China: The bodies of three dead Kuomintang (KMT) soldiers of Chiang Kai-shek's anti-communist forces displayed in simple coffins at the time of the 'White Terror'. Shanghai, April 1927

In modern Chinese history, White Terror (Báisè Kǒngbù) describes a period of political suppression enacted by the Kuomintang party under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek.

It began in 1927 following the purge of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai. On April 12, 1927, Chiang initiated a purge of Communists from the Shanghai Kuomintang and began large-scale killings in the Shanghai massacre of 1927. Chiang's forces turned machine guns on 100,000 workers who had taken to the streets in labour union demonstrations, killing more than 5,000 people.

Throughout April 1927 in Shanghai, more than 12,000 people were killed or had disappeared. The Chinese Communist Party was virtually extinguished. At the beginning of 1927, the Chinese Communist Party had about 60,000 members.

By the end of the year, no more than 10,000 remained. Following the Shanghai massacres, Mao Zedong and the CCP adopted the road of agrarian revolution, based on the rural peasantry rather than the urban proletariat.

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Pictures From History

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OLD SHANGHAI