This is the next installment of my book, The Cultural Revolution: Then and Mao.
To read the previous installment, click this link.
To start at the beginning, click this link.
Chapter 22
Red August
Mao’s return to power came with great pain inflicted upon Liu Shaoqi, until he eventually lost his life. Mao had no problem unleashing this kind of pain and suffering. But Liu Shaoqi was just one person. Many, many others suffered as well. Mao released a plague of pain upon his entire nation while usurping power from Liu.
When considering Mao’s legacy, it’s important to consider just how much he cost his country, and how much suffering he put his own people through. The price tag for his sadistic excesses was astronomical, setting China’s economy back for years. And millions upon millions went through hell.
Mao & Lin Biao in Tiananmen Square, surrounded by Red Guards with Little Red Books.
For instance, in August 1966, in what would become known as Red August, over a million Red Guards gathered at a rally in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Mao Zedong and newly-annointed leader Lin Biao mingled with the Red Guards and gave speeches, denouncing enemies of the State that they insinuated had infiltrated the Party.
That’s when the chain-reaction of Mao’s dominoes fell out of control. A red terror swept out of this rally, beginning with a mass slaughter of officials in Beijing, and spreading rapidly to many other areas of China.
Most Red Guards were privileged urban youths. But workers, peasants, soldiers, common criminals, guttersnipes of all varieties, and millions of others occupying the lower strata of society, also joined in on the slaughter and became Red Guards. Yet none of this was necessary. Mao had already returned to power. He could have used this power to disband these Red hooligans and stop the killing. Only someone who enjoys causing pain would allow the killing to continue.
The police tried to intervene, but then Mao intervened with the police. He instructed the Party to issue a central directive warning them not to interfere. This warning threatened any law enforcement that stood in the way of the Red Guards, with being labeled as counterrevolutionary.
So the police stepped aside and allowed madness to descend upon the country. Thousands of government officials and members of the middle class were hunted down, beaten, and murdered. During the Red August of 1966, 1,772 such people were murdered in Beijing. In Shanghai that September, 704 people committed suicide, and 534 other deaths occurred, related to the Cultural Revolution.
Red Guards rallying in Tiananmen Square, with their Little Red Books, during Red August, 1966.
But this was only the beginning. Millions more would be brutalized and murdered by the Red Guards over the next few years.
An army of 12 million Red Guards ravaged the nation. They were given free rein by the government to travel the country, and could use the railroads without charge, as long as their purpose was to wage revolution. They committed horrible murders and atrocities everywhere they went.
They even turned on each other, splitting into factions and waging armed combat, Red Guard against Red Guard. Small civil wars sprang up in towns and cities of China, as warring sides fought each other for not being pro-Mao enough.
Come on back in a few days for the next installment, entitled Chapter 23: Out With the Old.
Categories: Series (History): The Cultural Revolution
Chasing Unicorns 
it’s just amazing that nobody stood up to him or that he never seemed to be threatened. Has he ever been compared to Hitler?
LikeLiked by 1 person
They were all intimidated and cast under his spell apparently! I think Hitler is a good comparison!
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s true. In fact more people lost their lives under Mao, than under Hitler. Mao was worse than both Hitler and Stalin combined.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t know if many people compare him to Hitler. He’s apparently benefited by a kind of apathy on the part of Westerners.
He was actually much worse than Hitler, in terms of the amount of lives lost due to the decisions he made, and the policies he created.
LikeLiked by 1 person
and his brutality is right up there with Hitler…
LikeLiked by 1 person
He was definitely brutal. But unlike Hitler, he doesn’t seem to have been bigoted. He was an equal opportunity oppressor. Perhaps this was why he ended up killing way more people than Hitler.
LikeLiked by 1 person
so I guess Mao had that going for him…
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s a little bit of good in everyone, I guess.
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is just plain horrible and I pray that the US never sees a dictator like Mao come to power!
