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In 1949, a certain unit of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army liberated a city in Jiangnan. The dying Kuomintang reactionaries desperately struggled, attempting to cause a severe famine, plunging the people into hunger, and undermining the people’s government. Our military management committee immediately organized a group of grain procurement teams, went deep into the countryside to purchase grain, solved the people’s livelihood problems, and restored and developed production. Vice regimental commander Tian Wenzhong was appointed as the leader of the grain procurement work team. Under the leadership and support of the local Party organization, he mobilized and relied on the masses, and fought fierce battles against Kuomintang agents disguised as grain shop owners Chen Futang, traitor Liu Zhiren who infiltrated our Party and local governments, and bandits like Tu Da Laizi. Ultimately, they successfully completed the grain procurement mission and eliminated this stubborn band of enemies. However, the grain shop accountant who mercilessly killed our communications officer Zhao Dongsheng still remains at large, and the class struggle has not ended.
Chairman Mao taught us: “After the enemies with guns are eliminated, those without guns still exist, and they will inevitably fight us to the death.”[1] After the reactionary classes suffer military defeat and their rule is overthrown, they will not be willing to accept their failure. They will still lurk and use various insidious means to restore their lost “paradise,” especially through methods of “breaking in” and “pulling out,” trying to sneak into our Party and army to seize power, while desperately trying to recruit some corrupt and degenerate elements. This profound lesson is conveyed to us through the artistic images of the spy Chen Futang and the traitor Liu Zhiren in the film. This lesson is not only applicable during the period of New Democratic Revolution but also during the socialist period. “Socialist society is a relatively long historical stage, during which class, class contradictions, and class struggle always exist; the struggle between socialism and capitalism also exists; and the danger of capitalist restoration is present.”[2] Moreover, the core forces of the bourgeoisie have shifted into the Communist Party itself, represented by a small group of ruling bourgeoisie within the Party, continuously undermining the dictatorship of the proletariat and attempting to restore capitalism. The counterrevolutionary coup at Huirentang in October 1976 to restore capitalism was planned and launched by capitalist-roaders like Hua Guofeng, Ye Jianying, and Deng Xiaoping. To this day, hundreds of millions of Chinese people still live under the deep fire of revisionist fascist rule. The lessons of class struggle are heavy. Today, we must also follow Chairman Mao’s teachings: “Never forget class struggle!”[3]
Mao Zedong: “Report to the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China,” Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 1, People’s Publishing House, 1967. ↩︎
Mao Zedong: Quoted from the 10th issue of Red Flag magazine, 1967. ↩︎
Mao Zedong: Quoted from Liberation Army Daily, June 6, 1966. ↩︎
