The Xunhua Incident (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

: 循化事件) was an uprising of Tibetan and

Salar people The Salar people ( zh, c=撒拉族, p=Sālāzú) are a Turkic ethnic minority of China who largely speak the Salar language, an Oghuz language. The Salar people numbered 130,607 people in the last census of 2010. The Salars live mostly in ...

against the rule of

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

(CCP) in Qinghai, China in April, 1958 and part of the

Kuomintang Islamic insurgency The Kuomintang Islamic insurgency () was a continuation of the Chinese Civil War by Chinese Muslim nationalist Kuomintang Republic of China Army forces mainly in Northwest China, in the provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang, an ...

. The incident took place in

Xunhua Salar Autonomous County Xunhua Salar Autonomous County ( zh, s=循化撒拉族自治县, p=Xúnhuà Sǎlázú Zìzhìxiàn; slr, Gökhdengiz Velayat Yisyr Salyr Özbashdak Yurt) is a Salar autonomous county in the southeast of Haidong Prefecture of Qinghai Province, C ...

of Qinghai Province, the hometown of

10th Panchen Lama Lobsang Trinley Lhündrub Chökyi Gyaltsen (born Gönbo Cêdän; 19 February 1938 – 28 January 1989) was the tenth Panchen Lama, officially the 10th Panchen Erdeni (), of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. According to Tibetan Buddhis ...

, amid the Great Leap Forward. Since March 1958, local officials imposed strict rules for socialist transformations and, in order to prevent uprising, religious leaders including Jnana Pal Rinpoche (加乃化仁波切), a well-respected monk, were forcibly sent for re-education. Over 4,000 people with different ethnic backgrounds subsequently revolted and killed a team leader from the CCP task force. The incident ended in suppression and a massacre by the People's Liberation Army, which killed 435 people within four hours on April 25, most of whom were unarmed civilians.

Historical background

Under the leadership of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

, the

(CCP) launched the

Anti-rightist Campaign The Anti-Rightist Campaign () in the People's Republic of China, which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged " Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country as a whole. The campaign was ...

in 1957 and the Great Leap Forward in 1958. Local leaders in

Qinghai Province Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest pop ...

thus intended to achieve the goals of "socialist revolution" as well as "democratic revolution" in a fast pace. Prayer hall of Salar Gaizi Mosque in Kehtsikung

Prayer hall of Salar Gaizi Mosque in Kehtsikung

In March 1958, Zhu Xiafu (朱侠夫), the vice secretary of CCP committee in Qinghai, called on fast socialist transformations of nomads and set quota for different areas, forcibly establishing the socialist cooperatives for animal husbandry. At the same time, in order to "prevent uprising", leaders in Qinghai followed the directive of the Central Committee of CCP and began to "use meetings and study sessions to rein in the minority religious leaders". Jnana Pal Rinpoche (加乃化仁波切), a prestigious monk from Bimdo Monastery (温都寺) who was a vice administrator of Xunhua County and had taught

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...

and

Panchen Lama The Panchen Lama () is a tulku of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Panchen Lama is one of the most important figures in the Gelug tradition, with its spiritual authority second only to Dalai Lama. Along with the council of high lamas, h ...

, was among the religious leaders sent for re-education.

The uprising

Location of Xunhua within Qinghai (China)

On April 17, 1958, a group of civilians from Gangca Town resisted the socialist cooperatives and demanded the release of Jnana Pal Rinpoche. They detained the CCP secretary of Gangca Town, cutting down

utility poles A utility pole is a column or post typically made out of wood used to support overhead power lines and various other public utilities, such as electrical cable, fiber optic cable, and related equipment such as transformers and street lights. It c ...

, and on the next day their protests turned violent, resulting in the death of a team leader from the CCP task force. The resistance was joined by local

, and on April 24, over 4,000 people led by the Salar besieged Xunhua County. Some of the stores were robbed and several local officials were beaten. However, the armed resistance fled the area during the night.

Suppression and massacre

On the morning of April 25, People's Liberation Army (PLA) sent two

regiments A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

to suppress the uprising. Upon arrival, the PLA troops started to open fire towards the civilians who demanded the release of Jnana Pal Rinpoche. Within four hours, the troops realized the civilians were mostly unarmed, but had already killed 435 people, with a total casualties of 719. On the afternoon of April 25, a total of 2,499 were arrested, including 1,581 Salars, 537

Tibetans The Tibetan people (; ) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.7 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans liv ...

, 343 Hui people and 38

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctiv ...

. Official sources state that the death toll within PLA troops was 17, in addition to an estimated loss of properties worth 0.9 million

RMB The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...

at the time. Jnana Pal Rinpoche committed suicide in the "study session" after hearing the news, and he was "identified" by officials as the organizer of the uprising. Mao Zedong later expressed support for the crackdown in Qinghai, stating that "the uprising of

counter-revolutionaries A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revoluti ...

in Qinghai was wonderful, as it was an opportunity for the liberation of working people, and the decision of the CCP committee in Qinghai was absolutely correct".

References

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Historical background

The uprising

Suppression and massacre

See also

References

Further reading