Red August
Red August (simplified Chinese: 红八月; traditional Chinese: 紅八月; pinyin: Hóng Bāyuè) is a term used to indicate a period of political violence and massacres in Beijing beginning in August 1966, during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. According to official statistics published in 1980 after the end of the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards in Beijing killed a total of 1,772 people during Red August, while 33,695 homes were ransacked and 85,196 families were forcibly displaced. However, according to official statistics published in November 1985, the number of deaths in Beijing during Red August was 10,275.
| Red August | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Cultural Revolution in China | |
On August 18, 1966, Mao Zedong met with student Red Guards on Tiananmen, triggering a wave of mass killings in Beijing. | |
| Native name | 红八月 |
| Location | Beijing, China |
| Date | 1966 August – September 1966 |
| Target | Teachers, intellectuals, members of the "Five Black Categories" (Landlords, wealthy peasants, bad influences/elements and right wingers), local political leaders and perceived political enemies of Mao Zedong |
Attack type | Politicide, politically motivated violence |
| Deaths | 10,275 (Deaths) 85,196 (Families displaced) |
| Victims | landlords, property owners, political dissidents, “class enemies” |
| Perpetrators | Chinese Communist Party, Cultural Revolution Group (Chen Boda, Jiang Qing, Kang Sheng, Yao Wenyuan, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Li, Xie Fuzhi) and student Red Guards incited by Mao Zedong |
| Motive | Destruction of the "Four Olds (Old cultures, old customs, old habits and ideas) and Five Black Categories (Landlords, wealthy peasants, bad influences/elements and “right wingers”) |
On August 18, 1966, Chairman Mao Zedong met with Song Binbin, a leader of the Red Guards, atop Tiananmen. This event instigated a wave of violence and mass killings in the city by the Red Guards, who also started a campaign to destroy the "Four Olds". The killings by the Red Guards also impacted several rural districts in Beijing, such as in the Daxing Massacre, in which 325 people were killed from August 27 to September 1 in the Daxing District of Beijing. Meanwhile, a number of people, including notable writer Lao She, committed suicide or attempted suicide after being persecuted. During the massacres, Mao Zedong publicly opposed any governmental intervention to the student movement, and Xie Fuzhi, the Minister of Ministry of Public Security, instructed police and public security organs to protect the Red Guards instead of arresting them. However, the situation went out of control at the end of August 1966, forcing the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chinese government to take multiple interventions which gradually brought the massacres to an end.
Red August is considered the origin of the Red Terror in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It has also been compared with Nazi Germany's Kristallnacht, as well as with the Nanjing Massacre conducted by the Japanese military during the Second Sino-Japanese War.