The Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, 1966–76

Question 1

Why did Mao launch the Cultural Revolution due to divisions within the CCP?

Answer 1

• Mao increasingly began to distrust his old friends. Zhou had been highly critical of the overambitious targets of the Great Leap Forward. Liu had spoken out against it at the 7000 cadres conference in 1962.
• Pragmatism, not revolutionary fervour, was the order of the day. Mao’s policies were being watered down.
• The new economic policies that had replaced his focus on mass mobilisation and ‘Walking on Two Legs’ seemed to be far more successful. The Party was increasingly split between ideologues and pragmatists.

Question 2

Why did Mao launch the Cultural Revolution due to personal slights?

Answer 2

• Liu Shaoqi declared that the phrase ‘Thought of Mao’ should not be used in propaganda that targeted foreign audiences.
• Party leaders publicly stated that Mao Zedong Thought should not be said to surpass Marxism-Leninism. Respected but without control over policy, he complained that he was ‘treated as a dead ancestor’ – shown respect but fundamentally ignored.

Question 3

Why did Mao launch the Cultural Revolution due the quest for permanent revolution?

Answer 3

• Mao feared that the Party had become bureaucratised. He believed that after it had taken power in the revolution, some cadres had exploited their new power for their own advantage.
• The only way to prevent this was for revolution to be permanent, to constantly replace those in authority to prevent them from ever becoming comfortable and secure enough to take advantage of their authority.

Question 4

Why did Mao launch the Cultural Revolution due the Ten Points?

Answer 4

• In 1962 Mao launched a new drive to reinvigorate China with revolutionary zeal. This ‘Socialist Education Campaign’ hoped to return China to the path to communism. In February 1963 Mao drafted the ‘Early Ten Points’ that proposed that the masses should be mobilised to criticise corrupt Party cadres.
• In autumn 1963 Deng Xiaoping revised this plan in a document called the ‘Later Ten Points’ that ruled that any disruption should be kept to a minimum and that middle-class peasants should not be attacked.
• Mao became convinced that all that he had worked for during the revolution was in danger of being dismissed by ‘revisionists’.

Question 5

What was the Cultural Revolution Group?

Answer 5

In March 1966, Mao formed the Cultural Revolution Group (CRG) to direct the Cultural Revolution. It was dominated by ideologues:
- Chen Boda: Mao’s propaganda chief.
- Yao Wenyuan: the writer of the article attacking Wu Han and his play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office.
- Zhang Chunqiao: Party Secretary of Shanghai.
- Jiang Qing: Mao’s fourth wife and most influential member of the group.

Question 6

How did Mao launch the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 6

• In July 1966 Mao swam in the dangerous Yangtze River. The claim was laughable, but the message was clear: Mao was as fit and strong as ever.
• In August, Mao, now back in the public limelight, directed the Party’s Central Committee to announce the ‘sixteen-point directive on the Cultural Revolution’.

Question 7

What were the Red Guards and Red Terror?

Answer 7

• Young people formed into violent groups called Red Guards. They clamoured to ‘Smash the Four Olds’, torturing and humiliating teachers and officials whom they deemed as disloyal, and murdering at least a million people.
• These young people were Mao’s revolutionary soldiers. They had been indoctrinated by the propaganda they had been exposed to in schools. The young people of China had learned that Mao was like a God and when he told them to attack his opponents within the CCP they obeyed.

Question 8

Why did Mao use young people during the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 8

• They had been indoctrinated by his control of the education system. Many of the younger ones had little recollection of his failures during the Great Leap Forward, nor did they blame him for the famine that had followed.
• They read the Little Red Book, the collection of Mao’s comments that they recited. The Party’s propaganda told them to believe it as they would the word of God.

Question 9

Why did young people join the Red Guards?

Answer 9

• At first the Red Guards were the children of Party cadres. Having been regaled by their parents with stories of revolutionary heroism, Mao offered them a chance of glory.
• Students whose employment opportunities were hindered by lack of Party connections took the chance to remove senior communists from the hierarchy, of vital importance given that there was no established retirement system.
• At first the children of the so-called ‘Black Elements’ were not allowed to join. However, in autumn 1966, the restrictions were lifted. The young people who had been excluded were suddenly given the opportunity to prove their loyalty to Mao.

