The Cultural Revolution , officially The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution , was a social-political movement in China from 1966 to 1976. Launched by Mao Zedong, then Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, is to defend the 'true' Communist ideology in this country by cleansing the remnants of the capitalist and traditional elements of Chinese society, and to impose Mao Zedong Mind as the dominant ideology within the Party. The revolution marked Mao's return to power after the Great Leap Forward. The movement paralyzed China politically and negatively affected the country's economy and society to a significant degree.
The movement was launched in May 1966, after Mao alleged that bourgeois elements had infiltrated the government and society at large, in order to restore capitalism. To get rid of his rival within the Chinese Communist Party, Mao insisted that these "revisionists" were removed by the hard class struggle. The Chinese youth responded to Mao's appeal by forming a group of Red Guards across the country. This movement spread to the military, urban workers, and leadership of the Communist Party itself. This results in widespread factional struggle in all walks of life. In the top leadership, it led to the mass cleansing of senior officials, especially Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. During the same period, Mao's personality cult grew to enormous proportions.
In violent struggles across the country, millions of people are persecuted and suffer from various offenses including public humiliation, arbitrary detention, torture, forced labor, continuous harassment, property confiscation and sometimes execution. Large segments of the population were forced to move, especially the displacement of urban youth to rural areas during the Down to the Countryside Movement. Historical relics and artefacts destroyed. Cultural and religious sites were searched.
Mao officially declared the Cultural Revolution ended in 1969, but his active phase lasted until the death of the military leader and proposed the successor to Mao Lin Biao in 1971. After Mao's death and the capture of the Four Gangs in 1976, reformers led by Deng Xiaoping gradually began to dismantle Maoist policies associated with the Cultural Revolution. In 1981, the Party declared that the Cultural Revolution "was responsible for the most severe setbacks and the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the state, and the people since the founding of the People's Republic".
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Big Leap Forward
In 1958, after China's first Five-Year Plan, Mao called for "grassroots socialism" to accelerate his plans to turn China into a modern industrial nation. In this spirit, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward, founded the People's Commune in the countryside, and began the mass mobilization of the people into the collective. Many communities are commissioned to produce one commodity - steel. Mao vowed to increase agricultural production to a level twice that 1957.
The Big Leap is an economic failure. Uneducated farmers seek to produce large-scale steel, some rely on backyard furnaces to achieve production targets set by local cadres. The resulting steel is of low quality and largely useless. The Big Leap reduces the size of the harvest and causes a decline in the production of most goods except for substandard pig iron and steel. Furthermore, local authorities often exaggerate production figures, hide and intensify problems for several years. Meanwhile, the collective chaos, bad weather, and food exports needed to secure the hard currency resulted in the Great Chinese Famine. Food is very deficient, and production drops dramatically. Famine causes the deaths of millions of people, especially in the poorer rural areas.
The Failure of Big Leap reduces Mao's prestige within the Party. Forced to take on great responsibility, in 1959, Mao resigned as President of the People's Republic of China, head of state de jure China, and was replaced by Liu Shaoqi. In July, senior Party leaders gathered at the beautiful Mount Lu to discuss policy. At the conference, Marshal Peng Dehuai, the Minister of Defense, criticized the Great-Leap policy in a personal letter to Mao, writing that it was plagued by mismanagement and warned against increasing political dogma over economic law.
Despite the moderate tone of Peng's letter, Mao regarded it as a personal attack on his leadership. After the Conference, Mao told Peng to move from his post, and accused him of being "the right opportunist". Peng was replaced by Lin Biao, another revolutionary military general who became a stronger supporter of Mao later in his career. While the Lushan Conference served as the death knell for Peng, Mao's most vocal criticism, it led to a moderate power shift led by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, who took effective control of the economy after 1959.
