Chapter 52 The frenzy of fighting the AB League again 1931

Journalist: “So, the Fushun Incident ended with unanimous support for you, and you continued to fight against the AB League?”

Mao: “Yes, I intensified the fight. On March 28, 1931, Zhou Enlai chaired a Central Bureau meeting in Shanghai and issued the ‘Resolution on the Futian Incident’ in accordance with Moscow’s instructions, stating that the Futian Incident was a counter-revolutionary action. I received strong support. In April, the fight against the AB League resumed with even greater intensity. May, June, and July 1931 marked the peak of the campaign. In May, Li Wenlin was finally killed. In May, the ‘Kengkou Incident’ occurred in western Fujian, where Deng Fa was fighting against the so-called ‘Social Democratic Party.’ It was similar to fighting the AB League, and 6,300 people were killed. I did not directly intervene in the atrocities in western Fujian, but it was clearly influenced by the resolution of the Futian Incident.”

Journalist: “Another atrocity occurred in western Fujian, with 6,300 people killed?”

Mao: “Yes. The wave of killings during the fight against the AB League brought all other work to a standstill. Everyone lived in fear, and silence prevailed. During the most intense period of fighting the AB League, even a conversation between two people could be suspected of being related to the AB League. Forced confessions were obtained through torture methods such as nailing hands to tables with imported nails, inserting slivers of bamboo into fingernails, riding palanquins, airplanes, or rocking chairs, forcing people to drink water like toads, and using red-hot gun barrels to penetrate the anus. There was a torture method called the ‘Immortal Playing the Qin, a music instument,’ where iron wires were passed through the testicles and suspended from the person’s ears, then pulled and plucked like playing a qin. There were various methods of killing as well, including ‘slitting the abdomen and gouging the heart,’ which was commonly used.”

Journalist: “Wow, those torture methods are horrifying. You created such terrible times!”

Mao: “In Jiangxi and western Fujian, a total of 100,000 people were killed, including 10,000 deaths among the Red Army, accounting for one- fourth of the Red Army under my jurisdiction. This was the first large-scale bloody purge within the party, happening several years before Stalin’s Great Purge in the 1930s.

In other Red base areas, influenced by the resolution of the Futian Incident, Zhang Guotao in Hubei, Henan, and Anhui, as well as Xia Xi in western Hunan, also launched rectification campaigns and killed a large number of Red Army soldiers and local cadres.”

Journalist: “Your fight against the AB League influenced the entire party, including Zhang Guotao?”

Mao: “Yes.”