Historical background

On May 16, 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in mainland, China.^[10] On August 5, Bian Zhongyun, the first vice principal of the Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University, was beaten to death by a group of Red Guards—mostly her students—and became the first education worker in Beijing killed by the Red Guards.^{[1][8][10][20][31]}

Massacre in Beijing

On August 18, 1966, Mao Zedong met with Song Binbin, a leader of the Red Guards, atop Tiananmen of Beijing.^[8][9] Mao asked Song Binbin whether the "Bin" in her given name was the same Chinese character as that in Chinese Chengyu "Wen Zhi Bin Bin (文质彬彬)"; upon receiving confirmation, Mao commented that, “Yao Wu Ma (要武嘛)”, meaning "be valiant" or "(you'd) better fight".^{[1][8][9][10][32]} After this meeting, the morale of the Red Guards was significantly boosted, triggering their massive slaughter in Beijing.^[1][9] In particular, on August 25, 1966, thousands of Red Guards started a week-long massacre in Langan Market (榄杆市) of the Chongwen District.^[9][17] At the same time, Red Guards launched a nationwide campaign to destroy the "Four Olds".^[1][9] In Beijing alone, a total of 4,922 historic sites were ruined, and the Red Guards burned 2.3 million books as well as 3.3 million paintings, art objects, and pieces of furniture.^[4][10]

On August 22, 1966, Mao approved a document from the Ministry of Public Security, ordering "do not use police force—no exception—to intervene or suppress the movement of revolutionary students".^[4][33] On the following day, Mao gave a talk at a Work Conference of the Central Committee of CCP, publicly supporting the student movement and opposing any intervention to the "Cultural Revolution of students":^[15][34]

In my view, Peking is not all that chaotic. The students held a meeting of 100,000 and then captured the murderers. This caused some panic. Peking is too gentle. Appeals have been issued, [but after all] there are very few hooligans. Stop interfering for the time being. It is still too early to say anything definite about the reorganization of the centre of the [Youth] League; let us wait four months. Decisions taken hurriedly can do only harm. Work teams were dispatched in a hurry; the left was struggled against in a hurry; meetings of 100,000 were called in a hurry; appeals were issued in a hurry; opposition to the new municipal [party] committee of Peking was said, in a hurry, to be tantamount to an opposition to the [party] Centre. Why is it impermissible to oppose K? I have issued a big character poster myself, 'Bombard the Headquarters!' Some problems have to be settled soon. For instance, the workers, peasants, and soldiers should not interfere with the students' great Cultural Revolution. Let the students go into the street. What is wrong with their writing big-character posters or going into the street? Let foreigners take pictures. They take shots to show aspects of our backward tendencies. But it does not matter. Let the imperialists make a scandal about us.

On August 26, Xie Fuzhi, the Minister of Ministry of Public Security, also ordered to protect the Red Guards and not arrest them, claiming that it was not incorrect for the Red Guards to beat "bad people" and it was fine if the "bad people" were killed.^{[10][16][17][18][35]} On the next day, Daxing Massacre broke out in the Daxing District of Beijing.^[11][12][13] And in his subsequent meetings with top public security officials from different provinces, Xie reiterated his point of view that the killings made by Red Guards were not public security issues and it would be a mistake if the public security was to arrest the Red Guards.^{[4][16][17][33]}

Government intervention

By the end of August 1966, the situation had grown out of control, forcing the Central Committee of CCP and the Chinese government to take multiple interventions, which gradually brought the massacres to an end.^[17][19] On September 5, People's Daily published an article (用文斗, 不用武斗) calling for an end to the violent combat and massacres.^[36]

Nevertheless, millions of Red Guards continued to arrive in Beijing to see Mao Zedong at Tiananmen Square on several occasions, including September 15, October 1 and so on.^[18]

Methods of killing

During Red August, killing methods by the Red Guards included beating, whipping, strangling, trampling, boiling, beheading and so on.^[8][9] In particular, the method used to kill most infants and children was knocking them against the ground or slicing them in half.^[9][37][38]

Death toll

• According to official statistics published in 1980, from August to September in 1966, a total of 1,772 people—including teachers and principals of many schools—were killed in Beijing by Red Guards, while 33,695 homes were ransacked and 85,196 families were forced to leave Beijing.^{[1][4][5][32][39]}
• During the Daxing Massacre, 325 people were killed from August 27 to September 1 in the Daxing District of Beijing.^[11][12][13] Even though most researchers think that the number of deaths in Daxing Massacre was already included in the total death toll in Beijing (i.e., 1,772), some researchers disagree and argue that the number of deaths in rural districts such as Daxing and Changping were not counted in the municipal data of Beijing.^[40] The oldest victim killed during the Daxing Massacre was 80 years old, while the youngest was only 38 days old; 22 families were wiped out.^[1][9][12]
• According to official statistics published in November 1985, the death toll during Red August was 10,275, while 92,000 homes were ransacked and 125,000 families were forced to leave Beijing.^[5][6][7]