Chapter 3 Post in the Period of "the Cultural Revolution"

The 10 years long "Cultural Revolution" which began from the May of 1966 brought great disasters to the Chinese people and the national economy, and resulted in big losses of the postal services. In the meanwhile, however, with the attention from the Party Central Committee and the State Council, cadres and workers of the postal system surmounted numerous difficulties and brought about some development of the postal services.

Section 1 Post Communications Got Overall Attacks

After May, 1966, posts and telecommunications sectors from ministry organizations to local enterprises were attacked by the "Cultural Revolution", which resulted in serious damages to postal communications security. Many cadres, technicians and workers were accused and attacked. A lot of serious communications accidents occurred one after another in many places. The "January Storm" of Shanghai occurring in early 1967 spread all over the country very rapidly. Rebel factions took the power of or reorganized the local postal sectors nationwide. Violent conflicts among mass organizations occurred frequently. Postal offices and branches got assaulted. Postal cars were not able to go out normally. International mails could not be exchanged as usual. There were a large backlog of letters, newspapers, periodicals and parcels. The national postal communications, now in an utter chaos, was on the verge of suspension.

Under this circumstance, the Party Central Committee decided to implement militia control over the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and established the Military Control Commission of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on the 31st of August. However, the communications status all over the country did not turn for the better. The turmoil continued to grow in intensity during the time period from the August to the September of 1967 when the mail transportation from Beijing to Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and the Northeast China were seriously obstructed. Half of the postal networks in Sichuan Province were completely broken resulting in inaccessibility of postal communication among 55 counties and cities. Mail transportation terminated in most parts of Guangdong Province. In Changsha prefecture of Hunan Province, most postal workers left offices owing to violent conflicts which caused a great deal of communication terminated. Postal cars on the trains from Fuzhou to Zhangzhou and Quanzhou were frequently robbed. As a result of violent conflicts in some areas of Yunnan Province, the postal network in the . province was nearly stopped and the backlog of postal matters reached 300 tons. Meanwhile, the philately business in postal sectors was considered feudalism and waste of money. A large number of precious and rare stamps were destroyed and the philately business was stopped.

In many enterprises at that time the workers were split into two opposite parties. They criticized and beat cadres, seized and lost powers from time to time, and fought violently against each other. After the implementation of military control, the situation gradually turned steady, but movements of "purifying the class ranks" and "struggle, criticize, reform" was seriously influenced by the "left" trend of thought and factionalism which created a great chaos, causing . many cases involving unjust, false or wrong charges. A large number of cadres and workers suffered from persecution which even brought their families a lot of trouble. Leading officials of different ranks were criticized to be "capitalistic roaders". Business rules and regulations were seriously violated and operations fell into a disorder.