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Honghu () is a
county-level city A county-level city () is a County-level divisions of China, county-level administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China. County-level cities have judiciary, judicial but no legislature, legislative rights over their own local or ...
in the municipal region of
Jingzhou Jingzhou ( zh, s=, c=荆州, t=, p=Jīngzhōu) is a prefecture-level city in southern Hubei province, China, located on the banks of the Yangtze River. Its total residential population was 5,231,180 based on the Seventh National Population Censu ...
, in the central south of Hubei province. The city lies on the northwest (left) bank of the
Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...
, across from
Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...
Province and
Xianning Xianning ( zh, s= , t=/ , p=Xiánníng) is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Hubei province, People's Republic of China, bordering Jiangxi to the southeast and Hunan to the southwest. It is known as the "City of Osmanthus". Geography and c ...
, Hubei. It is named after the adjacent Hong Lake. As of 2000, Honghu City had a population of 335,618 or more people.


History


Civil War

Honghu and other regions around its lake were part of an important
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
stronghold called the Hunan-Western Hubei Revolutionary Base Area (, ''Xiang-Exi Geming Genjudi'', also called the Hunan-Western Hubei Soviet, , ''Xiang-Exi Suweiai''). The Hunan-Western Hubei Soviet was actually a collection of several isolated bases linked together by underground and
guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...
activities. The Honghu Base, the largest, was itself the object of four
Encirclement Campaigns The encirclement campaigns of the Chinese Civil War were Republic of China (ROC) offensives against Chinese Communist Party (CCP) revolutionary base areas in China from the late-1920s to 1934 during the Chinese Civil War. The climax were the fiv ...
, the last of which was strategised as one stage of the broadly successful Encirclement Campaign against Hunan-Western Hubei Soviet. The base area or soviet was under the leadership of communist general (later
Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...
)
He Long He Long (; March 22, 1896 – June 9, 1969) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and a Marshal of the People's Republic of China. He was from a poor rural family in Hunan, and his family was not able to provide him with any formal education. H ...
through most of its existence, and defended by his Second Army Group. Finally crushed by Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Army and various allied warlord forces, co-ordinated in his
Encirclement Campaigns The encirclement campaigns of the Chinese Civil War were Republic of China (ROC) offensives against Chinese Communist Party (CCP) revolutionary base areas in China from the late-1920s to 1934 during the Chinese Civil War. The climax were the fiv ...
, the Soviet and its military force retreated westward to form the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou revolutionary base area, which in October 1934 refuged the retreating troops of the Sixth Army Group. Folding the men of the Sixth into his ranks, He Long formed the Second Front Red Army which was to take its own route on the
Long March The Long March ( zh, s=长征, p=Chángzhēng, l=Long Expedition) was a military retreat by the Chinese Red Army and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from advancing Kuomintang forces during the Chinese Civil War, occurring between October 1934 and ...
.


PRC


Market Economy in the 1950s

In 1954,
Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...
had a huge flood that only occurred once a century, and in order to save major cities including
Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...
, Honghu was designated as the flooded area, resulting in nearly a million local residents becoming refugees after the entire county was flooded. As the flood subsided and refugees returned to begin rebuilding, another political disaster struck the county that was already devastated by the flood: on May 5, 1955,
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 ...
personally claimed that the time was critical for collectivization, and ordered the immediate start of collectivization, which must be completed within three years. The local
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
party secretary Mr. Li Jinyu ()(1922 - October 8, 2002) was assigned to the area in 1955 and witnessed the devastation first hand. Li strongly opposed Mao's policy and openly claimed that there must be prerequisite conditions for collectivization and Honghu had not met any of them. Instead Li convinced his colleagues to adopt an economic policy that was completely against Mao's wish - a ''de facto'' market economy (for political reasons the term could not be mentioned). This was successful: the county fully recovered from the devastation within a year, the average industrial annual growth was 17.7%, and average agricultural annual growth was 11.3%. Li and his colleagues as well as the local population later suffered for opposing Mao. Li, anticipating this, asked the local populace to prepare by stocking grains and other foods at their homes.


The Great Leap Forward

In accordance with Mao's
Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward was an industrialization campaign within China from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to transform the country from an agrarian society into an indu ...
, the communist party apparatus at prefecture level issued orders on July 4, 1958, to produce forty thousand tons of steel, thirty-six thousand tons of iron, and over half a million people were mobilized for this effort. Another three thousand were mobilized to logging in order to meet the fuel demand of making steel and iron. Honghu, a county belong to the prefecture could be no exception and Mr. Li Jinyu ()'s own son, Mr. Li Shutang (), a student at the time, was among those mobilized. After witnessing the furnace hastily built at his son's school, which was completely useless but still functioned due to the political reason, Mr. Li Jinyu () only muttered one sentence: "This is a joke!", but he and his colleagues were powerless to stop the foolish policy that was issued by the Chinese paramount leader
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 ...
. Once his son Li Shutang () excitedly told him that there average yield of a single hactre of rice reached 100 tons, Mr. Li Jinyu () angrily shut his son up by telling the truth: that was the total production of twenty hactres of rice put into one, the propaganda had lied. The consequence of Mao's distratrous policy soon appeared: since June 1959, according to official records of the Chinese government, the death of local prefecture numbered 115,844 in 1960, which was more than the double of the average annual death of 50,000. The price at Honghu county skyrocketed and the number of people becoming ill due to starvation drastically increased. Mr. Li Jinyu () and his colleague decided to save the local population totaling more than half a million from starvation, which ultimately would doom their fates.


