Commentary 8: On How the Chinese Communist Party Is an Evil Cult
FOREWORD
The collapse of the socialist bloc headed by the Soviet Union in the early 1990s marked the failure of communism after almost a century. However, the CCP unexpectedly survived and still controls China, a nation with one fifth of the world’s population. An unavoidable question arises: Is the CCP today still truly communist?
No one in today’s China, including Party members, believes in communism. After fifty years of socialism, the CCP has now adopted private ownership and even has a stock market. It seeks foreign investment to establish new ventures, while exploiting workers and peasants as much as it can. This is completely opposite to the ideals of communism. Despite compromising with capitalism, the CCP maintains autocratic control of the people of China. The Constitution, as revised in 2004, still rigidly states “Chinese people of various ethnicities will continue adhering to the people’s democratic dictatorship and socialist path under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong’s ideology, Deng Xiaoping’s theory and the important thought of the ‘Three Represents’…”
“The leopard has died, but its skin is still left” [1]. Today’s CCP only has “its skin” left. The CCP inherited this skin and uses it to maintain its rule over China.
What is the nature of the skin inherited by the CCP, i.e., the very organization of the CCP?
I. THE CULTISH TRAITS OF THE CCP
The Communist Party is essentially an evil cult that harms mankind.
Although the Communist Party has never called itself a religion, it matches every single trait of a religion (Table 1). At the beginning of its establishment, it regarded Marxism as the absolute truth in the world. It piously worshipped Marx as its spiritual God, and exhorted people to engage in a life-long struggle for the goal of building a “communist heaven on earth.”
Table 1. Religious Traits of the CCP.
The Communist Party is significantly different from any righteous religion. All orthodox religions believe in God and benevolence, and have as their purpose instructing humanity about morality and saving souls. The Communist Party does not believe in God and opposes traditional morality.
What the Communist Party has done proves itself to be an evil cult. The Communist Party’s doctrines are based upon class struggle, violent revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat and have resulted in the so-called “communist revolution” full of blood and violence. The red terror under communism has lasted for about a century, bringing disasters to dozens of countries in the world and costing tens of millions of lives. The communist belief, one that created a hell on earth, is nothing but the vilest cult in the world.
The communist party’s cultish traits can be summarized under six heads:
1. CONCOCTION OF DOCTRINES AND ELIMINATION OF DISSIDENTS
The Communist Party holds up Marxism as its religious doctrine and shows it off as “the unbreakable truth.” The doctrines of the Communist Party lack benevolence and tolerance. Instead, they are full of arrogance. Marxism was a product of the initial period of capitalism when productivity was low and science was under-developed. It didn’t have a correct understanding at all of the relationships between humanity and society or humanity and nature. Unfortunately, this heretical ideology developed into the international communist movement, and harmed the human world for over a century before the people discarded it, having found it completely wrong in practice.
Party leaders since Lenin have always amended the cult’s doctrines. From Lenin’s theory of violent revolution to Mao Zedong’s theory of continuous revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, to Jiang Zemin’s “Three Represents,” the Communist Party’s history is full of such heretical theory and fallacy. Although these theories have constantly caused disasters in practice and are self-contradictory, the Communist Party still proclaims it is universally correct and forces the people to study its doctrines.
Eliminating dissidents is the most effective means for the evil cult of communism to spread its doctrine. Because the doctrine and behavior of this evil cult are too ridiculous, the communist party has to force people to accept them, relying on violence to eliminate dissidents. After the Chinese Communist Party seized the reins of power in China, it initiated “land reform” to eliminate the landlord class, the “socialist reform” in industry and commerce to eliminate capitalists, the “movement of purging reactionaries” to eliminate folk religions and officials who held office before the communists took power, the “anti-rightist movement” to silence intellectuals, and the “Great Cultural Revolution” to eradicate traditional Chinese culture. The CCP was able to unify China under the communist evil cult and achieve a situation where everyone read the Red Book, performed the “loyalty dance,” and “asked for the Party’s instructions in the morning and reported to the Party in the evening.” In the period after Mao and Deng’s reigns, the CCP asserted that Falun Gong, a traditional cultivation practice that believes in Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance, would compete with it for the masses and so intended to eradicate Falun Gong. It therefore initiated a genocidal persecution of Falun Gong, which continues today.
2. PROMOTION OF LEADER WORSHIP AND SUPREMACIST VIEWS
From Marx to Jiang Zemin, the Communist Party leaders’ portraits are prominently displayed for worship. The absolute authority of the Communist Party leaders forbids any challenge. Mao Zedong was set up as the “red sun” and “big liberator.” The Party spoke outrageously about his writing, saying “one sentence equals 10,000 ordinary sentences.” As an “ordinary party member,” Deng Xiaoping once dominated Chinese politics like an overlord. Jiang Zemin’s “Three Represents” theory is merely a little over 40 characters long including punctuation, but the CCP Fourth Plenary Session boosted it as “providing a creative answer to questions such as what socialism is, how to construct socialism, what kind of party we are building and how to build the Party.” The Party also spoke outrageously about the thought of the “Three Represents,” although in this case actually mocking it when saying it is a continuation and development of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory.
Stalin’s wanton slaughter of innocent people, the catastrophic “Great Cultural Revolution” launched by Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping’s order for the Tiananmen massacre and Jiang Zemin’s ongoing persecution of Falun Gong are the dreadful results of the Communist Party’s heretical dictatorship.
On one hand, the CCP stipulates in its Constitution, “All power in the People’s Republic of China belongs to the people. The organs through which the people exercise state power are the National People’s Congress and the local people’s congresses at different levels.” “No organization or individual may enjoy the privilege of being above the Constitution and the law.” [2] On the other hand, the CCP Charter stipulates that the CCP is the core of the leadership for the Chinese-featured socialist cause, overriding both the country and the people. The chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress made “important speeches” across the country, claiming that the National People’s Congress, the highest organ of state power, must adhere to the CCP’s leadership. According to the CCP’s principle of “democratic centralism,” the entire party must obey the Central Committee of the Party. Stripped to its core, what the National People’s Congress really insists upon is the dictatorship of the General Secretary, which is in turn protected in the form of legislation.
