Drawing on an extensive essay by Sekihei, this piece examines China’s enduring brutality—from Mao Zedong’s power struggles to the Cultural Revolution—revealing a political culture in which human rights were never recognized. A vital warning for Japan and the world.

2017-07-26

Sekihei was born in China.
I was born in Japan.

I have always held him in the highest respect.

It was during the autumn foliage season last year.
In Arashiyama, Sekihei—who had, so to speak, internalized Shōbōgenzō—and I, a person who does not live in Kyoto yet is arguably the world’s most frequent visitor to the city, were brought together by God.
On the very day the autumn leaves reached their peak, we encountered each other at Tōfuku-ji.

In the issue of the monthly magazine WiLL released today, his essay titled “There Is No ‘Human Rights’ in China’s Dictionary,” spanning twelve pages in three columns, has been published.
It is an essay that must be read by the Japanese people and by people all over the world.
In particular, all residents of Tokyo and Sendai should go immediately to the nearest bookstore and purchase it.
As for people around the world, I will convey it to them as much as I can.

The brutality of the Chinese people did not begin today.
As proof—

“Kidnapping” in broad daylight.

Please read the full text by purchasing it at your nearest bookstore or newsstand.
The price is only 840 yen.

What follows is from Sekihei’s essay titled “There Is No ‘Human Rights’ in China’s Dictionary,” published across twelve pages in three columns in yesterday’s newly released issue of WiLL.
[Earlier text omitted. Asterisks indicate my emphasis.]

Mao Zedong: “The Era of a Murderous Madman”

In the final years of Mao Zedong’s regime, Zhou Enlai suffered from cancer, but Mao Zedong did not permit him to receive treatment.
This was because Mao feared dying before Zhou Enlai.
Zhou controlled the secret police and had many trusted followers in both the government and the military.
Therefore, Mao could not afford to die before Zhou.
He feared that his own subordinates would be purged by Zhou, ushering in Zhou’s rule.

Zhou himself understood this.
That is why, in the end, he abandoned his own treatment.
He believed that he had to die before Mao Zedong.

Zhou Enlai finally died in January 1976, and Mao Zedong was then able to die peacefully in September.
Had Mao himself been gravely ill first, he would have eliminated Zhou Enlai.

Here, only the cruel dynamics of political power are at work.
This unparalleled madman of murder cared nothing for human life if it meant preserving his own power.
What they did lies even before the question of human rights.

What happened during the political movement called the “Cultural Revolution,” launched some fifty years ago by China’s rulers?
To restore the authority he had lost after the failure of the “Great Leap Forward,” which caused the starvation deaths of tens of millions, Mao Zedong plunged the entire Chinese nation into a decade of terror.
He seized control of the military through the ambitious general Lin Biao, installed the Gang of Four at the party center, and incited ignorant students to form the Red Guards.
In addition, he turned social underclass thugs into rebels and unleashed a rebellious movement that swept across all of China like raging waves.

What Communist Party leaders do is exactly the same in the Japanese Communist Party as well—something all discerning Japanese must know.
The student political group SEALDs, organized by the Japanese Communist Party to oppose Abe administration policies and elevated to heroic status by the Asahi Shimbun, is exactly the same as Mao Zedong’s Red Guards.