Shadian incident

Shadian Incident
Part of Cultural Revolution in China
Photo of bodies of ethnic minority Hui Muslims, taken in the aftermath of the killing.
Native name沙甸事件
LocationGejiu City, Yunnan, China
Date1974–1975 (49 years ago)
Attack type
Ethnic conflict, Civil unrest
Deaths1,600 civilians, including 300 children
VictimsHui
PerpetratorsPeople's Liberation Army, Chinese Communist Party, Militia etc.

The Shadian incident (Chinese: 沙甸事件; pinyin: Shādiàn shìjiàn) was an uprising of Muslim Hui people against the rule of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the Cultural Revolution, which was eventually suppressed by the People's Liberation Army in a massacre.[1][2][3][4][5] In July and August, 1975, the uprising and the subsequent military suppression took place in several villages of Yunnan Province in southwest China, especially at the Shadian Town of Gejiu City.[1][6] The estimated death toll was around 1,600 (with half deaths from Shadian alone) including 300 children, and 4,400 houses were destroyed.[1][3][4][6][7][8]

The conflict between the CCP and local religious Hui people began in 1974 during the Cultural Revolution, when a group of Hui people went to Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan province, demanding the freedom of religion granted by the Constitution of China.[1][2] However, local government deemed the behavior of the hundreds of protesters as "causing a disturbance" and "opposing the leadership of the Communist Party".[1][2] In 1975, local Hui people attempted to forcefully re-open the mosques shut down by the government during the Cultural Revolution, escalating the conflict and attracting the attention from Beijing.[1][2][4] On July 29, 1975, with approval from Chairman Mao Zedong, some 10,000 soldiers from the People's Liberation Army received direct order from Deng Xiaoping to crack down on the uprising (some sources state that the direct order was from Wang Hongwen[9][10]), resulting in a mass killing of Hui people which lasted for about a week.[1][2][6]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Gladney, Dru C. (1996). Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic. Harvard University Press. pp. 137–140. ISBN 978-0-674-59497-5.
  2. ^ a b c d e MacFarquhar, Roderick; Schoenhals, Michael (2006). Mao's Last Revolution. Harvard University Press. pp. 387–388. ISBN 978-0-674-02332-1.
  3. ^ a b Zhou, Yongming (1999). Anti-drug Crusades in Twentieth-century China: Nationalism, History, and State Building. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 162–163. ISBN 978-0-8476-9598-0.
  4. ^ a b c "China's Puzzling Islam Policy". Stanford Politics. 26 November 2018. Archived from the original on 6 August 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  5. ^ Su, Alice (6 June 2016). "Harmony and Martyrdom Among China's Hui Muslims". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 13 March 2024. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  6. ^ a b c Song, Yongyi (25 August 2011). "Chronology of Mass Killings during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)". Sciences Po. Archived from the original on 14 January 2024. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  7. ^ Israeli, Raphael (2002). Islam in China: Religion, Ethnicity, Culture, and Politics. Lexington Books. pp. 263–266. ISBN 978-0-7391-0375-3.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference mp was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Qi, Zhi (26 November 2019). 中华学人论文集——文化大革命50年（1-4）: 学校和地方（三） (in Chinese). Remembering Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-951135-09-6.
  10. ^ 文革反思回忆史料之八: 云南'文化大革命'运动大事纪实 (in Chinese). Zhong wen chu ban wu fu wu zhong xin. 2007.