China's Great Wall of Silence: "Remembrance." Response by Jennifer Li.

A reader took the time and went to the effort to write this excellent response to Much Ado About Nothing, I mean "Remembrance."  My thanks to Ms. Li.

Song Binbin and Justice

Jennifer Li

In 1998, I was asked to work as an interpreter for a US marshal in the case of human trafficking ship the Golden Adventures which was captured at Port Savannah, GA. The officer I worked with told me, “As you know, we caught only the captain and a couple of the top officers on board the ship. The prime culprit is the Chinese mafia behind the smuggling and we may never catch them. However, these guys we have caught are knowingly involved in the crime. According to our justice system, if a bad thing happens, someone must be held responsible for it.” One of the people arrested was a retired Chinese navy officer. He said that he was only in charge of the ship engines and didn’t know the genuine purpose of the trip till he was hired and boarded the ship. The US marshal explained to me that whatever this guy said now didn’t count because he could have backed out of the smuggling task upon knowing its real motive. No one forced him to stay.  That was his choice. Truly, everyone, in his/her lifetime, has such moments as would test his sense of justice, responsibility, and conscience. Unfortunately the fact is he chose to stick with the mafia. He was one of the people who brought the illegal immigrants to Savannah, so he was guilty.

Since then I have remembered what the marshal said and it was my first lesson about justice in a democratic society after 30 some years of life in China where the justice system was a joke and was used only as a fig leaf for persecuting innocent people when the communists felt threatened.

Weili Ye keeps saying that Song Binbin’s role in Bian’s death should be evaluated against the large historical background. However, even judging by what I have read about what Song was involved in Bian’s death revealed in their own narrations published in the electronic memoir Remembrance, I believe Song Binbin has inalienable responsibility for Bian’s death no matter whether she inflicted direct physical torture on her because she was in a position of power before, during, and after the beating and torturing. Let us see the large historical background.

The situation in China in June-August 1966 was puzzling and chaotic. Everyone felt that a new political storm of persecution was in the air. Most communist party members and officials, based on their past experiences with political campaigns, believed what they needed to do was to line up everyone by their standards of political loyalty, no matter in school or factory, and label a certain percentage of people as class enemy and then either put them in jail or send them to labor camps. That was all they needed to do. That was why many schools or working places’ communist leaders had already developed by June or July, 1966, the list of people they targeted as enemy. First of all, isn’t it clear to you, Song Binbin, that the event that you put a Red Guard band around Mao’s arm and Mao re-baptized you as Song Yaowu sent a signal to the entire nation and marked the beginning of the unprecedentedly large-scale massacre and torture of a nation’s own people by its rulers in human history? To me and most Chinese, you were the van der Rubbe in China’s Reichstag Fire. After you showed up in the documentary film Morning Sun and didn’t say anything about your role in the CR, I was curious and tried to find out whether you have ever regretted your infamous performance in history. Unfortunately, there is none. On the contrary, what I have found later was your exuberance with joy over the elite status given to you at the anniversary celebration of your alma mater. It is painfully clear that the atrocious holocaust has left nothing on the conscience of you and your like.  

