Content note: Eight photographs of a public trial in Guangdong, including a kneeling man about to be shot and bodies lying on a riverbed. This object is shown as it was published. Why

中共土改真相大陸農民厄運 (The Real Story of Red China's Land Reform: Misfortune of the Mainland Peasants), U.S. photo poster

A Chinese-language photo poster built from eight photographs of one public trial in Fogang County, Guangdong, headed 'The Real Story of Red China's Land Reform'. One county, one day and one set of pictures (a crowd of umbrellas, men kneeling before a table, a shooting, bodies on a riverbed) stand for the whole land-reform programme, and the yellow text box supplies the rule for reading them: small holdings, 'evil-tyrant landlord' labels, eleven shot, nothing gained by the poor. The tell is that a single photo series carries a claim about the entire campaign (card-stacking).

Date: 1952
Period: Cold War
Made by: U.S. Department of State, International Information and Educational Exchange Program (records later held by the U.S. Information Agency)
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: State
Regime: Truman Administration
Leader: Harry S. Truman
Audience: Foreign public
Purpose: Demonize
Themes: War and the military, Economy and finance
Event: Cold War
Techniques: Card stacking
Source: Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
Source: Wikimedia Commons (from U.S. National Archives, RG 306, NAID 5730064), retrieved October 2, 2026
Rights: Public domain (U.S. government work; Commons PD-USGov, NARA RG 306)
U.S. Department of State / U.S. Information Agency, ca. 1952. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 5730064, 306-PPA-165).

Text on the object

Original (Chinese (traditional characters)) · read from the image, not independently checked

中共土改真相
大陸農民厄運

這裏印出的八張照片，是由一個逃亡的共幹從大陸偷帶到香港的。照片所拍攝的事實發生在廣東佛岡縣，時間是民國四十一年七月廿三日。卅一名善良的農民被共幹押解到羣衆大會上受公審。他們所有的田，都沒有超過三畝（約合五分之一甲）。但照毛澤東在卅年前手訂的階級劃分法，他們都已算做剝削人民的「惡霸地主」。他們被鬥爭，被判重刑。其中十一名當場被槍決。他們的財產全被沒收，分配給上千的貧農。其中最邀寵的，都拿不到二分田。土地的所有愈分散，中共的統治愈容易，這就是中共土改的真相。

慘慘慘慘！

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

The Real Story of the Communists' Land Reform
Misfortune of the Mainland Peasants

The eight photographs printed here were smuggled from the mainland to Hong Kong by a fleeing Communist cadre. The events the photographs record took place in Fogang County, Guangdong, on 23 July of the 41st year of the Republic [1952]. Thirty-one good peasants were escorted by Communist cadres to a mass meeting and tried in public. None of the fields they owned exceeded three mu (about one-fifth of a jia). But under the class-division method that Mao Zedong drew up thirty years ago, they were all counted as 'evil-tyrant landlords' who exploit the people. They were struggled against and sentenced heavily. Eleven of them were shot on the spot. Their property was all confiscated and distributed to thousands of poor peasants, of whom even the most favoured got less than two fen of land. The more dispersed the ownership of land, the easier Communist rule becomes. This is the real story of the Communists' land reform.

Tragic, tragic, tragic, tragic!

Cross-checked against the Chinese text in the NARA catalog record. The numerals in 'thirty-one peasants' and 'thirty years ago' print as the same glyph. Eight small vertical photo captions (1) to (8) are not transcribed. The last glyph of the red column is read as an exclamation mark. Translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.