The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957

by Dikötter, Frank

  46 Mao Zedong, ‘On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship: In Commemoration of the 28th Anniversary of the Communist Party of China, June 30, 1949’, in Selected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. 4, p. 423; ‘Mao Settles the Dust’, Time, 11 July 1949; Chang and Halliday, Mao, p. 323.

  47 The exact amounts of funding for the Long March are in Taylor, The Generalissimo, p. 111; ‘On the Ten Major Relationships’, 25 April 1956, Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, vol. 5, p. 304.

  48 The propaganda against Tito was noted repeatedly by Barnett, letter no. 38, ‘Chinese Communists’.

  49 Paul Wingrove, ‘Gao Gang and the Moscow Connection: Some Evidence from Russian Sources’, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 16, no. 4 (Dec. 2000), p. 93.

  50 Philip Short, Mao: A Life, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1999, p. 422; the best article on Mao’s trip is Paul Wingrove, who uses archives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Paul Wingrove, ‘Mao in Moscow, 1949–50: Some New Archival Evidence’, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 11, no. 4 (Dec. 1995), pp. 309–34; David Wolff, ‘ ‘‘One Finger’s Worth of Historical Events”: New Russian and Chinese Evidence on the Sino-Soviet Alliance and Split, 1948–1959’, Cold War International History Project Bulletin, Working Paper no. 30 (Aug. 2002), pp. 1–74; Sergey Radchenko and David Wolff, ‘To the Summit via Proxy-Summits: New Evidence from Soviet and Chinese Archives on Mao’s Long March to Moscow, 1949’, Cold War International History Project Bulletin, no. 16 (Winter 2008), pp. 105–82; see also Heinzig, The Soviet Union and Communist China 1945–1950.

  51 Report of Negotiation between Zhou, Mikoyan and Vyshinsky to Stalin, 2 and 3 Feb. 1950, RGASPI, 82-2-1247, pp. 1–6, 68–93.

  52 Wingrove, ‘Mao in Moscow’, p. 331.

  53 Financial Bulletin, 20 April 1950, PRO, FO371-83346, p. 33; see also Interrogation Reports, Jan. 1952, PRO, FO371-99364, p. 19; Rossi, The Communist Conquest of Shanghai, p. 91.

  54 Interrogation Reports, Jan. 1952, PRO, FO371-99364, p. 138; Interrogation Report, 31 May 1951, PRO, FO371-92353, p. 2.

  55 Interrogation Reports, Jan. 1952, PRO, FO371-99364, pp. 24 and 138; Loh, Escape from Red China, p. 148; Willens, Stateless in Shanghai, p. 222; Hong Kong Interrogation Reports 726 and 863, 10 June and 26 Nov. 1954, RG59, Box 5, 903069, Lot 56D454, National Archives at College Park.

  56 T. G. Zazerskaya, Sovetskie spetsialisty i formirovanie voenno-promyshlennogo kompleksa Kitaya (1949–1960 gg.), St Petersburg: Sankt Peterburg Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, 2000; Shen Zhihua, Sulian zhuanjia zai Zhongguo (Soviet experts in China), Beijing: Xinhua chubanshe, 2009; Deborah A. Kaple, ‘Soviet Advisors in China in the 1950s’, in Odd Arne Westad (ed.), Brothers in Arms: The Rise and Fall of the Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1945–1963, Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1998,pp. 117–40; see also ‘150,000 Big Noses’, Time, 16 Oct. 1950.

  57 RGASPI, 25 June 1950, 17-137-402, pp. 114 and 221–30; 18 Dec. 1950, 17-137-403, pp. 215–24.

  58 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Beijing, 6 Sept. 1963, 109-3321-2, pp. 66–8; a much more detailed account of exports to the Soviet Union from 1949 to 1962 appears in Frank Dikötter, Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958–1962, London: Bloomsbury, 2010, pp. 73–7.

  59 Hua-yu Li, ‘Instilling Stalinism in Chinese Party Members: Absorbing Stalin’s Short Course in the 1950s’, in Thomas P. Bernstein and Hua-yu Li (eds), China Learns from the Soviet Union, 1949–Present, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009, pp. 107–30; Esther Holland Jian, British Girl, Chinese Wife, Beijing: New World Press, 1985, p. 134.

  60 K. E. Priestley, ‘The Sino-Soviet Friendship Association’, Pacific Affairs, 25, no. 3 (Sept. 1952), p. 289; Paul Clark, Chinese Cinema: Culture and Politics since 1949, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987,pp. 40–1.

