THE AND THE WAR AGAINST FASCISM

BY YONGYI SONG

In this speech at a conference marking the six- I can tell you that in the months from July to December of tieth anniversary of the “victory over fascism” 1968, around 200,000 people were killed under orders of China’s central government in Province alone! At that at the on September 24, time there were two factions in Guangxi: one faction, in oppo- an expert on the Cultural Revolution explains sition to the provincial leadership headed by the provincial why China needs to face up to its crimes Party secretary Wei Guoqing, was called the 411 Group; the other was a conservative faction supporting Wei referred to as against its own people, especially as it the Lianzhi.The opposition group was unarmed, but had man- demands reparation for war crimes by Japan. aged to steal some weapons to defend itself. Using this as a pre- text, with the permission of the central government,Wei Guoqing mobilized the armed forces of Guangxi for a massive Some of you may think it is strange that an expert on the Cul- six-month-long operation against the “armed bandits” of the tural Revolution is addressing this conference. But I think the 411 opposition group. topics are related, as I will illustrate with a story about myself. There are now two official reports referring to this particu- In 2003, some Japanese universities invited me to speak on lar massacre: one is in a book called A Timeline of Major Events of the the Cultural Revolution.The topic was, “The Forgotten Mas- Cultural Revolution in Guangxi,1 which is an “internal publication” sacres of the Cultural Revolution.”When I spoke on this topic that has been made publicly available. There is also a “top at Tokyo University’s History Institute, several Japanese profes- secret” edition of this report, which has not been made public. sors asked the same question: “You Chinese never give up A few years ago one of the writers involved in compiling this demanding accountability for the Nanjing Massacre, in which top-secret edition brought it out of China.2 The secret version you say 300,000 people were killed—and Japanese scholars of the report reveals that in this six-month period, the military believe this number is exaggerated.Then why do your govern- and the Lianzhi faction wiped out the “class enemies” of the ment and the people of China to this day refuse to acknowl- 411 faction, a total of nearly 200,000 people.This is a very edge the massacres that took place during the Cultural reliable figure. Revolution, and even conceal this part of history? You yourself Many of you are no doubt familiar with the book written were imprisoned for half a year in 1999 on charges of ‘stealing by Zheng Yi, Scarlet Memorial,3 in which he recounts instances of state secrets’ when you went to China and collected some Red cannibalism during the Cultural Revolution in Guangxi.This Guard newspapers on this topic.” occurred against the backdrop of this massacre.The “cannibal- When I heard this question, I felt deeply humiliated, ism” consisted of slaughtering “class enemies” such as those because if a country,a government, doesn’t have even the min- labeled landlords, rich peasants, oppositionists, bad elements imum of courage required to reexamine and acknowledge this and rightists, along with their families, including newborn dark portion of its own history,then how can you have the gall babies and elderly people, and then consuming their flesh to to condemn the crimes of another country? demonstrate commitment to “revolution.”At present there are The Chinese government and Japanese scholars remain in records of some 2,000 to 3,000 named individuals who were disagreement over the number of victims of the Nanjing Mas- cannibalized in this way. sacre.The Chinese government says more than 300,000 Of course there was a similar phenomenon of Japanese sol- people, while the Japanese say it wasn’t anywhere near that diers committing brutal acts of cannibalism during the Sino- many.Now,let’s say for the sake of argument that the number Japanese war, but these were exceptional cases. I would like to established in the Tokyo War Crimes Trial in 1946–48, emphasize a simple fact: in the one case we have a foreign 200,000—or at least 200,000—conforms to international nationality carrying out crimes under conditions of war; in the standards. How does the killing of 200,000 people fit into the other we have the “People’s Liberation Army” and uniformed framework of the Cultural Revolution? militia killing and eating their own people. This isthefigure openly acknowledged inthebook personnelweremilitary Party membersasamatter ofcourse. mainly