Before the CCP was in power, Mao Zedong wrote, "We definitely do not apply a policy of benevolence to the reactionaries and towards the reactionary activities of the reactionary classes [7]." In other words, even before the CCP took over Beijing, it had already made up its mind to act tyrannically under the euphemism of the "People's Democratic Dictatorship." The following are a few examples.
Suppression of the Reactionaries and Land Reform
In March 1950, the CCP announced "Orders to Strictly Suppress Reactionary Elements," which is historically known as the movement of "suppression of the reactionaries."
Unlike all the emperors who granted amnesty to the entire country after they were crowned, the CCP started killing the minute it gained power. Mao Zedong said in a document, "There are still many places where people are intimidated and dare not kill the reactionaries openly in a large scale [8]." In February 1951, the central CCP said that except for Zhejiang province and southern Anhui province, "other areas which are not killing enough, especially in the large and mid-sized cities, should continue to arrest and kill a large number and should not stop too soon." Mao even recommended that "in rural areas, to kill the reactionaries, there should be over 1/1000 of the total population killed�in the cities, it should be less than 1/1000. [9]" The population of China at that time was approximately 600 million; this "royal order" from Mao would have caused at least 600,000 deaths. Nobody knows where this ratio of 1/1000 came from. Perhaps on a whim, Mao decided these 600,000 lives should be enough to lay the foundation for creating fear among the people, and thus ordered it to happen.
Whether those killed deserved to die was not the CCP's concern. "The People's Republic of China Regulations for Punishing the Reactionaries," announced in 1951 even said that those who "spread rumors" can be "immediately executed."
While the suppression of reactionaries was being hotly implemented, land reform was also taking place on a large scale. In fact, the CCP had already started land reform within its occupied areas in the late 1920s. On the surface, land reform appeared to advocate an ideal similar to that of the Heavenly Kingdom of Taiping [10], namely, all would have land to farm, but it was really just an excuse to kill. Tao Zhu, who ranked 4th in the CCP afterwards, had a slogan for land reform: "Every village bleeds, every household fights," indicating that in every village the landowners must die.
Land reform could have been achieved without killing. It could have been done in the same way as the Taiwanese government implemented its land reform by purchasing the property from the landowners. However, as the CCP originated in a group of thugs and lumpen proletariat, it only knew how to rob. Fearing it might suffer revenge after robbing, the CCP naturally needed to kill the victims, stamping out the source of trouble.
The most common way to kill during the land reform was known as the "struggle meeting." The CCP fabricated crimes and charged the landowners or rich farmers. The public was asked how they should be punished. Some CCP members or activists were already planted in the crowd to shout "We should kill them!" and the landowners and rich peasants were then executed on the spot. At that time, whoever owned land in the villages was classified as a "bully." Those who often took advantage of the peasants were called "mean bullies;" those who often helped with repairing public facilities and donated money to schools and for natural disaster relief were called "kind bullies;" and those who did nothing were called "still or silent bullies." A classification like this was meaningless, because all the "bullies" ended up being executed right away regardless of what "bully" category they belonged to.
By the end of 1952, the CCP-published number of the executed "reactionary elements" was about 2.4 million. Actually, the total death toll of former KMT government officials below the county level and landowners was at least 5 million.
The suppression of the reactionaries and land reform had three direct results. First, former local officials who had been selected through clan-based autonomy were eliminated. Through suppressing the reactionaries and land reform, the CCP killed all the management personnel in the previous system and realized complete control of rural areas by installing a Party branch in each village. Second, a huge amount of wealth was obtained by stealing and robbing during the land reform and suppression of reactionaries. Third, civilians were terrorized by the brutal suppression against the landowners and rich farmers.
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