  7: War Again

  1 Andrei Lankov, From Stalin to Kim Il Sung: The Formation of North Korea, 1945–1960, London: Hurst, 2002; see also Jasper Becker, Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

  2 Chen Jian, China’s Road to the Korean War, New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, p. 110; Goncharov, Lewis and Xue, Uncertain Partners, pp. 142–5.

  3 Shen Zhihua, ‘Sino-North Korean Conflict and its Resolution during the Korean War’, Cold War International History Project Bulletin, nos 14–15 (Winter 2003–Spring 2004), pp. 9–24; Shen Zhihua, ‘Sino-Soviet Relations and the Origins of the Korean War: Stalin’s Strategic Goals in the Far East’, Journal of Cold War Studies, 2, no. 2 (Spring 2000), pp. 44–68.

  4 Max Hastings, The Korean War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987, p. 53.

  5 Chang and Halliday, Mao, p. 360.

  6 Alexandre Y. Mansourov, ‘Stalin, Mao, Kim, and China’s Decision to Enter the Korean War, Sept. 16–Oct. 15, 1950: New Evidence from the Russian Archives’, Cold War International History Project Bulletin, nos 6–7 (Winter 1995), p. 114.

  7 Nie Rongzhen, ‘Beijing’s Decision to Intervene’, and Peng Dehuai, ‘My Story of the Korean War’, in Xiaobing Li, Allan R. Millett and Bin Yu (eds), Mao’s Generals Remember Korea, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001, pp. 31 and 41.

  8 The episode is recounted on the basis of detailed archival sources in Chang and Halliday, Mao, p. 364.

  9 Quoted in Matthew Aid and Jeffrey T. Richelson, ‘U.S. Intelligence and China: Collection, Analysis, and Covert Action’, Digital National Security Archive Series, p. 3 (online publication).

  10 David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, London: Macmillan, 2008, p. 372.

  11 Shu Guang Zhang, Mao’s Military Romanticism: China and the Korean War, 1950–1953, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995, p. 126; Richard Peters and Xiaobing Li (eds), Voices from the Korean War: Personal Stories of American, Korean, and Chinese Soldiers, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004; see also interrogation reports of prisoners of war, for instance KG0876, Li Shu Sun, 27 Nov. 1951; KG0896, Chang Hsin Hua, 21 Dec. 1951; KG0915, K’ang Wen Ch’eng, 29 Dec. 1951; KG0937, Chou Shih Ch’ang, 9 Jan. 1952; all in Assistant Chief of Staff G2, RG319, Box 332, 950054 ATIS Interrogation Reports, National Archives at College Park.

  12 Li Xiu interviewed by Max Hastings, The Korean War, p. 172.

  13 The details of Mao’s repeated interventions are in Zhang, Mao’s Military Romanticism, p. 137.

  14 Mao, Jianguo yilai, vol. 2, p. 152.

  15 Chang and Halliday, Mao, p. 367.

  16 International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, ‘Refusal of Repatriation’, 25 July 1951, BAG 210-056-003.03, pp. 70–4; on the POWs see David Cheng Chang, ‘To Return Home or “Return to Taiwan”: Conflicts and Survival in the “Voluntary Repatriation” of Chinese POWs in the Korean War’, doctoral dissertation, University of California, San Diego, 2011.

  17 Peters and Li (eds), Voices from the Korean War, p. 178.

  18 Pete Schulz, letter to Max Hastings, quoted in The Korean War, p. 196.

  19 The numbers vary and these are the most accepted ones, quoted for instance in Chang and Halliday, Mao, p. 378.

  20 Loh, Escape from Red China, pp. 56–7; Report on attitudes towards the government among ordinary people, Nanjing, 4003-1-20, 5 July 1950, p. 143; Neibu cankao, 13 July 1950, pp. 41–2.

  21 Neibu cankao, 7 Nov. 1950, p. 23; Opinion Survey, Nanjing, 22 Nov. 1950, 4003-3-89, pp. 72–7.

  22 Neibu cankao, 30 Nov. 1950, pp. 151–7.

  23 Nanfang ribao, translated in Current Background, no. 55, American Consulate-General, Hong Kong, 22 Jan. 1951, quoted in Walker, China under Communism, p. 302, with a few stylistic changes.