In the early 1960s, many Great Leap economic policies were reversed by initiatives pioneered by Liu, Deng, and Zhou Enlai. This moderate pragmatist group is not enthusiastic about Mao's utopian vision. Due to losing his pride in the party, Mao developed a decadent and eccentric lifestyle. In 1962, while Zhou, Liu, and Deng manages state and economic affairs, Mao has effectively withdrawn from economic decision-making, and focuses most of his time to further reflect on his contribution to Marxist-Leninist social theory, including the idea of ​​"sustainable revolution". The main purpose of this theory was to set the stage for Mao to restore the brand of Communism and his personal prestige within the Party.
Sino-Soviet split and anti-revisionism
In the early 1950s, the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union were the two largest communist states in the world. Although they initially supported each other, disagreements arose after the death of Joseph Stalin and the rise of Nikita Khrushchev to power in the Soviet Union. In 1956, Khrushchev denounced Stalin and his policies and began implementing post-Stalinist economic reforms. Mao and many members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are opposed to this change, believing that they will have a negative impact on Marxist movements around the world, among them still seen as heroes by Stalin.
Mao believed that Khrushchev did not embrace Marxism-Leninism, but instead was a revisionist, changing his policy from the Marxist-Leninist basic concepts, something that Mao feared would enable the capitalist to regain control of the state. The relationship between the two governments is deteriorating. The Soviet Union refused to support the Chinese case for joining the United Nations and returned to their pledge to supply China with nuclear weapons.
Mao then publicly criticized revisionism in April 1960. Without accusing the Soviet Union, Mao criticized his ideological ally, the Yugoslav Communist League. In turn, the Soviet Union criticized the Chinese ally of the Albanian Labor Party. In 1963, the CCP began openly condemning the Soviet Union, issuing nine polemics against its perceived revisionism, with one of them being titled About Khrushchev's Phoney Communism and Historical Lessons for the World, where Mao alleges that Khrushchev is not only a revisionist but also increases the danger of capitalist restoration. The fall of Khrushchev from the internal coup d'et © tat in 1964 also contributed to Mao's fear of his own political vulnerability, mainly due to the declining prestige among his comrades after the Great Leap Forward.
Precursors
Mao set the scene for the Cultural Revolution by "cleaning up" a strong official of questionable loyalty based in Beijing. The approach is less transparent, achieving this purge through newspaper articles, internal meetings, and skillfully using its political ally network.
In late 1959, Beijing historian and Vice Mayor Wu Han published a historical drama entitled Hai Rui Dismissed from Office . In the drama, an honest civil servant, Hai Rui, was dismissed by a corrupt emperor. While Mao initially praised the drama, in February 1965 he secretly commissioned his wife Jiang Qing and Shanghai Yao Wenyuan's propaganda to publish an article that criticized him. Yao boldly remarked that Hai Rui was really an allegory that attacked Mao; That is, Mao is a corrupt emperor and Peng Dehuai is an honest civil servant.
Article Yao puts Beijing Mayor Peng Zhen in the defense. Peng, a powerful official and Wu Han's direct superior, was the head of the "Five People Group", a committee assigned by Mao to study the potential for a cultural revolution. Peng Zhen, aware that he would be involved if Wu did write the drama "anti-Mao", wanted to contain Yao's influence. Yao's article was originally published only in selected local newspapers. Peng prohibits publication in the national distribution of the People's Daily and other major newspapers under his control, instructs them to write exclusively about "academic discussion", and ignores Yao's small politics.
While the "literary battle" against Peng raged, Mao dismissed Yang Shangkun - the director of the Party's General Office, an organ that controls internal communications - for a series of unproven allegations, installing faithfully faithful Wang Dongxing, Mao's head of security detail. Dismissal That tends to make Mao's allies dare to fight their factional rivals. In December, Defense Minister Mao Lin and Bao accused General Luo Ruiqing, chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), to be anti-Mao, accusing Luo of overemphasizing military training rather than Maoist political discussions. "Despite early skepticism at the outgoing Polito Luo, Mao pushed for an 'investigation', after Luo was criticized, dismissed, and forced to express self-criticism.Stress of the incident caused Luo to commit suicide Luo's removal made military command loyalty to Mao.