asaresult ofthefact that militiaand missed asaresult, andsome47,000Party memberswere dis- est inGuangxi, itwas found that theincidenceofslaughterwas great- 1980s, tural Revolution andtheSino-Japanese War are related. andisalsowhy Isay theCul- ismywords.This personalfeeling, ispathetic Ifeel beyond acountry that such domestic evil, they even gosofar astodemonstrate coy approval oftheir andcondemningtheforeign andifwhileattacking evil home, that iseven more tangible andactually located withintheirown andcondemnoneevilattack andcompletely ignore another only Butifthe did was thugs” absolutely“patriotic wrong. I aminnoway excusingJapan inthiscase—what theJapanese canitever hopetoresolve themassacre issue? thugs,” “patriotic orrather ducing venom-spewing hyper-nationalistic youth, andiscapableits own history, only ofaccusingothersandpro- isincapable ofsquarely facingin uptoadarkperiod reflection, oragovernmentcountry themostbasiccapacity lacks for self- ifa jing Massacre andtheGuangxiMassacre.We shouldask: ble that theactualnumber higher. was much tion in of acaseselectedfor ispart publica- which here, story one true Iwillrecount occupying theSino-Japanese forces during war. national secret ofChineseCommunist collaboration withthe strange setofcircumstancesconspired toreveal aclosely-held a theCulturalRevolution, during In thecourseofuprisings The secretofCCPcollaborationwiththeJapanese )Comrade ZengShan’s activitieswere underorders ofthe 2) ofComradeZengShan canbecriticized, Whiletheerrors 1) ment documentwithfour directives: and inhisown handheimmediately issuedacentralgovern- Zhouknew thiswas atopsecret matter oftheParty,for hishelp. ZengShantelephonedZhouEnlaiandasked aresult, sions.As ses- subjectinghimtomassstruggle labeled ZengShanatraitor, theoppositionfaction revealed thiscaseand September 1967, in theCulturalRevolution, During andnottheCCP. forces only, talks was toconvince theJapanese tofighttheKuomintang and Nanjingfor talkswiththeJapanese.The mainfocus ofthe JiangsuProvincein northern that involved goingtoShanghai ing theSino-Japanese War hetookonaverymission important Dur- nist Party’s affairs topspiesandheadofitsinternal bureau. andthat hewas oneoftheChineseCommu- named ZengShan, Major Events oftheCultural Revolution inGuangxi 4) The use of physical torment in a mass struggle session is Theuseofphysical inamassstruggle torment 4) Students from outsideare notallowed tointerfere inmat- 3) It iscommonknowledge that ZengQinghong’s ofParty rectification the period andpurgesDuring inthe At thispointwe between canmake acomparison theNan- ately; affairsters oftheinternal bureau andmust leave immedi- interfere; andtheoppositionfaction shouldnot central government, government; byhandling ofthematter shouldbedetermined thecentral The ChineseCultural Revolution CD-ROM Database anditisquitepossi- , . 4 5 father was A Timeline of A Timeline could even besaidtomore dangerous thanfascism. communism ofthethreat Interms itpresents, fascist elements. and communism itselfhasmany fascism inthecenteraswell, communism at oneextreme andcapitalism at theother.There is orpose pletely andtheothercompletely wrong, right withonesidecom- books topresent theworld intwo extremes, Norcanwe allow ourtext- especially inthelongterm. China, theirlives theJapanese.sonnel whosacrificed fighting tural Revolution isfar greater thanthenumber per- ofmilitary that thenumber theCul- ofpeoplepersecutedtodeath during theSino-Japanesesoldiers whofell during War. Sowe cansee This compares withapproximately 1.7millionofficersand thatmillion peoplemetwithunnatural period. deaths during approximately 2.8 secret documentsthat have beenleaked, recording between 1,000and2,000casestodate. years, assembled thesecasesoneby one over thecourseofmany Shehas theearlyers during stages oftheCultural Revolution. individual interviews regarding theabuse andkillingofteach- Dr.Wang Youqin at theUniversity out ofChicago hascarried For example, ing toassemble statistics relating tothisquestion. undertaken thearduousandsometimesdangerous taskoftry- figure onhow many peoplelosttheirlivesthistime. during because theChinesegovernment has never publicly released a I was inJapan for my alsocausedmegreat shame, lectures.This Many Japanese studentsasked thissamequestionwhile period. ask mehow many peoplewere actuallythat killedduring Many withtheCulturalRevolution whoare concerned friends in theCulturalRevolution? How many peoplewere actuallykilled eandiprld”including and Americans of remained imperiled,” Taiwanese; that we must “liberate thetwo thirdsoftheworld that We allknow were inthat that period thoseofusborn taught Party engage inany