In 1958, under the impetus of the Great Leap Forward in all walks of Life, the so-called village re-Education through labor (also known as village training, the same below) also came into being. At that Time, the village-run reeducation through labor was called “an initiative to eliminate crime.” In March of that year, a ministry of the central government held a meeting in Henan Province with the participation of relevant personnel from some provinces. The meeting deployed the task of village-run reeducation through labor, saying that it was a “great leap forward” in the work of reeducation through labor. “Village re-education through labor is one of the regular means of fighting against the enemy and is of great significance in eliminating crime.” The conference in Henan introduced the practices of village run re-education through labor in Linru County, Jiangsu, Wenshang County, Shandong, and Meng County, Hebei, and the results achieved. The meeting requested that pilot projects be carried out in various places and be fully promoted on a pilot basis.
After the Henan meeting, the relevant departments in Shandong according to the requirements of the meeting, selected the then Liaocheng area of the plain, Xiajin two counties as a pilot unit of the village run re-education through labor. It is stipulated that the pilot time should generally be engaged in 20 days, and if the problem is not solved, the reeducation-through-labor time can be extended. In the village run re-education through labor pilot, Liaocheng local committee found that the problem of killing and injuring people at the site of re-education through labor, and reflected to the political and legal department of the provincial party committee (at that time, the political and legal department was set up in the party committee above the county), they were skeptical of the village run re-education through labor.
The political and legal department of the provincial party committee attached great importance to the situation reflected by the Liaocheng local committee, and then convened more than ten staff members of the provincial political and legal system to discuss the situation reflected by the village-run re-education through labor and the Liaocheng local committee. The discussion concluded that: village re-education through labor is not in line with the State Council’s regulations on re-education through labor. The State Council does not provide for “village re-education through labor”. No matter from the nature, scope, object of re-education through labor, approval authority, etc., are inconsistent with the provisions of re-education through labor. The State Council’s regulations on reeducation through labor stipulate that only provinces, cities, autonomous regions, and large and medium-sized cities along transportation routes can run reeducation through labor, and that the decision and implementation are made by the reeducation through labor committees in these cities. The purpose of reeducation through labor is mainly for those whose crimes are minor enough to be sentenced, and the purpose is to educate and reform. To treat village re-education through labor as one of the means of regular struggle against the enemy clearly confuses the two types of contradictions.
Considering the abnormal situation in the pilot village re-education through labor, the Political and Legal Department of the Provincial Party Committee decided to assign more than ten people from the provincial political and legal departments to form a working group and designated a deputy director of the Provincial Department of Justice as its leader. The working group listened to the introduction of the public security directors of the two counties about the pilot village run reeducation-through-labor program: 6,000 people in Plain County and 8,000 people in Xiajin County, and the time spent in reeducation-through-labor was carried out according to the regulations. The public security directors of the two counties fully affirmed the village run re-education through labor. Considered that the pilot has made great achievements, very successful, the effect is very obvious. They said: where the villages of re-education through labor, the rich and the bad honestly, all kinds of illegal crime did not occur again, the feudal superstition disappeared. Some of the four types of elements also handed over the “change of day account”. Through the village re-education through labor, but also “seized” a lot of weapons.
The head of the working group listened to the introduction of the two directors, affirmed their achievements and practices in the re-education through labor pilot program, and praised their “Great Leap Forward” spirit. Most of the working group members thought that it was inappropriate to affirm the correctness of the investigation before it was completed, and that it was not in line with the steps of investigation and research, nor with the requirement of “seeking truth from facts”. Behind the scenes, people discussed that the team leader’s approach was not in line with the spirit of the provincial political and legal department. As planned, the team members were to go to the commune and village of the re-education-through-labor pilot to conduct a survey. Before the trip, the working group leader repeatedly told the group members to look more at the achievements and less at the shortcomings, especially not to look at the dark side.
The working group members investigated three villages in Shuangmiao Township in Plain County, where the pilot village run reeducation through labor program was carried out, and four villages in Zhengbaotun Township in Xiajin County, where the pilot village run reeducation through labor program was carried out. Here they interviewed the reeducation-through-labor personnel and the militia and village officials who were guarding and managing them, and also visited some of the people who had worked in the village reeducation-through-labor command. They reflected from different perspectives some of the problems arising in the village-run reeducation through labor. In summary, the main problems are: village run reeducation through labor has become a means for village cadres to punish the masses. The masses with shortcomings (such as superstitious activities, etc.) are solved by means of reeducation-through-labor. For those who give opinions to cadres, they also find excuses for reeducation through labor. For the four types of elements, regardless of law-abiding and law-breaking, except for the sick, old and disabled, all are reeducated through labor. Those who are lazy and second-rate, those who are witches, those who take sacred water and Medicine, those who fight and brawl, those who do not obey the leaders, those who do not join cooperatives, those who have been traitorous soldiers, those who have been Kuomintang soldiers, those who are members of the Kuomintang, those who are members of the Youth League, and those who have overseas connections are all included in the reeducation through labor in the village office.
