What were the differences and similarities between the groups which were victimised in Maoist China and in Cambodia under Pol-Pot and what were the reasons for their victimisation?

China

In Maoist China different groups were victimised and suppressed over the years. Mao wanted to rid China of “enemies to the revolution”. He was fought against bourgeois values and wanted the opposition eliminated. In one of his speeches he said: “revolutions require enemies”.

Mao’s first target was the upper landlord class, and in the first four years of his reign, from 1949-53, 750,000 people, mainly landlords, were executed. The bourgeoisie in general was not persecuted in the years because professionals were needed. Rightists, on the other hand, were publicly denounced. Soon, 700,000 intellectuals and educated Chinese were thrown out of their positions. Their skills were needed, though, and from 1960 to 63 professionals were appeased again.

Even though the educated were suppressed, Mao said that the “youth must be educated so that our nation will remain revolutionary”.

In the 1960’s Mao reminded people of the danger from the landlords and rich peasants, which were regaining influence, as he alledged. In addition he condemned Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqui who were “intriguing the revolution with their bourgeois ideas”.

In 1966, Mao introduced the Cultural Revolution. Dissident students became Red Guards assaulting the “monsters and demons and all counter-revolutionary revisionists of the Khrushchev type” as Mao described them. The Red Guards were to attack party bureaucrats, root out Chinese tradition and bourgeois revisionism. Teachers, professionals and everyone with authority became a target and were denounced, humiliated, beaten and killed. Soon the Red Guards were out of control and the regular army had to intervene. By 1968, Red Guards were executed and re-educated. Schools and universities were closed and the young intellectuals were sent to the country to learn the peasantry values.

The Maoist China was in “constant revolution” and therefore, just as Mao expressed in the words “revolutions require enemies”, needed new enemies and victims to keep up constant change. Religion, temples and the whole old culture was being destroyed in rebellions. “Oppression of the workers, peasants, revolutionary intellectuals and revolutionary parties by the landlords, capitalists, imperialists and revisionists fully justifies any rebellion”.  “Wrong thinking” was being crushed by denunciation, the system of self-criticism and sometimes execution.

Analysis

Maoist China and Cambodia under Pol-Pot both were communist single-party states. Both wanted to reform the economy, both were basing themselves on the peasantry. Most importantly, though, both targeted at certain groups and both suppressed these so that they died or suffered horribly. The differences to a certain limit lay in who was aimed at and mostly why they were being victimised.

In China, Mao had correctly realized that “revolutions required enemies”. The idea of Mao also was constant revolution, and what this meant was that enemies were constantly required in order to mobilize the masses. One can clearly see that people are much more likely to involve in something if they are given a target and know what they are fighting  for or rather against. As his main supporters were the peasants, the first group to target was the upper landlord class and thousands of them were executed. Professionals and in other words the bourgeoisie, which was also a common target, could not be victimised because their skills were needed. “Rightists”, the ones opposing the government, were of course also made a target. However, whether they were simply educated and only had the possibility of posing a threat to the government, or whether they were really rightists was not so clearly identified. Whenever Mao wanted to get rid of one of the other politicians because they were becoming a threat to him, he would condemn them by identifying them as being favourable to the bourgeoisie as he did with Deng and Liu.

After the “Great Leap Forward” had failed, Mao had lost some power and hoped to regain it by creating a new revolution. In the Cultural Revolution once again new enemies were found and targeted. Students and other young people were made Red Guards opposing bureaucrats, teachers and all other kind of professionals. Revisionism was rooted out together with the Chinese traditions and religion.  The slogan “Oppression by the landlords, capitalists, imperialists and revisionists justifies any rebellion” shows just how Mao created new enemies just to keep the revolution going.

Cambodia under Pol-Pot, however, combined the targets or victims of his revolution in one term, the “new people”. The main idea was the uprooting of the “imperialists, colonialists and other oppressor classes”. The proletarian class was to be the ruling class and the educated people, the bourgeoisie, could not attain “revolutionary consciousness”, which basically meant uncritical thinking and focussing on nothing but manual work. Reading the correct way meant reading without questioning anything. “Clearing the slate” was the term used meaning that everyone who was not a peasant should be killed. All of this, of course, aimed at complete control over the people who wouldn’t question having to work on the field only. This was why children were given the power to decide over people’s death. They were easy to indoctrinate and influence and would believe what they were told. Educated people on the other hand could question the ideas of Angkar, the government, and this was of course a threat to them. On the way to his ideal society, Pol-Pot thought that killing a quarter of the population did not matter much because a “pure” society would be created.

Even though both regimes focussed on the peasantry and targeted the middle and higher class, there were some major differences in the approach. Both targeted at the bourgeoisie for very different reasons. In China, Mao wanted constant revolution and for constant revolution he needed  enough enemies around which could be condemned publicly. Therefore, Mao targeted at the higher landlord class and the bourgeoisie - which included the professionals and of course his political opposition -, the “capitalists and rightists”. He aimed at those groups especially because he knew that the educated had the capacity of questioning his ideas. As for Pol-Pot, it was not so much different. He targeted the “new people”, which were the educated professionals, who in his view would never read like peasants and be completely uncritical. He wanted to create a society consisting of practically nothing but manual working. Both regimes have in common that many thousands had to die, whether it was in order to keep the revolution ongoing or because they were potential dangers to the regimes.

Biography

23.01.05

Burden of Memory: Muse of Forgiveness by Wole Soyinka (1999)

23.01.05

Survival in the Killing Fields by Haing Ngor (1987)

A History of the World in the 20th Century by J.A.S. Greenville (2000)

Mastering Modern World History by

 

---