First 'shots' in China's bloody Cultural Revolution

1966 China's Cultural Revolution: One of the very first incidents in Mao Zedong's period of terror that left millions dead at the hands of their own countrymen and women. Today, Nie Yuanzi and six others placed a poster attacking Beijing University authorities as reactionary, and soon Maoist bloodletting began nationwide among men, women and children.

"At Beijing University, Nie Yuanzi and six others put up a 'big character poster', (da zi bao) attacking the authorities of Beijing University for being 'members of a black gang,' putting out a call to 'firmly, thoroughly, cleanly and totally eliminate any ox ghosts and snake demons.' On the evening of June 1, 1966, the Central People's Radio Station broadcast the text of this poster. The poster sent a shock wave throughout the country. Students took Beijing University as their example and started attacking the authorities of their schools with the same set of words ...

Categories: china, crime, human-rights, civil-rights, communism