1946 - The Xiwanzi Massacre

December 1946

Chongli, Henan

An underground Catholic mass in the woods, with approximately 1,000 believers present. [VOM Canada]

By the end of 1946 it became apparent that the Communists had gained the upper hand in the Civil War against the Nationalists. Many considered it only a matter of time before they gained control over the whole nation. For much of the time prior to 1946 the Communists had been careful not to kill Christians. Indeed, some Chinese church leaders and a few missionaries even believed a Communist government would be good for Christianity in China. The China Weekly Review once reported that “the Communists are changing the former policy and will now guarantee freedom of worship and freedom for missionaries to carry on religious work.”[1]

The village of Xiwanzi is situated in Chongli County in northwest Hebei Province. In the past, Xiwanzi was considered part of the Mongolian realm due to its location outside the Great Wall, and indeed old maps place it in Chahar, a province of Mongolia.

Xiwanzi came to prominence in the 1800s because it was used as a regional base for Catholic missionaries. It was seen as the last stop before the vast Mongolian steppes, and the final outpost connected to China proper. By 1946 the entire community of 3,000 people in Xiwanzi was Catholic. Xiwanzi had become the centre of activity from where 200 new converts were won to Christ and discipled each year. The village

“was almost entirely Christian, and included a magnificent cathedral, an Episcopal residence, a seminary, a hospice, a primary school for boys and girls, an orphanage, a dispensary, and two convents. It was one of the great centres of the missions to Mongolia organized by the Scheut Fathers.”[2]

A Belgian priest, Francis LeGrand, had been pastor at Xiwanzi for five years. He was away on business on the day of the Communist massacre. This not only preserved his life, but he recorded the incident for the outside world to read about. The Communists had actually taken over Xiwanzi in August 1945. The Catholic church came under attack, with the Father Procurator and the steward of the mission thrown into prison in a bid to intimidate the other believers. By September 1946 the Reds revealed their true attitude to Christianity, giving a glimpse into the kind of treatment believers would later face all across China.

On September 23rd the Chinese priest Benedict Ying was shot dead. In October two more Chinese priests were imprisoned on trumped-up charges. They were never seen again. Then, in December 1946, the full force of the Communist plan was unleashed. The first martyr was a landowner who was given a public ‘trial’. He was humiliated and accused of various ‘crimes’ before being “thrown down from the platform and beaten to death in front of the terrified spectators. All the women of the village, the children, including those from the Holy Child orphanage, and even the mother of the victim, were present at the execution.”[3]

Shortly after, the bishop was imprisoned, and the Catholic mission was fined “three million pounds of flour” for their “crimes.” Because of its inability to pay, the Communists took away all the mission buildings and assets. The last remaining building the Catholics refused to hand over was the church. Soldiers were sent to strip all valuables from the sanctuary, but they were reluctant to do so. Instead, the Communists

“stirred up the non-Christians in the next village to come and claim the cathedral in reparation for certain injuries which they had suffered in years past. When the superior resisted, the leader of the gang wanted to tie him up, hang him from a beam and beat him, but the Christians surrounded their priest and protected him from harm. For fear of a fight, the looters retreated.”[4]

On December 11, 1946, three Chinese priests were shot dead at Xiwanzi: Joseph Chin, Anthony Xu, and Paul Yao. Religious articles and Bibles were removed from every home, and any attractive Catholic girl who caught the eye of a Communist soldier was forced to marry him. This applied to the anguished nuns as well. Next, the believers’ land and farms were confiscated. Despite this tremendous pressure, not a single Catholic at Xiwanzi denounced his faith, even when

“Numerous meetings were held in order to indoctrinate the population; they took place several times each week and lasted for five, six or even seven hours at a time, taking no account of meal times, of the heat of summer, or the cold of winter. If anyone of either sex arrived later they were often punished by having to kneel in front of the whole assembly. For four or five months the people were forced to attend a ‘winter school’ at which the Communists tried to instil a new spirit into them.”[5]

On December 9, 1946, Xiwanzi was attacked by the Communist military. The inhabitants fled to the side of a mountain, where they were caught and returned by the Communists. One group of believers “retired inside the walls of the seminary and refused to surrender alive. The seminary was then set on fire; the defenders remained steadfastly inside, praying…until they all died in the flames.”[6] The cathedral was then burned to ashes, followed by the other mission buildings and the library with many priceless ancient manuscripts. Next, the cruel Communists rounded up villagers for interrogation. Some individuals

“were shot out of hand. 172 others were marched off under guard, many of them stripped to their underwear. This group—which included three priests, six women, a blind man and a cripple—had to walk for two weeks. At the end of that time, 60 were freed; the rest were forced to join the Red Army, or were executed.”[7]

The Communists decided there was little reason to remain in Xiwanzi and withdrew. Reporters arrived the next day and “saw a scene of frightful carnage. In a single day the dead totalled 250. Francis LeGrand said,

“‘Every family lamented lost members—no one knew whether they were dead or among the prisoners. The survivors examined the corpses one by one in the fields, in the wastes, in the mountains, and at the morgue we had set up to facilitate this lugubrious rummage. Carts filled with corpses were brought in—dreadful remains in the most tortured positions, the trunks shrivelled, the frozen hands sticking out as stiff as wood. Many of the hundred bodies found that first day were naked. Some of them had ropes still binding the bayoneted torsos. Fifty of the victims had been buried alive. Others had bullet holes in their heads. Many of them bore marks to show they had been beaten, tortured and defiled.”[8]

The Nationalists took back the village, but the Communists withdrew only as far as the surrounding hills, and continued to launch raids that killed even more believers in Xiwanzi. The Christians still refused to abandon their faith, and worship services were soon held again, where the survivors poured out their grief before God. They even found the strength to construct a hospital at nearby Zhangbeixian.

As if they had not received enough suffering, Xiwanzi was recaptured by the Communists in 1948, and again pillared and persecuted. Few communities have endured such horrific and barbaric persecution than the small village of Xiwanzi. As a testament to their faithfulness and to the grace of God, today a Catholic community remains in the village. The darkness was not able to snuff out the light of God.

1. Cited in Palmer, God’s Underground in Asia, 41.
2. Monsterleet, Martyrs in China, 99-100.
3. Monsterleet, Martyrs in China, 102.
4. Monsterleet, Martyrs in China, 103.
5. Monsterleet, Martyrs in China, 105.
6. Palmer, God’s Underground in Asia, 25.
7. Palmer, God’s Underground in Asia, 25.
8. Palmer, God’s Underground in Asia, 26.