Outline of February
After overthrowing Luo and Yang, Mao returns his attention to Peng Zhen. On February 12, 1966, the "Five-Person Group" issued a report known as February Timeline ( ???? ). The Outline , approved by the Party center, defines Hai Rui as an academic constructive discussion , and aims to formally keep Peng Zhen from anywhere political implications . However, Jiang Qing and Yao Wenyuan continue their criticism of Wu Han and Peng Zhen. Meanwhile, Mao also sacked the director of Propaganda Department Lu Dingyi, Peng Zhen's ally.
Lu's removal gave Maois unlimited access to the press. Mao will give his final blow to Peng Zhen at the famous Politburo meeting through Kang Sheng and Chen Boda loyalists. They accused Peng Zhen of defying Mao, labeling the February lines of Peng Zhen's proof of Peng Zhen revisionism, and classifying him with three other embarrassed officials as part of "Peng-Luo-Lu-Yang Anti-Party" Click ".On May 16, the Politburo formulated the decision by releasing official documents condemning Peng Zhen and his" anti-party allies "in the strongest terms, dissolving his" Group of Five, "and replacing them with the Maoist Cultural Revolution Group (CRG).
Maps Cultural Revolution
Initial stage: mass movement
May 16 notice
In May 1966, an "expanded session" of the Politburo was called in Beijing. The conference, rather than a joint discussion of the policy (according to the usual norms of party operations), is basically a campaign to mobilize the Politburo into authorizing Mao's political agenda. The conference was loaded with Maoist political rhetoric about class struggle, and filled with carefully prepared "charges" of recently ousted leaders such as Peng Zhen and Luo Ruiqing. One of these documents, released on May 16, was prepared with Mao's personal supervision, and was very burdensome:
The representatives of the bourgeoisie who smuggle the Party, the government, the army, and the various fields of culture are a group of counter-revolutionary revisionists. Once conditions are ripe, they will seize political power and transform the dictatorship of the proletariat into a bourgeois dictatorship. Some of them we have seen; others we do not have. Some are still trusted by us and trained as our successors, people like Khruschev for example, who are still nesting beside us.
This text, which came to be known as "May 16 Notification" (Chinese: ????? ; pinyin: W? y? liÃÆ'¹ T? ngzh? ), sums up Mao's ideological justification for the Cultural Revolution. This effectively implies that there are enemies of the Communist cause within the Party itself: the class enemy who "raises a red flag against the red flag." The only way to identify these people is through "Mao Zedong Thought telescope and microscope." While party leadership is relatively united in approving the general direction of Mao's agenda, many members of the Politburo are not very enthusiastic, or just confused about the direction of the movement. Allegations against respected party leaders such as Peng Zhen sound alarm bells in the Chinese intellectual community and among the eight non-Communist parties.
Initial mass rally
After Peng Zhen's cleansing, the Beijing Party Committee has effectively stopped functioning, paving the way for chaos in the capital. On May 25th, under the guidance of Cao Yi'ou - Maoist wife of Kang Sheng - Nie Yuanzi, a philosophy lecturer at Peking University, wrote a large character poster ( dazibao ) along with the other left and posted it to the bulletin public. Nie attacked the administration of the university party and its leader Lu Ping. Nie quipped that university leadership, such as Peng Zhen, is trying to contain revolutionary zeal in the "evil" endeavor to oppose the party and advance revisionism.
Mao immediately supported Nie
When the dismissal of Peng Zhen and city party leaders became public in early June, widespread confusion occurred. Public and foreign missions are kept in the dark for reasons of Peng Zhen's expulsion. Even the top Party leaders were caught by a wave of sudden anti-establishment protests, and struggled with what to do next. After seeking Mao's guidance in Hangzhou, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping decided to send "teamwork" (???) - effectively 'cadre-ideological forces-guidance' - to city schools and the People's Daily likeness of orders and rebuild party control.