  24 Walker, China under Communism, pp. 302–5; Lum, Peking, 1950–1953, p. 62.

  25 Central Directive, 19 Dec. 1950, Guangdong, 204-1-245, p. 101.

  26 Loh, Escape from Red China, pp. 57–8.

  27 Gansu, Report on the Hate America, Aid Korea Campaign, 25 March 1951, 91-1-314, p. 13; Guangdong, 1 April 1951, 204-1-36, pp. 41–2; Guangdong, 1 April 1951, 204-
1-36, p. 51.

  28 Loh, Escape from Red China, p. 59.

  29 Report from the North-east China Bureau, 9 Oct. 1951, Gansu, 91-1-244, pp. 80–90; Report at the Politburo by Deng Xiaoping, Sichuan,6 Nov. 1951, JX1-809, p. 41.

  30 Neibu cankao, 16 July 1951, p. 92; 30 Aug. 1951, pp. 102–3.

  31 Neibu cankao, 31 Aug. 1951, p. 108; 16 July 1951, p. 92; 23 Oct. 1951, p. 60.

  32 Neibu cankao, 30 Aug. 1951, pp. 102–3.

  33 Neibu cankao, 18 Sept. 1951, p. 90; 25 July 1951, p. 148.

  34 Guangdong, 1 April 1951, 204-1-36, pp. 41–2; Li, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 56.

  35 Jilin, 16 March 1951, 2-7-56, p. 15; Report by the Wendeng County Party Committee, Shandong, 28 Sept. 1951, A1-2-74, pp. 106–8; Report from the North China Region, Hebei, 10 May 1951, 855-1-84, pp. 77–8.

  36 Report from the North China Region, Hebei, 10 May 1951, 855-1-84, pp. 77–8; the case from Yueyang is in Neibu cankao, 23 July 1951, p. 140.

  37 Report from the North China Region, Hebei, 10 May 1951, 855-1-84, pp. 77–8; Neibu cankao, 23 July 1951, p. 140.

  38 Shandong, 5 Dec. 1951, A1-4-9, pp. 122–5.

  39 Report to the People’s Congress, Jilin, 30 Dec. 1950, 2-7-47, pp. 59–60; Reports on Cooperativisation, Jilin, 19 Jan., 16 and 22 March and23 June 1951, 2-7-56, pp. 2, 14–15, 26 and 84.

  40 Jilin, 20 Feb., 25 March and 5 Aug. 1952, 1-1(8)-37, pp. 1, 2 and 14–15; Jilin, 2 and 29 Feb. 1952, 2-8-32, pp. 91–4 and 107.

  41 Neibu cankao, 28 May 1951, pp. 47–8; 3 June 1951, p. 36; General report by Deng Xiaoping, Sichuan, 30 Nov. 1951, JX1-809, p. 31; Neibu cankao, 18 March 1952, pp. 155–7; 24 March 1952, pp. 227–8; 7 April 1952,pp. 68–9.

  42 Kenneth G. Lieberthal, Revolution and Tradition in Tientsin, 1949–1952, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980, pp. 98–9.

  43 Report on Germ Warfare from the Centre, Shandong, 2 April 1952, A1-5-58, p. 104.

  44 On the Needham expedition, see Ruth Rogaski, ‘Nature, Annihilation, and Modernity: China’s Korean War Germ-Warfare Experience Reconsidered’, Journal of Asian Studies, 61, no. 2 (May 2002), p. 382; when interviewed by Jonathan Mirsky in 1961, Needham admitted not having seen any evidence at all, but added that he trusted what he was told by Chinese bacteriologists; Jonathan Mirsky, email correspondence, 28 June 2012.

  45 Lum, Peking, 1950–1953, p. 122.

  46 ‘Transfusions of Hate’, Time, 23 June 1952; Raja Hutheesing, Window on China, London: Derek Verschoyle, 1953, pp. 169–70.

  47 Frank Moraes is quoted extensively in ‘Transfusions of Hate’, Time,23 June 1952; on Unit 731 and the United States see Stephen L. Endicott, ‘Germ Warfare and “Plausible Denial”: The Korean War, 1952–1953’, Modern China, 5, no. 1 (Jan. 1979), pp. 79–104; Li, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 56.

  48 Waldemar Kaempffert, ‘Science in Review’, New York Times, 6 April 1952; Neibu cankao, 14 March 1952, p. 111; 24 March 1952, pp. 220 and 222.

