Land Reform and Class Struggle

The gradual build-up of pressure on the Guangdong cadres was so intense that, by spring 1951 (during Korean War), Fang Fang (vice-chairman of the Guangdong Provincial People's Government, a previous leader of the East River guerrillas) said he had realized that Mao "was using land reform as a test to see which cadres had the correct standpoint".

In June 1952, Mao finally lost patience and intervened personally by convening (召開) a meeting in Beijing to deal exclusively (僅僅) with "the problem in Guangdong". Others who attended the meeting were Zhou Enlai, Bo Yibo (薄一波), Luo Ruiqing (羅瑞卿), Deng Zihui (鄧子恢), Ye Jianying, Fang Fang and Tao Zhu (陶鑄). Without mincing (矯飾的) words, Mao directly condemned Fang and accused him of committing two serious errors: "One is the right-wing tendency in the land reform work. The other is that the Guangdong cadres adopt 'localism' in their attitude." Mao also said, "The entire land reform movement in Guangdong has lost its direction. I want a piece of fast-beat music. But Fang plays a slow-beat piece..."

Zhao Ziyang, obviously aware of Ye's reputation and prestige, was mild and restrained in his comments, stating that Ye "was not sensitive enough on the question of class struggle". The comments on Fang were harsher, as he was accused of committing an "extremely serious error of localism".

One of the senior leaders in the party, Bo Yibo, recalled his experience many years after the event in an article in People's Daily, dated 8 April 1997. He said that there was a need to "say a few words of fairness for the Guangdong cadres". Bo related that it was Tao Zhu who made secret reports to Mao, first accusing Ye and Fang of "adopting a localism policy in Guangdong". Bo Yibo was the party secretary of the North China Bureau when he was directed by Mao to carry out an inspection tour of Guangdong in early 1952...

By 1953, Tao realized that his harsh policy in implementing the land reform movement might have been excessive. In two reports he filed in the name of the South China Sub-Bureau to the Central Committee of the CCP on 24 February and 7 April, he admitted there had been "serious errors in the land reform movement, as we have not been able to unite the masses". Also, he said, "There were too many deaths." He admitted the errors were in the way that he had dealt with the property of overseas Chinese...But Tao put most of the blame on the Overseas Chinese Commission headed by He Xiangning.