Borderland Bandit Suppression: A True Account of the Anti-Bandit Campaign on the Southwestern Border in the 1950s

On the eve of the southwest's liberation in late 1949, the Kuomintang's Bureau of Investigation and Statistics and the Second Department of the Ministry of National Defense deliberately left behind agents and scattered remnants of their troops. Along the borders of Yunnan, Xikang, and Guizhou, they formed the "Anti-Communist National Salvation Army" and the "Western Yunnan/Southern Yunnan Columns," divided the region into 15 guerrilla zones, set up 140 secret radio stations, and trained 4,700 guerrilla leaders. They colluded with local chieftains, tyrants, and notorious bandits, stirred up ethnic tensions, and sought to establish a "mainland counteroffensive base." Starting in January 1950, government forces launched an all-out campaign against bandit groups around border county towns. By late 1953, banditry along the southwestern border had been largely eradicated, with more than 250,000 bandits eliminated in total. The campaign thoroughly crushed the Kuomintang's border guerrilla scheme for a "counteroffensive on the mainland," securing the southwestern frontier and the newly established regime.