The Futian incident () is the common title for the December 1930
purge
In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an ...
of a battalion of the
Jiangxi-Fujian Soviet's "
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
" at Futian (now in
Ji'an
Ji'an ( zh, c=吉安 , p=Jí'ān) is a prefecture-level city situated in the central region of Jiangxi province of the People's Republic of China and bordering Hunan province to the west. It has an area of and as of the 2020 census, had a popu ...
's
Qingyuan District). The Futian battalion's leaders had mutinied against
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...
's purge of the Jiangxi Action Committee, ordered on the pretext of its alleged connection to the
Anti-Bolshevik League and ties to
Trotskyism
Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...
.
Background
In response to the
Anti-Bolshevik League incident, the Futian battalion rebelled against Mao, claiming that Mao was attempting to arrest generals
Zhu De
Zhu De; (1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Zhu was born into poverty in 1886 in Sichuan. He was adopted by a wealthy uncle at ...
and
Peng Dehuai
Peng Dehuai (October 24, 1898November 29, 1974; also spelled as Peng Teh-Huai) was a Chinese general and politician who was the Minister of National Defense (China), Minister of National Defense from 1954 to 1959. Peng was born into a poor ...
, and surrender to the
KMT army. The officers of the first battalion, 174 regiment, 20th Corps, led by Liu Di (刘敌) retreated to the town of Yongyang, where they raised banners reading 'Down with Mao Zedong!' and sent appeals to the CCP Central Committee in
Shanghai
Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
. In response to the rebellion, in June 1931, Mao called the troops and their officers to a meeting, saying that they would discuss and resolve their differences. 200 came to a local hall, but as soon as they were all seated, troops who were loyal to Mao disarmed them and executed them.
During the Futian incident Zhu De and Peng Dehuai were unequivocal supporters of Mao, despite their different political positions. This allowed Mao's position as leader of the Red Army to be vindicated.
Further developments
In September 1956, Mao admitted that the purges during the Anti-Bolshevik League incident, as well as the Futian incident, were a mistake, in which the wrong people were killed.
["Literature of Chinese Communist Party", 1991; Issue 3] In 1988, President
Yang Shangkun
Yang Shangkun (3 August 1907 – 14 September 1998) was a Chinese Chinese Communist Party, Communist military and political leader, president of the People's Republic of China from 1988 to 1993, and one of the Eight Elders that dominated the par ...
commissioned an investigation into the Futian incident, which recommended the rehabilitation of the victims, but it was never followed up due to the
Tiananmen Square protests and subsequent massacre.
See also
*
Chinese Soviet Republic
The Chinese Soviet Republic (CSR) was a state within China, proclaimed on 7 November 1931 by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders Mao Zedong and Zhu De in the early stages of the Chinese Civil War. The discontiguous territories of the CSR incl ...
*
Anti-Bolshevik League incident
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Futian Incident
Massacres in China
1930 in China
Political and cultural purges