Anyway, at the beginning of the CR, nobody knew what was in Mao’s mind. In order to annihilate his rivals in the power struggle within the communist party, he needed to take advantage of Chinese people’s grievances, which were pretty handy at that time, to create his new image as the savior. So it was totally a new game to everyone, even the top leaders like Liu Shaoji, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping were guessing what exactly Mao was heading for and whom Mao tried to get rid of. They, too, followed the old pattern of political campaign by sending so-called working groups to lower-level schools or working places to lead the political campaign. Mao accused them of making a political error by muffling innocent people’s voices. Most bureaucrats adhered to the old formula of political persecution and blindly believed that it was their duty to punish anyone who they believed would challenge the leadership of the communists as they had done before. They were in a hurry to get over with the campaign. Suddenly the order was issued that all the working groups sent from above should get out of schools or working places. Therefore, during the time period of June-August 1966, there was a turmoil in which communist leadership at various levels or the working groups sent from above didn’t know how to respond to the situation. At the same time, the new young fanatics who had never experienced any political campaigns before felt the local communist party organizations didn’t followed Mao’s teachings and felt they themselves were the genuine revolutionaries. There was no lack of political opportunists at that time competing for power. Everyone tried to express their revolutionary zeal in a competition for ruthless violence toward class enemy. During that time, to those who were labeled as class enemy, it didn’t make much difference who was in power, be it the original communist party leadership, some of whom were labeled “capitalist roaders”, or the new working groups sent from above including the representatives of revolutionary teachers and students absorbed into the new leadership like Song. The new fanatic mobsters’ cruel and violent behaviors toward “class enemies” were often tolerated if not encouraged by all those above. Even though those in power might have said something like “we still need to treat class enemies humanely,” it was very cosmetic and they often didn’t mean it. More often than not, they would give tacit consent to the mob’s brutal beating and torture by making light of it and calling it “inevitable revolutionary excesses.” If today, almost a half century later, jailers in China can get away with torturing prisoners in a thousand different ways, imagine yourself in the hands of lawless and heartless fanatical animals! I was then a college student in Shanghai and heard so many terrifying stories about the brutality of Beijing’s high-ranking officials’ children and Red Guards in beating and torturing people. And like the fashion industry their newly invented torturing techniques were soon picked up by fanatics all over the country.

However, young mobsters knew that if they did or said a wrong thing, they could easily become the target for persecution. No one knew what was up Mao’s sleeves, not even his closest comrades-in-arms. Therefore, everyone tried to get some inside information. People always looked up to children of high-ranking officials in hopes that they could bring inside information from their parents. As a matter of fact, high-ranking officials’ children like Song had long been the untouchable in China, especially during the CR unless their parents were suddenly toppled over from power like Song’s father toward the end of 1966. Very often those high-ranking officials’ children openly looked down upon small potatoes like Bian because they were so low in the bureaucratic ladder, compared with their own parents. That’s why at the beginning of CR, the school leadership considered it a kind of reinforcement to include students like Song in their power structure as Teachers and Students Representatives. When the Working Group came to school, the principal and Bian were sidelined, but students like Song were still included in the so-called [Leadership] “Preparatory Committee”.  From the day  the Working Group was ordered to leave their school to 8/5 on which Bian was beaten to death, Song Binbin and Liu Jing (Chair) had been exercising the administrative power in the office originally used by the Working Group. During this week, students still looked up to her for leadership. Isn’t the picture clear enough? Even though Song has denied having organized any Red Guards sect, officially the whole school was an organization under the “Preparatory Committee” and she had never left the center of power. I’d like to ask Song Binbin, why did the Security Department from the Central Party come to contact you to organize students to go to Tiananmen? You gave the order that everyone stuck with her class as a unit. In your words, “If no one objects, then you are a Red Guard.” It was you who decided which student was qualified to go to Tienanmen to meet Mao. What else do you need to prove you were an actual Read Guard leader?

Song Binbin, don’t tell me that you were just a bystander and now you sort of feel remorseful that you didn’t protect Bian. I can well imagine how proud you were of yourself then. You were guilty because you consciously and proudly took the position of power and thus should be held accountable for Bian’s and others’ deaths and sufferings. In a way, you were more powerful than anyone either in your school’s communist party organization or later in the Working Group. Here are some examples you and your friends provide in Remembrance 47 (7), April 28, 2010 and you tell me what they mean if they are not evidences of you being the major responsible figure of your school.

On 7/5/1966, Hu Qili took you and Liu Jin to Zhongnan Hai to report to Deng Xiaoping. May I ask why you? That was a trans-oceanic cable to the top power in forbidden city! Those grassroots fanatics would have killed to be in such a position!

On 8/20/1966, according to Principal Hu’s memory, it was the Students Representatives, that is, you and other big wigs’ children, who were presiding over the campus meeting during the military training time.