3. VIOLENT BRAINWASHING, MIND CONTROL, TIGHT ORGANIZATION AND NO QUITTING ONCE ADMITTED
The CCP’s organization is extremely tight: one needs two party members’ references before admission; a new member must swear to be loyal to the party forever once admitted; party members must pay membership dues, attend organizational activities, and take part in group political study. The party organizations penetrate all levels of the government. There are basic CCP organizations in every single village, town, and neighborhood. The CCP controls not only its party members and party affairs, but also those who are not members, because the entire regime must “adhere to the Party’s leadership.” In those years when class struggle campaigns were carried out, the “priests” of the CCP religion, namely, the Party secretaries at all levels, more often than not, did not know exactly what they did other than disciplining people.
The “criticism and self-criticism” in the party meetings serves as a common, unending means for controlling the minds of party members. Throughout its existence, the CCP has launched a multitude of political movements for “purifying the Party members,” “rectifying the Party atmosphere,” “capturing traitors,” “purging the Anti-Bolshevik Corps (AB Corps) [3]” and “disciplining the Party,” periodically testing the “sense of Party nature”—that is, using violence and terror to test the Party members’ devotion to the Party, while assuring they keep in step with it forever.
Joining the CCP is like signing an irrevocable contract to sell one’s body and soul. With the Party’s rules being always above the laws of the Nation, the Party can dismiss any party member at will, while the individual party member cannot quit the CCP without incurring severe punishment. Quitting the Party is considered disloyal and will bring about dire consequences. During the Great Cultural Revolution when the CCP cult held absolute rule, it was well known that if the party wanted you dead, you could not live; if the party wanted you alive, you could not die. If a person committed suicide, he would be labeled as “dreading the people’s punishment for his crime” and his family members would also be implicated and punished.
The decision process within the Party operates like a black box, as the intra-party struggles must be kept in absolute secrecy. Party documents are all confidential. Dreading exposure of their criminal acts, the CCP frequently tackles dissidents by charging them with “divulging state secrets.”
4. URGING VIOLENCE, CARNAGE AND SACRIFICE FOR THE PARTY
Mao Zedong said, “A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.” [4]
Deng Xiaoping recommended “Killing 200,000 people in exchange for 20 years’ stability.”
Jiang Zemin ordered, “Destroy them (Falun Gong practitioners) physically, defame their reputation, and bankrupt them financially.”
The CCP promotes violence, and has killed countless people throughout its previous political movements. It educates people to treat the enemy “as cold as the severe winter.” The red flag is understood to be red for having been “dyed red with martyrs’ blood.” The Party worships red due to its addiction to blood and carnage.
The CCP makes an exhibition of “heroic” examples to encourage people to sacrifice for the Party. When Zhang Side died working in a kiln to produce opium, Mao Zedong praised his death as being “heavy as Mount Tai [5].” In those frenzied years, “brave words” such as “Fear neither hardship nor death” and “Bitter sacrifice strengthens bold resolve; we dare to make the sun and moon shine in new skies” gave aspirations substance amidst an extreme shortage of material supplies.
At the end of the 1970s, the Vietcong dispatched troops and overthrew the Khmer Rouge regime, which was fostered by the CCP and committed unspeakable crimes. Although the CCP was furious, it could not dispatch troops to support the Khmer Rouge, since China and Cambodia did not share a common border. Instead, the CCP launched a war against Vietnam along the Chinese-Vietnam border to punish the Vietcong in the name of “self-defense.” Tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers therefore sacrificed blood and lives for this struggle between Communist Parties. Their deaths had in fact nothing to do with territory or sovereignty. Nevertheless, several years later, the CCP disgracefully memorialized the senseless sacrifice of so many naive and bright young lives as “the revolutionary heroic spirit,” irreverently borrowing the song “The elegant demeanor dyed by blood.” 154 Chinese martyrs died in 1981 recapturing Mount Faka in Guangxi Province, but the CCP casually returned it to Vietnam after China and Vietnam surveyed the boundary.
When the rampant spread of SARS threatened people’s lives at the beginning of 2003, the CCP readily admitted many young female nurses. These women were then quickly confined in hospitals to nurse SARS patients. The CCP push young people to the most dangerous frontline, in order to establish its “glorious image” of “Fear neither hardship nor death.” However, the CCP has no explanation as to where the rest of the current 65 million party members were and what image they brought to the Party.
5. DENYING BELIEF IN GOD AND SMOTHERING HUMAN NATURE
The CCP promotes atheism and claims that religion is “spiritual opium” that can intoxicate the people. It used its power to squelch all religions in China, and then it deified itself, giving absolute rule of the country to the CCP cult.
At the same time as the CCP sabotaged religion, it also destroyed traditional culture. It claimed that tradition, morality and ethics were feudalistic, superstitious and reactionary, eradicating them in the name of revolution. During the great Cultural Revolution, widespread ugly phenomena violated Chinese traditions, such as married couples accusing each other, students beating their teachers, fathers and sons turning against each other, Red Guards wantonly killing the innocent, and rebels beating, smashing and looting. These were the natural consequences of the CCP’s smothering human nature.
After establishing its regime, the CCP forced minority nationalities to pledge allegiance to the communist leadership, compromising the rich and colorful ethnic culture they had established.
On June 4, 1989, the so-called “People's Liberation Army” massacred many students in Beijing. This caused the Chinese to completely lose hope in China’s political future. From then on, the entire people turned their focus to making money. From 1999 to this day, the CCP has been brutally persecuting Falun Gong, turning against “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance” and thereby causing an accelerated decline in moral standards.
Since the beginning of this new century, a new round of illegal land enclosure [6] and seizure of monetary and material resources [by the corrupt CCP officials in collusion with profiteers] has driven many people to become destitute and homeless. The number of people appealing to the government in an attempt to have an injustice settled has increased sharply, and social conflict has intensified. Large-scale protests are frequent, which the police and armed forces have violently suppressed. The fascist nature of the “Republic” has become prominent, and society has lost its moral conscience.
In the past, a villain didn’t harm his next door neighbors, or, as the saying goes, the fox preyed far from home. Nowadays, when people want to con someone, they would rather target their relatives and friends, and call it “killing acquaintances.”
