Chapter 100 The people’s resistance is ongoing 1950-1956

Journalist: “You claim to be ‘liberating the people,’ ‘liberated areas’ is actually enslaving the people, is a slave area, slave army, you are the biggest slave master, right?”

Mao: “Yes, in fact, I am the biggest slave master, in ancient times and in modern times, no emperor can compare with me. The ancient slave masters, only physical slavery, slaves do not have personal freedom, I practice communist slavery, not only no personal freedom, but also includes intellectual slavery, no freedom of thought, is a comprehensive slavery, more powerful than the ancient slave masters, and my unlimited rule laid a national network, slaves want to escape no way, blind streams will soon be caught back, cross-border smuggling will be shot dead.”

Journalist: “Your tyranny caused the people to revolt at the beginning, and incidents of revolt continued?”

Mao: “Yes, six incidents of unemployed workers surrounding government unions in 1950 in Changsha against the Communist Party, and some people agitated to overthrow the government, and similar incidents in Guangzhou, where 1/3 of the workers were unemployed. In Zhengzhou, hundreds of porters protested against low wages and attacked the city government, beating cadres and smashing doors and windows and furniture, and in Nanjing, workers protested that their treatment was not as good as before the liberation, and there were ‘reactionary slogans’ everywhere in organs and factories. Chen Yi reported to me that people in Shanghai were so disappointed with the status quo that they quit the Party in droves, petitioned the government, and tore down my portrait.

In the southern provinces, there were rebellions everywhere. In 1950, more than 2,000 peasants in Nan County, Hunan Province, clashed with the army, resulting in 13 deaths and injuries. There were more than a dozen clashes in Hunan demanding the cessation of grain collection. Peasant attacks on grain depots continued in Hubei. 2,000 people in Xiaogan seized 7.5 tons of grain from grain depots. The Xishui crowd forcibly moved grain off grain ships, and protests and demonstrations in Enshi led to four deaths, resulting in dozens of larger-scale mass riots in Hubei. More than 100,000 people participated in protests in Guizhou.

Peasants in Yongdeng County, Gansu, resisted grain collection, and 200 villagers in one village surrounded and beat grain collection cadres. Peasants in Minle County tied up the cadres.

In East China, from January to March 1950, there were more than 40 incidents of peasant revolt. Hungry peasants seized more than 3,000 tons of grain from grain depots, while cadres arrested and killed peasants, resulting in the death of more than 120 people.

In 1950, villagers in Hubei blocked grain ships, 300 women with sticks and stones blocked the grain road, and some people threw urine cans at cadres.

In Moyuan and Xichang, Sichuan, roadside slogans reading ‘Down with Mao Zedong’ and ‘Resolve to destroy the PLA’ appeared, and songs satirizing the Communist Party appeared in some places.

Minister of Public Security Luo Ruiqing mentioned that there were dozens of unrests and rebellions throughout the country.

In early 1955, in Zhongshan County, Guangdong, thousands of villagers revolted and demanded the abolition of the grain monopoly, and the authorities sent four companies of troops to suppress them.

In Luding County, Sichuan, 6 cases of environmental riots occurred in one month.

Villagers from 10 villages in Mii, Sichuan, seized militia weapons and surrounded the local party committee.

The national monopoly on grain collection, implemented in 1953, was tantamount to declaring war on the peasants.

In 1954, Deng Zihui said: peasant rations were less than 1/3 of what they were before liberation, peasants slaughtered livestock, cut down trees, some people openly rebelled, and villagers clashed with the army. 1955 Deng allowed some cooperatives to dissolve. But in 1955 I said that the peasants screaming for suffering was false.

In the summer of 1956 Beijing petitions, dozens of petitioners a day in front of the State Council. A woman with four children stood at the gate with a sign: ‘Starve to death.’

A man outside the gate of Zhongnanhai lit a lantern during the day, signifying social darkness, and asked to see Chairman Mao.

In 1956, there were five demonstrations by veterans in front of the State Council, demanding relief. In the years after liberation, 5.7 million soldiers were demobilized and discharged from the army, and most of them returned to the countryside to live miserably. 500,000 veterans were disabled and tormented by chronic diseases, and were not treated!”