During the week between the Working Group’s departure (7/30?) and Bian’s death (8/5), according to Weili Ye, some fanatics declared the establishment of Mao Zedongist Red Guards and sort of challenged your “Teachers and Students Representative Committee”. However, these out-of-wedlock aristocrats were definitely not your match. That’s why you and Liu Jin were still exercising your power in the office originally used by the Working Group. During the CR, it was known to all that office and stamp chops were the symbol of power. That’s why Liu Jin was able to use the loudspeakers and broadcast all over the campus: “If she is dead, then let it be.” referring to Bian’s death. I feel disgusted when I try to visualize the cold insensitive inhumane attitude you and your comrades-in-arms had about life. That’s why when the doctor refused to take in Bian without proper procedure, you had to write the note and give it to the hospital with the signatures of seven people--you and your comrades-in-arms. What does that tell me?  Isn’t it clear that you seven people are in charge of the whole school? Weili Ye made it sound like it was a virtue for you to give the note in order to save Bian’s life. To me, that is an evidence of your power and responsibility at that time. That’s why the same night you and Liu Jin went to Beijing Hotel to report to the Mayor of Beijing Wu De. Why was it that you needed to report? You were exactly in the power and should be held responsible!

Liu Jin mentioned that according to one student’s recall, the violent students were all from the Military Headquarters Compound. I have to say, even if it was true that the sociopaths came from outside, it was because you seven people appeased, indulged, and tolerated their brutality, to say the least. Most probably, you agreed, appreciated, and abetted them. You were guilty as well of the atrocities!

For that reason, it is wrong for Feng Jinglan to absolve Song and others in power from their responsibility by saying, “Since they [fanatic perpetrators] tortured people in name of revolution and occupied the moral high ground, so whatever you said became very weak, right?” If you Song Binbin believed that the fanatics were in the “moral high ground”, so what was the difference between you and them? You concurred, right? If that is the case, why do you want to deny your responsibility now? Again, Weili Ye explained that because the Teachers and Students Representatives’ Committee’s authoritative status had not been clearly established, you were slow in response. When your teachers are being brutally murdered, this kind of excuses is unacceptable!

One more thing, when Hubei Province Governor Wang Renzhong asked you to go to his province to defend his Provincial Administration and you accepted. What does that tell me about you? You knew you were powerful and felt proud of your celebrity status. It sounds like fantasy that a governor begged a high school student for help to save his skin! You knew there were many Red Guards who believed in you and would follow you. You knew you were very influential and might affect provincial political situation powerfully. Therefore, you were actively involved in not only CR in your school, but also in other parts of the country and at a very high level. Of course, your celebrity status collapsed like a house of cards when your father tumbled out of power. You were traumatized and soon faded out of the picture. That doesn’t mean you don’t have responsibility for what happened before.

Based on these facts, I don’t think Ms. Youqin Wang has wronged you by saying you were responsible for Bian’s death. I’d like to advise you to reflect on your experiences at the beginning year of the CR from those victims’ perspective. Talk to them and ask how they view your role in all the tragic experiences of the Chinese. The excitement you displayed not long ago when your alma mater listed you as a school celebrity during the anniversary celebration tells me that you haven’t done any soul search yet. It is a shame. I believe people are willing to forgiving if you are really brave enough to take your share of responsibility. Don’t try to pick on people’s mistakes in their memory (Errors are possible when they try to recall what happened over a half century ago). Don’t try to use partial truth to cover yourself. In a holocaust such as the Cultural Revolution, there are always three kinds of people. They are the perpetrators, the victims, and the bystanders. Honestly, you can’t hide yourself behind the bystanders simple because you were not. Don’t you want to walk out of the shadow of the past? I believe you would like to be able to show your face openly and comfortably in life or film. You may if you desire to. First of all, you have to face yourself and try to clear your conscience by telling people honestly you are sorry and take your share of responsibility instead of denying it. As I said, people will forgive and forget. After all you were so young at that time.