orfascist activities? terrorist didthe Inparticular, the CulturalRevolution inthe1960s. specifically during munist Party engaged peacetime, induring The secondquestionI’d like toaddress isactivities theCom- of theChineseCommunistParty Fascist activities andterrorist lution andtheSino-Japanese War. wein which canseeaconnectionbetween theCulturalRevo- Sothisisanotherinstance and theoccupying Japanese forces. than thecollaboration between theChineseCommunist Party what was thestate secret that was beingprotected? None other recounted in ofthisis herescued ZengShan.All ment withitsfour points, andby issuingthat docu- document never went through Mao, Butthisparticular handled casesinthenameofMaoZedong. We cannotgetaway withfocusing only onfascists outsideof basedon According totheestimates ofoverseas scholars, have especially thoseoverseas, A number ofscholars, a oni 99 thesameyear asthe “Red Republic.” in1949, I was born huEliwsa xrml rdn esn andalways Zhou Enlaiwas anextremely person, prudent from now punishmentofany oncorporal kindisforbidden. wrong andcontravenes centralgovernment regulations; The Biography ofZengShan , 6 published inChina.And

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course we eventually came to realize that the people imperiled Khieu Samphan both went to China for training, as it hap- were actually ourselves.Another interesting aspect of the Cul- pened, during the Cultural Revolution.They were granted per- tural Revolution is that we young people were contaminated sonal audiences with , as well as his blessings, and virtually beyond redemption; back then I truly believed that received personal instruction from Zhang Cunqiao, a member there were black people literally starving to death on the streets of ’s . However, in this case “the stu- of America, waiting for us Chinese to donate some of our dent surpassed his teacher,” and the Cultural Revolution Pol monthly quota of grain to save their lives.When I think of it Pot and Khieu Samphan waged turned out to be even more now,it seems ridiculous! grotesque than that in China. I would like to take some time to describe terrorist activi- China’s Cultural Revolution was meant to be a “Great Leap ties within and outside of China during the Cultural Revolu- Forward” in the ideological and political sense, and to make tion under the direct orders and instigation of the CCP.First of Mao Zedong the Grand Poobah of the international commu- all there was the “strike, smash and burn” campaign that the nist movement. But the ambition of the Khmer Rouge was -based directed at foreign embassies in even greater; they wanted to collapse China’s dozens of move- 1967. Under the influence of a fanatical foreign affairs policy, ments and campaigns into one grand movement.We all know the Red Guards ransacked the Indian embassy on June 18, the the results: the international academic world is in general Burmese embassy on July 3 and the Indonesian embassy on agreement that at least one million people were killed in Cam- August 5, and on August 22 they actually burned the British bodia, including some 200,000 of the 410,000 ethnic Chinese Office to the ground.They not only burned the British Office, living there at the time, and all of the 20,000 ethnic Viet- but even submitted the British charge d’affaires, Donald Hop- namese. Here we can see how a terrorist movement originat- son, to a struggle session, and forced all of his staff to bow ing in Mao Zedong’s “Third Milestone”7 of before a photo of Mao Zedong and “beg his pardon.”This is was transformed into Pol Pot’s “Fourth Milestone.” analogous to the activity that took place in Iran during the According to recent articles based on research of CCP his- Islamic uprisings, when the U.S. Embassy was subjected to ter- tory,the CCP deployed at least 320,000 armed personnel to rorist attack.The August 23 edition of People’s Daily reports Vietnam during the Cultural Revolution, including army,spe- the incident as follows: cial forces, air force and engineer corps. I have spoken with the dissident Wei Jingsheng, who served in the army at that time, Red Guards of the nation’s and revolutionary masses and he says this number does not include people’s militia. totaling more than 10,000 people last night broke into the What does that figure mean in context? At that time the British Office for a mass rally.In front of the mission door entirety of U.S. military personnel deployed in Vietnam totaled they enumerated the crimes of the British Empire against 550,000. It could be said, in effect, that the Vietnam War China, and vented their indignation in violent measures involved an equal number