Guangxi Massacre

The Guangxi Massacre (simplified Chinese: 广西大屠杀; traditional Chinese: 廣西大屠殺; pinyin: Guǎngxī dàtúshā) comprised a series of lynchings and massacres in the Chinese province of Guangxi between 1967 and 1968, during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). The official record from the 1983 investigation documents 89,810 abnormal deaths and concluded that the total death toll exceeded 100,000 when accounting for undocumented cases and missing persons. Methods of murder included beheading, beating, live burial, stoning, drowning, boiling, and disembowelling. In specific areas, including Wuxuan County and Wuming, Nanning, hundreds of incidents of human cannibalism occurred—even though no famine conditions existed. According to initial records available, at least 137 people were eaten, with thousands of people having participated in the cannibalism; subsequent published official archives showed at least 302 people were eaten. Independent researchers have since identified 421 named individuals in total who were eaten, with there having been reports of cannibalism across dozens of counties in Guangxi. Although the cannibalism was sponsored by local offices of the Communist Party and militia, no direct evidence suggests that anyone in the national Communist Party leadership including Mao Zedong endorsed the cannibalism or even knew of it. However, some scholars have pointed out that Wuxuan County, through internal channels, had notified the central leadership about the cannibalism in 1968. After the Cultural Revolution, people who were involved in the massacre or cannibalism received legal punishments during the Boluan Fanzheng period. In Wuxuan County, where at least 38 people were eaten, fifteen participants were prosecuted, receiving up to 14 years in prison, while ninety-one members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were expelled from the party and thirty-nine non-party officials were either demoted or had a salary cut.

Historical background

In May 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution. Starting from March 1967, two factions gradually formed among troops and civilians in Guangxi. One faction known as the "United Headquarters" (Chinese: "联指", lianzhi) unconditionally supported the leadership of Wei Guoqing, who was the First Secretary of the CPC Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Committee, the Chairman of Guangxi Zhuang Autonoumous Region, and the First Political Commissar of the Guangzhou Military Region and First Political Commissar of the Guangxi Military Region of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), while the other faction known as the "4.22" (Chinese: "四·二二", si.erer) opposed such unconditional support, asking Wei to do self-criticism first. The "United Headquarters" was an example of the conservative faction while the "4.22" was an example of the rebel faction. Intense clashes including "violent struggles" and even massacres soon broke out between the two factions in rural regions of Guangxi. Even though the rebel faction "4.22" received endorsement from China's Premier Zhou Enlai in August 1967, it was at a disadvantage throughout Guangxi except in the city of Guilin because the local military leaders endorsed the conservative faction, the "United Headquarters". In February 1968, Guangzhou Military Region ordered the troops who supported "4.22" to dislocate from the region, and subsequently in April 1968, Huang Yongsheng, head of the Guangzhou Military Region at the time, declared that the "4.22" faction was a "reactionary organization" and launched massive suppression against the rebel faction (at the same time, a closely related massacre also took place in the nearby province of Guangdong).

The massacre

Stages of killings According to Yan Lebin (晏乐斌), a member of the Ministry of Public Security who participated in the official investigations of the Guangxi Massacre after the Cultural Revolution, there were three stages of the massacre.

The first stage of the massacre mostly took place in the rural areas of Guangxi between the fall of 1967 and the spring of 1968. Most of the victims at this stage were members of the Five Black Categories and their families, including many who supported the "4.22" faction (the rebel faction). The second stage of the massacre took place in the spring and summer of 1968 when most counties in Guangxi had established their revolutionary committees. Most of the massive killings at this stage were organized by revolutionary committees and local People's Armed Departments, targeting members of the "4.22" faction, their supporters, and politically stigmatized households in rural areas. The third stage of the massacre took place in the summer of 1968, during which massive killings had spread from rural regions to cities in Guangxi. In particular, in July and August 1968, a large number of troops from the Guangzhou Military Region together with members of the "United Headquarters" (the conservative faction) attacked major cities such as Nanning and Guilin, which were under control of the "4.22" faction. Tens of thousands of people were killed or executed.

Methods of killings In the massacre, methods of slaughter included "beheading, beating, live burial, stoning, drowning, boiling, group slaughters, disemboweling, digging out hearts, livers, genitals, slicing off flesh, blowing up with dynamite, and more". In one case, according to official records, a person had dynamite bound to the back and was blown up into pieces by other people (so called "heavenly maiden scattering flowers", 天女散花)—just for fun. This crime was led by Cen Guorong (岑国荣), who was once the Director of the Trade Union of Guangxi and had served as a representative in the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh National Congresses of the Chinese Communist Party. In another case of 1968, "a geography instructor named Wu Shufang (吴树芳) was beaten to death by students at Wuxuan Middle School. Her body was carried to the flat stones of the Qian River where another teacher was forced at gunpoint to rip out the heart and liver. Back at the school the pupils barbecued and consumed the organs."

Death toll

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