INDOCRINATION AND 'BRAIN WASHING' UNDER CHINESE COMMUNIST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R000200050002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 9, 1998
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 1, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

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INDOCTRINATION AND "BRAIN WASHING"
UNDER
CHINESE CON1M9NISTS
A Lesson in Communist Occupation Techniques
June 1951
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W -_ ~_~ Y ~r1 n rr o r , tr
OF THE COMMUNIST TROOPS IN PEKING
34. When the Chinese Communists were laying siege to Peking late
in 1948, a young Chinese named Chu Fan-chi (this is not his true name),
a native of South China, was studying social sciences at Tsing Fins, -
University. This was his freshman year, and he did part-time work to
supplement the government scholarship which paid his tuition. Students
with political interests were divided between the San Min Chu I group
of pro-Kuomintang sympathies and the New Democracy group of the Com-
munists, whose members were mainly underground. Chu belonged to the
Communist group. "I was not," he says, "a Communist Party member,
but I was an ardent Communist supporter, because I didnat like the
Kuomintang regime and thought there had to be a change. I had no
actual Party beliefs," He served the Communists by reporting Nation-
alist troop movements to a Communist classmate who had a link with
the underground. Communist troops entered Peking on 6 January., and
University classes stopped. The Communist students had orders not
to reveal their identity immediately, but they gradually emerged to
contest power with the San Min Chu I students, who were beginning to
go underground. In the struggle that followed the Communists tried to
break up the Nationalist group by persuasion, and when this failed
some fights broke out, Chu and his associates tried to get the Nation-
alists arrested and sent to the Communist Army, The San Min Chu I
group did not survive very long.
4. Meanwhile Chu was anxious "to help the people," and he found
agreeable work among the Communist students in distributing American
surplus food and medicine to the poor around Peking, who had suffered
during the siege. But Communist officials who had just arrived said
that this work must stop. Protests from Chugs relief group that the
poor were suffering had no effect. The officials insisted that all
medicines must be returned and no further distributions made of food
or other supplies, "If the sick want to get better," they said, "they
can do so by joining the Red Army." Chu and his friends tried to-
continue their relief work,, but their pleas with sick farmers to join
the army for treatment met with no success. The peasants had no desire
to abandon their families, and one of them said, "If the government
wants us to join the army to get cured, we would rather not be cured,"
Chu also did a stint in the Peoples Self-Defense Corps, whose members
guarded the factories or places of business where they worked.
EDUCATION UNDER THE COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT
5. Officials of Tsing Hua University at first adopted a concilia-
tory attitude towards the different student groups, but this tolerance
could not last, Within a few days the Communist youth., assisted by
Communist faculty members, were in actual control of the University,
For two months there were no classes, and Chu joined the holiday throngs
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welcoming the Communist Army, listening to speeches, and singing Com-
munist Party songs. There was much praise for the 'Elder Brother,"
as Stalin or Russia was called. Chu got a chance to make a speech..
over a loudspeaker. He shared the revolutionary enthusiasm which the
well-disciplined Communist troops brought with them. The students
returned to the University to find that the regular curriculum had_,
disappeared along with all but 600 of the 2,500 students. Students,
professors, and servants were assembled in a "Mobilization Meeting
for Learning the New Democracy," and here a member of the Communist
. Committee for the University told them : "Mao's principles are the
only ones that can bring about China's reconstruction. If you don't
agree with Mao, you don't want China to become strong, and that means
you are a personal-doctrine man (individualist)." Chu was able to
make several remarks on the need for a strong China. But when the
students were asked, after a long harangue, if they wanted to study
the principles of the New Democracy and Mao Tse-tung's ideas, about
a third said they did not, for they were technical students, engineers
and the like, who had no desire to exchange their subject for politics.
Nevertheless the reluctant minority was argued into silence. The
chairman of the meeting was a member of the Communist Central Committee,
North China Department, who had been appointed to look after political
work in the University.
6. Classes were abolished, and to study the all-embracing subject
of Communism the students were divided into groups of 23 with typical
cellular organization: each group had a leader, an assistant leader,
a cultureemusements chief, and a chief of education and propaganda.
The groups, which included professors, students, and servants, were
subdivided into sections of seven or eight students. Leaders of the
various groups and sections were chosen by balloting on a single list
of hand-picked candidates. This Communist-type organization operated
under the Central Committee of the University. The period of holiday
and celebration was over, and Chu sensed a cooling off among the
students who had enthusiastically welcomed the Communists. There were
no opposing votes, but numerous abstentions. One of the first actions
of the group leaders was to examine their lists for persons with pro-
Kuomintang sympathies, since these students would require special
attention.