In the past, Chinese nationals cherished chastity above all else, whereas people today ridicule the poor but not the prostitutes. The history of the destruction of human nature and morals in China is vividly displayed in a ballad below:
“In the 50s people helped one another,
In the 60s people strove with one another,
In the 70s people swindled one another,
In the 80s people cared only for themselves,
In the 90s people took advantage of anyone they ran into.”
6. MILITARY SEIZURE OF POWER, MONOPOLIZATION OF THE ECONOMY AND WILD POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC AMBITIONS
The sole purpose of establishing the CCP was to seize power by armed force and then to generate a system of state ownership in which the state holds monopolies in the planned economy. The CCP’s wild ambition far surpasses that of the ordinary evil cults who simply accumulate money.
In a country of socialist public ownership ruled by the Communist Party, Party organizations that hold great power, that is, the Party committees and branches at various levels, are imposed upon or possess the normal state infrastructure. The possessing Party organizations control state machinery and draw funds directly from the budgets of the governments at different levels. Like a vampire, the CCP has sucked a huge amount of wealth from the nation.
II. THE DAMAGE THE CCP CULT HAS WROUGHT
When incidents like Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth) killing people with sarin nerve gas, the Solar Temple’s ascending to heaven by suicide, or the mass suicide of over 900 followers of Jim Jones’ “People’s Temple” are mentioned, everyone trembles with fear and outrage. The CCP is, however, an evil cult that commits crimes a thousand times worse, harming countless lives. This is because the CCP possesses the following unique features that ordinary cults lack.
THE EVIL CULT BECAME A STATE RELIGION
In most countries, if you do not follow a religion, you can still enjoy a happy life without reading the literature or listening to the principles of that religion. In mainland China, however, it is impossible for one to live there without a constant exposure to the doctrines and propaganda of the CCP cult, as the CCP has turned this evil cult into a state religion since its seizure of power.
The CCP begins to instill its political preaching in as early as kindergarten and elementary school. One cannot receive higher education or promotion to higher office without passing the Political Examination. None of the questions in the Political Examination allow independent thinking. Those taking the exams are required to memorize the standard answers provided by the CCP in order to pass. The unfortunate Chinese people are forced to repeat the CCP’s preaching even when they are young, brainwashing themselves over and over again. When a cadre is promoted to a higher office in the government, whether he is a member of the CCP or not, he has to attend the Party School. He won’t be promoted until he has met the requirements for graduation from the Party School.
In China, where the Communist Party is the state religion, groups with different opinions are not allowed to exist. Even the “democratic parties,” which are merely set up by the CCP as a political screen, and the reformed “Three-Self Church” (i.e., self-administration, self-support and self-propagation) must formally acknowledge the leadership of the CCP. Loyalty to the CCP is the first priority before entertaining any other beliefs, according to the very cultish logic of the CCP.
SOCIAL CONTROLS GO TO EXTREMES
This evil cult was able to become a state religion, because the CCP had complete social control and deprived individuals of freedom. This kind of control is unprecedented, since the CCP deprived people of private property, which is one foundation of freedom. Before the 1980s, people in urban areas could only earn a living by working in Party-controlled enterprises. Farmers in the rural areas had to live on the farm land belonging to the communes of the Party. Nobody could escape the CCP’s control. In a socialist country like China, the Communist Party organizations are ubiquitous—from the central government to the most grass-roots levels of society, including villages and neighborhoods. Through the Party committees and branches at all levels, the CCP maintains an absolute control over society. Such strict control completely squelches individual freedom—the freedom of movement (residence registration system), freedom of speech (500,000 rightists were persecuted by the CCP because they exercised free speech), freedom of thought (Lin Zhao and Zhang Zhixin [7] were executed for having doubts about the CCP), and freedom to obtain information (it is illegal to read forbidden books or listen to “enemies’ radio stations”; internet browsing is monitored as well.)
One might say that private ownership is allowed now by the CCP, but we should not forget that this policy of reform and openness only came about when socialism reached a point where people did not have enough to eat and the national economy was on the brink of collapse. The CCP had to take a step back in order to save itself from destruction. Nevertheless, even after the reform and opening, the CCP has never relaxed its control over the people. The ongoing brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners could have only occurred in a country controlled by the Communist Party. If the CCP were to become an economic giant as it wishes, it is certain that the CCP would intensify its control over the Chinese people.
ADVOCATING VIOLENCE AND DESPISING LIFE
Almost all evil cults control their followers or resist external pressure through violence. However, few have resorted to the extent the CCP has to violent means without compunction. Even the total number of deaths caused by all other evil cults across the world cannot compare to the number of people killed by the CCP. The CCP cult sees humanity as merely a means to realize its goal; killing is just another means. Thus, the CCP has no reservations or scruples in persecuting people. Anyone, including supporters, members and leaders of the CCP, can become a target of its persecution.
The CCP fostered the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, a typical case of the Communist Party’s brutality and disregard for life. Inspired and guided by Mao Zedong’s teaching, during its reign of three years and eight months, the Pol Pot-led Cambodian Communist Party slaughtered two million people—about one-fourth of this small country’s entire population—in order to “eliminate the system of private ownership.” Out of the total number of deaths, more than 200,000 were of Chinese ethnicity.
To commemorate the crimes committed by the Communist Party and memorialize the victims, Cambodia set up a museum for documenting and exhibiting the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. The museum is in a former Khmer Rouge prison. Originally a high school, the building was transformed by Pol Pot to the S-21 Prison, which was used specifically for dealing with prisoners of conscience. Many intellectuals were detained there and tortured to death. Displayed along with the prison buildings and various torture instruments are also the black and white photos of the victims before they were put to death. There are many horrible tortures documented: throats cut, brains drilled, infants thrown to the ground and killed, etc. All these torture methods were reportedly taught by the “experts and technical professionals” that the CCP dispatched in support of the Khmer Rouge. The CCP even trained the photographers, who specialized in taking pictures, whether for documentation or entertainment, of the prisoners before they were executed.
Precisely in this S-21 Prison a head-drilling machine was devised to extract the human brains for making nutritious meals for the leaders of the Cambodian Communist Party. The prisoners of conscience were tied to a chair in front of the head-drilling machine. The victim would be extremely terrified, as a rapidly turning drill bit punctured the head from behind and quickly and effectively extracted the brains before the victim died.
