Chapter 60 The August Red Storm of Terror 1966

Journalist: “So the Red August Storm in Beijing was incited by you?”

Mao: “After the Central Committee meeting in May 1966, the Red August Storm erupted in Beijing. Within a month, thousands of teachers, intellectuals, and various individuals were killed. It swept away all kinds of people. In Daxing County, hundreds of landlords and counter-revolutionary elements were killed. Minister of Public Security Xie Fuzhi gave the green light for this. When I heard about it in Hangzhou and Dishaodong, I applauded. Revolution requires a slaughter. I fanned the flames in the south, exerting my influence from afar. I wanted chaos in Beijing, and a few deaths were nothing to be surprised about.”

Journalist: “How did the August Storm that you incited unfold?”

Mao: “On August 23, 1966, squads of Red Guards arrived at the courtyard of the Beijing Writers Association. They ordered certain individuals to come forward, and one by one, the writers lined up with wooden placards hanging from their necks. The placards bore their names and were labeled as reactionary authorities, cow demons, and snake spirits. They were whipped with belts. The writers were then pushed onto large trucks and transported to the former Confucian Temple, which had become the Capital Library. There, a large quantity of costumes and props from Beijing’s various theater troupes were piled up. The Red Guards set them on fire, and dozens of writers, artists, and actors were forced to kneel by the burning pyre. They were subjected to beatings with sticks and belts. The next day, elderly Lao She, nearing 70 years old, committed suicide by throwing himself into a lake.”

Journalist: “So the writers were the first target of the Red Guards?”

Mao: “Yes. On August 24, 1966, Beijing public security personnel asked, ‘What should we do if someone is killed?’ I instructed Minister of Public Security Xie Fuzhi to say, ‘If they are killed, they are killed. If we detain the ones who beat them, we will be in the wrong.’ Xie Fuzhi instructed the police to provide the Red Guards with a blacklist of the ‘black five categories’ and let them sweep away all cow demons and snake spirits.”

Journalist: “Wow, you instructed the Ministry of Public Security to cooperate. That’s intense, isn’t it?”

Mao: “Yes, homes were raided, people were beaten to death, and it even affected ordinary residents. They were called the ‘black five categories.’ In Dongchang Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing, there was a small business owner, Left Granny, who sold firewood. She was in her 70s. On August 24, 1966, her home was raided, and she was fatally beaten. When the neighbor, Auntie Ma, went to inform Left Granny’s husband, she too was beaten to death. At No. 2 Dongchang Hutong, there was a resident surnamed Sun, an optician who used to run an eyeglass shop. Both the husband and wife were beaten to death by the Red Guards. In another household in Dongchang Hutong, there was a mother and daughter who dressed more elegantly, and the mother wore a gold ring. They were also beaten to death. Six people were brutally killed in Dongchang Hutong on that day. The Red Guards, once incited, turned into frenzied individuals.”

Journalist: “Did you deliberately create a climate of terror and murder?”

Mao: “On August 25, 1966, a small property owner surnamed Li in Beijing’s Chongwen district, unable to cope with the abuse and denial of food, picked up a kitchen knife and wounded a Red Guard, jumping to his death. The incident was so dramatized that thousands of Red Guards were incited to suppress it, blood stained the streets for seven days, countless people were beaten and many died.

In August 1966, the streets of Beijing were filled with the Red Guards raiding homes, the sounds of torture and interrogation, the cries of the tortured, a horrific scene, and the Red Guards calling the shots throughout Beijing. Song Qingling’s house was also threatened with the Red Guards coming to put up large-print posters.”

Journalist: “Wow, how did you handle the threat to Song Qingling?”

Mao: “On August 30, 1966, Zhou Enlai urgently compiled a protection list, which was approved by me, to protect Song Qingling and several dozen other individuals. Police stations were notified to provide special protection.”

Journalist: “Beijing’s red terror was intense, wasn’t it?”

Mao: “Yes, on September 1, 1966, the red terror in the urban areas of Beijing reached its peak, with 228 people killed in a single day.”
Journalist: “Wow, more than 200 people killed in a day?”

Mao: “Yes, in the suburban area of Daxing County, on August 26, 1966, there was a massacre of the ‘black five categories.’ From August 27 to September 3, in all 13 communes of the county, 325 people were killed, ranging from 38 days old to 80 years old. In 22 households, entire families were exterminated. Among them, in the Beizang Commune, three villages had the highest number of killings: Xinli Village had 53 deaths, Ma Village had 34 deaths, and Liuhe Village had 11 deaths. The captured ‘black five categories’ were first sent to privately established temporary prisons, where they were interrogated, killed, and buried on the spot. Wang Zhenyuan, the county party secretary, arrived at a large unit and tried to persuade them to stop the killings. However, the unit’s branch secretary insisted on exterminating them without leaving any future troubles. It took from the afternoon until midnight to finally convince the unit to stop the killings. This so-called ‘capitalist roader’ saved 108 ‘black five categories’ from death.”

