The “Great Leap Forward” that began in 1958 caused the “Great Famine” for the next three years. There is still no accurate figure of how many people died in the three-year “Great Famine”, and estimates range from ten to forty-five million. Ding Lyr’s “Human Disaster” and “From the “Great Leap Forward” to the Great Famine” have objective descriptions of this.
At present, there are two points that are generally accepted.
First, many people must have died of starvation during the three years of “Great Famine” from 1958 to 1961.
Second, no matter how many people died of starvation in total, Sichuan, Anhui, Henan, Shandong and Gansu are the provinces where the most people died of starvation.
Five provincial party committee first secretary deserves more liquidation
On a national scale, the responsibility for the starvation deaths lies with the central government, mainly with Lao Mao. The other leaders of the Central Committee were also responsible, but what was so bad about Old Mao was that while most of the others had realized their mistakes, Old Mao overplayed his mistakes. And later in the Cultural Revolution, he dealt a cruel blow to those who corrected the mistakes.
In addition to the responsibility of the central government, the first secretaries of the provincial committees in the provinces where most people died of starvation should have an inescapable responsibility. It was their personal responsibility that caused the death rate in that province to be much higher than the national average death rate. Therefore, they deserve to be liquidated more.
These five first secretaries of provincial committees are: Li Jingquan of Sichuan, Zeng Xisheng of Anhui, Wu Zhipu of Henan, Shu Tong of Shandong, and Zhang Zhongliang of Gansu. These people, with the exception of Shu Tong, were all fierce generals who attacked Peng Dehuai at the “Lushan Conference”.
Let’s take a look at what they know about the mistakes they made, and even the crimes they committed, and what kind of punishment they received.
Li Jingquan, First Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee
Li Jingquan was even more leftist than Old Mao himself, whose famous quote was: “China is so big, there is no dynasty or generation in which no one has starved to death!” At a time when the central government had already begun to correct its leftist policies, Li Jingquan held on to Lao Mao’s “Party Correspondence” without issuing it, causing Sichuan’s economic recovery to lag behind the rest of the country’s provinces.
In this regard, Liao Zhigao, then deputy secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee in charge of agriculture, later admitted: “Under the circumstances, the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee, including myself, made three major mistakes in formulating and implementing the relevant policies or work: the public canteens were disbanded late, and the self-reserved land of the community members was restored late, which was about six months to a year later than other provinces and cities in the country; in particular, the wrongful anti-concealment of production Although it did not last long, it had a great impact and serious consequences. These three mistakes have brought greater difficulties to the masses and added fuel to the problem of unnatural deaths of the population, which is a painful lesson we should remember.”
In 1961, Li Jingquan was promoted to first secretary of the Southwest Bureau.
During the Cultural Revolution, Li Jingquan’s family was torn apart: he was kidnapped by the rebels; his wife, Xiao Li, committed suicide after having all her hair ripped out during the struggle; and his son, Li Mingqing, was beaten to death by the Red Guards of the Beijing Aviation Academy for opposing the Central Government’s Cultural Revolution. But from the Cultural Revolution to the present, no one has ever heard anyone say anything good about Li Jingquan. See Dongfu’s “Wheat Mowers and Green Cauliflower Yellow – A Chronicle of the Great Leap Forward in Western Sichuan.
Zeng Xisheng, First Secretary of Anhui Provincial Party Committee
Officially, the death toll in Anhui was 2.37 million, but some estimate it to be 8 million. Zeng Xisheng was active in the “Great Leap Forward”, and later he was also active in the “package production to households”. When the “Great Leap Forward” starved millions of people to death, Zeng Xisheng was not punished, but became the first secretary of Shandong Provincial Party Committee in 1962. Later on, Zeng Xisheng was criticized for saving people’s lives in Anhui Province by “building up the household”.
It is said that at the end of the 7,000-people conference in early 1962, Liu Shaoqi presided over the criticism of Zeng Xisheng, who was not even allowed to sit in a chair, but took a chair for himself to attend the conference. Liu Shaoqi also threatened to have Zeng Xisheng criticized, dismissed and shot. Not because of the “Great Leap Forward” starving millions of people to death, but for the “package to”.
In 1965, Zeng Xisheng was transferred to the secretary office of the Southwest Bureau. During the Cultural Revolution, when the Anhui rebels took Zeng Xisheng from Sichuan back to Anhui for criticism, Zeng Xisheng said, “I was fought by Liu Shaoqi in 1962.” Old Mao later confirmed that “Liu Shaoqi wanted to expel Zeng Xisheng from the Party at the Seven Thousand Congress” and “wanted to put him to death”.
Zeng Xisheng died in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution.
Wu Zhipu, First Secretary of Henan Provincial Committee
Wu Zhipu was first the governor of Henan province, but after the “Great Leap Forward”, he overthrew Pan Fusheng, then the first secretary of the provincial party committee, and became the first secretary of the provincial party committee in the name of “anti-rightist tendency”. See the article “Wu Zhipu and the Great Leap Forward Movement in Henan” by Xu Ming.
