Mao was born in Hunan where he lived until he attained his primary and college education before moving to Changsha where he ran a book store. It was when at his bookstore when he became convinced that he could lead China to prosperity through communism. He, therefore, organized himself with other like-minded personalities to form the Chinese Communist Party (Meisner, 12). Mao came into power through a civil war that claimed the lives of thousands of people. As the people’s Chairman, he advanced utopian policies that were initially supported by many, including the intellectuals, but upon realizing that the CCP regime was repressive and corrupt, the intellectuals stood up to demand more freedom (Goldman, 141). It was then that Mao’s regime turned authoritarian.
Mao led an authoritarian regime that never gave primacy or regard to human rights and dignity and was always very ready to sacrifice human life and dignity for the sake of his continued cling to power. It is a result of this lack of regard for humanity that more than 800,000 rightists were murdered in the struggle for political and ideological supremacy (Meisner, 185). For instance, in the early 1940s, he pushed for a party purge to advance his political ideologies centered upon communism. The result was the elimination of disgruntled members and the sharpening of feelings of hopelessness and resignation to fate. Discontented members of communist China were therefore pushed to commit suicide. In some other instances, the dissidents were just killed because of their ‘unpopular’ political stand. All these appear to have been informed by the precedence set by the 1945 deadly campaigns even though Mao had initially appeared apologetic for such brutality (Meisner, 187).
Informed by the political situation in the neighboring Soviet, Mao foresaw political instability in his communist China. This, according to Mao, was to be brought about by the discontented section of intellectuals. In a bid to preempt such possible political challenge he sought to allow for criticism even though such circumstances were highly controlled (the case of the Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1957). Despite the checks, the intellectuals persisted in their demands for the enlargement of the democratic space consequently precipitating an anti-rightist movement that persecuted minorities’ leaders and concentrated intellectuals in the camps for re-education (Goldman, 143). As expected of such an organized vindictive political grouping, an undocumented and possibly huge number of rightists died or sustained permanent damages to their bodies due to forced labor, torture, and lack of food (Meisner, 163). Beginning in the four years of the 1950s, these anti-rightist campaigns expanded and intensified to their peak in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
In the three years of active chaos (1966-1969), approximately half a million people died from torture and loss of hope that pushed them into committing suicide. Puffing, Xiaoping’s son, attempted to commit suicide by jumping down from a four-story house during the time, pointing to the state of anomie that had set in during the period (Meisner, 198). Even though many murders went unreported, or were intentionally covered up by the police, a Chinese court of law revealed in the Gang of Four trial that about 729,511persons were tortured while 34,800 of that number died during the period (p.197).
It was also during this period, that those who were seen to be spies, pro-western, ‘revisionists’, the landlords, or wealthy farmers became suspect and were therefore subjected to such treatments as maiming, beating, and political imprisonment. Several thousands of people were killed while others were forced to go without food despite the hard labor. The southern province of Guangxi remained the most hit besides witnessing some of the worst and extremely disturbing violence as highlighted by the most outrageous and systematic killing of the citizenry. Whereas it is disturbing that in some places, especially in the Guangxi region, counterrevolutionaries were tortured to death and subsequently cannibalized, it is more outrageous than those who were portrayed as being the people’s enemies had even their children and significant others tortured, murdered, and cannibalized (especially during human flesh banquets). All these killings and subsequent cannibalization of perceived opponents and their associates or significant others appeared morally and socially constraining and this led to the death of approximately one hundred thousand people in Guangxi alone (Meisner, 182).
As an effective measure of curbing intellectual uprising, Mao’s regime implemented a policy of forcibly moving young Chinese citizens from the urban settings to the countryside. Such young people were essentially made to surrender their educational pursuits to propaganda and brainwashing orchestrated by the regime’s operatives. This was compounded by hard labor even when starvation was the order of the day. This resulted in massive deaths and widespread resignation to fate (Meisner, 183).
Works cited
Goldman, Rene. The Rectification Campaign at Peking University: 1957. The China Quarterly, No. 12 (1962), 138-153. Print.
Meisner, Maurice. Mao’s China and After: A History of the People’s Republic. 3rd ed. New York: Free Press, 1999. Print.