The Great Chinese Famine

Massive death in the local
Jingzhou Jingzhou ( zh, s=, c=荆州, t=, p=Jīngzhōu) is a prefecture-level city in southern Hubei province, China, located on the banks of the Yangtze River. Its total residential population was 5,231,180 based on the Seventh National Population Censu ...
prefecture forced the local cadres at prefecture level to gather as much grains as possible, and Honghu county, the only county in the prefecture without death caused by starvation, became their only target. The local communist party secretary of Jingzhou prefecture, Xue Tan (), asked Li Jinyu () to leave only of grains of monthly rations for each resident of Honghu, and give out the rest. Li refused, arguing that it would at least take of monthly ration to prevent death resulting from starvation. After much argument without any satisfactory result, Li decided to go against his superior's order and allow the local populace to have enough to eat. As a result, in an era when all other counties suffered tens of thousands of starvation deaths, Honghu county did not lose a single person to starvation, and the local population of Honghu county actually increased by 15.52‰ (or 1.552%).


Honghu county during Cultural Revolution

Mr. Li Jinyu () and his colleagues soon paid their price for saving the local population. Even before the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...
, the local cadres were persecuted. In October 1964, the communist apparatus at the
Jingzhou Jingzhou ( zh, s=, c=荆州, t=, p=Jīngzhōu) is a prefecture-level city in southern Hubei province, China, located on the banks of the Yangtze River. Its total residential population was 5,231,180 based on the Seventh National Population Censu ...
prefecture level decided that the communist organization of Honghu county was completely "rotten" and Mr. Li Jinyu () and his colleagues were struggled in public trials in front of ten thousand people. In April 1965, the charge became much more serious, the local communists of Honghu county headed by Mr. Li Jinyu () was accused of (though accurately) being reestablishing capitalism. In February 1966, the local communists of Honghu county were accused of establishing independent kingdoms, forming reactionary
anti-communism Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...
revisionist group, a serious political crime that was punishable by death. Finally, in 1966, a total of 341 cadres of Honghu county, or 90% of the county administrators and local communists in charge, including communist party secretary Mr. Li Jinyu (), first deputy communist party secretary Mr. Xu Wei (), deputy communist party secretaries Han Yaohui (), Ma Xiangkui (), Gu Chengqi (辜呈清, also serving as Honghu County chief at the time) and Sun Keti (孙克惕, also serving as the deputy Honghu County chief at the time) were all arrested and sent directly to labor camps without trials or any other legal proceedings, and everyone received at least ten years jail terms, with Mr. Li Jinyu () had the longest, a fifteen-year term. The persecution had such devastation on those suffered that many, including the former deputy communist party secretary Mr. Xu Wei () refused to be interviewed about the experience, even in the 2000s (decade), more than three decades later. The subject remains a taboo in official documents by the Chinese government until this day, but those local populace who survived the massive famine thanks to what Mr. Li Jinyu () had done would remember him. After Mr. Li Jinyu () had died on October 8, 2002, many of those who had experienced the famine went to his funeral to honor him, including many who could not go but insisted on being carried to the funeral.
Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public university, public research university in Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong. Established in 1963 as a federation of three university college, collegesChung Chi College, New Asia Coll ...
(CUHK)
Folk History (民间历史), December 2007 issue, published by University Center of China Studies of CUHK
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Administrative divisions

Two subdistricts: * Xindi Subdistrict (), Binhu Subdistrict () Fourteen towns: * Luoshan (), Wulin (), Longkou (), Yanwo (), Xintan (), Fengkou (), Caoshi (), Fuchang (), Daijiachang (), Qujiawan (), Shakou (), Wanquan (), Chahe (), Huangjiakou () The only township is Laowan Township () Three administrative zones: * Xiaogang (), Datonghu (), Dashahu ()


Climate


Revolutionary opera

The scenic Lake Honghu was the centerpiece of a revolutionary opera: " The Red Guards on Honghu Lake" () which was based on a true story about the
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 ...
and its struggle with the
Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...
(KMT) in the
Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...
. A synopsis of this story which happened on Lake Honghu:


Notes


Further reading


"Numerical simulations of nutrient transport changes in Honghu Lake Basin"
''Earth & Climate'', Wednesday, August 20, 2008


External links


The Chinanet network
in
Jingzhou Jingzhou ( zh, s=, c=荆州, t=, p=Jīngzhōu) is a prefecture-level city in southern Hubei province, China, located on the banks of the Yangtze River. Its total residential population was 5,231,180 based on the Seventh National Population Censu ...
, Hubei province. {{Authority control Cities in Hubei County-level divisions of Hubei Jingzhou