Xu Hongci was once a shining star within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), so admired that his reputation was said to be “redder than red.” However, he later became a rightist criticized by the Party’s media. During the 14 years he spent in labor reform, he escaped prison four times, finally succeeding in his flight. He lived his life as a legend.
Born into a prosperous family in Shanghai in 1933 that thrived on foreign trade, Xu Hongci received a good education from an early age. At only 15, he joined the Chinese Communist Party. At 20, Xu Hongci was received by Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi at the second National Congress of the Communist Youth League. He was hailed as a prodigy within the CCP system and the following year was enrolled in Shanghai First Medical College where he began to be groomed for a leadership role.
Caught in the winds of change and devastated by criticism
However, the rectification movement in 1957 changed the course of his life forever. That year, the People’s Daily, a CCP media outlet, suddenly called for “letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend,” inviting opinions. Shanghai First Medical College convened a general assembly for mobilization in response. This was the beginning of the “Hundred Flowers” campaign.
Xu Hongci, then 24 years old, took the Party media and school propaganda at face value and co-wrote an “opinion paper” with 14 classmates in his dormitory, criticizing the CCP’s lack of democracy and tendency to only report good news. They put forth 51 opinions in total, which they posted as a big-character poster the following day. Xu Hongci never anticipated that this poster would later serve as ironclad evidence of his “anti-Party, anti-socialist” actions.
Not long after, the central committee of the CCP shifted its stance, initiating an “Anti-Rightist Movement” targeting those who had offered critical opinions. Xu Hongci, feeling wronged, vented his discontent in front of his girlfriend, saying: “Three hundred years later, we will see who was right. If I can’t stand it here, I want to go abroad. The proletarian revolution knows no borders.” To his surprise, his girlfriend reported him. Xu Hongci was immediately labeled a rightist, expelled from the Party and school, imprisoned, and sent to labor reform at the Bailin Farm in Anhui.
Escapes and recaptures
Refusing to accept a life of forced labor, Xu Hongci planned his first escape on December 14, 1958. After breaking free from Bailin Farm, he took a long-distance bus back to Shanghai, 300 miles away. Unbeknownst to him, the authorities had been monitoring his home following his escape. He was quickly apprehended upon his return to Shanghai.
Shortly after returning to Bailin Farm, Xu Hongci planned a second escape. This time, he intended to cross the border into Burma through Yunnan and the Mekong River. However, Xu Hongci was relying on an old map. He was unaware that the border had been redrawn after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, leading to his recapture due to a miscalculated border crossing.
Despite this, X Hongciu refused to admit defeat. He planned a third escape from the Lancang detention center. Using a stainless-steel spoon, he began digging a hole in the earthen wall of his cell, hiding the excavated soil under his bed. Eventually, he succeeded in digging through the earthen wall. As he attempted to crawl out through the opening, his hand was immediately seized by a pair of tongs. His actions had already been discovered by the jailers, who had been waiting like a cat for a mouse, ready to catch him in the act.
In 1959, in Lu Shui, Yunnan, Xu Hongci was sentenced to six years for escaping prison and crossing the border illegally. In prison, he was transferred between several detention centers. Eventually, he caught the eye of a guard named Wang, who relocated him to the prison infirmary to care for other inmates. After enduring six long years, 1965 finally marked the end of his sentence. However, the prison authorities told him that the current policy wouldn’t allow him to return home. He was ordered to continue labor reform.
See Part 2 here
Translated by Patty Zhang
