Guangxi Massacre
The Guangxi Massacre (), or Guangxi Cultural Revolution Massacre (), was a series of events involving lynching and direct massacre in Guangxi during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). The official record shows an estimated death toll from 100,000 to 150,000. Methods of slaughter included beheading, beating, live burial, stoning, drowning, boiling and disemboweling. In certain areas including Wuxuan County and Wuming District, massive human cannibalism occurred even though no famine existed. According to public records available, at least 137 people—perhaps hundreds more—were eaten by others and at least thousands of people participated in the cannibalism. Other researchers have pointed  out that 421 victims who could be identified by name were eaten, and there were reports of cannibalism across dozens of counties in Guangxi. After the Cultural Revolution, people who were involved in the massacre or cannibalism received minor punishments during the "Boluan Fanzheng" period; in Wuxuan County where at least 38 people were eaten, fifteen participants were prosecuted, receiving up to 14 years in prison, while ninety-one members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were expelled from the party and thirty-nine non-party officials were either demoted or had a salary cut. Although the cannibalism was sponsored  by local offices of the Communist Party and militia, no direct evidence suggests that anyone in the national Communist Party leadership including Mao Zedong endorsed the cannibalism or even knew of it. However, some scholars have pointed out that Wuxuan County, through internal channels, had notified the central leadership about the cannibalism in 1968. Historical background. In May 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution. Starting from March 1967, two factions gradually formed among troops and civilians in Guangxi: one faction (known as "the United Headquarters") unconditionally supported Wei Guoqing—then Chairman of Guangxi and a high-ranking CCP official —to direct the revolution in Guangxi, while the other faction (known as "4.22") opposed such unconditional support, asking Wei to do self-criticism first. Clashes such as "violent struggles" between the two factions along with massacres soon took place in rural regions of Guangxi. Even though the "4.22 faction" received support from Premier Zhou Enlai in August 1967, it was at a disadvantage throughout Guangxi except in the city of Guilin. In February 1968, Guangzhou Military Region ordered the troops which supported "4.22 faction" to move away from the region; in April 1968, Huang Yongsheng, then head of Guangzhou Military  Region, declared that the "4.22 faction" was a "reactionary organization" and started massive suppression (at the same time, the Guangdong Massacre also took place). Since the summer of 1968, the massacre had spread from rural regions to cities of Guangxi. Methods of killing. In the massacre, methods of slaughter included "beheading, beating, live burial, stoning, drowning, boiling, group slaughters, disemboweling, digging out hearts, livers, genitals, slicing off flesh, blowing up with dynamite, and more". Death toll. First investigation group. In April 1981, an investigation group of over 20 people was formed under the arrangement of the Central Commission for Discipline  Inspection, the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party, the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party, the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate. In June 1981, the investigation concluded that the death toll was over 100,000, while some officials and civilians claimed privately that the death toll was 150,000, 200,000 or even 500,000. In addition, Qiao Xiaoguang reported to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection that the death toll was 70,400. Second investigation group. In March 1983, another investigation group of 40 people was formed by the Central Committee of  the Chinese Communist Party. In January 1984, the investigation concluded that 89,700 deaths could be identified by names and addresses, over 20,000 people were missing, and over 30,000 deaths could not be identified by names or addresses. In particular, due to the violent struggles between the two opposing factions, 3,700 people died during direct fighting, 7,000 were persecuted to death, while 79,000 were beaten or shot to death in a planned and systematic matter. In Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, eight out of fourteen counties saw a death toll of over 1,000, with Binyang County alone losing 3,777 people. Academic  studies. In 2006, Su Yang () of University of California, Irvine argued that the Guangxi massacre was the most serious massacre during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. He stated that among the 65 accessible official county documents of Guangxi, 43 counties report local massacres with 15 of them recording a death toll of over 1000, while the average death toll was 526 among all the counties which reported massacre. Moreover, Song Yongyi pointed out that there were many differences between published official data and classified official data. For example, the published county annals of Lingshan County shows only eight people died, but  in its classified document there were 3,220 victims; for another example, the published document from Binyang County shows 37 victims only, compared to 3,951 victims in its classified document. In his book "Massacres during the Cultural Revolution (文革大屠杀)", Song argued that most Cultural