Politics, Language and Power:
the Case of the Cultural Revolution in Inner Mongolia, 1967-1969

Kerry Brown

This is a website devoted to study of the Cultural Revolution in the Inner Mongolian region of the People's Republic of China, an area where I lived from 1994 to 1996 and which I have studied for over a decade. The full material for this website can be found in `The Purge of the Inner Mongolian People's Party in the Chinese Cultural Revolution: A Function of Language, Power and Violence' to be published by Global Oriental (www.globaloriental.co.uk/book.asp?Title_ID=66) in April 2005.

In 1967, the campaign to dig out and uproot the `New� Inner Mongolia People�s Party started in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of the People�s Republic of China.

Over the next two years, according to official Chinese government figures, 16,222 people died, and over 340,000 suffered physical injury. The `so-called �New Inner Mongolia People�s Party� simply didn�t exist,� declared Hua Guofeng, the new Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party who rose briefly to power after the death of Mao Zedong, on 20 April 1978, `it was a mistake led blindly by the former leaders of the regions central group, a miscarriage of justice.�

While the history of this extraordinary period has been dealt with in some detail in English and Chinese, this website will present documentary material that explores new aspects and presents a new treatment of this campaign. It will aim to shed light on the relationship between the political centre in Beijing, and a local government in an area with a very specific identity and history. It will also look at the treatment of national minority issues during the Cultural Revolution, and finally on the specific discourse used during this period, and what this reveals about power and power relations.

The material to be placed on this website will cover three key periods:

• January to April 1967: The dialogues between the Central government and local factions and groups, held in Beijing, and leading to the issuing of the `13th April Decision�, containing a discourse of management of the CR, and leading to the imposition of a new leadership in the region;
  
  
• April 1967 to Dec 1967: This covers the period of sustained attack against the previous leader of Inner Mongolia, Ulanfu � and the first major speeches of the new local power holder, Teng Haiqing. Towards the end of this period, the focus of the attack shifted to claims that an underground party, the IMPP, existed in the area, pursuing its own pan-Mongolian, separatist agenda.
  
  
• Jan 1968 � March 1969: This covers the main period of the campaign, during which an all out purge of the underground party was waged, and the main violence occurred, leading to widespread chaos in the area.
  
  
• April 1969 � June 1969: The Central government was caused to intervene once more in the area because of the backlash caused by the purges, removing Teng Haiqing. During this period, Teng�s removal was managed by his producing a series of self-criticisms.

The main documents placed on this website will be original speeches, announcements and documents from the period, in Chinese, with commentary and analysis. The focus will be to look at what the language in these documents reveals about the power dynamics, and master narratives, and the ideological conflicts over this period.

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