of Chinese and American troops. But against the British Office. of course, this was all carried out under conditions of secrecy. We are also aware that the Communist Party of Burma (now What is this if not encouraging terrorism? Myanmar) also received all of its training in China.After estab- Some of our Hong Kong friends will also remember the lishing a local power base, the Burmese communists began “1967 riots,” which were initially approved by . It cultivating and selling opium. Back then young people such as was only when they ran out of control that Zhou came forward myself were really naïve. Some 2,000 educated youth from and said that things could not continue this way. Yunnan Province crossed the border to implement Mao It was during the 1967 riots that Chairman Mao’s portrait Zedong’s ideology of world revolution in Burma.At least was hung from Hong Kong’s Bank of China building, and the 1,000 of those young people died on the battleground. Some slogan “First ask for instructions, then report back” was used joined the Burmese guerilla forces as military base chiefs of to inspire Mao worship and instigate general strikes with the staff. Back at home, official files designate them as having aim of “liberating” Hong Kong. Later, when the Hong Kong “genuinely participated in revolution.” China also sent a large police and military took action, the communists used roadside number of military officers to serve as “military advisors” to bombs, a similar tactic to that used against American soldiers the Burmese communists, where they in fact often directed in Iraq today.It could be argued that the development of this military actions.These activities are detailed in My 15 Years Among kind of urban warfare among Islamic insurgents can be attrib- the Burmese Communists8 and other books by a Chinese woman, uted in part to the CCP.The tactic of exploding roadside bombs Yang Jianjun. targeting police and military personnel was used until an inci- As for Malaysia, the Malaysian Communists had a radio sta- dent in Hong Kong’s North Point district in which an eight- tion, “Voice of the Malaysian Revolution,” which was actually year-old girl and her seven-year-old brother were killed, at set up in Hunan Province. which point local opposition put an end to such tactics. I sometimes think how fortunate it is that this “export of revolution” and the Cultural Revolution died with Mao “Exporting revolution” during the Cultural Revolution Zedong. If he had really been “immortal” (wanshou wujiang), The Cultural Revolutionary practice of “exporting revolution” the situation could have become even worse; China would have is probably epitomized by the massacres carried out by the become like North Korea today,and the world would be that Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Khmer Rouge leaders Pol Pot and much the worse for it. fX’n ehmefwudb ae Justlike those “heroes of hehimselfwould besafe. of Xi’an, Mao biography by JungChang therecent For example, Mao’s was reach enormous. support. withMao’s originated inMyanmar, ation withMaoistguerillas strictly forbidden.Photo:APWideWorld Photos againsthumanrightsabusesby theChinesegovernment are but outatanti-Japanralliesin2004, turned Thousands ofprotesters cities. for destroyingXi’an inexchange hundreds of American Hewas allofChina’s prepared tosacrifice citieseastof fare. advocated engaging innuclear war- son ofParty elderZhuDe, thegrand- ZhuChenghu, notlongago, For instance, believe it. are quiteafew peopleinChinatoday whostillfervently who are aware isthat there thesadtruth ofthefacts ofhistory, combined withfascism. people was drowned inan insaneideologyofcommunism they beliberating? Butitshows how anentire generation of Ofcoursewe can laughat thisnow—who would onearth ica.” last stepofthe White Houseandliberate thepeopleof Amer- “letitbathe every and, White Houseandrecover RedSquare,” “Letblood stainthe as, songincludedlinessuch selves.The War.”Who were thosemartyrs? They were asour- peoplesuch “Offered ofthe totheMartyrs Third called, Worldat that time, Irecall asongthat was popularwiththe RedGuards then. back Latin America. was Guevara’s tosupport efforts tooverturn lawful regimes in withnoobligation for money repayment.The $60 million, andthat Maogave him vara metMaoZedonginthe1960s, Some of the problems lingering to this day, such asthesitu- Some oftheproblems tothisday, such lingering Ridiculous asthisallmay seemtopeople here in America It’s actually meanttous clearwhat revolution” “exporting 10 Zhu apparently believed that aslonghestayed west 9 reveals that Cuba’s CheGue- n eevd andwe were contaminated beyond redemption. and