Chinese 'ate class enemies' says book

New York (Reuter) - A book released on Monday alleges that Chinese government cafeterias served human flesh after Communist Party officials ordered 'class enemies' eaten during the Cultural Revolution.

The publisher, Times Books, said classified documents used for the book indicated that 'the biggest episode of cannibalism in modern times' occurred in southern China, mostly in 1967.

China Wakes, written by the husband-and-wife team Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, alleges that government cafeterias not only served human flesh but displayed corpses dangling from meathooks, according to the publisher. The book says that the cannibals, numbering in the thousands, were motivated by politics, not hunger.