How Was The Cultural Revolution Used To Attack Mao's Political And Class Enemies?

Question 1

Who was attacked/ purged?

Answer 1

Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping
Lin Biao
CCP Membership
‘Capitalist roaders’ and foreigners living in China

Question 2

Why did Mao want to remove Liu and Deng from post and why couldn’t he do it directly?

Answer 2

They continued to advocate pragmatic policies. Both popular in Politburo and when he entrusted Liu and Deng to oversee ending of rural crisis, ceded some of his grip of power onto them.

Question 3

How come Mao was able to instigate the attack on Wu Han to see if Liu and Deng’s power could be shaken?

Answer 3

By the end of 1965, Mao had the support he needed (e.g. Chen Boda, Lin Biao, PLA, Jiang Qing and the Shanghai radicals)

Question 4

What did Chen Boda have control of?

Answer 4

Propaganda

Question 5

When were they both formally dismissed from their positions within govt and Party?

Answer 5

October 1966, following a Red Guard demonstration targeted specifically at them (wall posters appeared, naming and denouncing them for betraying revolution)

Question 6

What happened to Liu and his wife?

Answer 6

They were dragged from their house and beaten by a jeering mob.

Question 7

What happened to Liu?

Answer 7

Forced to undergo a series of struggle sessions, before being imprisoned in conditions deliberately intended to break his already fragile health (he had diabetes). When he contracted pneumonia, refused permission to go to hospital.

Question 8

When did Liu die?

Answer 8

November 1969

Question 9

What happened to Wang Guangmei, Liu’s wife?

Answer 9

Subjected to a humiliating interrogation before being paraded before a large crowd wearing a necklace of table tennis balls and a revealing skirt (which she was accused of having worn on a recent trip to Indonesia to seduce President).

Question 10

Why didn’t Weng die when she was sentenced to death?

Answer 10

Mao intervened to save her

Question 11

What happened to Deng?

Answer 11

Less harshly treated- subjected to public humiliation before being sent to perform corrective labour. Survived and rehabilitated into Party.

Question 12

When was Deng rehabilitated into Party?

Answer 12

1973- due to links with Zhou

Question 13

Why was Deng’s son permanently paralysed?

Answer 13

The Red Guards threw him from an upstairs window

Question 14

When did Lin Biao fall?

Answer 14

1971

Question 15

Why was Lin removed?

Answer 15

Became too popular

Question 16

What did Mao worry about Lin?

Answer 16

That he would combine his military (commander-in-chief) and political support to become a Chinese Bonaparte

Question 17

How did Mao begin his attack on Lin?

Answer 17

Indirectly, by undermining the position of some of his allies e.g. Chen Boda who had to make self-criticisms

Question 18

How did Mao gradually continue his attack against Lin?

Answer 18

Packing the Military Affairs Commission with his supporters, and then reorganising the Beijing military region do that Lin’s allies were posted elsewhere.

Question 19

What was the official version events of what happened to Lin and his son?

Answer 19

They were planning to assassinate Mao and then seize power in a military coup

Question 20

What happened to Lin and son?

Answer 20

When they attempted to flee and take refuge in Russia, plain crashed in the desert in Mongolia, killing all on board

Question 21

What remains unknown?

Answer 21

Lin’s own contribution to plot

Question 22

Was the crash an accident?

Answer 22

Seems so- caused by pilot flying low to avoid radar or insufficient fuel

Question 23

What was the outcome of the affair?

Answer 23

Mao in a long period of depression

Question 24

Why did this affair cast doubt on the credibility of the whole regime?

Answer 24

Lin had been regarded by the public ad Mao’s principal supporter (since civil war), he was his designated successor and commanded the army- if Lin was revealed to have been a traitor, what else should the public disbelieve about the regime?

Question 25

For many Chinese, what did the fall of Lin Biao mark?

Answer 25

A turning point in their relationship with Mao- regarded with increasing scepticism

Question 26

When was news of Lin’s fall released?

Answer 26

1972

Question 27

What did Jiang Qing do to discredit Lin?

Answer 27

1973, extensive media campaign accusing him of being a Soviet spy, masquerading as a man on the radical left. Public called on to ‘criticise Lin Biao and Confucius’ (modern reincarnation of Confucius and his revolutionary ideas)

Question 28

What did Lin’s fall also do?

Answer 28

Reopened the question of Mao’s successor so factional rivalries increased

Question 29

Why was Zhou not an obvious successor?

Answer 29

Too old and moderate to be entrusted with carrying the revolution forward

Question 30

Why was Jiang Qing not an obvious successor?

Answer 30

Too many personal enemies

Question 31

What did Mao say to commence the purge of the CCP membership?

Answer 31

‘Bombard the Headquarters’

Question 32

Who were affected the most and by 1966, how many of them still held their post?

Answer 32

High-ranking members, only 9/23 Politburo members of 1966 held onto their posts

Question 33

How many of the six regional first secretaries were purged?

Answer 33

6 regional first secretaries were purged

Question 34

How many provincial and regional officials were purged?

Answer 34

70%

Question 35

How many members of the Central Committee were purged?

Answer 35

2/3s of the members of the Central Committee that met in 1966 had been purged by the next time it gathered October 1968

Question 36

At local level, how many Party officials were purged?

Answer 36

20%

Question 37

What were May 7th cadre schools?

Answer 37

Where people were sent to rediscover their revolutionary zeal, through a combination of hard physical labour alongside the peasantry, in camps usually far away from their homes. Most survived and reintegrated into Party but brutal experience that involved torture and beatings

Question 38

How many cadres were sent to May 7th cadre schools?

Answer 38

3 million

Question 39

What was the January Storm in 1967?

Answer 39

Militant factory and office workers formed their own Red Guard units and overthrew the Party leadership in Shanghai, where they set up a People’s Commune that was to be run by freely elected representatives

Question 40

Having originally backed the initiative (Jan Storm), what did Mao do?

Answer 40

Changed mind saying Party should have some influence over the direction of events. New revolutionary committee (RG, PLA and CCP officials) set up to run Shanghai

Question 41

Where had the balance of power swung to?

Answer 41

The army- 25/29 first secretaries lost their jobs, most of them to PLA officers

Question 42

What was declared at a full Party Congress (the ninth)?

Answer 42

April 1969- Cultural Revolution over and a new Party constitution adopted stressing importance of Mao Zedong Thought and the continuation of class struggle

Question 43

Whose influence increased and what are some figures to demonstrate this?

Answer 43

PLA- 45% of new Central Committee members of PLA and half of Politburo

Question 44

Why did Mao have more control over the new Party?

Answer 44

Many veteran members had been purged and replaced by less experienced newcomers so his ability to manipulate was greater than ever

Question 45

When did the reconstruction of the Party begin?

Answer 45

Oct 1968 when Liu and Deng expelled from Party

Question 46

Who were subjected to scrutiny in the attacks on ‘capitalist roaders’?

Answer 46

Mainly focused in urban areas- every factory, office, shop and school

Question 47

What did this disrupt?

Answer 47

Working life- serious fall in industrial production down by 13% in 1967

Question 48

What did the CCRG develop in early 1968?

Answer 48

‘Cleansing of class ranks’ campaign where committees were set up across the country and given task of eradicating all signs of capitalism.

Question 49

How many deaths did the ‘cleansing of class ranks’ account for?

Answer 49

100,000

Question 50

What was the new campaign in 1970 launched to remove all attitudes that were preventing economic progress?

Answer 50

‘One strike and three antis’

Mao intervened to halt it in 1971

Question 51

What happened in August 1967?

Answer 51

Red Guards broke into the British Embassy in Beijing, physically attacking the staff