Like her letter to Mao Zedong over forty years before, this is typical of the integrity and will of the writer, who saw--and sees still--more clearly than others, the most fundamental distinction that human beings can make, that between right and wrong.
Urging Hu Jintao to Punish Crimes Against Humanity in the Cultural Revolution (Full Translation)
Wang Rongfen
Editor's note: Forty-one years ago, Wang Rongfen, then a student, wrote a letter to Mao Zedong condemning the newly launched Cultural Revolution as "a mass movement launched from the barrel of a gun." Now Wang has sent a letter to Hu Jintao, who was part of her same generation, calling for China to accept the "Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court" and establish a tribunal for crimes against humanity committed during the Cultural Revolution.Dear Mr. Hu Jintao:I recently had the privilege of reading your article "Continue Pushing Forward the Great Cause of Reform and Opening" in Qiushi Magazine, which called to mind a number of strange incidents in recent years that go against this thinking. I now write to respectfully offer my thoughts on this matter for your kind consideration.You have frankly referred to the hardship suffered by the Chinese People as a result of the "10 years of internal chaos of the Cultural Revolution," and consider it the cause of the launch of reform. Looking back 30 years, one appreciates how laudable it was when the third session of the 11th Party Plenum thoroughly negated the positions of the Cultural Revolution, compared to the present day, when the Party has frozen and suppressed all discussion of the Cultural Revolution. This year marks the 30th anniversary of reform and opening. What is most regrettable is that the Party has been so hesitant during these 30 years to move forward on political reform, and in the last two years has actually regressed significantly to the anti-humanitarian and tyrannical position of the 1960s. In 2006, the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Cultural Revolution, the General Administration for Press and Publication acted as if it were confronting a mortal enemy, prohibiting any discussion, essays or books on the Cultural Revolution. At the same time, it dragged people in on commemorations for the 30th anniversary of the death of Mao Zedong, flooding China with songs of praise for this chief instigator of the Cultural Revolution, and pulling culture and discourse back into the medieval Red Sun era, where it remains entrenched to the present day. Even worse, in September 2007, the Experimental Middle School attached to Beijing Normal University, during its anniversary celebration, named as "distinguished alumna" the notorious Song Binbin, who was the leader of the Red Guards at that school during the Cultural Revolution. The school in particular cited the event on August 18, 1966, when Song tied a Red Guard armband on Mao Zedong during his review of the Red Guards at Tiananmen Square. On the 31st anniversary of Mao's death, that same school held a grand exercise, during which it displayed a gigantic poster with the photo of Song Binbin tying the Red Guard armband on Mao Zedong.Worth noting is the fact that this strange event occurred just one week after your speech on Teacher's Day. In your speech, you advocated "Education centered on people and ethics and that places the cultivation of virtue as its basic duty." But this Experimental School of the Education Ministry went on to publicize the virtue of violence, and the glory of beating people to death. This not only casts scorn on your Teacher's Day speech, but is a provocation against human ethics. A middle school anniversary celebration carried out in the Great Hall of the People, emceed by the chief presenter of CCTV, and attended by 6,000 foreign diplomats and other VIPs, a dignified national celebration, represents the epitome of efforts to restore the image of the Cultural Revolution. The front-stage performer for this anniversary celebration was the school's principal, Yuan Aijun. Although she was only 10 years old when the Cultural Revolution was launched, so obsessed is she with the Cultural Revolution that she insisted on honoring the Red Guard leader of that time as the school's "distinguished alumna," and establishing her as shining model for the students in that school, who know nothing about Red Guards. This educator's concepts of glory and dishonor and educational ideals are fully revealed in this lengthy anniversary celebration of "Glory and Dreams," which served as living lesson in "class struggle."Mr. Hu, you personally experienced the Cultural Revolution while at Tsinghua University, so you are naturally aware of the influence of that August 18 event, when Mao Zedong for the first time reviewed the Red Guards and wore their armband. After that, Song Binbin changed her name to Song Yaowu -- "be violent" -- and the Girl's Middle School attached to the Beijing Normal University was renamed “Red Yaowu Middle School” after becoming the first school in China to beat its principal to death. Statistics of the New Beijing Municipal Party Committee at that time identified 1,772 teachers, principals and ordinary residents in Beijing were beaten to death by Red Guards from August 20 until the end of September. Even Tsinghua University was unable to escape this fate; you must remember the red terror that took place on Tsinghua's campus on August 24. Ignoring a comeback staged by the tyrants of that time, allowing those thugs of yesterday to ascend the stage and receive honors, repeating the human tragedy of 41 years before, not only thwarts reform and opening, but destroys the 5,000 years of our great country's civilization! When that happens, how can the Party face its 1.4 billion citizens? And how can you, Sir, face your ancestors?The Cultural Revolution was a humanitarian disaster. In terms of duration, the range and number of its victims and the severity of its methods, it constitutes a unique episode in the history of humanity. In 1980, the Party put Lin Biao and the Gang of Four on trial as an anti-Party clique, but never put the Cultural Revolution on trial for crimes against humanity. The Party has expended 30 years of effort without being able to negate the Cultural Revolution or the violent Mao Zedong Thought based on class struggle and dictatorship of the proletariat, or the tyrannical Mao himself, or the violent Red Guard organization. The General Administration for Press and Publication's perversity, and the open provocation of the Ministry of Education, are rooted in the failure of the Party to distance itself from the road of despotism and violence.During the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong exported violence by supporting Maoists all over the world, propping up Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, Japan's Red Army, Germany's Baader-Meinhof Gang and other violent organizations, resulting in terrorists engaging in ruthless bloodshed and committing crimes against humanity in Cambodia, the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere. The Red Army and Baader-Meinhof Gang were ultimately punished under the laws of their countries, and the Maoists of the barbarous Khmer Rouge are being tried under a United Nations-sponsored human rights tribunal.In June this year, the Cultural Revolution will reach its 42nd anniversary. It's time to bring this historical case to a close. Left unresolved, it will only bring more trouble in the future. If the Party really wishes to accelerate reform and openness, it should draw a lesson from history and move ahead with the times by respecting the human rights of the people, abandoning violent tactics, thoroughly repudiating Mao Zedong Thought, becoming party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, establishing a court for crimes against humanity, declaring the Red Guards an anti-humanitarian violent organization, putting on trial those who committed crimes against humanity during the Cultural Revolution and those seeking to revive the Cultural Revolution, and punishing them according to law. Only in this way can there be consolation for the victims of the Cultural Revolution and a winning back of the people's confidence to establish a harmonious society and promote reform and openness.Everyone plays their part in the rise and fall of a nation. I ask you to pardon my bluntness, while requesting that you consider my words.Respectfully yours,Wang Rongfen, January 12, 2008, in Germany