III. THE COMMUNIST PARTY’S CULT NATURE
What makes the Communist Party so tyrannical and so evil? When this specter of the Communist Party came to this world, it came with a chilling mission. The Communist Manifesto has a very famous passage towards the end,
The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
The mission of this specter was to use violence to openly challenge the human society, to smash the old world, “to eliminate private ownership,” “to eliminate the character, independence and freedom of the bourgeoisie,” to eliminate exploitation, to eliminate families, and to let the proletarians govern the world.
This political party, which openly announced the desire to “beat, smash and rob,” not only denies its point of view to be evil, but also declared self-righteously in the Communist Manifesto, “The Communist revolution is the most radical rupture with traditional relations; no wonder that its development involved the most radical rupture with traditional ideas.”
Where do the traditional thoughts come from? According to the atheist’s law of nature, traditional thoughts come naturally from the laws of nature and the society. They are the results of systematic movements of the universe. According to those who believe in God, however, the human traditions and moral values are given by God. Regardless of their origin, the most fundamental human morality, behavioral norms, and standards of judging good and bad are relatively stable; they have been the basis for regulating human behavior and maintaining social order for thousands of years. If mankind lost the moral norms and standards for judging good and bad, wouldn’t humans degenerate into animals? When the Communist Manifesto declares it will “fundamentally rupture with traditional ideas,” it threatens the basis for the normal existence of human society. The Communist Party was bound to become an evil cult that brings destruction to mankind.
The entire document of Communist Manifesto, which sets forth the guiding principles for the communist party, is permeated with extreme pronouncements but not a bit of kindness and tolerance. Marx and Engels thought they had found the law of social development through dialectic materialism. Hence, with the “truth” in hand, they questioned everything and denied everything. They stubbornly imposed the illusions of Communism on the people and did not hold back in advocating the use of violence to destroy existing social structures and cultural foundations. What was brought along with the Communist Manifesto to the newborn Communist Party was an iniquitous specter that opposes the laws of heaven, exterminates human nature, and appears arrogant, extremely selfish and totally unconstrained.
IV. THE COMMUNIST PARTY’S DOOMSDAY THEORY—THE FEAR OF THE PARTY ENDING
Marx and Engels instilled a wicked spirit into the Communist Party. Lenin established the Communist Party in Russia and, through the violence of scoundrels, overthrew the transitional government built after the February Revolution, [8] aborted the bourgeois revolution in Russia, took over the government, and obtained a foothold for the Communist cult. However, Lenin’s success did not make the proletarians win the world. Just the contrary, as the first paragraph in the Communist Manifesto says, “All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter...” After the Communist Party was born, it immediately faced the crisis of its survival and feared elimination at anytime.
After the October Revolution [9], the Russian Communists, or Bolsheviks, did not bring the people peace or bread, but only wanton killing. The front line was losing the war and the revolution worsened the economy in the society. Hence, the people started to rebel. Civil war quickly spread to the entire nation and the farmers refused to provide food to the cities. A full-scale riot originated among the Cossacks near the River Don; its battle with the Red Army brought brutal bloodshed. The barbaric and brutal nature of the slaughter that took place in this battle can be seen from literature, such as Sholokhov’s “Tikhii Don” and his other Don River story collections. The troops, lead by the former White Army Admiral Aleksandr Vailiyevich Kolchak and General Anton Denikin, almost overthrew the Russian Communist Party at one point. Even as a newborn political power, the Communist party was opposed by almost the entire nation, perhaps because the Communist cult was too evil to win the people’s hearts.
The experience of the Chinese Communist Party was similar to Russia’s. From the “Mari Incident” and “April 12th Massacre,”[10] to being suppressed five times in areas controlled by the Chinese Communists, and eventually to being forced to undertake a 25,000-kilometer (15,600 miles) “Long March” — the CCP always faced the crisis of being eliminated.
The Communist Party was born with the determination to destroy the old world by all means. It then found itself having to face a real problem: how to survive without being eliminated. The Communist Party has been living in a constant fear of its own demise. To survive has become the Communist cult’s top concern, its all-consuming focus. With the international Communist alliance in disarray, the CCP’s crisis of survival has worsened. Since 1989, its fear of its own doomsday has become more real as its demise has come nearer.
V. THE TREASURED WEAPON FOR THE COMMUNIST CULT’S SURVIVAL—BRUTAL STRUGGLE
The Communist Party has constantly emphasized iron discipline, absolute loyalty, and organizational principles. Those who join the CCP must swear,
“I wish to join the Chinese Communist Party, to support the Party’s constitution, follow the Party’s regulations, fulfill the member’s obligations, execute the Party’s decisions, strictly follow the Party’s disciplines, keep the Party’s secrets, be loyal to the Party, work diligently, dedicate my whole life to Communism, stand ready to sacrifice everything for the Party and the people, and never betray the Party.” (See the CCP Constitution, Chapter One, Article Six)
The CCP calls this spirit of cult-like devotion to the Party the “sense of Party nature.” It asks a CCP member to be ready anytime to give up all personal beliefs and principles and to obey absolutely the Party’s will and the leader’s will. If the Party wants you to be kind, then you should be kind; if the Party wants you to do evil, then you should do evil. Otherwise you would not meet the standard of being a Party member, having not shown a strong “sense of Party nature.”
Mao Zedong said, “Marxist philosophy is a philosophy of struggle.” To foster and maintain the “sense of Party nature,” the CCP relies on the mechanism of periodical struggles within the Party. Through continuously mobilizing brutal struggles inside and outside the Party, the CCP has eliminated dissidents and created the red terror. At the same time, the CCP continuously purges Party members, makes its cult-type rules stricter, and fosters members’ aptitude towards the “Party nature” to enhance the Party’s fighting capacity. This is a treasured weapon the CCP uses to prolong its survival.
Among CCP leaders, Mao Zedong was the most adept at mastering this treasured weapon of brutal struggle within the Party. The brutality of such a struggle and the malevolence of its methods began as early as the 1930s in areas controlled by the Chinese Communists, the so-called “Soviet Area.”
