Chapter 83 “Discerning insincere apologies and promoting self- sacrifice for the party.” 1944

Journalist: “How did you end up advocating that the young cadres work for you?”

Mao: “This is a bit of a problem. Rectification, I was to prepare for a full-scale civil war to fight Chiang. But when the revolutionary youth joined the CCP, it was for the anti-Japanese resistance, and many people did not hate Chiang. I know many people think the Kuomintang is good. Wang Enmao also said, ‘The old cadres weakened their class hatred after the war, and the new cadres had great illusions about Chiang Kai-shek.’ Chiang Kai- shek was the nationally recognized leader of the war effort. His signing of the abolition of the unequal treaties with the United States and Britain in 1943 was a historically significant event, and I had to hold a celebration in Yan’an. Chiang also made China, one of the four powers, alongside the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.”

Journalist: “Yes! Didn’t Chiang Kai-shek get the credit? How do you encourage young cadres to defeat Chiang?”

Mao: “It was a little difficult. I used the rectification to discredit Chiang Kai-shek and create hatred for him. Catching agents is to catch Chiang agents, I rectify the wind then laid the psychological foundation for fighting Chiang.

At the beginning of 1944, the Soviet Union’s big counter-offensive against Germany was expected to participate in the fight against Japan, defeating Japan, the Soviet Union would help me fight Chiang to take over the country. I needed a large number of cadres to prepare, and the Yan’an rectification was almost done, and it began to cool down.

I instructed to start screening to see how many facts there were and whether there were any real secret agents. The process was slow, and the people who had suffered so much were still living in anxiety and pain. The intelligence agencies were sure: less than 1% of the suspects were real agents.”

Journalist: “There is no actual secret agent, the special suspicion was created by you, how do you end it?”

Mao: “Is the problem. Other bases also ‘catch the secret agent.’ I want them to start from the beginning and go through the torture, confession meetings and so on. I took the intelligence agency’s estimate of 1% and magnified it 10 times to 10%, to clear out a large number of agents in Yan’an.

A year passed, and in the spring of 1945, when I knew for sure that the Soviet Union would be involved in fighting Japan, I quickly announced a large number of liberation victims. Many of them were already mentally deranged, and they were intellectuals who had been ‘rescued,’ which was called ‘rescuing’ them by forcing them to admit that they were agents.

Thousands of people died. Some committed suicide by jumping off the walls, jumping into wells, hanging themselves, or killing their wives and children. Those who attempted suicide were treated mercilessly. The majority of intellectual party members lost their revolutionary zeal, and many exuded a gray mood, depressed and disappointed, and lost confidence.”

Journalist: “Faced with a large disappointed crowd, what do you do?”

Mao: “I don’t fret; these people will continue to serve me, no matter how miserable they are. They are already trapped in this web of my organization and they can’t get out. There is no choice but to come with me in order to get on with their lives. I say that all the injustice they experience is a necessary test, a sublime cleansing of the soul. To ‘serve the people’ requires sacrifice.

I want to send the victims to the front line to fight Chiang Kai-shek. To alleviate their grievances and anger, I made several public apologies in the spring of 1945. I took off my hat and bowed, raised my hand in salute and said, ‘I apologize on behalf of the Central Committee’ and ‘many mistakes were made throughout Yan’an.’ A disaster was brushed aside. I said, ‘Trial dry, was supposed to let you take a bath, ash manganese oxygen put too much, put your delicate skin burned.’ ‘Many people fell, got up, patted the ash clean, and continued to work.’ I also said, ‘The old man beat his son, so don’t hold a grudge.’”

Journalist: “These sets of words you really know how to make up a story, the crowd accepted it?”

Mao: “When I say these words, the following often shed tears, there is nothing to do, a breath of relief, most of them continue to work for the Communist Party, I am the God of the Party, work for the Party is to work for me, they helped to send me into Zhongnanhai, I rely on the so-called ‘Yan’an rectification’, the truth is that the so-called ‘Yan’an Rectification’ that I relied on was in fact the ‘Yan’an Terror’. I was not only 80% of the whole culprit, but actually 100%.”

Journalist: “That’s how you ended the Yan’an terror and sent them to the front to fight Chiang Kai-shek?”