The CCP’s intelligence services made it known that within the party “spies were as common as hempseeds” and asked that party members rescue those people who “consciously or unconsciously” were serving the enemy. Personal histories were scrutinized for the slightest traces of suspicious activity, and almost everyone faced grueling questioning; people were held in isolation, threatened, or tortured, forced to criticize themselves and denounce others. Out of the thirty thousand functionaries and students in Yan’an, at least half were accused of being spies.