Journalist: “Wow, Daxing County was right under your nose, such a large-scale massacre. It set an example for the whole country, didn’t it?”

Mao: “Yes, the killings in Daxing County had an impact on the whole country. According to official statistics, in 1966, in Beijing alone, 114,000 households were raided, resulting in the confiscation of 103,000 taels of gold, 345,000 taels of silver, 55.45 million yuan in cash, and 610,000 pieces of jade and cultural relics. Furthermore, 520,000 private homes were seized. The lists for the raids were provided by the Public Security Bureau.

At the same time, in Beijing, the ‘black five categories’ were cleared out and sent back to the countryside. Based on official data, Beijing expelled 100,000 people to return to their hometowns. They were escorted onto trains by the Red Guards, only taking simple belongings. In the countryside, they had no housing, no land, no means of livelihood, and their children couldn’t attend school. Their situation was miserable.”

Journalist: “Wow, Beijing expelled 100,000 ‘black five categories’ back to the countryside, leaving them with no means of livelihood?”

Mao: “Yes, Beijing set the example, and other cities across the country, such as Shanghai, Wuhan, Jinan, followed suit with house raids, beatings, killings, and expelling the ‘black five categories.’ The red terror spread everywhere. According to incomplete statistics until October 1966, the nationwide Red Guards confiscated a total of 42.8 billion yuan in cash, 1.18 million taels of gold, and over 10 million pieces of antique artifacts. More than 39 million people were driven out of urban areas, referred to as ‘evil spirits.’ ”

Journalist: “Wow, nearly 40 million ‘evil spirits’ were driven back to the countryside nationwide?”

Mao: “Yes, on September 24, 1966, a secret event known as the ‘Wang Rongfen Incident’ occurred in Beijing. Wang Rongfen was a 19-year-old female student in her fourth year of German studies at Beijing Foreign Language Institute. On September 24, she sent me a letter of resignation from the Communist Youth League. With a copy of that letter, she poisoned herself near the Soviet Embassy, hoping that the Soviet Union would discover it and make the letter public, exposing the darkness in Beijing. She chose to resist the Cultural Revolution with her life. However, she was discovered by the police, sent to the hospital for rescue, and then imprisoned for 13 years, enduring endless torment.”

Journalist: “Wang Rongfen committed suicide to resist her fate and is still alive?”

Mao: “Yes, Wang Rongfen participated in the Red Guards review at Tiananmen Square on August 18, 1966. She witnessed the brutal killings and the reign of terror in Beijing during the August Red Terror. Three of her teachers from School 101, where she had studied, were beaten to death. In her resignation statement of less than 200 words, she questioned me, ‘What do you want to do? What does all this happening right now mean? You, as one person, are using violence to manipulate the masses. Where will you lead China?’

Wang Rongfen was one of the few who early on recognized my actions and bravely resisted, even at the cost of her own life. After my death, she was exonerated and released in 1979. In 1989, she went to Germany and engaged in research and writing.”

Journalist: “You were the one who started the Cultural Revolution storm?”
Mao: “Yes, I gave the Red Guards the imperial letter, granted the imperial sword, the Red Guards surrounded Zhongnanhai, set up a tent, I welcomed them to surround, I walked to the west gate of Zhongnanhai, appeared in the Red Guards, was surrounded by a frenzied crowd of Red Guards, waterlogged, so nervous that Zhou Enlai’s legs were weak, afraid that something had happened to me. I told Zhou to come to the next great liberation, ordered the country to a large series, take the train do not pay, accommodation do not pay, eat do not pay, the country ignited, the country scraped, tens of millions of people on the move, unprecedented, tens of millions of people on the road, better than the war large corps operations, I like this scene. The Red Guards wore military uniforms, our leaders also wore military uniforms, the police did not care, the Red Guards beat, smashed, robbed, copied, arrested free action, let him scrape the ‘sweeping out’ frenzy.

In one month in Beijing, 110,000 ‘gangsters’ were raided, 80,000 ‘category four elements’ were sent back to their places of origin for reform through labor, and 1,700 people were killed alive. Kang Sheng instructed 200 Red Guards from the Northern Normal University to go to Qufu, Shandong Province to destroy the Confucian temples and tombs of Confucius. I laughed and laughed when I heard hundreds of monks and nuns in Hengshan, Hunan Province, being roundly criticized by the Red Guards, forcing them to return to their monasteries and forcing them to marry. 67-year-old writer Lao She said, ‘A man can be killed, not humiliated,’ and threw himself into Taiping Lake to die ‘five types of elements.’”