Revolution massacres were the action of "state apparatuses", or the direct slaughter by the regime towards its citizens. On the other hand, in his award-winning book "Collective Killings in Rural China during the Cultural Revolution", Su proposed the "community model" to explain the massacre in Guangxi, challenging the prevailing models of genocide and mass killings. Massive  cannibalism. Official investigation. Human cannibalism occurred in Guangxi during the Cultural Revolution. According to Zheng Yi (), a scholar who conducted detailed research on the topic in the late 1980s and later smuggled some copies of official documents to the United States, at least 137 people—perhaps hundreds more—were eaten by others and thousands of people participated in the cannibalism. Documents also record a variety of forms of cannibalism, including eating people as an after-dinner snack, slicing off the meat in big parties, dividing up the flesh so each person could take a large chunk home, barbecuing or roasting  the liver, and so on. According to Yan Lebin (), a member of the Ministry of Public Security who joined both of the investigation groups:In 1968, 38 people in Wuxuan County were eaten, and 113 officials of the county participated in eating human flesh, hearts and livers. Chen Guorong (), a peasant from Guigang County who happened to pass by Wuxuan, was caught and killed by local militia because he was fat; his heart and liver were taken out while his flesh was distributed to 20 people. A female militia leader ate 6 human livers in total, and cut the genitals  of 5 men and soaked them in alcohol which she would drink later, claiming that these organs were beneficial to her health. The behavior of eating human flesh, hearts and livers occurred in many counties of Guangxi including Wuxuan, Wuming, Shangsi, Guigang, Qinzhou, Guiping, and Lingyun... After the revolutionary committee was established in Shangsi County, a "killing conference" was held at Pingshan Square () on September 1, 1968, during which more than 10 officials and civilians were beaten to death. After the conference, a committee member, Li Hao (), removed the hearts and livers from the corpses, sauteing them and preparing them  as dishes for other representatives who attended the conference. Academic studies. According to Song Yongyi, a Chinese historian who works at the California State University, Los Angeles:Independent researchers in Guangxi counted a total of 421 people who were eaten. There were reports of cannibalism across 27 counties in Guangxi; that's two-thirds of all the counties in Guangxi. There was one man who was said to be in the so-called fifth category, who was beaten to death where he stood. He had two kids, one of 11 and one of 14. The local officials and armed militia  said that it was important to eradicate such people, and so they not only killed those two children: they ate them too. This took place in Pubei county, Guangxi, where 35 people were killed and eaten in total. Most of them were rich landowners and their families. There was one landowner called Liu Zhengjian whose entire family was wiped out. He had a 17-year-old daughter, Liu Xiulan, who was gang-raped by nine people [for 19 times] who then ripped open her belly, and ate her liver and breasts. There were so many incidents like this. According to  Frank Dikötter, Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong, Senior Fellow at Hoover Institution of Stanford, and winner of the 2011 Samuel Johnson Prize:Throughout 1967 but also '68, there are factions in the countryside that start not just eliminating each other physically, but literally in a couple of small towns they start ritualistically eating each other. In other words, it is not enough to eliminate your class enemy. You have to eat his heart, so there are very well-documented cases of ritual cannibalism. There was a hierarchy in the consumption of class enemies. Leaders feasted  on the heart and liver, mixed with pork, while ordinary villagers were allowed only to peck at the victims’ arms and thighs. Regarding the motive for cannibalism, Ding Xueliang (丁学良), a professor at the University of British Columbia and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, pointed out that "this was not cannibalism because of economic difficulties, like during famine. It was not caused by economic reasons, it was caused by political events, political hatred, political ideologies, political rituals." Qin Hui also showed with statistics that the cannibalism was not due to the traditions of local ethnic minorities; he  argued that the cannibalism was mainly due to: 1) the extreme class struggle during the Cultural Revolution, which led to a modern "caste" system (such as the Five Black Categories) and an extreme massacre towards the lower class from the upper class; 2) the revenge from the local officials and military towards the rebel group who challenged their interests. On the other hand, according Song Yongyi, the motive behind cannibalism was personal desire. Song stated that these people engaged in cannibalistic activities because they "believe that when they eat other people's livers, other people's hearts, it will help  them to have a long life". While some research indicates that it was communism that compelled the perpetrators in this area towards cannibalism, on the other hand, Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals disputed that communism was to be blamed for this incident, noting that similar incidents occurred under pressure from the Kuomintang secret police in the republican period.