How political hatred during Cultural Revolution led to murder and cannibalism in a small town in China
At least 38 people were eaten in Wuxuan during the violence and turmoil, but the authorities still do not want the details to emerge, according to high-ranking official who investigated the killings
At the height of the frenzy of China’s Cultural Revolution, victims were eaten at macabre “flesh banquets”, but 50 years after the turmoil began, the Communist Party is suppressing remembrance and historical reckoning of the era and its excesses.
Launched by Mao in 1966 to topple his political enemies after the failure of the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution saw a decade of violence and destruction nationwide as party-led class conflict devolved into social chaos.
Teenaged Red Guards beat teachers to death for being “counter-revolutionaries” and family members denounced one another while factions clashed bitterly for control across the country.
But the Communist Party, which long ago decided that Mao was “70 per cent right and 30 per cent wrong”, does not allow full discussion of events and responsibility.
Toe the Communist Party’s red line on Cultural Revolution, state paper warns
