The Left’s Culture of Death

By Mark Lewis  

 

Jul 03, 2023 The Left’s Culture of Death I: Age is Irrelevant -  “In Yanxing [China] county, a wealthy region in Yunnan [province] covered in salt flats, over a hundred middle-school students were arrested and tortured in April 1951 after an anonymous denunciation reached the local [communist] party headquarters.  Wu Liening, ten years old, was hung from a beam and beaten.  Ma Silie, aged eight, was tied up on a cross in a kneeling position.  A wooden pole was placed across his thighs and pressed down by two of his tormentors, crushing his legs and knees on the concrete floor.  Even Liu Wendi, aged six, was accused of being the head of a spying squad.  Two of the children were tortured to death. This was not an isolated example.  A team of militia in Sichuan [province] also tried to uncover counter-revolutionaries among schoolchildren.  Some had both hands and feet tied up while being suspended upside down; others were made to go through mock executions.  Three were tortured to death, and another five of the children committed suicide.  About fifty of the victims survived the abuse, although many were crippled or maimed for life.” (Frank Dikötter, The Tragedy of Liberation, Chapter 5, “The Great Terror”)...............

 

Jul 06, 2023 The Left’s Culture of Death II: 'This Is What the Revolution Is All About!' -  From a Chinese lady named Esther Cheo during Mao Zedong’s “Great Terror” of 1950-52:  “'We were taken in a lorry to the place of execution...The victims were kneeling down beside cheap coffins, their hands tied behind their backs with wire. About six security police moved nonchalantly along shooting them in the back of the head.  As they fell, some of their heads split open, some just fell with a neat little hole, while others had their brains splattered all over the dusty ground and on to the clothes of the next victims.’ As she turned away in revulsion, a cadre [Communist Party guard] grabbed her by the shoulders. ‘Take a good look!’ he shouted. ‘This is what the revolution is all about!’"  (Frank Dikötter, The Tragedy of Liberation, Chapter 5, “The Great Terror”).............

Jul 08, 2023 The Left’s Culture of Death III: Who Are the 'Enemy'? -  The Left must have an enemy, somebody to fight, some entity to excoriate, some group that they must convince the masses are trying to destroy their lives, a group that must be obliterated in order to save the “revolution,” the country, the world.  In America, enemy number one is Donald Trump, the most hated man on the planet.  But, in communist China, in the years after “liberation” (1950-52), who were Mao Zedong’s enemies?  Who had to be annihilated?  Well, pretty much anybody who didn’t agree with him or that he didn’t like:........... “Mao handed down a killing quota as a rough guide for action.  The norm, he felt, was one per thousand, a ratio he was willing to adjust to the particular circumstances of each region.  His subordinates kept track of local killing rates like bean counters, occasionally negotiating for a higher quota.  In May 1951 Guangxi province, for instance, was told to kill more, even though a rate of 1.63 per thousand had already been achieved.................

 Jul 11, 2023 The Left’s Culture of Death IV: Then Cometh the Purge -  On a cold day in February 1952, a crowd of 21,000 gathered in Baoding, Hebie province China, to watch the “trial” and execution of two people.  Not unusual in Mao Zedong’s China of the time, except for their identities—two high ranking members of the Communist Party.  They were both sentenced and shot.  “Only if we execute the two of them can we prevent twenty, two hundred, two thousand or twenty thousand corrupt officials from committing various crimes,” Mao said.  “Their deaths were meant to serve as a warning to others in the party.” (Frank Dikötter, The Tragedy of Liberation, Chapter 8, “The Purge”).........