WHO KILLED ALL THE INTELLECTUALS?

13 December 1925

[Text] Among Chen Chiung-ming's [7115 3518 2494] anti-communist literature,
there is the article: "Respectfully Advise Young Students." The last few
sentences of this article read: "Communist Party policy also calls for
exterminating the intellectual class. You young students are, after all,
grouped in the intellectual class. Upon triumph of the Communist Party,...
[one word indistinct] intends to kill the intellectual young students one
by one." In order to see whether Chen Chiung-ming's words are right or
wrong, it would be necessary, first of all, to analyze the position of the
Chinese intellectual class. We feel that those individuals with intelligence should not be classified as a social class. We should recognize them
only as knowledgeable persons. The reason for this is that they do not have
a common interest which would assure their unity as a class. Among them,
some have become secretaries or staffers to Chang Tso-lin [1728 0155 7207],
Wu Pei-fu [0702 0160 1318], Chen Chiung-ming and their like; and others
have performed as attorneys or clerks for Chang... [word indistinct) [1728],
Mu Ou-chu [4476 5665 0443], Chen... [word indistinct] -po [7115 .... 0130].
They say peasants should not demand rent reduction and workers should not
strike. At the same time, however, some intellectuals have joined the ranks
of the worker-peasant class.

Accordingly, we can see that each knowledgeable person is merely an intellectual. As an inevitable consequence of modern industrial development,
these intellectuals have long lost the dignity and assurance of their so called occupational freedom, and have been downgraded temporarily from
intermediate class to proletariat. As such, they must devote themselves
wholeheartedly to the worker-peasant movement. If they should forget their
own position in the current society and choose to reverse themselves to
serve warlords, compradores, and local despots, then, these knowledgeable
youths may be regarded as dead. By whose hands do they perish? They are
wasted directly by warlords, compradores, and local despots; and indirectly
they are poisoned by imperialism.

• CHENG-CHIH CHOU-PAO, No 2, Canton Cheng-chih Chou-pao Press, 13 December 1925