leap Forward: rightists. We know this as Mao said himself that ten percent of our citizens are rightists, and from what I have heard it seems that they are, in part, responsible for these famines. One man told me that a party official representing his village reported the grain output as higher than it really was in order to bolster his image in the party. This had devastating consequences for the rest in the village, however, as so much was taken from them that they had no food left for themselves. Hoarding by these rightist party members is also an issue, and a woman from another village that I visited confided in me that her local official had taken surplus grain for himself then acted as if others had done so. Families accused of hoarding were subsequently threatened and even beaten for grain that they did not have. This corruption must be rooted out.

 

Chairman Mao has shown great understanding as always and is dialing back the speed of The Great Leap Forward. He, the General Line, and the Rural People’s Communes have done no wrong, but are flexible as always to the changing conditions of the times and the needs of the people. China will surely achieve the grand targets in the future set out by the party.

In the wake of the Great Leap Forward, China finds itself at a critical juncture, facing the repercussions of ambitious policies gone awry. As a reporter stationed in Beijing, I aim to shed light on the most significant consequences of this period, offering insights into the challenges that lie ahead.

The Great Leap Forward’s goal for rapid industrialization led to a misallocation of resources, disrupting agricultural practices. Communes and backyard furnaces diverted labor and resources away from farming, causing a severe decline in agricultural output. This crisis has left millions hungry and struggling, with widespread food shortages amplifying the suffering of the rural people. Tragically, the consequences of the Great Leap Forward are written in the faces of the people. Famine has claimed the lives of millions, making this period one of the deadliest in human history. Families have been torn apart, communities decimated, and the nation’s social fabric strained to its limits. The toll on human life and dignity is immeasurable. I have seen sights that I thought I would never see. I have experienced people eating the deceased in order to get proper nourishment. I’ve seen babies left deformed from a lack of nourishment.  People are even eating dirt to fill their bellies with something. 

The social fabric of our society is unraveling. Once bound by shared traditions and mutual support, communities are now torn apart by hunger and desperation. The dispossessed roam the land, searching for sustenance and hope. Refugee camps spring up on the outskirts of cities, housing those who have been driven from their homes by famine. The sense of belonging that once defined our communities is replaced by a haunting emptiness.

Internationally, the repercussions of the Great Leap Forward have not gone unnoticed. China’s image as a rising power has been tarnished, and diplomatic challenges loom large. Rebuilding trust and credibility on the global stage will be daunting, requiring a careful and strategic approach to international relations.

Where decisions shaping the fate of millions are made, Mao’s advisors had reportedly advised a more cautious approach. They argued that the ambitious targets set for agricultural and industrial growth were unrealistic, warning that the hurried pace risked the stability of our society. These advisors, seasoned veterans of the revolution, saw the potential for disaster, urging Mao to consider the well-being of the people before racing ahead.

In conclusion, the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward paints a portrait of a nation at a crossroads. The mistakes made during this time were extreme, profoundly shaping China’s future. As the nation grapples with the aftermath, the Chinese people have a sense of resilience and determination. It is a moment of reckoning, a time for introspection, and a call for transformative change. 

-Miao Bing Rong

Dear Comrades, 

 

It has been a few years since I last wrote an entry informing you on what is happening in the countryside of China. At this point, land reform has been well on the way but hasn’t been the most successful. Mao continues to try to build the country and make the peasants better off. However, his next major move of making “The Great Leap” isn’t going exactly as planned. It may even seem that the country is falling off the path they might have seemed to be on. The concept of the Chinese communes were failing in multiple ways from the top down. This was a direct consequence of the attempt of having immediate progress with the campaigns Mao implemented.

 

The increase in production and labor that Mao envisioned was not a balanced or a realistic feat that the Chinese peasants could handle (Peng, 438). The communes were failing as it resulted in divorcing the peasants from reality and the masses would lose its support for the party. This not only created starvation but divided the party and their families.The local cadres and leaders were also corrupt in this way as they would lie about the crop production because of the pressure to repay the debt which made the peasants lose even more trust about the party. Collectivations were expected to increase their production and by having unrealistic goals, the campaign would fail miserably. With Mao’s Anti-rightist campaign, it was a crime to speak out against the party or to seek the truth about how the country was doing (Xun 30). These leaders would keep their collectivization so closed off that the people of a community would believe that they were going through a poor harvesting season, instead of seeing that the whole country was in the same situation. The party leaders who were higher up even ignored protests when people did speak out about their situations which is a huge issue if there was any chance of change in the foreseeable future. Later in 1959, the Anti-hiding campaign was launched in the countryside to prevent the peasants from concealing grain amounts, concealing labor, and withholding labor (Xun 37). Not only did it encourage cadres to promote violence in the countryside, but it turned peasants against peasants which created even more of an issue.

 

Mao, with the help of Soviet Union funding, had attempted to turn the country into an industrialized nation. There was a focus on the production of steel and cultivating more cotton instead of crops to feed the nation. Mao would also implement new farming methods which called to plough deeper and to plant more seeds close to each other. People would turn to eating mud and tree bark as substitutes for food (Xun, 5). To meet the government procurement quotas, rice and grain were taken right from the Chinese peasants to repay the debt, which created even more starvation within the nation. In terms of steel production, peasants were forced to break down useful tools which would inevitably be useless to the Chinese (Sue, 48 mins). This was a result of not having Deaths rising  and women were not able to even give birth or breastfeed because of the malnourishment of their bodies. The poverty throughout the whole country was so bad that families began to sell their children to support themselves to get through the next week (Xun 9). Mao’s campaign to eliminate the four pests also backfired on him. He believed that by eliminating sparrows, rats, mosquitoes, and flies would allow the harvest to flourish. However, by creating a propaganda to eliminate the sparrows, the insects ran rampant and would destroy much of the crops. 

With all the negative aspects of the Great Leap, we can still believe in Mao to create a better life for the average Chinese citizen. Within all revolutions, there are shortcomings that can be addressed and learned from. I believe once the party finds a way to be transparent about the situation, it will regain the trust of the peasants and it can build a strong community. The muddled vision of strategic goals and concrete measures have affected which decision the party has made to attempt to make the country better. Instead of trying to make big changes immediately, it would be a better option to strive for gradual growth that would make a more impactful change for the future.