The work team was hastily dismissed and had a poor understanding of student sentiment. Unlike the political movements of the 1950s that really targeted the intellectuals, the new movement focused on established party cadres, many of whom were part of the work team. As a result, the working team became increasingly suspicious of being another group aimed at foiling the revolutionary spirit. Party leadership then becomes divided into whether the work team should remain in place or not. Liu Shaoqi insisted on continuing the work team's involvement and suppressing the most radical elements of the movement, fearing that the movement would spiral out of control.
"Bomb bombard the headquarters"
On July 16, 72-year-old Chairman Mao descended into the Yangtze River in Wuhan, with the press behind him, in what became an icon "swim across the Yangtze River" to show his combat readiness. He then returned to Beijing with a mission to criticize the party leadership for addressing the problems of the workers' team. Mao accused the work team of undermining the student movement, calling for their full withdrawal on July 24. A few days later a rally was held in the Great Hall of the People to announce a decision and set a new tone of movement to university and high. school teachers and students. At the rally, Party leaders told the mass gathered to 'fear not' and boldly take over the movement itself, free from Party interference.
Working team issues marked a decisive defeat for President Liu Shaoqi politically; it also indicates that disputes over how to deal with the events of the Cultural Revolution that took place would break Mao from an established, irreversible party leadership. On August 1, the eleventh Plenary Committee of the Eighth Central Committee hastily convened to advance Mao's now radically evident agenda. At the plenary session, Mao showed insult to Liu, repeatedly interrupting Liu when he delivered his opening speech. For several days, Mao repeatedly insinuated that Party leadership had violated his revolutionary vision. Mao's way of thinking received a warm welcome from the conference participants. Sensing that the party elite largely refuses to fully embrace his revolutionary ideology, Mao attacks.
On July 28, representatives of the Red Guards wrote to Mao, calling for rebellion and upheaval to guard the revolution. Mao then responded to the letters by writing his great character posters entitled Bombarding the Headquarters , mobilizing people to target "the counter-revolution command center (ie, headquarters)". Mao wrote that despite the Communist revolution, a "bourgeois" elite still thrives on the "position of authority" in government and the Communist Party.
Although no name is mentioned, Mao's provocative statement has been interpreted as a direct indictment of party formation under Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping - the "recognized bourgeois" of China. The change of personnel in Plenum reflects a radical redesign of party hierarchy to conform to this new ideological landscape. Liu and Deng retained their seats at the Politburo Standing Committee but were virtually excluded from the day-to-day affairs of the party. Lin Biao was appointed number two Party; Liu Shaoqi's ranking rose from second to eighth, and was no longer Mao's heir.
Coinciding with the top leadership thrown out of positions of power was the complete destruction of the entire Communist national bureaucracy. The vast Organization Department, which is responsible for party personnel, is basically no more. The Cultural Revolutionary Group (CRG), Mao's ideological "Praetorian Guard", was thrown into fame to spread his ideology and garner popular support. High officials in the Propaganda Department were fired, with many functions folding into CRG.
Red Guards and the destruction of "Four Olds"
On August 8, 1966, the Party's Central Committee passed the "Decision on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution", which came to be known as the "Sixteen Points". This decision defines the Cultural Revolution as "a great revolution that touches humanity to their souls and is a deeper and wider stage in the development of the socialist revolution in our country."
Although the bourgeoisie has been overthrown, it still tries to use old ideas, cultures, customs, and class habits that exploit to destroy the masses, capture their minds, and start over. The proletariat must do the opposite: He must deal directly with every challenge of the bourgeoisie [...] to change the views of society. Right now, our goal is to fight against and destroy the powerful people who take the capitalist path, to criticize and deny the "rulers" of reactionary bourgeois academics and bourgeois ideology and all other exploit classes and to transform education, literature and the arts, and all another part of the superstructure that is incompatible with the socialist economic base, thus facilitating the consolidation and development of a socialist system.
