Chapter 104 The Three Anti-Corruption and and Five Anti-Capitalists Campaigns

Journalist: “What did you oppose in 1951 when you launched the Three-Anti and Five-Anti Movement? To achieve what purpose?”

Mao: “The three anti-corruption campaigns were against corruption, waste and bureaucracy, against those in power in the party, government and military. The five anti is anti-bribery, anti-tax evasion, anti-theft of state property, anti-jerry-building, anti-theft of national economic information, is anti-capitalist. The initial purpose was to increase the state’s income, when the anti-American aid was overspending.”

Journalist: “How did you launch the three anti-corruptions?”

Mao: “I kept issuing instructions and setting targets. Especially against corruption and the big tigers. I set the embezzlement of 100 million yuan (old currency, converted into 10,000 new currency) as a big tiger, embezzlement of more than 50 million as a medium tiger, more than 10 million as a small tiger. I gave each military region in each province a target to catch tigers. For example, I asked the whole army to fight at least 2,000-3,000 big tigers a month, failure to complete is right-leaning, is the biggest bureaucracy, to criticize, serious dismissal. Liu Qingshan, secretary of the Tianjin local party committee, and Zhang Zishan embezzled and misappropriated 17.1 billion yuan (equivalent to 1.71 million new dollars) of public funds, causing a loss of 2.1 billion yuan to the state. The two lay waste 400 million yuan, I approved the execution by firing squad for demonstration. I said it might be necessary to shoot tens of thousands of embezzlers to solve the problem.”

Journalist: “Under your instructions to set high targets and set tasks, the following must have been engaged in forced confession letters, right?”

Mao: “Yes, it is common to force confessions, just like the Yan’an rectification and rectification of people. I even said that the volunteer army in North Korea, but also to catch the size of hundreds of tigers, tigers commonly assigned tasks, tiger teams created countless false cases, forced confessions with meat torture, wheel warfare, the General Assembly surrounded, small meeting attack, brutal struggle, forcing people to no way out, have to commit suicide to seek relief.”

Journalist: “Some celebrities were also wrongly accused, right?”

Mao: “There are many. Zhang Hualin, director of the First Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army, returned from the United States in 1950, his wife had taken a thermometer from the public and was beaten as a tiger. Zhang Hualin still has to examine for his wife. Jiang Jiucheng, a professor of science and chemistry at Southwest Normal College, was imprisoned and his wife hanged herself. There are many like this, Mayor Chen Yi said more than 500 people committed suicide in Shanghai’s Three-Anti’s.”

Journalist: “The Five-Anti-persecution cases are even more, right?”

Mao: “Yes. In 1962, Li Weihan, the United Front Work Minister, wanted to correct these 80% capitalists who were not qualified, but I criticized them for being right-leaning and let them go. It was not until I died that they were corrected in 1981.”

Journalist: “Were there really big capitalists who were struggling?”

Mao: “There is, there is a Lu Zuofu, he started from a ship in 1925, founded the Minsheng Company, during the anti- Japanese period to seize and transport a large number of refugees and national assets. His company had more than 100 employees died, 16 ships were sunk by the Japanese. He returned to Chongqing in 1952 and was falsely accused of being an unscrupulous capitalist, and was mercilessly criticized and killed himself. He lived a clean and honest life, lived in a bank dormitory, and gave his wife two lines in his last words: return the furniture to Minsheng Company, and live well with his children.”

Journalist: “A capitalist like this is a model of goodness. Shanghai jumped to his death the most capitalists, why?”

Mao: “Yes, Chen Yi told me, said the parachute unit in Shanghai, there are more than 1,300 people. Overlooking the Huangpu River washed away by the water, dead without a body, there is a suspicion of fleeing Hong Kong, the family will be pursued. Jumping corpse in, do not leave trouble.”

Journalist: “How many people died in the country’s Three-Anti and Five- Anti?”

Mao: “No exact statistics, I estimate that two or three hundred thousand people committed suicide.”

Journalist: “Three-Anti and Five-Anti campaign summary?”

Mao: “Liu Shaoqi, on behalf of the Central Committee, made a summary, admitting that 95% of the Three-Anti and Five-Anti counter-movements were wrong. But he said in my words: shortcomings and mistakes are only 1 of 10 fingers.”

Journalist: “Do you engage in extravagance and waste yourself? Are you also subject to criticism?”

Mao: “My biggest extravagance and waste is the construction of my palatial villas, over 50 of them across the country, which consumed countless national resources and the hard work of the people. I indulge in luxurious living, and no one dares to oppose me. No emperor or leader, past or present, can match my level of enjoyment. Hitler didn’t indulge himself, and Stalin worked every day with occasional vacations in the Black Sea. Even Emperor Qianlong’s seven trips to Jiangnan were limited to seven times. I don’t work, so Zhongnanhai doesn’t need to convene sessions. I have a dedicated train that can take me anywhere at any time, with dozens of attendants and 200 guards. I move around the country unpredictably, with my own private villas in every province, untouched by any other leader. The women from various cultural and dance troupes from all over the country come at my beck and call, providing special services without the need for a fixed harem. The Three-anti Campaign targets others, but it cannot touch me.”