Between 1967 and 1968, during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in China, the Guangxi Massacre erupted into an almost apocalyptic wave of mass killing, torture, and horrifying acts, including cannibalism. What began as political purging against “class enemies” spiraled into something brutally inhuman.
What triggered the horror?
Mao Zedong introduced the Cultural Revolution in 1966, claiming it could rid China of many capitalist, traditional, and “counter-revolutionary” influences. Things got out of hand as local leaders in Guangxi, emboldened by the People’s Liberation Army, took the revolutionary chaos as a mandate to instigate the most extreme campaigns of violence.
According to research by Cambridge University Press, this devolved into a regional civil war, where entire villages targeted rival factions and families labeled “bad elements” reddit.com+2en.wikipedia.org+2reddit.com+2reddit.com.
Death toll: Mao, how many did he kill?
- Official records document 100,000–150,000 people killed in Guangxi alone reddit.com+4en.wikipedia.org+4reddit.com+4.
- Independent investigations found at least 70,400 deaths, possibly up to 500,000 en.wikipedia.org+1reddit.com+1.
- Hundreds of those victims were eaten alive—in acts of unspeakable brutality en.wikipedia.org+10rfa.org+10reddit.com+10.
So whenever people ask, “How many people did Mao Zedong kill?”, the staggering toll in Guangxi (including the Guangxi Massacre cannibalism) is part of that horrible answer; Mao’s policies inflicted an unimaginable death toll across China at the millions level, Guangxi was one of the worst of the flashpoints.
How did the violence unfold?
Methods of murder were extreme—beheading, live burial, stoning, boiling, drowning, and disembowelment en.wikipedia.org+9en.wikipedia.org+9reddit.com+9. In counties like Wuxuan and Wuming, cannibalism was not random or survival‑driven; it was ritualized, publicly endorsed by local officials to prove revolutionary loyalty reddit.com+11en.wikipedia.org+11en.wikipedia.org+11.
A chilling example came from Wuxuan Middle School: students forced a teacher to rip out the heart and liver of a slain principal, then barbecued and consumed the organs at the school canteen .wikipedia.org+15reddit.com+15reddit.com+15.
Why did they do it?
- Political signaling: Eating the heart or liver of a “counter‑revolutionary” was an extreme way to prove one’s loyalty to Maoist ideology reddit.com+1reddit.com+1.
- Ritual madness: Researchers note stages of cannibalism—from secret mutilation to public “flesh banquets”—where entire communities participated rfa.org+6reddit.com+6reddit.com+6.
- Psychological control: The horrifying spectacles intimidated opponents and bonded participants under shared guilt and fear. As one Reddit historian notes, it was an ideological frenzy, not famine-induced survival cannibalism.
The lasting impac
Following Mao’s death and the end of the Cultural Revolution, there were investigations and trials, but punishments were often quite light during the Boluan Fanzheng (restoration) period. In Wuxuan County, sixteen people were convicted (with sentences of up to 14 years), yet hundreds of officials were demoted or dismissed reddit.com+5en.wikipedia.org+5reddit.com+5 . Such leniency created deeper wounds to the pain of the past but left many questions unanswered.
After Mao’s death and the end of the Cultural Revolution, during the Boluan Fanzheng (restoration) period, investigations and trials followed, but punishments were often light. In Wuxuan County, only 15 people were jailed (sentences up to 14 years), and hundreds of officials faced demotions or dismissals reddit.com+5en.wikipedia.org+5reddit.com+5. This leniency deepened wounds but left many questions unanswered.
Given the scale and atrocity, the Guangxi Massacre remains one of the Cultural Revolution’s darkest chapters. It raises grim questions: “how many people Mao Zedong killed?”, “Mao Zedong death toll?”, and “mao zedong how many people killed?”—with Guangxi offering a chilling data point.
Final thoughts
The Guangxi Massacre, sometimes referred to as Guangxi Massacre boiling, stands as a grim testament to how political ideology can mutate into sheer brutality. It’s China’s political mass killing: public, communal, and coated with symbolic violence like cannibalism. It makes us ask: how far can systemic power go when ideology overrides empathy?
In the End, you can read more real stories, incidents at Digital Broo.
Further reading & sources :
- Wikipedia – Guangxi Massacre: Overview of events, death toll, cannibalism details.
- Cambridge Journal – Anatomy of a Regional Civil War: Academic study of factional violence in Guangxi.
- YouTube – Documentary: Interview clips and archival footage shedding light on daily horrors.
- SciencesPo – Chronology: Timeline of mass killings across China during the Cultural Revolution.