Thread by @turquoiseroof

Astonishing set of dox, military + eyewitness, translated + published by @JianglinLi and Matthew Akester historicaldocs.blogspot.com emerging for the first time re scorched earth violence in Amdo following resistance in 1958 and beyond. Officials are criticized for...1/

‘following the leftist line’ ‘to the point of madness’ and the anguish of families is told in rare stories from inspection visits in the early ’60s. An official doc issued by a military command that wd normally defer to the #CCP states that the Party policy guaranteeing that 2/

rebels surrendering to the #PLA would not be executed, arrested, imprisoned or subjected to ‘struggle’, was not being followed on the ground + that arbitrary mass arrests and executions were ruining the Party’s credibility with the #Tibetan masses historicaldocs.blogspot.com/2021/09/severa… 3/

It makes an appeal (that failed), ‘of the kind that would soon be forbidden nationwide’, to address the imminent threat of mass starvation. Accounts by one of the v few former officials with personal experience + knowledge of what happened in Qinghai 4/

during those catastrophic years deserve reading in full. historicaldocs.blogspot.com/2021/09/yin-sh… Yin Shusheng, formerly of Qinghai PSB, gives official figures on excessive arrests, closure of monasteries, arrests of upper strata figures, nos of wrongful arrests – more than 90% - 5/

+ deaths in custody from 1958 to 1960. A particularly harrowing account from Yin's inspection visit to Golok, where in 1961 officials informed families that their loved ones would return home in order to meet new #CCP guidance re releasing ‘innocent detainees’. 6/

'when the prefecture PSB’s truck supposedly carrying the detainees arrived, only 27 people got off. The families of the other 157 detainees were told that they had died. Those family members started to wail. In the evening, they lit butter lamps at home 7/

+ prayed for the dead….At first, when detainees died in labor camps, their families were notified. Later, when more and more deaths took place, families were no longer told + continued to write letters to them and encourage them to 'reform well, strive for early release' 8/

Yin gives detailed accounts of atrocities under County Party secretary Guo in Golok who had “implemented the Three Red Flags, so-called “religious reform” + 'leftist' line to the point of madness.” On one occasion 2 surrendered rebels were arrested and tortured so harshly 9/

that an official reported to Guo they were dying. ‘Secretary Guo said “What if they rebel again after release? It is better to kill them. As a result, the policemen strangled them with rope.”’ 10/

The inspection seems to have been largely successful, as Yin reports that by 1962, the main Party committee and PSB leaders inc Guo were dismissed 11/

Yin gives forensic detail on deaths + torture at the time eg: ‘Due to extortion of confessions by torture + food deprivation, a large number of the detained and arrested died in custody. Yushu Prefecture Detention Center had 4,219 deaths in custody 12/

accounting for 56.2% of the total number of detainees. In addition, 1,641 deaths occurred in reeducation training camps, accounting for 48.5% of the total number of people sent to those camps. 13/

In The Agony of Jinyintan, Yin describes ‘barbaric’ relocation and consequences of the construction of a factory in Jinyintan in the #Tibetan area of Dashi, Tsojang in the '50s-'60s where the first atomic and hydrogen bombs were built
historicaldocs.blogspot.com/2021/09/yin-sh… 14/

'The disaster in Jinyintan fell not only on the relocated herders; employees of Factory 221, who contributed their youth + knowledge to the "2 bombs and 1 satellite" were not spared either. ...90% of scientists and technicians were investigated and persecuted. 15/

In 2 years > 4,000 employees were subjected to cruel torture to extract confessions, resulting in the injury or disability of > 310 and suicide of > 40 employees. 5 were executed ..For a period of time, the beautiful Jinyintan was reduced to a blood-stained place. 16/

Yin writes about a 14 yr/o who saw 7 members in his family of 11 starving during the Great Leap Forward. Out of desperation, he stole 2 baby lambs. When he recd a small pot of watery barley soup from his brigade collective, ‘frustrated, he smashed the pot and started to cry.. 17/

..Knowing his family wd starve to death in days, he cut off a donkey's ear for food. Cadres traced the blood to his home + found the 2 lambskins. They poked a hole in his ear + sentenced him to 10 yrs. When he returned his entire family had died historicaldocs.blogspot.com/2021/09/yin-sh…