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China's liberal writers and intellectuals, many of them fellow travelers who created the climate for the Communist takeover, came next under relentless attack. Says Lo: "The liberalism in our midst is the best aid to the counter-revolutionaries in stealing party and state secrets." In 1952 all writers, artists and teachers were subjected to an endless series of brainwashing studies, discussions, criticisms and selfcriticism. A minor pro-Communist writer named Hu Feng who kicked against the restrictions was forced to publish a confession. Many were arrested in a campaign following the Hu Feng purge. Others, like Peking University's respected Professor Hsieh Tao, just disappeared. Hsieh's crime: last year, when an Air India plane carrying a Red delegation to the Bandung conference exploded in air, Hsieh was observed to "remark with smiles" that "we have material again, we can give it plenty of propaganda."
Many people in China might think that the safest place in these troublous days is in the Communist Party. That line of reasoning does not escape Mao. Warning party members that many who had stood up to real bullets under fire were unable to withstand "the candy-coated bullets of the capitalists," Mao began a purge of party members. In one provincial group alone a commission found no less than 1,400 "corrupt" party members. There were also deep rifts in the party leadership. Manchurian Communist Boss Kao Kang, with a section of the Red army, challenged and secretly plotted against Mao's control. Mao's spies exposed him. In March 1955 Kao Kang was officially said to have committed suicide, but thousands of his suspected supporters met death by other than their own hands. The Kao Kang upheaval led Mao to appoint special party Control Committees (outside Lo's bailiwick) to check and punish deviators and to set up a system within the party by which members were required constantly to spy on other members.
Spy & Counterspy. The system extends down to the humblest home. Every Public Security Station now has its Household Office, which checks on travelers, overnight guests, hotel patrons, births and deaths, unemployment, marriages and divorces. The Household Police has dossiers on each household and is expected to know every individual's source of income, education, class category, and family background up to three generations, personal history from the age of eight, his friends and relatives inside and outside China. The Household policeman is entitled to drop in anytime at any home. Sometimes the visit is limited to pointless talks, sometimes trick questions are tossed in casually. After each trip the policeman hands in a report, thus building up the dossier (in triplicate, for distribution at higher levels), which will follow the resident wherever he moves as long as he lives.