Sandra’s Reviews > The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957 > Status Update

‘We know, of course, that there is no freedom of speech,’ Hu Shi responded from New York. ‘But few persons realise that there is no freedom of silence, either. Residents of a communist state are required to make positive statements of belief and loyalty.’

‘We know, of course, that there is no freedom of speech,’ Hu Shi responded from New York. ‘But few persons realise that there is no freedom of silence, either. Residents of a communist state are required to make positive statements of belief and loyalty.’

Mao oversaw the campaign from his headquarters next to the Forbidden City, casually adjudicating the death rate according to each use. In a few places the terror barely lived up to its name, petering out in the hands of highly selective cadres.

Land reform cut a bloody swathe through the villages under communist control. Everywhere work teams dug up old grudges, fanned resentment and turned local grievances into class hatred, and everywhere mobs were worked into a frenzy of envy as they appropriated the possessions of traditional village leaders.

Some vented genuine frustrations that had long been bottled up; others were coerced into inventing accusations against their richer neighbours. Greed became a powerfull tool in whipping up class hatred, as members of the work team calculated the monetary equivalent of past misdeeds, urging the poorer villagers to demand compensation.

The next task was to get those identified as ‘poor peasants’ and ‘labourers’ to turn hardship into hatred. This, too, took weeks of persistence and persuasion, as the work team had to convince the ‘poor’ that the ‘rich’ were behind their every misfortune, having exploited their labour since time immemorial. In so-called ‘speak bitterness’ meetings, participants were encouraged to tap into a reservoir of grievances.

The result was absolute conformity... There was very little subtlety involved. Good and bad, friend and foe, are defined in term of black and white. Everyhing is reduced to simple slogans and formulae, and all channels (the radio as well as press) concentrate simultaneously on pounding them in.

Rather than imposing censorship from above, the authorities relied on self-censorship - which was surprisingly efficient once journalists and editors had gone through re-education.