  49 Neibu cankao, 24 March 1952, pp. 220–2; 6 May 1952, p. 31; 28 March 1952, p. 275.

  50 Neibu cankao, 6 May 1952, pp. 30–3; on Dehui, see Jilin, 22 April 1951, 2-7-56, pp. 14–15; on the recurrence of cases of holy water after 1952 one should read Steve A. Smith, ‘Local Cadres Confront the Supernatural: The Politics of Holy Water (Shenshui) in the PRC, 1949–1966’, China Quarterly, no. 188 (2006), pp. 999–1022.

  51 Rogaski, ‘Nature, Annihilation, and Modernity’, p. 384.

  52 Report by the Shandong Commission for Discipline Inspection, 17 Nov. 1952, Sichuan, JK1-729, p. 5; Report from the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, 13 Oct. 1953, Shandong, A1-5-75, p. 220.

  53 Lum, Peking, 1950–1953, p. 124; on Tianjin, see Rogaski, ‘Nature, Annihilation, and Modernity’, p. 394.

  54 On the impact of the campaign on the urban landscape, see Rogaski, ‘Nature, Annihilation, and Modernity’, p. 394.

  55 William Kinmond, No Dogs in China: A Report on China Today, New York: Thomas Nelson, 1957, p. 164.

  56 Lum, Peking, 1950–1953, p. 125; Report to Zhu De from Qian Ying, Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, 25 March 1953, Sichuan, JK1-730, p. 31; Ministry of Health to Mao Zedong, Report on achievements in health care of the past four years, 10 Oct. 1953, Gansu, 91-2-185, pp. 37–8.

  57 Report on hygiene circulated by the Centre, 7 Jan. 1953, Shandong, A1-5-84, pp. 63 and 74–5; Ministry of Health to Mao Zedong, Report on achievements in health care of the past four years, 10 Oct. 1953, Gansu, 91-2-185, pp. 37–8; Report from the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, 13 Oct. 1953, Shandong, A1-5-75, p. 220.

  58 Rowan, Chasing the Dragon, p. 50; Renmin ribao, 12 Sept. 1949, p. 5; 27 Dec. 1950, p. 6; Lum, Peking, 1950–1953, pp. 100 and 121; Confidential letter from the British Embassy, 8 May 1952, PRO, FO371-99236,p. 137; Cheo, Black Country Girl in Red China, pp. 46–8.

  59 Lum, Peking, 1950–1953, p. 129; Cheo, Black Country Girl in Red China, pp. 46–8.

  60 Cheo, Black Country Girl in Red China, pp. 46–8.

  61 Report from Qian Ying, secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, to Zhu De, Sichuan, 25 March 1953, JK1-730, p. 32; Report from People’s Council, Shandong, 16 Dec. 1952, A101-3-228,p. 59; Shandong, 6 Dec. 1954, A101-3-318, pp. 81–4.

  62 Zhang, Mao’s Military Romanticism, pp. 181–3; Chen, China’s Road to the Korean War; Kathryn Weathersby, ‘Deceiving the Deceivers: Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang, and the Allegations of Bacteriological Weapons Use in Korea’, Cold War International History Project Bulletin, no. 11 (1998), pp. 181 and 183; see also Milton Leitenberg, ‘New Russian Evidence on the Korean War Biological Warfare Allegations: Background and Analysis’, Cold War International History Project Bulletin, no. 11 (1998),pp. 185–99; Milton Leitenberg, ‘The Korean War Biological Weapon Allegations: Additional Information and Disclosures’, Asian Perspective, 24, no. 3 (2000), pp. 159–72.

  8: The Purge

  1 Bing Lu, Xin Zhongguo fan fubai diyi da’an: Qiangbi Liu Qingshan, Zhang Zishan jishi (New China’s first big case against corruption: The execution of Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan), Beijing: Falü chubanshe, 1990; a copy of the report on Zhang Zishan and Liu Qingshan by Bo Yibo and Liu Lantao to Mao Zedong, which triggered the Three-Anti Campaign, is in Gansu, 91-13-19, 29 Nov. 1951, p. 10.

