Fairbank arrived at a rough estimate of around one million (Fairbank, 1992: 402). In the following year, however, Harvard scholar John K. According to Rummel’s 1991 analysis of, the figure should be around 7.73 million (Rummel, 1991: 253). Estimates by various scholars range from one-half to eight million. Owing to difficulties that scholars in and outside China encounter in accessing “state secrets,” the exact figure of the “abnormal death” has become a recurring debate in the field of China studies. They even forbid Chinese scholars from studying it independently and discourage overseas scholars from undertaking research on this subject in China. Nevertheless, the government, realizing that the totalitarian regime and the endless power struggles in the CCP Central Committee (CCP CC) were the root cause of the Cultural Revolution, has consistently discounted the significance of looking back and reflecting on this important period of Chinese history.

For the Chinese communist government, it is a highly classified “state secret,” although they do maintain statistics for the so-called “abnormal death” numbers all over China.

However, 40 years after it ended, the total number of victims of the Cultural Revolution and especially the death toll of mass killings still remain a mystery both in China and overseas. It claimed the lives of several million people and inflicted cruel and inhuman treatments on hundreds of million people. The Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) was a historical tragedy launched by Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Chronology of Mass Killings during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)

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