Kuai Dafu

Kuai Dafu (Chinese: 蒯大富, 14 September 194524 November 2025) was a political figure in the People's Republic of China. Kuai was born in Binhai, Jiangsu Province. A 1967 graduate of the Department of Engineering Chemistry at Tsinghua University, he was one of the five leaders of the Beijing Red Guard rebels during the Cultural Revolution.

Biography Early Years

Kuai Dafu was born on September 14, 1945, in Binhai County, Jiangsu Province. His grandfather was a veteran of the New Fourth Army, and both his parents joined the Chinese Communist Party in the 1940s. Kuai Dafu attended Binhai Batan Town Middle School. In 1963, he was admitted to the Department of Engineering Chemistry at Tsinghua University.

Cultural Revolution In September 1963, Kuai Dafu was admitted to the Department of Engineering Chemistry at Tsinghua University. In 1966, after the start of the Cultural Revolution, he began secretly contacting people at Tsinghua University, organizing student gatherings, and discussing current affairs. He posted big-character posters against the department head and university leaders. In June 1966, a work group headed by Ye Lin, then Vice Chairman of the State Planning Commission, entered Tsinghua University and took over the university's Party Committee. The work group criticized students like Kuai Dafu for their radical behavior, which sparked student discontent. That same month, the *People's Daily* published an editorial, "Sweep Away All Monsters and Demons," approved by Chen Boda, which listed so-called bourgeois experts, scholars, authorities, and founders as targets for overthrow. On August 4, Kuai Dafu attended and spoke at the Beijing Municipal "Cultural Revolution Activists" conference, becoming a representative of the Tsinghua University Red Guards and a vanguard of the rebellion. He initiated the establishment of the "Jinggangshan Rebel Corps" and served as the deputy commander of the Red Guard Revolutionary Rebel Headquarters of the Capital Universities and Colleges. On December 18, Zhang Chunqiao, then deputy head of the "Central Cultural Revolution" group, met with Kuai Dafu alone at the West Gate of Zhongnanhai, listened to his report, and assigned the task of overthrowing Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping.

On July 29, 1967, Kuai Dafu led a group of people to raid Xu Xiangqian's home for the third time.

Organizing Violent Struggle

Active from 1966 onwards, Kuai led the Jinggangshan ("Headquarters") faction of the Red Guards at Tsinghua University, where he pursued a degree in chemical engineering.

On April 10, 1967, the Jinggangshan – now supported by the central authorities and the People's Liberation Army – organised an on-campus struggle session where more than 300 alleged "revisionists" (including Wang Guangmei) were publicly humiliated.

On July 27, Mao Zedong met with the five leaders of the Red Guards and severely warned and criticized them, demanding their withdrawal from the political arena. Kuai and Han went on to share a prison cell with activist Wei Jingsheng.

On April 19, 1978, Kuai Dafu was arrested by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau at a university-wide assembly of faculty and students. He was subsequently imprisoned in Qincheng Prison in Beijing and Tanggemu Farm in Gonghe County, Qinghai Province. In September 1987, Kuai Dafu was released.

Kuai subsequently pursued a business career.

Similarly to other student leaders from the Cultural Revolution, Kuai was pressured by the post-Mao governments of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao to remain discrete about their past as Red Guards and "not to say anything that is 'sensitive'".

Chinese platforms stated that Kuai Dafu had died on November 24, 2025, although this was not officially confirmed.