"Scorched Earth" Policy

In response to Mao Zedong's notion of communist revolutionaries swimming "like fish in the sea of the people", counter-insurgency tactics were devised to "drain the sea to flush out the fish." These included razing entire villages, destroying crops and livestock, and killing anyone suspected of holding guerrilla sympathies. Such policies contributed to the deaths and "disappearances" of thousands of non-combatants in the early 1980's.