Beijing, China — The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) recently reburied the ashes of Wei Guoqing, a founding general of the People’s Liberation Army and former regional party chief in Guangxi, with full honors, despite his notorious association with atrocities during the Cultural Revolution. The high-profile burial ceremony, held on October 24 at Beijing’s Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery—a final resting place for China’s top leaders and revolutionary heroes—was attended by relatives of late revolutionary leaders Zhu De and Peng Dehuai.
Wei’s legacy is overshadowed by his role in the brutal Guangxi Massacre, where factional violence during the Cultural Revolution led to the deaths of an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 people through methods like beheadings, stoning, drowning, and even cannibalism. Investigative Journalism Reportika recently highlighted similar cases in its report on China’s Soft Power Propaganda Network, which examines how the CCP shapes narratives by honoring figures with violent histories while downplaying their actions to project a cohesive revolutionary image.
Public Outrage and Satire
News of Wei’s burial sparked outrage on Chinese-language social media, with comments characterizing Wei as a “butcher” and satirizing the CCP’s willingness to honor a figure associated with such violence. One user on X (formerly Twitter) remarked, “Babaoshan is already packed full of demons and monsters – there’s always room for one more,” while another joked, “Paying tribute to a legendary gourmet,” accompanied by an image of Wei with a fictional KFC backdrop. These comments reflected disgust, referencing notorious fictional killers and highlighting the lasting resentment in Guangxi over his legacy.
Symbolism and Political Commentary
Experts suggest the burial of Wei’s remains is politically symbolic. Feng Chongyi, a professor at the University of Technology in Sydney, argued that honoring Wei signals President Xi Jinping’s positioning as a political heir to Mao Zedong, endorsing the Cultural Revolution’s “struggle” tactics. “By giving him the honor of entering Babaoshan, Xi Jinping is endorsing the persecution mania of the Cultural Revolution,” Feng said, noting parallels between Xi’s approach and Mao’s.
Professor Yang Haiying of Japan’s Shizuoka University added that Wei’s burial reflects the CCP’s unwillingness to distance itself from the violent legacies of the Cultural Revolution. Investigative Journalism Reportika’s report emphasized that the CCP continues to honor violent figures as a means to reinforce its revolutionary ethos, using their stories to control narratives in a way that bolsters the CCP’s own historical legacy.
Wei Guoqing died on June 14, 1989, days after the Tiananmen Square massacre ended student-led pro-democracy protests. His ashes remained in storage until this recent burial, renewing public discourse around his legacy and the lasting impacts of the Cultural Revolution’s brutality.
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