But as the war ended, instead of cultivating China’s conscience, Chiang Kai-shek cracked down. In October 1945, he ousted Long Yun, the warlord in Yunnan province who had sheltered the liberals. Next, agents of his archconservative adviser Chen Lifu moved in. In December, Chen’s hit men were suspected of killing four students in Kunming during a demonstration against civil war. In June, Nationalist thugs assaulted a coalition of students and intellectuals who had come to Nanjing to appeal for peace.