Has it ever occurred to you that you and your family try to settle down in a country which you cursed the most back in China? Since I became an American citizen, I have been amazed at the audacity with which some people can switch their beliefs like change shirts without blushing at all. I was a graduate student at a university in Indiana in early 1980s when one day I was surprised to run into one of the political instructors (communist ideological watchdogs) who watch us students like hawks in my undergraduate years in China. Usually political instructors were graduates from the university but were academically too poor to be qualified for a professional position. Hu Jingtao was one of them. Since they were communists and politically reliable to the regime, so they were kept on campus and their job was to control students’ minds. It was their job to instill students with anti-American hatred. The guy I met that day told me he came to America as a visiting scholar. More surprisingly, he had become a totally different person – beyond recognition! In our conversation, he seemed to appreciate this country so much that one might take him for a redneck. When I asked about some professors and “reactionary” students who were persecuted during the CR, he simply responded, “The school party committee has cleared their names” but didn’t say a single word of remorse on his behalf. Suddenly I couldn’t hear his words any more even though he kept talking about America. In my mind’s eyes, I saw how he told some communist students in our class to sneak back into the dormitory and peek into other students’ diaries or private letters and then organized meetings to attack those students till they were persecuted during the CR. It also came back to my mind that he spread stories among students about professors’ political backgrounds to incite resentments in order to prepare for their struggle meetings. He was the connections between the school communist leadership and the so-called revolutionary masses of the people till the day the more violent fanatic Red Guards took over the power on campus. Now he sounded like an innocent bystander or even one of the victims, too.

Since Ms. Weili Ye is a historian. I’d like to advise you to visit Andersonville POW Museum, GA. It was a historical site of the prison in which the Confederate army jailed the Northern soldiers captured during the Civil War. When American Civil War was over, one of very few Confederate officers who were executed was the doctor-officer who managed the Andersonville prison because the jail was in a chaos. Many captured soldiers died of hunger or diseases. Besides, there were riots and organized crimes in the jail. Under the gallows, the prison manager protested by saying food was scarce during the war. However, he was still sentenced to death by hanging. That is called justice.

I also like to recommend a book for Ms. Ye to read. The book is titled Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust by Gay Block and Malka Drucker. The authors make clear distinction between victims, perpetrators, and bystanders in a situation of crisis.

More people were tortured, killed and persecuted by the Chinese communists, especially in the Cultural Revolution than in the Holocaust. Thousands of thousands of victims, perpetrators, and bystanders in China have, for various reasons, moved to this country. I take it for granted that all these people including myself are tired of communist lies and come to believe in democracy. We become Americans by choice, not by birth. However, we are all faced with a new mission, that is, to learn and exercise civic virtues of citizenry in a democratic society. Because of that, we all need to face what we did in the past and reflect on what really went wrong with China? Personally I believe everything that happens under the sun has a reason. Unfortunately, there are still many of us who are not consciously aware of its importance or take it seriously.  There is a lot we should learn from Jewish people about how to treat, pardon or incriminate those who were involved in violent crimes against humanity in the past. One of the reasons that the job is far from satisfactory could be the fact that the same authoritarian regime is still in power and those in power don’t want to have the Cambodian style atrocities to be exposed. In many ways, digging deeper into the past may well affect the legitimacy of their power today and its connections to their monstrous predecessors.

I appreciate Mr. Ben Harris’ enthusiasm and concern about China. Because of people like him and Youqin Wang, I feel there is still hope for the humankind. Many Chinese, including many Chinese Americans often ask why Americans want to poke their nose into so many countries’ affairs, why they are so interested in Tibet and Xingjiang, why they don’t mind their own business. I hope every Chinese American read at least once The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Ms. Weili Ye should know that over the long dark history of humankind, democracy is just a shooting star. Everyone has the responsibility to protect and fight for it. If we don’t, democracy could be lost from the world. One day when a second or third Cultural Revolution happens again, Song Binbins of posterity may not even have a hideout at MIT any more.