deceived, would have Becausewe hadbeenbrainwashed doneit.Why? we activities, Mao Zedonghadtoldustotake interrorist part if theCulturalRevolution, thenduring help but thinkthat back Ican’t Sometimesinamomentofself-reflection, actually is. notavictim. House asavictor, mately have hisphotograph taken onthestepsof White the Third World hebelieved that hewould ulti- years ago, War” of thousandssoldierswent to Vietnam tofight. andhundreds “Let’s themalesson,” teach Deng Xiaopingsaid, were always fighting something orother.We saw how casually whilecommunist andsocialistcountries engaged instruggle, reason was thatdecaying wasn’t andmoribund.The killing. In 1997 a French institutepublished In1997aFrench killing. theChineseCommunist Party hasalottoanswer for.world, allover the insurgents attempting to revolution” “export Whether we orguerilla are talkingabout Islamicterrorists philosophy was prevalent intheCulturalRevolution. also die” the “You dieandI Infact, as exemplified by suicidebombers. “You philosophy dieandIalsodie,” oflifeand theterrorist is, “You asemployed inclassstruggle; dieandIlive,” of life is, thecommunist philosophy ontheotherhand, and elections; okay, you’re okay,” inspiteoftheadversarial toneofpolitics Hesaidthewestern philosophy oflife isgenerally “I’m phies. Someone oncesaidsomethinginteresting about life philoso- andunprincipled isirrational The Communistleadership talism Communism warfare routinely any lacks clearrational basis. andhow that how closely related communism istowarfare, class we were reading Lenin’s that timeinourpolitical Iwas studying inShanghai.At 1979, war.Union andChinacamevery closetodeclaring other constantly since World in1969 theSoviet Back War II. have socialistcountries beenfightingeach the otherhand, war against On declaring country anothercapitalist country. ing war against orofacapitalist anotherwestern democracy, there hasbeennoinstanceofawestern democracydeclar- II, doesn’t it? Itkindofmakes you think, Taiwan. employed actionagainst tojustifythepossibilityofmilitary Similarbeautifulslogansare currently being nationalism. unification and Vietnam underthebannerofpatriotism, that war? started North soldiers.Who Vietnam invaded South lostmore than50,000 whiletheU.S. lost 1.5millionpeople, diers were engaged inthe Vietnam War, and Vietnam claimsit Millionsmore sol- him?StalinandMao. Sung.Who supported thatwere started war? KimIl deployed side.Who oneach bloodiest was theKorean millionsofsoldiers War, inwhich 65 million. The figure given for Chinawas rather conservative at around munist movement hadledtothedeaths of100millionpeople. This shouldindicate how dangerous Chineseterrorism Communism andfascism are bothrooted inwarfare and I remember that when Wei in Jingshengwasback arrested Another thingworth thinkingabout isthat since World War If we considerthewars after World oneofthe War II, . 12 Lenin saw asasignthat capitalism was , 11 hc siae htu ote19s theCom- estimated that uptothe1990s, which Imperialism,the HighestStage ofCapi- Imperialism,the The Black Bookof 13 It isclear

WHY THE PAST MATTERS 25 CHINA RIGHTS FORUM NO. 4, 2005

Why has the dangerous nature of communism verbal revolutionaries.The war they supposedly waged against been forgotten? the Japanese occupation 60 years ago was a typical example of After all this, we have to ask, why is the threat of communism that kind of verbal revolution. more easily overlooked in the west than the threat of fascism? For that reason, I believe that while we here today com- In 1997 a French writer published an article in an American memorate China’s victory over Japan and over fascism, we magazine entitled, “The Forgotten Communist Threat.”14 The must ensure that we never forget the even more formidable writer gave the following reasons for Communism being responsibility that people in our generation continue to face: ignored: 1) The fall of the Nazi regime in Germany led to full that is the existence of Chinese communism, its tendency disclosure of its crimes, giving the public a more comprehen- toward fascism, and the possibility that it will kindle a war. For sive understanding; 2) During World War II, western democra- that reason, we must do all in our power to eradicate despotic cies joined hands with the in an effort to more rule around the globe before there can be any hope of world quickly defeat the Nazis, and thereby became less inclined to peace. criticize communism; 3) The Jewish people have been assidu- ous and highly effective in exposing the crimes of the Nazis. Translated by Stacy Mosher The writer further observed that socialist countries such as the Soviet Union and China had been successful in drawing This article was originally posted on the Web site of The Epoch clear distinctions between socialism and capitalism.According Times: http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/510/13/n1084214. to this division, Nazi Germany,fascist Italy and Japan were all htm. considered capitalist countries, and as a result the also came to be considered a fascist country.I can personally NOTES attest that from childhood I was taught that the U.S. was a fas- 1. Guangxi wenge dashi nianbiao, Guangxi Renmin Chubanshe, 1990. cist country. 