In terms of the authority to approve the subjects of reeducation through labor, it is stipulated that the decision is made by the reeducation through labor command (even so, it is illegal), and it is actually up to the village cadres to decide. The village cadres name who is to be reeducated through labor and it is approved.
The method of reeducation through labor is very cruel. Anyone who was designated as subject to reeducation through labor was told to bring their work tools and Food to the river treatment site. Under the supervision and control of the militia and cadres, they dug, dug mud, and deepened the river. In order to prevent the militia and village cadres from guarding and managing the people in their villages, they adopted the method of village A guarding and managing village B and village B guarding village A. The reeducation-through-labor staff worked 17 or 18 hours per day and night, and the rest of the time was spent in general meetings and small meetings to confess and report. The reeducation-through-labor command announced the reeducation-through-labor sites with unsolved cases for many years, so that each reeducated worker could be linked to the number, confess and report. For some people who did not confess, did not report, grabbed a few typical, small and large will criticize, repeatedly chasing forced. Some of them made up nonsense and were beaten into submission. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. This time, the case was classified as a backlog of cases that should be solved in the village run reeducation through labor, and was fully traced in the land of 8,000 people in reeducation through labor. Under the scolding and chasing, more than 80 people confessed to stealing the cow. When the reeducation-through-labor pilot ended, all those who confessed to stealing cattle retracted their confessions. Since there was no reliable evidence, they had to be hung up again.
Village re-education through labor was used as a means to solve the case. In more than 20 days of village re-education through labor, the method of initiating confessions was used to obtain more than 40,000 pieces of material on various “crimes”, mostly fabricated from mutual denunciations. A large number of them are some trivial matters even the security cases are not enough. After the end of the reeducation through labor pilot, these materials thrown in the reeducation through labor headquarters office piled up a table, no one asked. Later I heard that these materials can not intervene in the investigation, it will not end.
Ping Yuan and Xia Jin counties, in the village run re-education through labor pilot, are chasing the four types of elements of the “change of day account”. Initially, they repeatedly pleaded that they did not have “change of day accounts,” but the militia and village officials who were guarding them said, “If you don’t turn in your change of day accounts, you will not be able to go Home.” Under such duress, the four types of elements returned home and took out their “change of day accounts”. Some of them wrote: “I used to want to change the sky, but now that the government has educated me, I don’t want to change the sky.” There are also written: “There is no good end to change the sky.” These so-called “accounts of the change of heaven” were all written in the same tone as when they were in reeducation through labor, and their handwriting was fresh, so they were obviously written now. When the working group interviewed them, they replied, “They were not allowed to leave until they were handed in, and they were criticized, so they went home and wrote them now. Those who could not read and write had someone write for them, and they were forced to do so every day.”
At the reeducation-through-labor sites, many of the reeducated workers could not bear the torment of the cadres and militia and kept escaping. The militia shot randomly while chasing the escapees, and some were killed and some were wounded. Many others were dying from overwork, hunger, and disease, and unnatural deaths occurred from time to time. Among the reeducation-through-labor prisoners, the jingle “Run, run, don’t run no more” was circulated. When the reeducation-through-labor pilot program ended, there were less than half of the people left at the reeducation-through-labor sites in the two counties for various reasons, and even fewer were able to work.
The most satisfying thing for the facilitators of the reeducation-through-labor pilots in the two counties was the “seizure” of some weapons. The working group had inspected these weapons, which were old and worn out rifles with missing parts, and were put together by some township armed departments for unified repair. Previously, the working group of the local party committee also inspected these broken rifles, and did not hear that the reeducation-through-labor staff had handed over their weapons.
In the spirit of “seeking truth from facts, how many problems to talk about how many problems”, the working group members reported to the group leader. The group leader did not think it was in line with his idea of “talking more about achievements and less about problems. Although the Ministry of Political Science and Law requires “seeking truth from facts,” he believes that “it is safe to talk more about achievements and dangerous to talk more about problems.” He believed that the village labor camps were set up from above, and it was the period of “Great Leap Forward”, so he had to “affirm more achievements, while the shortcomings were a matter of one finger”. The group leader did not agree with most of the group members. The group leader was under pressure of historical problems and was afraid of being caught. Therefore, he tightly grasped the “nine fingers and one finger” routine of speaking and doing things. Once told people: “As long as you remember the relationship between nine fingers and one finger, you will not make mistakes.”