Question 10

How extreme did the cult of Mao become during the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 10

• The regime urged total and unthinking commitment to Maoist thought.
• At workplaces each morning people bowed to Mao’s portrait and asked for ‘instructions’ for the day ahead. Mao’s works were referred to as ‘treasure books’ and special ceremonies were held to celebrate their sale.
• As Zhou Enlai put it simply, ‘Whatever accords with Mao Zedong Thought is right, while whatever does not accord with Mao Zedong Thought is wrong.’ Mao built a propaganda cult that effectively placed him above all other Party leaders.

Question 11

How did Mao heighten the revolutionary atmosphere at the beginning of the CR?

Answer 11

• On 5 August 1966, Mao heightened the revolutionary atmosphere when he had his own big character poster published in Beijing that urged the people to ‘Bombard the Headquarters’.
• In August Mao announced, ‘Let the rest of the country come to Beijing, or Beijing go to the rest of the country. Train transport is free isn’t it?’ Mao’s propaganda chief Chen Boda invited students to attend one of the eight massive rallies, where they were whipped into a revolutionary fervour by Mao.

Question 12

How did the Red Guards attack the ‘Four Olds’?

Answer 12

• The intention was to destroy ‘old ideas’, ‘old culture’ ‘old customs’ and ‘old habits’. To destroy the old habits would hinder the ability of the bourgeois feudal classes to endure.
• Old ‘feudal’ shop signs were changed to read ‘Defend Mao Zedong’ or ‘Permanent Revolution’. Children’s names were changed to Red Glory or Face the East.
• Simply owning a pet bird was enough to make one a target of the Red Guard violence. Bird keeping was a traditional past-time and therefore represented old fashioned ideas.

Question 13

What cultural destruction happened during the CR?

Answer 13

• The homes of people known to have Western books, traditionally designed gardens, classical musical instruments or even just records of old-fashioned music were ransacked. Confucian texts were burned.
• By the end of the Cultural Revolution one-third of China’s 1100 libraries had been closed, and more than 7 million library books lost, stolen or destroyed.
• The Confucius Temple in Shandong province, a priceless cultural relic and resting place of Confucius himself, was attacked by 200 teachers and students from Beijing Normal University.
• The cultural destruction was particularly widespread in Tibet, where religious artefacts were a particular provocation to the Red Guards. Every aspect of Tibetan culture was targeted.

Question 14

What was the use of terror during the CR?

Answer 14

• What started as intimidation and denunciation gave way to brutality. ‘Class enemies’ were sent for ‘re-education’ through physical labour in prison camps. Intellectuals associated with liberal thoughts were ruthlessly targeted. Some were kidnapped; others were killed. Many took their own lives, unable to stand the unremitting threats
• One such example was the renowned playwright Lao She. His house was burned by middle school Red Guards and he was denounced at struggle meetings where he was made to wear a dunce’s hat. To escape the constant harassment he drowned himself in Taiping Lake near Beijing in late August 1966.

Question 15

What was the growth of anarchy like during the CR?

Answer 15

• January Storm: The biggest example of the anarchy spiralling out of control was in Shanghai in early 1967, the so-called ‘January Storm’. Encouraged by Mao’s calls to attack the Party, radical rebel Red Guard groups, made up not of students but of unprivileged workers in the city, destroyed the Party establishment and created their own form of control modelled on the Paris Commune of 1871 when the city’s labourers had seized control and created a new social order with democratic elections.
• For all Mao’s encouragement of the anarchy, In reality,’ he said, ‘there will always be “Heads”.’ He observed that in Shanghai, There are people who wave the Red Flag to bring down the Red Flag.’ In this wave of ‘ultra-democracy’ the radicals were calling for the abolition of the Party itself and, he said, ‘that won’t do’ He demanded that the commune in Shanghai be closed down.

Question 16

How did the PLA restore order during the CR?