In 1930, Mao Zedong initiated a full-scale revolutionary terror in the Soviet area in Jiangxi Province, known as the purging of the Anti-Bolshevik Corps, or the AB Corps. Thousands of Red Army soldiers, Party and League members and civilians in the Communist bases were brutally murdered. The incident was caused by Mao’s despotic control. After Mao established the Soviet area in Jiangxi, he was soon challenged by the local Red Army and Party organizations in southwest Jiangxi led by Li Wenlin. Mao could not stand any organized opposition force right under his nose and he used the most extreme methods to suppress the Party members he suspected of being dissidents. To create a stern atmosphere for the purge, Mao did not hesitate to start with troops under his direct control. From late November to mid December, the First Front Red Army went through a “quick military rectification.” Organizations for purging counterrevolutionaries were established at every single level in the army, including division, regiment, battalion, company, and platoon, arresting and killing Party members who were from families of landlords or rich peasants and those who had complaints. In less than one month, among more than 40,000 Red Army soldiers, 4,400 were named as AB Corps elements, including more than 10 captains (the AB Corps captains); all of them were executed.
In the following period, Mao began to punish those dissidents in the Soviet Area. In December 1930, he ordered Li Shaojiu, Secretary General of the General Political Department of the First Front Red Army and Chairman of the Purge Committee to represent the General Frontier Committee and go to the town of Futian in Jiangxi Province where the Communist government is located. Li Shaojiu arrested members of the Provincial Action Committee and eight chief leaders of the 20th Red Army, including Duan Liangbi and Li Baifang. He used many cruel torture methods such as beating and burning the body—people who were tortured like this had injuries all over their bodies, fingers fractured, burns all over, and could not move. According to the documentary evidence at that time, the victims’ cries were so loud as to pierce the sky; the cruel torture methods were extremely inhumane.
On December 8, the wives of Li Baifang, Ma Ming and Zhou Mian went to visit their husbands in detention, but they were also arrested as members of the AB Corps and cruelly tortured. They were severely beaten, their bodies and vulvae burned and breasts cut with knives. Under the cruel torture, Duan Liangbi confessed that Li Wenlin, Jin Wanbang, Liu Di, Zhou Mian, Ma Ming and others were leaders of the AB Corps and that there were many members of AB Corps in the Red Army’s schools.
From December 7 to the evening of December 12, in merely five days, Li Shaojiu and others arrested more than 120 alleged AB Corps members and dozens of principal counter-revolutionaries in the severe AB Corps purge in Futian; more than 40 people were executed. Li Shaojiu’s cruel acts finally triggered the “Futian Incident” [11] on December 12, 1930 that highly astounded the Soviet Area. (From Historical Investigation of Mao Zedong’s Purge of “AB Corps” in Soviet Area, Jiangxi Province by Gao Hua)
From the Soviet Area to Yan’an, Mao relied on his theory and practice of struggle and gradually sought and established his absolute leadership of the Party. After the CCP came to power in 1949, Mao continued to reply on this kind of inner-party struggle. For example, in the eighth plenum of the Eighth CCP Central Committee meeting held in Lushan in 1959, Mao Zedong launched a sudden attack on Peng Dehuai and removed him from his position [12]. All of the central leaders who attended the conference were asked to take a stand; the few who dared to express different opinions were all labeled the Peng Dehuai antiparty bloc. During the Cultural Revolution, the veteran cadres at the CCP’s Central Committee were punished one after another, but all of them gave in without putting up a fight. Who would dare to speak a word against Mao Zedong? The CCP has always emphasized iron discipline, loyalty to the Party, and organizational principles, requiring absolute obedience to the hierarchy’s leader. This kind of party nature has been engrained in the continuous political struggles.
During the Cultural Revolution, Li Lisan, once a CCP leader, was driven to the limit of his endurance. At 68 years of age, he was interrogated on average seven times per month. His wife Li Sha was treated as a “Soviet revisionist” spy, and had already been sent to jail; her whereabouts were unknown. With no other choice and in extreme despair, Li committed suicide by swallowing a large quantity of sleeping pills. Before his death, Li Lisan wrote a letter to Mao Zedong, truly reflecting the “sense of Party nature,” according to which a CCP member does not dare to give up, even on the verge of death:
Chairman,
I am now stepping onto the path of betraying the Party by committing suicide, and have no means to defend my crime. Only one thing, that is, my entire family and I have never collaborated with enemy states. Only on this issue, I request the central government to investigate and examine the facts and draw conclusions based on truth...
Li Lisan
June 22, 1967 [13]
While Mao Zedong’s philosophy of struggle eventually dragged China into an unprecedented catastrophe, this kind of political campaign and the inner-party struggle, which is widespread once “every seven or eight years,” have ensured the survival of the CCP. Every time there was a campaign, a minority of five percent would be persecuted, and the remaining 95 percent would be brought to an obedient adherence to the Party’s basic line, thereby enhancing the Party organization’s cohesive force and destructive capacity. These struggles also eliminated those “faltering” members who were not willing to give up their conscience, and attacked any force that dared to resist. Through this mechanism of struggle, those CCP members who have the greatest desire for struggle and are best at using the methods of hoodlums have gained control. The CCP cult leaders are all fearless people rich in the experience of struggle and full of the Party spirit. Such brutal struggle also gives those who have experienced it a “blood lesson” and violent brainwashing. At the same time, it continuously energizes the CCP, further strengthening its desire for struggle, ensuring its survival, and preventing it from becoming a temperate group that gives up the struggle.
This kind of party nature required by the CCP has come precisely from the CCP’s cult nature. In order to realize its goal, the CCP is determined to break away from all traditional principles, and use all means to fight unhesitatingly with any force that hinders it. Therefore it needs to train and enslave all its members to become the Party’s heartless, unjust and faithless tool. This nature of the CCP originates from its hatred toward human society and traditions, its delusional self-evaluation, and its extreme selfishness and contempt for other people’s lives. In order to achieve its so-called ideal, the CCP used violence at all costs to smash the world and eliminate all dissidents. Such an evil cult would meet with opposition from people of conscience, so it must eliminate people’s conscience and benevolent thoughts to make people believe in its evil doctrine. Therefore, in order to ensure its survival, the CCP first of all must destroy people’s conscience, benevolent thoughts and moral standards, turning people into tame slaves and tools. According to the CCP’s logic, the Party’s life and interest override everything else; they even override the collective interest of all Party members, thus any individual Party member must be prepared to sacrifice for the Party.
