Command on Punishment of War Criminals

On November 1, 1948, the headquarters of the Chinese People's Liberation Army issued the "Command on Punishment of War Criminals" in the name of Zhu De, the commander-in-Chief and Peng Dehuai, the deputy commander.

It proclaimed that if the Kuomintang military officers, the Kuomintang headquarters or the Kuomintang government officials ordered their subordinates to conduct any one of the following heinous acts, they would be convicted of war crime:

1) Killing people, looting people's property, demolishing or burning people's houses; 2) Releasing toxic gases; 3) Killing prisoners; 4) Destroying arms and ammunition; 5) Destroying communication equipment or burning the text and telegrams files; 6) Destroying food, storage and other military equipment; 7) Destroying municipal water and electrical equipment, factory buildings and a variety of related machines; 8) Destroying navy and army vehicles and equipment; 9) Destroying bank vaults; 10) Destroying cultural relics; 11) Destroying public assets and buildings; and 12) Raiding from the air and bombing cities which have already been liberated.

Furthermore, the Command also indicated that the policy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army on the reactionaries from Kuomintang was that principal culprits would be punished severely, accomplices under duress would not be interrogated, and meritorious persons would be rewarded.