Red Guards, Informants, and Struggle Sessions: How Social Trust Was Destroyed in China
In the mid-1960s, China experienced a profound social upheaval, one of the core characteristics of which was the disintegration of basic social trust structures. During this period, traditional family ethics, neighborhood relations, and teacher-student bonds were replaced by political allegiance. The state’s mobilization mechanisms penetrated daily life, encouraging individuals to prove their political purity through denunciation and reporting. This institutionalized informants behavior not only targeted so-called “class enemies,” but also widely affected ordinary citizens, leading to the loss of basic interpersonal security.
The rise of the Red Guard movement accelerated this process. Young students were given the power to supervise adult society, and schools became frontline battlegrounds for political struggle. Struggle sessions became normalized public humiliation rituals, with victims often subjected to both physical and mental torture under the watchful eyes of crowds. Under this high-pressure environment, silence was seen as complicity, while informing was packaged as revolutionary action. Society members were forced to choose between loyalty to family and loyalty to political ideology; the vast majority chose the latter for self-preservation, thereby severing the emotional foundations of blood and geographic ties.
This trust crisis was not a brief phenomenon; its impact was far-reaching. When informing became a means of acquiring resources, status, or avoiding persecution, the cost of social cooperation rose sharply. People no longer believed in the truthfulness of words or expected goodwill from others. Public spaces were filled with fear, and private domains were filled with suspicion. This atomized social state made collective action extremely difficult, while also weakening society’s capacity for self-repair. Even after the movement ended, the defensive psychology between individuals persisted for a long time, becoming part of social memory.
From the perspective of public interest, social trust is the cornerstone for reducing transaction costs, promoting cooperation, and maintaining stability. Mechanisms that destroy trust may strengthen certain political mobilization capacity in the short term, but in the long run, they undermine the underlying logic of social operation. For overseas Chinese, understanding this historical lesson helps reflect on how extreme politicization erodes everyday ethics. It reminds us that maintaining basic social mutual trust and protecting the independence of the private sphere are key to preventing society from descending into disorder and violence. History shows that when institutions encourage betrayal over integrity, the entire society pays a heavy price.
Verifiable Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: History and China topics: https://www.britannica.com/place/China
- Resolution on CPC History, 1981: https://www.marxists.org/subject/china/documents/cpc/history/01.htm
- Chineseposters.net: Chinese political campaign posters: https://chineseposters.net/