LikeLiked by 1 person
So do I. But when we see some politicians and the Democratic Party going along to some degree with defunding the police, I can’t help but think that’s how the Red Guards were able to get away with their mayhem. The police were forced to stand down. I don’t know if this would lead to a dictatorship in our country, but I doubt it would lead to anything good.
LikeLike
Yes, that part about defunding the police is scary!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s nuts. And they’re very serious about it.
I could go along with defunding the war on drugs. That’s just a war on a victimless crime, and it has affected black people disproportionately. But I don’t hear the demonstrators saying that. They just want a flat, across-the-board defunding. Seems short-sighted to me, and very likely to kill Biden’s chances of winning.
LikeLike
I agree about it killing Biden’s chances. Its just ridiculous!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have one good, long-term acquaintance from the Hong Kong region, a woman originally from Wuhan. She’s a communist party member… a requirement for a license to exchange Chinese Yuan for hard currency (Hong Kong dollars) for an export business she’s been running since the latter years of Deng Xiaoping’s free-market reforms. Her father is a retired school teacher now living in Hainan (which speaks to some family privilege). She’s hinted that her mother didn’t survive the Red Guard. Most Chinese don’t discuss such matters.
On the way to her new “mansion” (purchased high-rise apartment) in Shenzhen just after Xi Jinping had become president, I offhandedly commented that as an American it seemed odd to see giant posters of his face plastered all over the city. Silence… profound, dead silence. In fact, no one said anything more until I broke the silence with some comment about all of the construction cranes in the city.
It’s hard for Americans to understand the depth and magnitude of aversion to any form of expression that might even be implied as “political” that’s ingrained into the mainland Chinese psyche — something like watching your fingers around a broken electrical socket.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s very sad, what probably happened to your friend’s mother. So many died, and they’re not even statistics, due to the failure to keep careful records in those days.
Sounds like you triggered a very awkward situation. And yet their silence speaks volumes. Seems like survival instinct, to me.
From everything I’ve learned and written about recently, politics is a very dangerous profession in China. I understand the aversion.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Americans often look at something like BLM or criticize our Orangutan-in-Chief, and say how much America sucks. But they forget that they can say that with no risk of repercussion… or that something like a BLM protest or that the use of pejorative to describe a government official can even happen in the US. Even today, try that in China and not only will it be censored, but you’ll likely end up under arrest, if not among the millions mass-imprisoned or who simply disappear.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s one thing I love about our country. We can tear down our leaders in any number of ways, without the slightest risk of going to jail. The rhetoric can be jarring, but when there’s no legal risk, it emboldens people to speak their minds and address issues that might otherwise not be addressed. I think that’s good for our country. And I think countries like the PRC are desperately starved for that kind of nutrition of candor.
LikeLiked by 2 people
So sorry about your friend’s Mom.
You are right, we Americans can’t grasp how different poliics is in China. We are so used to saying anything we want about our politicians with no fear of retribution!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Most families in (or from) the mainland lost somebody, either to famine or to the Red Guard. Virtually no one was left unaffected, regardless of where they actually stood. The period of the Red Guard simply provided a convenient way to justify thuggery as a means to resolve old grudges, or to mollify envy of a neighbor. So if somebody could “remember” something you once said or even implied, you could expect a “struggle session”. The result was that people in the mainland internalized a reflex of saying nothing at all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps that explains the long periods of silence I’ve heard about, that the Chinese are supposedly famous for, in their conversations.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s interesting… Japanese do that too. I’ve always perceived it as a chance for something stated to take on meaning… kind of like accepting a business card and first taking the time to carefully examine it before putting it into a card wallet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So maybe it’s just an Asian cultural thing, and has nothing to do with politics. Being reflective before replying can enrich a conversation. There doesn’t have to be constant banter to fill the air space.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Regardless… here’s an “” for that obnoxious misspelling up there. 😖
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! I took the “o” from this comment, and put it where it belonged in the former comment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
(ツ)b
LikeLiked by 1 person