The head of the working group prepared the outline of the report to the Liaocheng District Committee according to the idea of “nine fingers and one finger”. The local committee arranged for Comrade Zhao Xinting, the second secretary and commissioner, to listen to the report. People who know Zhao Xinting know that he is a person who acts according to policies and laws. Before the provincial party committee’s working group reported, he had a good understanding of the pilot situation of village labor education in Pingping and Xiazin counties, and talked with the leaders of the Political and Legal Department of the provincial party committee. According to the guiding principle of “village re-education through labor is one of the means of regular struggle against the enemy”, the working group leader first fully affirmed the great achievements of village re-education through labor and the shortcomings of “one finger”. He especially emphasized that the village re-education through labor had “seized” a large number of weapons. When Commissioner Zhao heard the so-called “seized” a large number of weapons, immediately interrupted to report: what seized a large number of weapons, the local committee has done an investigation, are broken guns used by the militia, put away ready to repair, became a “seizure”. The local committee has long known that there is no such thing, just to deceive the local committee.
The report did not go further. Zhao Xinting, the commissioner continued: they did not report to the local party committee to run the village re-education through labor. I heard that people were killed, the local committee sent people to do an investigation, only to know that there are so serious violations of the law and discipline. To put it politely, village-run reeducation through labor is illegal. I personally went to see the site of the re-education through labor, and I saw that there was a black mass of people there, and I asked the cadres there what so many people were doing. I asked the cadres there what so many people were doing, and they replied that they were in the village re-education through labor program. I also asked, “How come they were holding guns, beating and scolding, and pounding with the butt of the gun? This is not the same as the two devils escorting the people to dig trenches! Two counties concentrated 10,000 to 20,000 people, forcing them to work 17 to 18 hours a day and night, and confess and report, confess and report is not “standard”, the General Assembly criticism, small meetings, and beaten and scolded. Some people were forced to hang themselves because they were desperate. The most hateful thing was that when the militia chased the escaped reeducation-through-labor prisoners, they shot them at random and some were killed and some were injured. Human lives are at stake, and I disagree with the statement that such a serious incident is a matter of “one finger”. According to the incomplete statistics of the investigation team of the local committee, the two counties in the village labor training, more than 3,000 people were beaten, of which more than 1,000 people were injured. Twelve people were shot dead and wounded (five of them died), and 18 people died as a result of beatings. Now when we talk about the “Great Leap Forward”, we don’t want to have policies and laws. Re-education through labor is supposed to be a means to save and educate those who have lost their way, but the village re-education through labor they are running has become a means to punish the masses. The “reeducation through labor” has become a means to punish the masses. The “reeducation through labor” has become a big stick to scare the masses. Some people said, “I shiver when I hear reeducation through labor.” The cadres in charge of reeducation through labor said, “There are no good people who are reeducated through labor.” This is a ridiculous statement. Some people may have such and such shortcomings, but they should never be subjected to reeducation through labor. The cadres also have different shortcomings, so should they also be reeducated through labor? For the four types of elements, as long as they do not break the law and commit crimes, they can not be reeducated through labor arbitrarily. It is said that “village re-education through labor is the bottom of the barrel of crime, is to eliminate crime from the root.” I can’t believe this. Eliminate crime is a long-term struggle task, engage in a period of village re-education through labor is not to eliminate crime. My opinion and the provincial party committee minister Wang talked on the phone, he supported my point of view. Several secretaries of the local party committee believe that village re-education through labor is inconsistent with policy and law. This kind of re-education through labor was invented there? Some people are hot-headed and messy, even reversing right and wrong. A militia in Gaotang County shot and killed the people who stole alfalfa grass. Hunger competes for food, not to mention that the competition is for grass to feed livestock. To deal with this militia, the county public security director said, “To protect the enthusiasm of the militia.” What kind of law is it that people who shoot innocent people to death are protected? Those who kill and injure people should be dealt with firmly according to the law. Those who injure and kill people at the labor camp site should be firmly punished according to the law. The political and legal forces should rectify the discipline and strictly enforce the law, otherwise there will be lawlessness. What I said may not be in the right “wind” direction, but I think it is in the right facts, laws and policies.
The working group finished its investigation and reported to the Political and Legal Department of the provincial party committee the situation of the village run re-education through labor pilot project in Plain and Xiajin counties and the talk of Commissioner Zhao Xinting. Putting aside the “nine fingers and one finger” speech routine, the working group members spoke freely, reflecting the requirement of “seeking truth from facts and saying what is there. The leadership of the Ministry of Political Science and Law said after listening to the report: the village run re-education through labor pilot first stop, do not promote. The problems left behind by the village run re-education through labor pilot in two counties, such as the problem of killing and injuring people, should be properly handled. The working group then conveyed to Commissioner Zhao Xinting the opinions of the leading comrades of the Ministry of Political Science and Law.
The author recorded the conversation of Commissioner Zhao Xinting while listening to the report. When I opened the record half a century ago, it was still like advice in my ears. This was Commissioner Zhao Xinting’s resistance to the erroneous village-run reeducation through labor, and once again showed his noble spirit of insisting on the truth, which is admirable. However, in the ten-year catastrophe, this good commissioner of the people was persecuted to death, which makes people sad. The author expresses his remembrance.
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