  2 Bo, Ruogan zhongda shijian yu juece de huigu, vol. 1, pp. 157–8.

  3 Ibid., pp. 160–1.

  4 Geremie Barmé, The Forbidden City, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008, p. 144.

  5 Gao Hua, Hong taiyang shi zenyang shengqi de. Yan’an zhengfeng yundong de lailong qumai (How did the red sun rise over Yan’an? A history of the Rectification Campaign), Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2000, pp. 1, 530, 580 and 593; see also David E. Apter and Tony Saich, Revolutionary Discourse in Mao’s Republic, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994; Chen Yung-fa, Yan’an de yinying (Yan’an’s Shadow), Taipei: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 1990.

  6 Orders from the Centre on the Three-Anti Campaign, Hebei, 1 Dec. 1951, 855-1-75, pp. 73–4; Mao, Jianguo yilao, vol. 2, p. 528.

  7 Instruction by Mao to all local units, Sichuan, 30 Dec. 1951, JX1-813, p. 56; on Zhou, see the seminal article of Michael M. Sheng, ‘Mao Zedong and the Three-Anti Campaign (November 1951 to April 1952): A Revisionist Interpretation’, Twentieth-Century China, 32, no. 1 (Nov. 2006), pp. 56–80; see also Zhang Ming, ‘Zhizheng de daode kunjing yu tuwei zhi dao: Sanfan wufan yundong jiexi’ (Analysis of the Three-Anti and Five-Anti Campaign), Ershiyi shiji, no. 92 (Dec. 2005), pp. 46–58.

  8 Mao, Jianguo yilai, vol. 2, p. 535.

  9 Directives from the Centre, 9 Jan. 1952, Guangdong, 204-1-278,pp. 23–8; partially reprinted in Mao, Jianguo yilai, vol. 3, pp. 30–1; Directives from the Centre, 5 and 11 Feb. 1952, Guangdong, 204-1-278,pp. 148–53; these reports are partially reproduced, without some of the figures, in Mao, Jianguo yilai, vol. 3, pp. 154–5 and 192; Report from Bo Yibo, 28 Feb. 1952, Guangdong, 204-1-253, pp. 33–5.

  10 Tommy Jieqin Wu,
A Sparrow’s Voice: Living through China’s Turmoil in the 20th Century, Shawnee Mission, KS: M.I.R. House International, 1999, pp. 91–2.

  11 Sun and Dan, Engineering Communist China, pp. 17–18.

  12 Chow, Ten Years of Storm, pp. 126–7.

  13 Report from the North China Region, Hebei, 15 April 1952, 888-1-13, pp. 98–9; Report by Luo Ruiqing and Directives from the Centre, 8 and9 Jan. 1952, Guangdong, 204-1-278, pp. 99–105; Report from Bo Yibo, Hebei, 3 Jan. 1952, 888-1-1, pp. 21–4; Report from Bo Yibo, Hebei, 20 Jan. 1952, 888-1-1, p. 32.

  14 Report from Xi Zhongxun and Instructions from the Centre, 11 and 13 Dec. 1951, Guangdong, 204-1-253, pp. 5–6; Report from Jinan, 27 Dec. and 4 Jan. 1952, Guangdong, 204-1-278, pp. 32–4.

  15 Loh, Escape from Red China, p. 82; Chow, Ten Years of Storm, p. 125; Li, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 64.

  16 Report from the North China Region, Hebei, 8 Feb. 1952, 888-2-8, pp. 19–20; Report from the North China Region, Hebei, 29 Feb. and12 Oct. 1952, 888-1-22, pp. 44 and 77.

  17 Report from the North China Region, Hebei, 20 Feb. 1952, 888-1-24, p. 23; Gansu, 23 March 1952, 91-18-540, p. 33.

  18 Loh, Escape from Red China, p. 82; Li, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 64.

  19 Report by An Ziwen, Hebei, 18 Oct. 1952, 888-1-1, pp. 136–8.

  20 Report on relationships between Liu Qingshan, Zhang Zishan and the Tianjin Special District, Hebei, 1952, 888-1-92, pp. 134–41; Chow, Ten Years of Storm, p. 125.

  21 Mao, Jianguo yilai, vol. 3, p. 21; Sheng, ‘Mao Zedong and the Three-Anti Campaign’, p. 32.

  22 Alec Woo interviewed by Jasper Becker, C. C. Lee: The Textile Man, Hong Kong: Textile Alliance, 2011, p. 56; Pepper, Civil War in China,pp. 118–25.

  23 Wong Siu-lun, Emigrant Entrepreneurs: Shanghai Industrialists in Hong Kong, Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1988; Becker, C. C. Lee, pp. 55–63.