Answer 16

• By 1968 Mao knew he had to curtail the violence of the Red Guards. He realised that only the PLA could restore control.
• He ordered the PLA to systematically crush the Red Guards and to violently re-establish the control of the central party, which they did but only with great ruthlessness and bloodshed.
• In Jilin province in north-eastern China the campaign led to the death of 2127 and permanent injury of 3459 cadres.
• In eastern Hebei, more than 84,000 people, including many cadres, were persecuted; 2955 died and 765 suffered permanent disabilities.
• In Yunnan, a staggering 6979 died by what Party records showed as ‘death from enforced suicide’.

Question 17

How did the violent phase of the CR officially end?

Answer 17

• The violent phase of the Cultural Revolution ended in April 1969 with the Ninth Party Congress. There Lin Biao was officially confirmed as Mao’s successor.

Question 18

How did the CR lead to attacks on Mao’s political and
class enemies?

Answer 18

• The ‘Sixteen Points’ released in August 1966 referred only to ‘those within the Party who are in authority and are taking the capitalist road’. As the Cultural Revolution went on it became clear that it was Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping who were the real focus of Mao’s anger. Liu and Deng advocated reliance on intellectuals and experts, and a belief in practical solutions over ideological visions.
• Liu was subjected to constant struggle meetings where he was abused and beaten.
• Liu was denounced as a ‘renegade, scab and in 1969 he was officially traitor’. He was stripped of all his posts and in 1969 he was officially replaced as successor to Mao by Lin Biao.
• Mao was also angered by Deng Xiaoping. His famous dictum about the irrelevance of the ‘colour’ of a policy was a direct affront to Mao’s belief that it was better to be communist than practical. Deng had helped Liu introduce economic reforms without Mao’s advice. He was sent to a tractor factory in rural Jiangxi to work.

Question 19

What was the role of Lin Biao and the PLA during the CR?

Answer 19

• Lin published the Little Red Book and made it compulsory reading for PLA soldiers. It demanded self-sacrifice, self-reliance and revolutionary fervour, all in the service of the Chairman.
• Distributed to millions of soldiers, this indoctrination assured that Mao could depend upon the loyalty of the army.

Question 20

What was the impact of the CR on the Party and Gov officials?

Answer 20

• At regional and provisional level 70–80 per cent of all Party cadres were purged, 60–70 per cent in the organs of central government.
• In Yunnan 14,000 Party cadres were executed as ‘traitors’.
• Only nine out of 23 Politburo members survived the purge.
• Two-thirds of the Central Committee had been deposed.

Question 21

What were May Seventh Cadre schools?

Answer 21

• The official purpose of these was to re-educate the inmates in ‘correct’ communist thinking. In fact, this ‘education’ really meant back-breaking agricultural labour combined with constant study of Mao’s writing.
• Living conditions were very harsh. Families were split up in the camps and frail or elderly workers were expected to do the same work as the healthy. Often the work was pointless.
• In total, 3 million bureaucrats and cadres were exiled to the countryside. Others were beaten and tortured. An estimated half a million Chinese were killed.

Question 22

How were foreigners treated during the CR?

Answer 22

• Crowds trapped ambassadors in their cars for hours. On one occasion Soviet staff who had left the embassy to buy tickets for their families to leave China were trapped in their cars by a mob for sixteen hours.
• Staff at the British Embassy in Beijing were manhandled and beaten. The embassy itself was set on fire.
• A mob with loudspeakers blaring out Maoist slogans laid siege to the French, Soviet and Yugoslavian Embassies, trapping diplomats inside.

Question 23

What was the ‘Up to the mountains and down to the
villages’ campaign?

Answer 23

• Eighteen million Red Guards were sent to ‘cool off’ in remote areas in the countryside. Those sent to be ‘re-educated’ in the realities of rural hardship were not welcomed.
• Peasants had little spare food to give the newcomers and they resented the fact they were forced to help the youngsters who had never done any manual work before in their lives.
• The formerly ideologically committed young people were shocked and dismayed. The so-called ‘lost generation’ became disillusioned and cynical about politics, especially when it became clear that those with Party connections or influential families could quickly return to the cities. Those without faced the fact that their exile to the countryside was permanent.

Question 24

How did the rise and fall of Lin Biao occur?

