Vice Chairman of the Democratic League of China Gao Chongmin died in prison
Born in Liaoning, Northeast China, Gao Chongmin graduated from the Department of Political Science and Economics of Meiji University in Tokyo and joined the Kuomintang after returning to China. As an underground worker of the Chinese Communist Party, Gao Chongmin was assigned by the Chinese Communist Party to go to Xi’an in 1935 to convince Zhang Xueliang not to suppress the Communist Party, and led the alliance between Zhang and Yang, participating in the Xi’an military revolt the following year.
After Zhang and Yang arrested Chiang Kai-shek, Gao Chongmin drafted a telegram based on the dictation and became the director of the “Operation Design Committee”. After Chiang Kai-shek was transferred to the new city of Xi’an, Gao Chongmin also followed him there, living and eating in the office every day, handling telegrams and letters day and night, receiving people from all sides, collecting reflections from all sides, and reporting to Zhang and Yang in a timely manner. He also suggested to Zhang Xueliang to use his landline to bring the Chinese delegation, Zhou Enlai, to Xi’an to discuss the solution of the Xi’an Incident.
Under the pressure of Stalin of the Soviet Union, the Chinese Communist Party was forced to release Chiang Kai-shek, and Zhang Xueliang, who was tricked by the Chinese Communist Party, sent Chiang back to Nanking while Gao Chongmin was instructed by the Chinese Communist Party to prepare for the establishment of the “Northeast Salvation Association” and served as one of the five executive members.
In August 1938, Gao Chongmin arrived in Yan’an with a visiting delegation of the “Eastern General Association” and formally requested to join the CCP, but the CCP decided to let him stay outside the Party for the time being to facilitate the united front work, and in 1941, he joined the Democratic League. It was not until 1946 that he officially joined the CCP, but he never disclosed his membership. He served as Chairman of Andong Province, Vice Chairman of the Northeast Administrative Committee, Vice Chairman of the Northeast Government and Minister of Justice, etc.
In 1954, Gao Chongmin was transferred to Beijing and served as Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Democratic League of China, Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and Executive Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, Gao Chongmin was included in the “Northeast Renegade Group”, which was triggered by the “conspiracy of Peng Zhen, Lin Feng and Lv Zhengcao to defect to the enemy”, and Zhang Xueliang’s brother Zhang Xuesi was also included in this group. In October 1968, Gao was imprisoned and falsely accused of being a “military intelligence agent”, but he refused to admit it.
In July 1971, at the age of 81, Gao Chongmin was persecuted to death in prison, another typical example of the Chinese Communist Party’s practice of killing the donkey by unleashing its power.
Feng Youlan, a member of the Central Committee of the Democratic League of China, had his family raided
Feng Youlan, who graduated from the philosophy department of Peking University in his early years and received his doctorate from Columbia University in the United States, gave up the opportunity to teach in the United States and returned to China, where he has been teaching Chinese philosophy since the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party. Because of his status in the academic field, he was elected as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and a deputy to the National People’s Congress, in addition to becoming a member of the Central Committee of the Democratic League.
Although Feng Youlan abandoned his neo-academic system and began to study the history of Chinese philosophy with Marxism as his guide under the Chinese Communist Party, he was not spared by various movements. His ideas were not only criticized as a representative of idealism, but also branded as a “reactionary academic authority”.
After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, Feng Youlan was again affected. After he was raided by the Red Guards, the door of his house was plastered with the slogan “Feng Youlan’s black nest”, and his children were all implicated and criticized. Feng Youlan was also imprisoned in a cowshed.
In November 1968, Feng Youlan was able to leave the cowshed because Mao mentioned in one of his speeches that “there is a Feng Youlan at Peking University who is engaged in idealism, and if we want to know something about idealism, we should look for him. After that, he joined the infamous “Liang Effect” class of Peking University and wrote imperial articles for the Cultural Revolution.
After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Feng Youlan was imprisoned again and was criticized as a member of a “counter-revolutionary group” from 1977 to 1979, and was released in 1979.
The latter half of Feng Youlan’s life should be a microcosm of the life of intellectuals who bowed to the Communist Party’s rule. Hu Shih once said of Feng Youlan, “I am afraid that there is no other fool in the world who is as stupid as Zhi Sheng.” Although this is cruel, he was indeed “stupid” in not recognizing the Chinese Communist Party.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned six persons are not the only high-ranking officials and prominent figures of the CDL who were persecuted to death, including Liu Qingyang, member of the Standing Committee of the CDL Central Committee and chairman of the CDL Hebei Provincial Committee, Pan Guangdan, member of the Standing Committee of the CDL Central Committee, and Liu Wang Liming, member of the CDL Central Committee. Do these persecuted social elites understand that the fundamental reason for the CCP to kill them, who had done great service to the CCP, was to eradicate the independent thinking of intellectuals and consolidate the one-party dictatorship of the CCP?
The editorial of the People’s Daily of August 29, 1966, “Tribute to our Red Guards! praised the Red Guards for their “invincible struggle”, saying that “all the old parasites hiding in the corners of the walls cannot escape the sharp eyes of the Red Guards. These bloodsuckers, these enemies of the people, are being uncovered one by one by the Red Guards. Their hidden gold and silver treasures were brought out for exhibition by the Red Guards. Their hidden tents of all kinds, their weapons of murder, were also brought out for public display by the Red Guards. This is the merit of our Red Guards”. Behind the vocal rhetoric, it is the Chinese Communist Party that is sharpening its knives, and the big knives are chopping at more than just the elites of the Democratic League.
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