When the KMT retreated to Taiwan, my grandfather became the highest ranking CPC cadre in eastern Hubei by pure chance, and so became in charge of the city of Ezhou. The KMT completely abandoned it. Any service, utilities, maintenance, etc provided by the government was abandoned. He arrived at the city’s prison to find it completely abandoned of staff, the inmates left to starve in their cells.
Having only Marxist theory and no governing experience whatsoever, one of his first acts after assuming power was to review every single convict in the city prison personally and deem who was to remain (i.e. murderers, Japanese collaborators, etc) and who was to be set free (e.g. debt delinquents, communists, critics of the ROC, etc). He had the files read and interviewed all the prisoners, their alleged crimes and how long their sentences was, and used his very limited power to exonerate those he deemed innocent.
He always said if the retreat didn’t happen when it did, if the KMT sounded the retreat a week earlier while he was still in Wuhan, they may have starved.
If it’s ever questioned how the KMT with western backing and a numerical advantage lost the civil war, think about how they treat the 老百姓。
From surviving KMT massacres, Imperial Japan, the Long March, a huge disadvantage in the civil war, western imperialism, the Sino Soviet split, attempted colour revolutions, decades of propaganda, trade wars and natural disasters. The people have won. No other ideology could have accomplished this. From illiterate peasants to a nuclear powered, space faring superpower within one lifetime.
When the KMT retreated to Taiwan, my grandfather became the highest ranking CPC cadre in eastern Hubei by pure chance, and so became in charge of the city of Ezhou. The KMT completely abandoned it. Any service, utilities, maintenance, etc provided by the government was abandoned. He arrived at the city’s prison to find it completely abandoned of staff, the inmates left to starve in their cells.
Having only Marxist theory and no governing experience whatsoever, one of his first acts after assuming power was to review every single convict in the city prison personally and deem who was to remain (i.e. murderers, Japanese collaborators, etc) and who was to be set free (e.g. debt delinquents, communists, critics of the ROC, etc). He had the files read and interviewed all the prisoners, their alleged crimes and how long their sentences was, and used his very limited power to exonerate those he deemed innocent.
He always said if the retreat didn’t happen when it did, if the KMT sounded the retreat a week earlier while he was still in Wuhan, they may have starved.
If it’s ever questioned how the KMT with western backing and a numerical advantage lost the civil war, think about how they treat the 老百姓。
From surviving KMT massacres, Imperial Japan, the Long March, a huge disadvantage in the civil war, western imperialism, the Sino Soviet split, attempted colour revolutions, decades of propaganda, trade wars and natural disasters. The people have won. No other ideology could have accomplished this. From illiterate peasants to a nuclear powered, space faring superpower within one lifetime.
为人民服务
Proof that grandfathers don’t have to be chuds.