Why Did Mao Launch The Cultural Revolution?

Question 1

Divisions within the CCP between…

Answer 1

Ideologues and pragmatists

Question 2

What was the aim of the Socialist Education Movement?

Answer 2

1963- cleansing China of revolutionary elements and hit back at pragmatists. Wanted it to be a mass mobilisation campaign renewing a sense of class struggle amongst peasants and attacking corrupt Party officials with capitalist mindsets in struggle sessions

Question 3

How did they go about implementing the Socialist Education Movement?

Answer 3

Liu’s direction, campaign centrally controlled and discipline restored by Party teams, who identified and dealt with corrupt elements themselves. Thousands executed for economic crimes

Question 4

Why was Mao unhappy with the way this Movement was implemented?

Answer 4

The methods used lacked the ideological element of class struggle through peasant participation that he desired

Question 5

Why did Mao launch the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 5

Divisions within the CCP between ideologues and pragmatists
The quest for permanent revolution
Attacks on the bureaucracy
Divisions within the CCP between supporters and opponents of Mao’s policies

Question 6

Why was Mao so keen to use mass mobilisation as a technique?

Answer 6

People who had been directly involved in the campaigns would fight to defend the changes they had helped to bring about, preserving the advances made.

Question 7

What did the quest for permanent revolution also prevent?

Answer 7

Drift into revisionism

Question 8

Why was the quest for permanent revolution also crucial?

Answer 8

The younger members of the Party had not been seriously tested- no long march and by 1966, 3&5 antis nearly 15 years in past

Question 9

Why was getting the younger generation direct experience of revolutionary struggle and engaged in acts and murder on behalf of the revolution important?

Answer 9

Help them identify with it, prepare for inevitable future war with West, be fully committed to defending it and mass mobilisation

Question 10

What did Mao fear about the new bureaucracy?

Answer 10

They were becoming a self-satisfied elite, motivated only by the privileges of power.

Question 11

Why did the new class of bureaucrats need to be purged?

Answer 11

So they did not become a new class of mandarins (exclusive elite of high ranking, privileged servants who had run China before 1911) and lose touch with the masses

Question 12

Urban intellectuals and bureaucrats had run the country because they were the only people educated enough to do so. However, why were they a problem?

Answer 12

They had been most critical of the Great Leap Forward- CR act of vengeance: an attempt to restore purity to the revolution by removing a privileged class of society.

Question 13

Why was it time to wage a new rectification campaign?

Answer 13

‘Capitalist roaders’ hijacking Party (intensified during the Socialist Education Movement). Needed to root out complacency and corruption from the ranks of the Party.

Question 14

Who were Mao’s main supporters?

Answer 14

Lin Biao (leader of PLA), Mao’s wife Jiang Qing, Kang Sheng (ruthless chief of secret police) and Chen Boda

Question 15

Mao’s main opposition

Answer 15

Liu Shaoqi (head of state) and Deng Xiaoping, as well as the moderate economic planners Chen Yun and Bo Yibo- wanted technical experts to play a greater role in economy

Question 16

Why couldn’t Mao confront Liu and Deng head on?

Answer 16

Too much support in Politburo and wider Party

Question 17

When was the 7000-cadre conference?

Answer 17

1962

Question 18

What happened at the conference?

Answer 18

Liu no longer seen as Mao’s successor- Mao openly accused Liu of choosing the ‘capitalist road’ at the party conference of 1964, while alleging that Deng was trying to run an independent kingdom

Question 19

Why was the CCRG set up and what does it stand for?

Answer 19

Central Cultural Revolution Group- dominated by Mao’s supporters and blame could be deflected onto them if necessary

Question 20

What was the Wall poster campaign?

Answer 20

Wall posters, handwritten in large writing- traditional method of spreading protest propaganda that RG used to denounce intended victims

Question 21

What did Liu and Deng do in an attempt to moderate which alienated Mao as it ran counter to his wishes?

Answer 21

As student protests spread across campuses nationwide, they sent out work teams intended to direct students’ criticism at specific individuals rather than against the Party in general but advice ignored on campus

Question 22

When did Mao complete his comeback to the front line of politics with his swim in the Yangtze?

Answer 22

July 1966

Question 23

What did the Wuhan swim show?

Answer 23

He was physically ready for a showdown (71 yo) and Wuhan site of 1911 Uprising- reminder of revolution and republic’s birth.

Question 24

What happened after Mao’s swim at the Yangtze?

Answer 24

He returned to Beijing and forced Liu and Deng to make self-criticisms before the CC for their error in sending in uni work teams- ‘spearheads of the erroneous line’

Question 25

What happened on 18th Aug?

Answer 25

First of the 8 mass rallies held in Tiananmen Square