Answer 24

• Lin had been a clear winner in the Cultural Revolution. After the Ninth Party Congress he was the official successor to the ageing and increasingly infirm Chairman. However, events soon turned against the leader of the PLA. First, he tried to reinstate the post of Head of State, a role that had been vacant since the purging of Liu Shaoqi. Mao had already made it clear he did not want the post. Mao, it appears, interpreted Lin’s move as an attempt to enable him to take the job for himself.
• Added to Lin’s military command, he could challenge Mao. Mao also began to be concerned about the power independence of the army. Having been a key force in controlling the Cultural Revolution, the PLA had massive political influence.
• Lin later died in a plane crash with his whole family while escaping China because there wasn’t enough fuel so the seat for Mao’s successor was vacant once more.
• The death of Lin caused a major problem for the regime. For years propaganda had described him as Mao’s ‘closest comrade in arms’ and no one had done more to spread the cult of Mao. Now he was denounced as having always secretly been a traitor who was working for the Soviet Union. For the first time, people began to question the regime.

Question 25

Why did Deng Xiapoing return to power?

Answer 25

- As his closest advisers from his revolutionary days became sick or died, they were replaced by young and **less trusted bureaucrats**. - Mao decided that the time was right to call Deng Xiaoping back from his work repairing tractors in Jiangxi. Although associated with Liu, his ‘capitalist’ crimes had never been as serious and Mao respected his organisational skills, now vitally needed to re-establish normality after the Cultural Revolution. - In 1975 Deng was picked to join the Politburo’s Standing Committee. He was also appointed PLA **chief of staff**.

Question 26

What were the Four Modernisations?

Answer 26

- Deng supported a programme that became known as the ‘Four Modernisations’: **advancement in agriculture industry, defence, and science and technology**. - This focus on technological development and reliance on scientific expertise was a direct reversal of Mao’s trust in mass mobilisation.

Question 27

How did the Gang of Four attempt to gain back control in 1973?

Answer 27

- They used their influence over the media and propaganda to launch the **‘criticise Lin [Biao], criticise Confucius’ campaign**. - Clearly the target was not in fact Lin, who had been dead for two years, but two other less radical leaders, **Zhou Enlai and Deng**. Jiang Qing knew they were her two main rivals to succeed Mao and she hoped that the campaign would mobilise revolutionary forces against them. - The campaign failed. This time, the people clearly saw her personal political motives and **dismissed the anti-rightist rhetoric as nonsense**. However, she still had enough influence at the top of the Party to have **Deng removed**.

Question 28

What impact did Zhou Enlai's death have?

Answer 28

- On 8 January 1976, Zhou Enlai died in a Beijing hospital. Zhou was treated with **genuine affection by the public**. When his body was taken to be cremated, a million people lined the streets to pay their respects. - Jiang Qing and the Gang of Four were particularly angered by this because mixed with the tributes were **thinly disguised attacks on her and her colleagues**. - When the government sent trucks to remove the wreaths, clear evidence of traditional ‘bourgeois’ culture, tens of thousands arrived in the square to protest. Some had to be violently removed in what became known as the **‘Tiananmen Square incident’**.

Question 29

How did China change post-Mao's death?

Answer 29

- Mao had wanted his body returned to his native province of Hunan but Hua ordered that it be **embalmed and placed in a massive mausoleum in Tiananmen Square**. - As it lay in state, **300,000 people** filed past it but there were few signs of genuine grief. Before Mao’s death Jiang Qing had been treated with subservient respect, now she was **ignored**. - She treated Hua with contempt and it was rumoured that she was organising a ***coup to seize power**. - On the night of 6 October 1976, a month after Mao had died, Hua ordered that they be arrested. They were accused of **‘entering an anti-Party and anti-socialist alliance’**. - Jiang Qing defended herself by saying, **‘I was Chairman Mao’s dog. I bit whomever he asked me to bite.’**

Question 30

Why did Deng become China's leader in 1978?

Answer 30

- It was quickly clear that Hua Guofeng was no match for Deng Xiaoping. Although he remained Party Chairman, it was Deng who had the strongest support within the Party. Deng became China’s **Paramount Leader**. This was not an official title, but meant that Deng was the most powerful man in China. Deng introduced economic reforms that gave the people more freedoms. - Far from calling for left-wing revolution, the overwhelming number of Chinese people **embraced Deng’s new policies**. The economy quickly recovered from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.