2. See Wu Ruoyu “Zhonggong jimi wenjian jilude wenge Guangxi In addition, communist autocracy destroyed civil society datusha,” Beijing Spring (August 2003). See also Song Yongyi, ed., Mas- and exterminated or neutralized the intellectual elite. Likewise sacres During the Cultural Revolution (Wenge datusa), Open Magazine Pub- in China, intellectuals do not like to lie, but they do so almost lishing (HK), 2002. unconsciously.That’s because everyone knows that in China 3. Cheng Yi, Hongse jilanbei, CTS Culture Enterprises,Taipei, 1993. Pub- there are two kinds of speech. One is what you say at home, lished in English as Scarlet Memorial:Tales of Cannibalism in Modern China (Westview Press, 1996). and the other is what you say at work or in public, and the two 4. Wenhua dageming sujuku, (Hong Kong Chinese University Press, 2002). are completely different. In public you will naturally lie, and 5. Zeng Qinghong has been vice president of the P.R.C. since 2003. that explains the public utterances of China’s intellectuals. 6. Su Duosou, Zeng Shan zhuan, Jiangxi Renmin Chubanshe, 2003 Finally,the writer noted that overlooking communism 7. Mao referred to Mao Zedong Thought as the third milestone in world helped intensify memories of Nazism, while recollections of revolution after and . Nazism were counterproductive to recalling the wrongs of 8. Yang Meihong (Yang Jianjun), Wo zai miangong shiwu nian, (Hong Kong: communism. I believe his analysis is very reasonable, and it Cosmos Publishing Ltd., 2001). goes back to the topic of today’s discussion.We need to clearly 9. Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao:The Unknown Story (New York:Alfred A. recognize that this still carries the threat of Knopf, October 2005) See the book review elsewhere in this issue of fascism, and that the combination of fascism and communism CRF. can easily engender the seeds of war. 10. Major General Zhu Chenghu is the dean of the Defense Affairs Institute for China’s National Defense University of the People’s Liberation Army.Speaking at an official briefing in July 2005, Zhu advocated the Only eradication of despotism can bring world peace use of nuclear weapons against the U.S.“if Americans draw their mis- In the history of Chinese Communism, it seems that there has siles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China’s been one leader and one military general expressing the great- territory” in a conflict over Taiwan.Although Zhu stressed that his est interest in nuclear war.The leader was Mao Zedong, and the comments reflected his personal views, he was the first high-ranking general is Zhu Chenghu. Mao once said, “Nuclear war is no Chinese military official in the past ten years to raise the possibility of big deal. It would only cause the deaths of 300 to 400 million using nuclear weapons against the U.S. See Joseph Kahn op cit. “Chi- people.” In his mind, these 300 to 400 million people were nese General Threatens Use of A-Bombs if U.S. Intrudes,” The New York only a statistic, not human beings of flesh and blood.This is Times, July 15, 2005. another example of the conviction among those who advocate 11. Stephane Courtois, ed., Le livre noir de Communisme, (Paris: Robert Laffont, nuclear war that they themselves will not be among the fatali- 1997); published in English as The Black Book of Communism:Crimes,Terror, Repression (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999). ties. Likewise, among those “angry young men” who are 12. Published in Chinese as Diguozhuyi shi zibenzhuyi de zui gao jieduan, Renmin always spouting off on the Web sites about fighting Taiwan, it Chubanshe, 1974. can be certain that they themselves don’t expect to do the 13. This was in a two-week border war in 1979 in which tens of thou- fighting.This is an interesting cultural phenomenon of Chinese sands of Chinese and Vietnamese soldiers died. communism; Chinese communists like to describe others as 14. See Hu Ping, “Gongchan zhuyi yu Zhongguo,” Beijing Spring, No. 5 and “verbal revolutionaries,” but in fact they themselves are classic No. 19, 1999.