湖北的文革大武鬥 / The Major Factional Struggles in Hubei During the Cultural Revolution

Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, is China’s north-south and east-west railway and water transport hub, with numerous large factories, famous universities, and cultural and scientific research institutions. It is also the location of the Wuhan Military Region headquarters. Here the “bombard and burn the provincial and municipal Party committees,” “destroy the four olds,” and attacks on military region organs were extremely fierce. From May to June 1967, large-scale armed struggles for power seizure broke out among rebel mass organizations across Hubei, with many deaths. Mao firmly believed that using his prestige he could solve the Hubei problem. He led several trusted aides to station in Wuhan and support the rebels, thereby promoting the conclusion of power seizure in the nationwide Cultural Revolution. On July 18, 1967, Mao met in Wuhan with Zhou Enlai, Xie Fuzhi, Wang Li, and others and said: “Why can’t we arm the workers and students? I think they should be armed.” Mao assigned Xie Fuzhi and Wang Li to go to various universities to support the rebels against the Wuhan Military Region, which supported the conservative faction. This greatly enraged the army and the public. On July 20, the conservative organization “Million Heroes,” composed mainly of workers and numbering tens of thousands, besieged the guesthouse where Mao, Xie Fuzhi, and Wang Li were staying and injured Wang Li. With Zhou Enlai’s arrangements, Mao fled in embarrassment from Wuhan to Shanghai. After July 21, Jiang Qing and others used this to promote “attack with the pen and defend with the sword,” turning the nationwide mass organizations’ “cold-weapon armed struggle” into “hot-weapon armed struggle.” The world-shocking “July 20 Incident” made Mao realize the strength of the conservative forces in the army and among the people. From then on he changed his Cultural Revolution strategy, once again relying on the army and the strong conservative working class. He sent “Mao Zedong Thought Propaganda Teams” composed of soldiers and workers into schools and relevant units, completely disbanded the Red Guard rebel organizations he had strongly supported, and even abandoned core Central Cultural Revolution Group members such as Wang Li. Only then did the nationwide large-scale armed struggle gradually subside. There are many tragic and heroic stories of armed struggle in Hubei during the Cultural Revolution; the number of deaths in just one commemoration of Mao swimming the Yangtze River in Wuhan cannot even be counted.