7.. The group studies were completely orthodox in their Marxist-
Leninist-Stalinist bias. Subjects included the history of society,
the rise of capitalism, the theory of labor and revolution, with evil
examples drawn from the U.S. and good from the U.S.S.R. The "correct"
approach or interpretation filtered down from a Communist lecturer
through the groups to the sections, where discussion took place. Chu
was disappointed, like many other students, when he learned that
"discussion" was a period in which students were encouraged to reveal
their "incorrect" opinions for the benefit of the odd person, a silent
observer, always present with notebook in hand. Otherwise real dif-
ference of opinion was not tolerated, and "dangerous" questions or
views might leave a personal mark difficult to erase.
8. Chugs academic career was profoundly affected by some innocent
well-meant remarks he made while trying to find out what foreign
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intervention in China signified. During a discussion of American occu-
pation of Tsingtao, he posted in the "wall newspaper" some questions
about Russian occupation; why Russia, a peaceful country, dismantled
Manchurian factories and took the machinery away after World War II;
why it kept garrisons in Port Arthur and Dairen now that the war was
over; why the Russians controlled the Manchurian railways. What was
the difference,, he asked, between American occupation of ?singtao and
Russian occupation of Dairen and Port Arthur? He soon learned that
he had set the cat among the pigeons. Students showed great interest
in these questions, and they were obviously not satisfied with the
official answer that Russia was merely protecting the Chinese people
from the Nationalists and from American aggression. The issue did
not die at once, and the Central Committee member responsible for the
University called Chu on the carpet for a personal talk. "Was it
right to ask this question?" he asked. "Did you think about the
consequences? How long has this idea been in your head? The effect,"
he added, "is to destroy the fruits of the revolution. This idea
must have been in your head as a result of Kuomintang poison."' He
gave some helpful advice and suggested that Chu start a diary of his
thoughts. He also took notes industriously while Chu, upon his
request, talked about his childhood, the evolution of his ideas, and
other personal matters. Thereafter he had Chu's section leader bring
the diary in every few days for inspection, and Chu was required to
turn over letters from his family, who fortunately wrote only of
family affairs, "I believe," Chu says, "that about 400 of the 600
students in our university agreed with me. I feel sure that only a
few agreed with the Communist Party's explanations on Manchuria.
9. Nearly all the students disliked the deadly routine and long
hours of the new program, twelve hours a day for six days a week.
When they complained to the authorities they were reminded that the
Peoplefs Liberation Army suffered greater hardships. Only Party
members tackled the grueling routine without complaint, but they
numbered hardly more than 25. The students complained in three
different petitions only to be told that they had been "fed with capi-
talist ideas and enjoyed life," with the usual remarks on the heroic
Red troops. Though normal studies were resumed during the morning,
the doctrinnaire discussions continued for the rest of the day.
10. Chu continued his studies until the end of the summer. Then
he and about 30 others received the disturbing news that they were
being transferred immediately to a revolutionary university run by the
Communist Party. When they made inquiries, they were told that they
were regarded as "unreformable" in a non-party university such as
Tsing Hua, which was run by the government. Therefore they were being
transferred to the North China People's Revolutionary University.
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EDUCATION UNDER THE CONMIST PARTY
11. The People's Revolutionary University, only a few miles from
Tsing Hua, was a former. military training center under the Japanese
occupation, with parade ground, barracks, and facilities for 10,000
troops. During.Chu's stay there were almost 9,000 students, roughly
19 to 25-years of:age, of whom one fifth were girls living in separate
barracks? "Bourgeois ideas of enjoyment" were discouraged. The stu-
dents ate two scanty meals a day, lived in crowded barracks, and slept
on the floor. There was considerable sickness and little medical
attention. The Party insisted upon a Spartan routine under rigid
Communist control. The University was under the North China Depart-
ment of the Communist Party, and its Principal was a member of the
Central Committee, a fat, stalwart type, six feet tall, who had fought
as a guerrilla against the Japanese.. One overall Study Department was
responsible to the Principal for information on the students' "thoughts."
The faculty (about a fourth were women) was divided into four functional
departments: The first included students from other universities in
need of "ideological reform"; the second trained intelligence personnel
for the People's Liberation Army; the third was for members of liberal
groups; and the fourth took care of Party members who stood accused
of bungling their jobs or doing poor work.
12. The large classes were subdivided into groups of 23, where
discussion was carried on. The twenty-fourth member was the instruc-
tor, whom the students referred to as "comrade" or "able Party member";
he was a Party member who did little teaching, but listened to the
discussion, took notes, and settled disputed points. The procedure was
for a Communist professor to give a lecture to the classes once a. week;
then the students broke up into groups for a week-long discussion. In
this way there could be little straying from the Party line. If you
did not join in the discussion, you were asked why you had no opinion,
and the leader might accuse you of being "a lagging-behind particle",
"without responsibility for the People's Revolution."' Therefore all
the students talked,but most of them, Chu believes, were as miserable
and disappointed as he was. The theme was always political, and the
Cominform newspaper published in Bucharest was a standard text. There
were also labor duties such as farming plots, rebuilding walls, and
repairing roads: this was called "reform by labor."