Looking at the CCP’s history, individuals who retained the mindset of traditional intellectuals like Chen Duxiu and Qu Qiubai, or who still cared about people’s interests like Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, or who are determined to be clean officials and bring real service to the people such as Zhu Rongji—no matter how much they contributed to the Party, and no matter how devoid of personal ambitions they were, they were inevitably purged, cast aside, or restricted by the Party’s interests and discipline.
The sense of Party nature or the aptitude for the Party that was fostered in their bones over many years of struggle often made them compromise and surrender in critical moments, because in their subconscious, the Party’s survival is the highest interest. They would rather sacrifice themselves and watch the evil force within the Party commit murder, than challenge the Party’s survival with their conscientious and compassionate thoughts. This is precisely the result of the CCP’s mechanism of struggle: it turns good people into tools that it uses, and uses the Party nature to limit and even eliminate human conscience to the greatest extent. Dozens of the CCP’s “line struggles” brought down more than 10 top-level Party leaders or designated successors; none of the top Party leaders came to a good end. Although Mao Zedong had been the king for 43 years, shortly after he died, his wife and nephew were put in jail, which was cheered by the entire Party as a great victory of Maoism. Is this a comedy or a farce?
After the CCP seized political power, there were unceasing political campaigns, from inner-party fights to struggles outside the Party. This was the case during the Mao Zedong era, and is still the case in the post-Mao era of “reform and openness.” In the 1980s, when people just began to have a slight bit of freedom in their thinking, the CCP launched the campaign of “Opposition to Bourgeois Liberalization,” and proposed “the Four Fundamental Principles” [14] in order to maintain its absolute leadership. In 1989, the students who peacefully asked for democracy were bloodily suppressed because the CCP does not allow democratic aspirations. The 1990s witnessed a rapid increase in Falun Gong practitioners who believe in Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance, but they were met with genocidal persecution beginning in 1999, because the CCP cannot tolerate human nature and benevolent thoughts. It must use violence to destroy people’s conscience and ensure its own power. Since entering the 21st century, the Internet has connected the world together, but the CCP has spent great sums of money in setting up network blockades to trap online liberals, because the CCP greatly fears people freely obtaining information.
VI. THE DEGENERATION OF THE EVIL CULT OF THE CCP
The CCP evil cult essentially rules in opposition to human nature and the principles of heaven. The CCP is known for its arrogance, self-importance, selfishness, and brutal, unrestrained acts. It consistently brings disasters to the country and the people, yet it never admits its mistakes, and would never reveal its true nature to the people. The CCP has never hesitated to change its slogans and labels, which are regarded by the CCP as the means to maintain its control. It will do anything to keep in power with total disregard for morality, justice and human life.
The institutionalization and socialization of this evil cult are bound to lead to its collapse. As a result of the centralization of power, public opinion has been silenced and all possible monitoring mechanisms have been destroyed, leaving no force to stop the CCP from sliding into corruption and disintegration
Today’s CCP has become the largest ruling “party of embezzlement and corruption” in the world. According to official statistics in China, among the 20 million officials, officers or cadres in the Party or government over the past 20 years, eight million have been found guilty of corruption and disciplined or punished based on party or government regulations. If the unidentified corrupt officials are also taken into account, the corrupt party and government officials are estimated to be at over two thirds, of whom only a small portion have been investigated and exposed.
Securing material benefits by means of corruption and extortion has become the strongest coherent force for the unity of the CCP today. The corrupt officials know that without the CCP, they would have no opportunity to connive for personal gain, and if the CCP falls, they would not only lose their power and position, but also face investigation. In Heaven’s Wrath, a novel that exposes behind-the-scenes dealings of the CCP officials, the author Chen Fang spelled out the CCP’s top secret using the mouth of Hao Xiangshou, a deputy director of a municipal CCP office, “corruption has stabilized our political power.”
The Chinese people see it clearly, “if we fight corruption, the party will fall; if we do not fight corruption, the nation will perish.” The CCP, however, will not risk its own doom to fight corruption. What it will do is to kill a few corrupt individuals as a token sacrifice for the sake of its image. This prolongs its life for a few more years at the expense of a small number of corrupt elements. Today, the only goals of the CCP evil cult are to keep its power and steer clear from its demise.
In today’s China, ethics and morality have degenerated beyond recognition. Shoddy products, prostitutes, drugs, conspiracies between officials and gangs, organized crime syndicates, gambling, bribery—corruption of every kind is prevalent. The CCP has largely ignored such moral decay, while many high ranking officials are the bosses in the back room who are extorting protection fees from people who are afraid. Cai Shaoqing, an expert studying mafia and crime organizations at Nanjing University, estimates that the number of organized crime members in China totals at least one million. Each syndicate figure captured always exposes some behind–the-scenes corrupt Communists who are government officials, judges, or police.
The CCP is afraid the Chinese people might gain a sense of conscience and morality, so it does not dare to allow the people to have faith in religion or freedom of thought. It uses all its resources to persecute the good people who have faith, such as the underground Christians who believe in Jesus and God and the Falun Gong practitioners who seek to be Truthful, Compassionate and Tolerant. The CCP is afraid that democracy would end its one-party rule, so it does not dare to give people political freedom. It acts swiftly to imprison independent liberals and civil rights activists. It does, however, give people a deviated freedom. As long as you do not care about politics and do not oppose the CCP’s leadership, you may let your desires go in any way you want, even if it means you do wicked, unethical things. As a result the CCP is deteriorating dramatically and social morality in China is experiencing an alarmingly sharp decline.
“Blocking the road to heaven and opening the gate to hell” best describes how the evil cult of the CCP has devastated Chinese society today.
VII. REFLECTIONS ON THE EVIL RULE OF THE CCP
WHAT IS THE COMMUNIST PARTY?
This seemingly simple question has no simple answers. Under the pretense of being “for the people” and in the guise of a political party, the Communist Party has indeed deceived millions of people. And yet it is not a political party in the ordinary sense, but a harmful and evil cult possessed by an evil specter. The Communist Party is a living being who manifests in this world through the Party organizations. What truly controls the Communist Party is the evil specter that first entered it, and it is that evil specter that determines the evil nature of the Communist Party.