The worst death in Henan was in the Xinyang area. 2 million people died in Henan province, and the Xinyang area accounted for 1 million. For this reason, 130,000 cadres were censored, 953 people were dismissed, and 275 people were sentenced, including 50 cadres above the county level. However, Wu Zhipu was given a lighter sentence: in July 1961, the central government appointed Liu Jianxun as the first secretary of the Henan Provincial Party Committee, and Wu Zhipu became the second secretary. in April 1962, Wu Zhipu was transferred to the South Central Bureau as the secretary of the Secretariat.
In his own review, he said: “The mistakes made by the provincial committee and me were very serious and sinful. I have nothing to say to the organization, no matter how serious the treatment. If I am to be punished by capital punishment, I should also be killed by the neck.”
During the Cultural Revolution, Wu Zhipu was seized and died in 1967.
Shu Tong, First Secretary of Shandong Provincial Committee
Wang Zhaojun’s “Voices in the Wrinkles” describes the “Great Famine” in Shandong as follows: “Large numbers of people were starved to death! At that time in Shandong, it could be said that starving people were everywhere, and corpses were scattered in villages and alleys. Mr. Shu Tong, who is now the chairman of the Chinese Calligraphers Association, was then the secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee. When he was building the luxurious hotels of Mao, Lin, Zhou and Zhu in Jinan, one third of the peasants with skin and bones were going to their graves one after another. The population of my village, Haiduntun, had dropped from more than 1,500 in 1978 to less than 1,000. One third of the population had died! Those who died were mostly suffering from edema and other diseases derived from hunger …… My sister also starved to death alive because she had no food.”
In 1961 was removed from the first secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee, retaining the position of secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee, down to Zhangqiu County as the first secretary of the county party committee, and in 1963 was transferred to the secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee.
Gansu provincial party committee first secretary Zhang Zhongliang
Gansu Province propaganda to eat without money the people’s commune canteen. (Web Photo)
For more information about the “Great Leap Forward” in Gansu and Zhang Zhongliang’s bad behavior, see Gan Weimin’s “One Man Lies, the Whole Province Suffers.
Zhang Zhongliang refuted Peng Dehuai at the “Lushan Conference”, saying: “You are not right! Take our Gansu Province, for example, before 1957, we do not produce a ton of steel in Gansu, last year we made 50,000 tons! Is it not a great leap forward? Last year we also increased the province’s grain production by 41 percent, we are unprecedented no longer shipped in grain from outside the province!”
In fact, at that time there were more than a dozen counties in Gansu with serious food shortages, starving to death. For this reason, the Lanzhou Military Region sent out a large number of military vehicles to transport food from other provinces in an emergency.
It is said that when the central government met, the first secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee Zhang Desheng said to Zhang Zhongliang: If Gansu is short of food, Shaanxi is willing to support some. But Zhang Zhongliang but hard to fill the fat, and said that if Shaanxi lack of food, Gansu can support them.
Later, the tragedy of millions of people starving to death in the province of Gansu shook the central government, the central government sent Minister of Supervision Qian Ying to Gansu at the rate of inspection mission. 1960 Zhang Zhongliang was removed from his post, Wang Feng became the first secretary, Zhang Zhongliang was reassigned to the third secretary. 1965 August, Zhang Zhongliang was transferred to the secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee.
During the Cultural Revolution, both factions of the mass organizations in Jiangsu thought that he had not committed any crimes in Jiangsu and therefore intended to join the Revolutionary Committee as a “revolutionary cadre”. When the Gansu rebels heard about this, they immediately sent people to Jiangsu to take him back to Gansu and criticize him, saying that “Zhang Zhongliang owes us Gansu people a blood debt of 1.3 million”. Zhang Zhongliang was not able to enter the Revolutionary Committee, and was replaced by Peng Chong.
Finally, to tell a Zeng Xisheng “great iron and steel” of the Dragon Gate.
The “great steel making” when Zeng Xisheng created the world’s largest “steel making furnace” in Anhui.
The two ends of a ravine were blocked with earth and stones, some trees on the mountain were cut and pushed down the ravine, and then iron ore and collected iron tools were pushed down the ravine. Cut some more trees and push them down, then pile up some iron ore and iron tools, and so on for three or four layers, until all the trees on the mountain are cut down. Then set fire to the trees on fire and burn for a few days. When the fire is extinguished, send people down to take a look, everywhere is burned out of the iron lumps, and not burned out of the trees, not to burn the iron ore, iron. So mobilize people, the iron lumps, iron selected, beating gongs and drums, transported to the county party committee to report: how many how many tons of “good steel”.
The news reached Sichuan, not willing to lag behind Li Jingquan hastily sent people to Anhui to study and learn. The people who came back to report the situation, even the left can no longer left Li Jingquan said: Zeng Xisheng really nonsense, this way to Sichuan can not learn.
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