13. About 200 students were invited to witness "land reform" in a
near-by village, and they did not forget the experience. A People's
Court was trying the wife of a landlord who had escaped before the.
"liberation." Only about 20 of 250 farmers present stood up when the
"able Party member" conducting the court asked those to do so "who had
suffered most from her oppression." Before the trial was over the lone
woman had been stripped naked and killed by the excited mob. Most of
the farmers and even more of the women had quietly left before the
final scene, which the students had to watch, sitting on the ground,
"tense, silent except for intermittent sobs among our girls." Before
Y
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leaving the village Chu saw a child crying over the woman's body. The
trial was reviewed the following morning in a group discussion "with
the coldness of a laboratory experiment." The "able Party member" who
had led the court was criticized for "tailism" (or staying one step
behind the mob), and the girl students who had wept were upbraided for
"warm feeljngism" and "not knowing your friends from your enemies."
The whole epitsode made a deep impression, and many students sickened
by the memory of what they had seen tried to avoid assignment to farm
relief work. The Communists felt safer in sending them to Mongolia,
since the Chinese regard Mongols as a different race.
14. Personal friendships were dangerous, and few developed.
Students who were Party members adopted the role of keeping their status
secret for two months, while they were gathering information on the
others. Chu was avoided because of his notoriety for raising the Dairen
and.Port Arthur issue months earlier.
15. The "brain washing" technique in its most stringent form
began under the guise of "idea training." The leaders would present
a discussion topic such as "Idea Formation and Class Property," of
which the students must make a complete analysis and report their own
ideas. They were free to say anything they liked. In this way the
University undertook an exhaustive inquiry into the views and atti-
tudes of the whole student body. This began with a report from the
students on their families, how they and their families lived, their
education, their personal relationships, and the kind of life they
preferred. After much checking the University announced that half the
students, roughly 4,000, had "deep-set contradictions" in their lives.
To discard their "evil past" the students must "confess"; they must
"reveal their contradictory past to the public," Without confession
of one's "bad past" there was no hope of becoming a "new man." Ample
time was allowed the students during this inquisition. The intensity
of the struggle "of new thoughts against old," Chu says, "can hardly be
exaggerated." It went on incessantly. Men and women alike would break
and weep under the constant probing of their "thoughts." If anyone
spent a sleepless night brooding over his problems, some "friendly"
person (actually a "thought seduction worker") would ask with an appear-
ance of sympathy: "If you don't feel like revealing it in public, tell
it to me." Students got their old reports back with instructions to
re-write them to show the results of the "self-criticism" program.
Several students saw no way out except to take their own lives, but
to fail in the attempt was serious. One who failed was transferred to
a college where "self-criticism" was even more strenuous: two-thirds
of the time spent in labor, one-third in study.
16. There was always the danger, if you could not confess something,
of being sent to the People's New Life Labor School, which was designed
for "idea training": a minimum of six months of hard labor and hard
study, and the course might be extended. Students recognized such
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schools as forced labor camps, and they were horrified at the thought
of being sent to them, though that was the fate of 17 of Chu's classmates.
17. Married students were kept under pressure to divorce their
mates, since Party work must separate them anyhow. Some women students
were already mothers of "sons of the people." Only after about two
months was any sexual freedom permitted: earlier the men and women
had been kept apart. By the time Chu graduated about 17 girls were
pregnant, but University officials refused permission for them to marry
merely to satisfy a "feudal idea." Likewise sons were asked to out off
relations with their parents if the parents belonged to "the exploiting
class." This was the iron test.
18. Chu refused to agree to abandon his parents for the Revolu-
tion. He was afraid they would starve. He continued to refuse after
repeated requests. Finally the University sent someone to South China
to see if they were as poor is he had described them. Meanwhile there
was nothing he could do but promise further consideration and delay
deciding the issue, postponing his decision to renounce his father and
become "a son of the people" until graduation.
19. "This experience," Chu says, "completed my disappointment in
Communism. I realized fully now that a Communist cares only for the
Party's interests, and I understood now that the Revolution had been
fought only for the profit of a particular political Party." The
knowledge that his family was under police investigation "shook and
shocked me." He decided to escape.
FINAL EIS AND GRADUATION
20. The "democratic examination" comprised an appearance before a
committee of "positive elements of the student body and faculty." Chu
himself was a member of a dozen such committees. There were no grades
as such. The Students were graded only on their revolutionary relia-
bility, and all decisions of committees must be unanimous. Then they
were graduated, kept over, or sent to another "idea reform" institution.
Chu barely, squeezed through. He was regarded as "a backward element,"
"stubborn," and "not steady" in his political attitude and grasp of
revolutionary principles (because he had overstressed his "personal
situation" in refusing to out off his parents). But his "positive
attitude towards the working classes" got him through.
21. Armed with his graduation certificate, Chu was ordered to a
distant province for duty; but he went instead to South China, assured
himself that his parents were safe, and within a few weeks found refuge
in Hong Kong,
S~v WNW-N.
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