The leaders of the Communist Party, while acting as the gurus of the cult, serve only as the mouthpiece of the evil specter and the Party. When their will and purpose are in line with the Party and can be used by it, they will be chosen as leaders. But when they can no longer meet the needs of the Party, they will be ruthlessly overthrown. The mechanism of struggle of the Party makes sure that only the craftiest, the most evil, and the toughest ones will hold steadily to the position of guru of the Communist Party. A dozen or so ranking party leaders have fallen from grace, which proves the truth of this argument. In fact, the top leaders of the Party are walking on a very narrow tight rope. They can either break away from the Party line and leave a good name in history, as Gorbachev did, or be victimized by the Party like many general secretaries of the Party.
The people are the targets of the Party’s enslavement and oppression. Under the Party’s rule, the people have no rights to reject the Party. Instead, they are forced to accept the Party’s leadership and fulfill the obligation to sustain the Party. They are also subjected to regular cult type brainwashing under the threat of coercion from the Party. The CCP forces the whole nation to believe in and sustain this evil cult. This is rarely seen in the world today, and we have to recognize the CCP’s unmatchable skill in such oppression.
The party members are a physical mass that has been used to fill up the body of the Party. Many among them are honest and kind, and may even be quite accomplished in their public life. These are the people the CCP likes to recruit, since their reputation and competence may be used to serve the Party. Many others, out of their desire to become an official and enjoy a higher social status, would work hard to join the Party and aid the evil being. There are also those who chose to join the Party because they want to accomplish something in their lives and realized that under the Communist rule they could not do so unless they joined the Party. Some joined the Party because they wanted the allocation of an apartment or simply wanted a better image. Thus among the tens of millions of Party members, there are both good and bad people. Regardless of motives, once you swear your allegiance in front of the Party’s flag, willingly or otherwise, that means you have voluntarily devoted yourself to the Party. You will then go through the brainwashing process by participating in the weekly political studies. A significant number of Party members will have little if any of their own thoughts left and would be easily controlled by the evil specter of the CCP host body as a result of the indoctrination by the Party. These people will function within the Party like the cells of a human body, and work non-stop for the Party’s existence, even though they themselves are also part of the population enslaved by the Party. Sadder still, after the bondage of the “party nature” is imposed on you, it becomes very hard to take it off. Once you show your human side, you will be purged or persecuted. You cannot withdraw from the Party on your own even if you want to, for the Party, with its entrance-yes and exit-no policy, would regard you as a traitor. That is why people often reveal a dual-nature: in their political life the nature of the Communist Party, and in their daily life human nature.
The Party cadres are a group that retains power among Party members. Though they may have choices between good and bad and make their own decisions on specific occasions, at specific times, and specific events, they, as a whole, have to follow the will of the Party. The mandate dictates “the whole Party obeys the Central Committee.” The Party cadres are the leaders at different levels; they are the Party’s backbones. They too are merely tools for the Party. They, too, have been deceived, used and victimized during the past political movements. The CCP’s underlying criterion is to test whether you are following the right guru and are sincere in your devotion.
WHY DO PEOPLE REMAIN UNAWARE?
The CCP has acted viciously and wickedly throughout its more than 50-year rule over China. But why do the Chinese people lack a realistic understanding of the CCP’s evil nature? Is it because the Chinese are dumb? No. The Chinese constitute one of the wisest nations in the world and boast a rich traditional culture and heritage of 5000 years. Yet the Chinese people are still living under the CCP’s rule, completely afraid of expressing their discontent. The key lies in the mind-control practiced by the CCP.
If the Chinese people enjoyed freedom of expression and could debate openly the merits and demerits of the CCP, we could imagine the Chinese would have long ago seen through the evil nature of the CCP and freed themselves from the influence of this evil cult. Unfortunately, the Chinese people lost their freedom of expression and thought over half a century ago with the advent of the CCP’s rule. The purpose behind persecution of the rightists among the intellectuals in 1957 was to restrain free expression and to control people’s minds. In a society so lacking fundamental freedoms, most of the youth who had wholeheartedly studied the works of Marx and Engels during the Cultural Revolution have ironically been labeled as an “anti-Party clique” and are subsequently persecuted. Discussing the CCP’s rights and wrongs was simply out of the question.
Not many Chinese would even dare to think of calling the CCP an evil cult. However, were that assertion made, those who have lived in China would not find it hard to discover strong evidence supporting the argument, from both their own experience and those of their family and friends.
The Chinese people have not only been deprived of freedom of thought, they have also been indoctrinated with the teachings and culture of the Party. Thus, all that people could hear have been the praises of the Party, and their minds have been impoverished of any thought other than ideas that reinforce the CCP. Take the Tiananmen massacre for example. When shots were fired on June 4th, 1989, many people instinctively ran to hide in the bushes. Moments later, despite the risks, they came bravely out of hiding and sang “The Internationale” together. These Chinese were indeed courageous, innocent and respectable, yet why did they sing “The Internationale,” the Communist anthem, when confronted with the Communist killing? The reason is simple. Educated in the Party’s culture, all the pitiable people know is Communism. Those in Tiananmen Square did not know any other songs than “The Internationale” and a few others that praise the Communist Party.
WHAT IS THE WAY OUT?
The CCP has been moving towards its complete doom. Sadly, it is still trying to tie its fate to the Chinese nation before its demise.
The dying CCP is apparently weakening and its control over people’s minds is loosening. With the advance of telecommunications and the Internet, the CCP is finding it difficult to control information and suppress expression. As the corrupt officials increasingly plunder and oppress the people, the public is beginning to wake up from their illusions about the CCP, and many of them have started to exercise civil disobedience. The CCP has not only failed to achieve its goal of increased ideological control in its persecution of Falun Gong, but also further weakened itself while revealing its absolute ruthlessness. This opportune moment has made people reconsider the CCP, paving the way for the Chinese nation to free itself from the ideological bondage and completely break away from the control of the Communist evil specter.
Having lived under the evil rule of the CCP for over 50 years, the Chinese people do not need a violent revolution; rather, they need redemption of their souls. This can be achieved through self-help, and the first step towards that goal is to become aware of the evil nature of the CCP.
