I still lay in bed pondering: there were apparently some anomalies in the cultural revolution, and the instructors and arraigners of the detention center, who used their own hot water bottles to bring boiling water to the prisoners, were among them. This extremely humane behavior is absolutely contrary to their original beliefs. They believed that “the First Detention Center was a dictatorial tool for one class to oppress another class”, which was said to me by the interrogator himself. With the deepening of the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards and the rebels, at the instigation of their chief backstage, pushed the Communist intellectuals into a hostile camp as well.
The next morning, the doctor gave me some sulfonamide tablets, but the cell was so freezing at night that I still coughed and could not sleep. At dawn, I heard a quiet conversation outside the door. The same woman who was on duty that night, the woman who used to be the arraignment officer, gave me a sulfa pill and made me lie down to rest. At that moment, I heard her talking to a female prisoner in the cell across from me. Although the voice was very low, but because the surrounding area was so quiet, I could still catch what they said. To my disbelief, the female prisoner was a former cadre of the Public Security Bureau, and the guard, who was an arraigner, was a classmate of the Public Security Police School. They were talking about the brutal armed struggle that took place in the Municipal Public Security Bureau office after Mao Zedong’s wife Jiang Qing encouraged the Red Guards and the rebels to “smash the Public Prosecutor’s Office”. They told of people jumping out of windows, people being killed alive, and people being sent to hospital. …… It was obvious that the Public Security Bureau was in chaos and had lost its authority.
After listening to their words, I am sure that the cultural revolution will be delayed for a long time, and those who have been purged from the party will certainly be committed to revolt. Although, as far as I can see, those extreme leftists have gained power because they have the support of the top and the army. But unless the old cadres who were knocked down are executed one by one – which is naturally impossible – they will certainly wait for an opportunity to rebel. Moreover, they will do everything they can to interfere with the actions of the ultra-leftists to the extent that their power allows. I realized that the situation was intricate and complex, and that it would be impossible to solve some specific transactional problems for a considerable period of time in the future.
After a few more days in this way, once before the prisoners went to bed, the guard on duty came again to inform the prisoners to sit quietly and listen to the radio. Over the PA, a man announced that the First Detention Center was now under military control of the army.
“Attention all inmates, the revolutionary situation is great! Vice Chairman Lin, the reliable successor and close comrade of the great leader Chairman Mao, has eliminated all resistance and has smashed the old municipal government. We are now heading to all parts of the country, riding on our victory, making further efforts to continue the revolution and throwing all the sludge left behind by the old world into the dustbin of history. Our achievements are great, great! Our loss, is small and small! Some people accuse us of chaos, and chaos is a manifestation of class struggle. Chairman Mao, the great leader, said: ‘Revolution is not a treat, not an article, not painting and embroidery, not that elegant, that subdued, civilized, that gentle and frugal. Revolution is an insurrection, a violent action of one class to overthrow another.’ Revolution is about creating confusion against the enemy and thus disturbing them, and it is right and unmistakable to do so. Some say we kill too many people, nonsense! Compared with the period of the War of Resistance and the War of Liberation, we have killed too little, not enough. Some enemies are still hiding in shady corners, and we have to expose them for public display. Don’t underestimate our determination and don’t underestimate the ability of our opponents, we are rebels, we are not afraid of chaos, and we are not afraid of death, which is inevitable for a revolution. The Cultural Revolution has trained us and frightened the enemy. The sky is falling, we are not afraid, we have the great leader Chairman Mao to back us up ……”
“The beloved Comrade Jiang Qing said: ‘We must smash the public prosecution and the law’, and now we have accomplished this task. The Shanghai Public Security Bureau and its subsidiary organs are now under our leadership. This detention center was formerly led by the revisionists and ‘capitalists’ in the Public Security Bureau. It is unreasonable that the inmates still enjoy such treatment. The fact that you are fed three times a day and live better than the poor peasants proves that the revisionists in the Public Security Bureau are so sheltering to the counter-revolutionaries and think more carefully for them than the poor peasants. This is because they themselves are counter-revolutionaries. From now on, in order to save food, your daily ration should be reduced. And you can only eat yams and mixed grains, no more rice. That’s it, you can’t die, even if you do, it’s no loss to the revolution, anyway, there are plenty of Chinese people, not afraid of dying a few counter-revolutionaries!
“Many of you have been here for a long time. But some of you have not yet explained your problems. It’s a delusion to try to muddle through! If you do not give an honest account, the merciless iron fist of the proletariat will smash you all to pieces. I warn you all!
“The policy of the great leader Chairman Mao is to be lenient in confessing, strict in resisting, meritorious in exposing and redeeming. Tonight, we are going to raid a few cases to implement the policy of the Great Leader Chairman Mao.”
After a moment of silence, he then proceeded to read out the list of prisoners who had been sentenced to death for not giving an account. Their ages, addresses, occupations, “reactionary” family origins, and crimes. The so-called crimes, always referred to as “class revenge,” were, in fact, nothing more than opposition to the Cultural Revolution, or for “denigrating” the statements of Jiang Qing, Lin Biao or Mao Zedong himself. The man then shouted, “Take them out and shoot them, and execute them immediately!”
His speech was purely a cry of genocide. Although I forced myself to calm down, I still couldn’t help but feel creeped out.
After the list of those who had died, there was a list of those who had been sentenced to life imprisonment, all for 25 years or more. All of the prisoners who had been given the typical “strict treatment” had not given a full account, or had failed to give a satisfactory or honest account. Finally, he read a list of “leniency” cases. These people not only gave an account of themselves, but also revealed others and made up for their sins. One female prisoner was declared immediately released because she had denounced several people who planned to abscond from Hong Kong. Several were also sentenced to short prison terms of three to five years.
The horrific sound, when the PA was turned off, continued to reverberate in my ears. Never before in my life had I heard such gut-wrenching things. When I thought that the First Detention Center was under the leadership of that man, who was in control of my fate, I felt a shiver run through my body and I couldn’t hold it in. That night, the sky was already cold enough, and then this, the more I felt the cold air hard to resist. I was freezing and shivering, even cramping, while waiting stiffly for the order to sleep. I think the other prisoners must have frozen to the cold, and the cell was dead silent.
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