Why Chairman Mao’s victims are denied justice

As China's Communist Party seeks to forget past horrors, survivors of the Cultural Revolution like Wang Kangfu are speaking out about the lasting impact of Mao's purges and bloodletting on their lives and the nation's history.

March 18, 2023 . 8:28 AM

1 min read

Survivors of the Cultural Revolution are speaking out as they grow old, but China's Communist Party is keen to forget past horrors.
School textbooks offer only brief accounts of the events, with President Xi Jinping denouncing 'historical nihilism' as a threat to the party's leadership.
For some Chinese, calls to forget are appealing, but for others who suffered during the Mao era, party-ordained amnesia is cruel.
One survivor, Wang Kangfu, was convicted of rape and harassment and sentenced to ten years in a labour camp, despite evidence of his innocence.
Despite a lack of new evidence, Wang's case remains a legal standard for retrial and his story is a reminder of the Cultural Revolution's lasting impact.