The day will come when people cast aside the Party’s organizations that are attached to the state apparatus, allowing the social systems to function independently, backed up by the core forces of the society. With the passing of a dictatorial Party organization, the efficiency of the government will be improved and enhanced. And that day is right around the corner. In fact, as early as the 1980s, the reformers inside the Party advocated the idea of “separating the Party from the government,” in an attempt to exclude the Party from the government. The reform efforts from within the CCP have proven to be inadequate and unsuccessful, because the ideology of “the absolute leadership of the Party” has not been totally rejected.
The Party culture is the environment necessary for the survival of the communist evil cult. Removing the CCP’s possession of people’s minds may prove to be more difficult than clearing out the CCP’s possession of state administrations, but such a removal is the only way truly to uproot the evil of communism. This can be achieved only through the efforts of the Chinese people themselves. With their minds set right and human nature returned to its original state, the public would regain its morality and succeed in a transition to a decent non-Communist society. The cure for this evil possession lies in the recognition of the evil specter’s nature and harmfulness, eradicating it from people’s minds, and clearing it out, so that it has no place to hide. The Communist Party stresses ideological control, since it is nothing but an ideology itself. That ideology will dissipate when all Chinese reject the Communist falsehood in their minds, actively wipe out the Party culture, and rid their own mentalities and lives of the influences from the communist evil cult. As people save themselves, the CCP will disintegrate.
Nations ruled by Communists are associated with poverty, totalitarianism, and persecution. There are very few such nations left, including China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba. Their days are numbered.
With the wisdom of the Chinese people, inspired by the historical glory of the Chinese nation, a China freed from the evil possession of communism will be a promising nation.
CONCLUSION
The CCP no longer believes in communism. Its soul has died, but its shadow remains. It has inherited only the ‘skin’ of communism, but still manifests the nature of an evil cult: arrogance, conceit and selfishness, and indulgence in wanton destructiveness. The CCP has inherited the Communist denial of the law of heaven, and its rejection of human nature has remained unchanged.
Today, the CCP continues to rule China with the methods of struggle mastered over the years, using its close-knit organizational system coupled with the ruling form of “Party possession,” as well as evil propaganda that functions as a state-religion. The six features of the Communist Party outlined previously place today’s CCP firmly within the definition of an “evil cult”; it does no good, only evil.
As it nears death, this Communist evil cult is accelerating the pace of its corruption and degeneration. What is most troublesome is that it is stubbornly doing what it can to take the Chinese nation with it into an abyss of corruption and degeneration.
The Chinese need to help themselves; they need to reflect, and they need to shake off the CCP.
NOTES:
[1] “The leopard has died, but its skin is still left” is from the ancient Chinese book of prophecy, the Plum Blossom Poem by Shao Yong (1011-1077). The leopard here refers to the geographic territory of the former Soviet Union, which indeed resembles a running leopard in shape. With the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the essence of the communist system has disintegrated, leaving only the “skin” (the form), which the Chinese Communist Party inherited.
[2] Constitution of the People's Republic of China (official translation, 1999).
[3] The “AB Corps” incident refers to the “Anti-Bolshevik Corps” operation in 1930, when Mao ordered the killing of thousands of Party members, Red Army soldiers, and innocent civilians in Jiangxi province in an attempt to consolidate his power in the CCP-controlled areas.
[4] From Mao’s “Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan” (1927).
[5] Mount Tai (Taishan) is the first of five famous mountains in Shandong Province, China. It has been a UN world heritage site since 1987.
[6] The Land Enclosure Movement relates to a dark side of the economic reforms of China. Similar to the industrial revolution in England (1760-1850), agricultural lands in today’s China have been demarcated to build various economic zones at all levels (county, city, provincial and state). As a result of the land enclosure, Chinese farmers have been losing their land. In the cities, residents in older city and town districts were frequently forced to relocate so as to vacate the land for commercial development with minimal compensation for the residents. More information is available at: http://www.uglychinese.org/enclosure.htm.
[7] Lin Zhao, a Beijing University student majoring in journalism, was classified as a rightist in 1957 for her independent thinking and outspoken criticism of the communist movement. She was charged with conspiracy to overthrow the people’s democratic dictatorship and arrested in 1960. In 1962, she was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment. She was killed by the CCP on April 29, 1968 as a counter-revolutionary.
Zhang Zhixin was an intellectual who was tortured to death by the CCP during the Great Cultural Revolution for criticizing Mao’s failure in the Great Leap Forward and being outspoken in telling the truth. Prison guards stripped off her clothes many times, handcuffed her hands to her back and threw her into male prison cells to let male prisoners gang rape her until she became insane. The prison feared she would shout slogans to protest when she was being executed, so they cut off her throat before her execution.
[8] The “February revolution” refers to the Russian bourgeois revolution in February 1917, which took the throne of the Tsar.
[9] The October Revolution, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was led by Lenin and occurred in October of 1917. The revolution murdered the revolutionaries of the capitalist class who had overthrown the Tsar, thus strangling Russia’s bourgeois revolution.
[10] Both the “Mari Incident” and the “April 12th Massacre” refer to the Kuomintang’s attacks on the CCP. The “Mari Incident” happened on May 21, 1927, in Changsha City of Hunan province. The “April 12th Massacre” occurred on April 12, 1927 in Shanghai. In both cases, some CCP members and pro-CCP activists were attacked, arrested or killed.
[11] Liu Di, a political officer of the 20th Red Army who was accused of being a member of “AB Corps,” led a revolt in Futian charging Li Shaojiu as a counter-revolutionary. They took over the control of Futian city and released more than 100 arrested for the “AB Corps,” and shouted the “Down with Mao Zedong” slogan.
[12] Peng Dehuai (1898-1974): Communist Chinese general and political leader. Peng was the chief commander in the Korean War, vice-premier of the State Council, Politburo member, and Minister of Defense from 1954-1959. He was removed from his official posts after disagreeing with Mao’s Leftist approaches at the CCP’s Lushan Plenum in 1959.
[13] From “Li Lisan: The Person for Whom Four Memorial Services Have Been Held.”
[14] The four principles are: socialist path, dictatorship of the proletariat, the CCP’s leadership, and Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.
The Cultural Revolution was a time period in which “the Sun is the most red” while “the world is the darkest.” Everybody had to study Mao’s works. (Getty Images)
