Vortrag Prof. Michael Schoenhals, Lund Univ., Sweden: “Are they reading our mail? – Postüberwachung in the early People’s Republic of China”

On the basis of Chinese archival records, this presentation describes and critically assesses – including from a global, comparative perspective – covert postal inspection as conducted by state security organs in Mao Zedong’s China (1949–1976). According to an early classified directive, postal inspection and monitoring was to “pay attention to the imperialist countries as well as conduct spot checks of the domestic correspondence of [duly designated] targets.” What ensued in the technically primitive conditions prevailing was, for many years, a slow and error prone modus operandi. Everything was done by hand, and it took years before even such by comparison sophisticated equipment as cameras became widely available to Chinese officers spending seven days a week frantically steaming open and copying the contents of letters to and from this or that category of “targets.”

The presentation will be illustrated with photographs of original interception records and drawings of original Chinese postal inspector equipment.