Becoming a Counter-Revolutionary Rightist

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Since I am calling you from Prague and I am of Czech origin: we have a similar thing in history. The Czech regime changed in 1948 and started sending mostly innocent people to jail. You said you were not sent to jail based on any court. How did it happen? How did they arrest you?
First of all, in 1957, at the beginning, the Communist party was launching a campaign called the “Hundred Flowers Bloom” campaign. The Communist Party said that everyone living in the country was free and they can say and do whatever they want. This was eight years after the Communist party took control. Some people were very scared and did not want to talk about it, but they were pushed by the Communist Party to speak out. For example, I was in my second year of college. My major was geology, not politics or social science; I was not interested in politics. I was the captain of the baseball team. All the time when I was not in school we played ball, played sports. But the communist party followed me and asked me to come to their meeting and give the Communist Party some suggestions. I said I’m sorry I don’t have any ideas. After a few times they told me that I had to come. So I went to the conference and I had nothing to talk about, I didn’t know about this, I was only 20 years old. I made some comments. The first one was about the previous year, October 1956; the Soviet Red Army suppressed the Budapest uprising. It was really a big event and shocked the people. I wasn’t very interested in it, but I heard about it. I said maybe the Soviets have to care about the international communism campaign and support the Hungarian government to suppress the counter-revolutionaries. But I think that the Soviet Union arranging the Red Army and going into Budapest – another country - to suppress the people, maybe this is a violation of international law. The second idea, I said, if the Communist Party is going to say that all the people in socialist China is a comrade, it will be fine. We don’t call everyone Mister or Misses, Professor, or Doctor, we call everyone comrades. So I said okay, I think this is a good idea. But in our university, the Communist Party would always say, we have a meeting with comrades and students. If you are not a member of the Party they only call you a student, not a comrade. So I said this is my suggestion. I never wrote it, I never went to any speech engagement, but they recorded it. A couple of weeks later, they held a meeting to criticize me and said my opinion was a counter-revolutionary opinion – an opposing opinion- and I had to confess why I would say that. And I said, “but you said I have to offer my opinion and that’s my opinion, so that’s it.” So this is wrong. They said, “well, this is a capitalist idea, you’re against the communists.” I said no I’m not, it’s just a criticism. Finally I said okay, I admit that this is my mistake, I want to recognize that I am wrong. Because the communist secretary said you come from a bourgeoisie class, the enemy class, you hate the Communist regime. I said I didn’t. So I turned around and I confessed. I wanted to criticize myself, criticize my family. I said yes, I was a counter-revolutionary rightist and I heard my father was a counter-revolutionary rightist. I said, “What’s going on?”

Later, they said: well, we have an announcement, you have to listen - you are a counter-revolutionary rightist. We will give you a punishment. You are under surveillance and are not free. They arranged two other students who were members of the Communist Youth League to follow me and keep me under surveillance. They followed me from the dormitory to the cafeteria to the library, and to the classroom. I had to report to them what I was doing and what was my behavior. Even if I went out shopping I had to report to them. I was not free; I lost my freedom. And every month I had to write a confession. I was singled out. In my class there were two students, including me, labeled as counter-revolutionary rightists and singled out. Later in 1958, as geology students, we went to the field for geology practice. I walked out of school and went to the village where I was very close to the poor peasants. For a boy from the city, this was my first opportunity to meet poor peasants. I learned that so many students had a life different from the peasants, and the peasants were so poor. I thought maybe the Communist Party talking about the revolution and wanting to liberate peasants and support them was okay, I thought that maybe my life is too much. But then I thought, what is my life? I have no future. I was an enemy of the Communist Party. Maybe the communism revolution is good for the nation, it is good for the population, but it is not good for me. So I was thinking of how to escape from China, but I was not ready for that. But the Communist Party found out right away that I intended to escape to a foreign country - this is very serious counter-revolutionary crime - then they arrested me and sentenced me to the prison camp.

Were you a university student at the time when you were imprisoned?
Yes, I was a student, but I was near graduation. I was waiting for a job arrangement. Other students got offers, but my offer was to go to the labor camps.

Are you an engineer in geology?
I don’t know. Because at that time, the police came to the school and into the classroom, and there was more than 100 students there together. The police made an announcement, saying, “Harry Wu come up.” I went over and then the officer said, I will take you to the labor camps for your labor. I said, “Can I make a choice? I want to go home.” And he said, “I’m sorry, you can’t. You have to follow me and go. Sign the paper.” And then he pulled out a paper, but one of his hands covered up the top part and he pointed to the bottom and said, “Sign the paper here.” I said, “Can you remove your hand and let me see what is my sentence, what is written on the paper?” And he said, “No, it’s not necessary, you just sign here.” I said, “If you want to execute me I also have to sign a paper...” And then he took away the paper and said, “Whatever, if you want to sign or don’t want to sign, it’s the same. You have been arrested, so let’s go away.” So finally I said, “Okay, I’ll sign it,” and I just signed it. To this day I don’t know what the paper said about my crime. I went straight to the police department and then to the labor camp. The iron door was locked behind me. The guards came up and kicked me on my back and made me fall down, facing the brick wall. They took away all of my things including my belt, everything. I was put in solitary. At midnight the warden came in and took me to a small room with only one table and one chair. Only the policeman and the warden were there. There was only one light that they turned and focused on me. I could not see him very clearly. He interrogated me, and asked, “What is your crime?” I said, “I do not know - Because they did not show me the paper!” He said, “Oh that’s ok, let me look.” He opened my file and said, “You are a counter-revolutionary rightist and you are sentenced to life.” That’s it. You have to know that this happened to more than 1 million intellectuals, including doctors, engineers, authors, professors, and university students. Probably at least 20% of the intellectuals in China became so-called “counter-revolutionary rightists”.