The implications of the Sixteen Points are far-reaching. It elevates what was previously a student movement to a national mass campaign that will galvanize workers, peasants, soldiers and lower-level party functionaries to rise up, challenge authority, and reshape the "superstructure" of society. On August 18, 1966, more than one million Red Guards from all countries gathered in and around Tiananmen Square in Beijing for a private audience with the Chairman. Lin Biao became the centerpiece of the August 18 rally, vigorously denouncing all sorts of perceived enemies in Chinese society that hampered "the progress of the revolution."
Mao personally mingles with the Red Guards and throws his weight behind their goal, wearing the Red Guard captain's own armband. Between August and November 1966, eight mass rallies were held in which more than 12 million people from across the country, mostly Red Guards, participated. The government bears the cost of the Red Guards traveling all over the country to exchange "revolutionary experiences."
At Red Guard rallies, Lin Biao also called for the destruction of the "Four Parents"; namely, old habits, cultures, habits, and ideas. Lin's speeches, heavy in rhetoric but light in detail, do not explain what needs to be "destroyed" as part of this campaign. Mao believes that in creating "great chaos", the masses must organically direct the direction of movement rather than relying on the authorities to tell them what to do. As a result, rapid movement spins out of control.
Some of the changes associated with the "Four Parents" campaign are largely harmless, such as setting a new name for city streets, places, and even people; millions of babies are born with "revolutionary" names during this period. Another aspect of the Red Guard attack is much more damaging, especially in the areas of culture and religion. Historical sites in every part of the country were ransacked and destroyed. The damage mainly occurred in the capital city of Beijing, a city rich in history and filled with cultural relics, where thousands of sites designed for historical purposes were destroyed. The Red Guards also surrounded the Confucius Temple in Qufu, Shandong Province.
During these iconoclasm months, the Red Guards from Beijing Normal University tarnished and destroyed the burial grounds of Confucius himself and a number of other important historical tombs and artifacts. The body of the 76th-generation Duke Yansheng was moved from his grave and hanged naked from a tree in front of the palace during the desecration of the grave in the Cultural Revolution.
Libraries filled with historical and foreign texts are destroyed; books burned. Temples, churches, mosques, monasteries, and cemeteries are closed and sometimes converted to other uses, looted and destroyed. Marxist propaganda depicts Buddhism as superstition, and religion is seen as a means of hostile foreign infiltration, as well as the instrument of 'ruling class'. The pastor was arrested and sent to the camp; many Tibetan Buddhists were forced to participate in the destruction of their monasteries at gunpoint.
For two years, until July 1968 - and in some places longer - the Red Guards expanded their territory of authority, and accelerated their efforts in socialist 'reconstruction'. They began by distributing leaflets explaining their actions to develop and strengthen socialism, and post names suspected of being "counter-revolutionaries" on bulletin boards. They gather in large groups, hold "big debates," and write educational dramas. They hold public meetings to criticize and ask for self-criticism from people suspected of "counter-revolutionaries."
One of the many quotes in the Little Red Book ( Mao Quotes ) which the Red Guard will then follow as a guide, provided by Mao, is "The world is yours, just like ours, but in the analysis lastly, it's yours.Your young people, full of vigor and vitality, are blooming, like the sun at eight or nine in the morning.Our hope is placed on you... The world is yours.The future of China is yours. "350 million the book had been printed in December 1967. It was the mechanism by which the Red Guards were committed to their goal as the future for China. These quotes directly from Mao led to other actions by the Red Guards in the eyes of other Maoist leaders.
Although 16 Points and other statements from the central Maoist leader prohibited "armed struggle (??,
On August 22, 1966, central instruction was issued to stop police intervention in Red Guard activities. Those in the police who opposed this notice were labeled "counter-revolutionaries." Mao's praised the rebellion effectively was a support for the actions of the Red Guards, which grew more and more violent. Public security in China is deteriorating rapidly as a result of central officials who lift restraint on violent behavior. Xie Fuzhi, national police chief, said it was "no big deal" if the Red Guards beat the "bad guys" to death.
The police gave Xie comments to the Red Guards and they acted accordingly. Within about two weeks, the violence caused about a hundred teachers, school officials, and cadres to have died in the western district of Beijing alone. The injured number "is too big to count."
The most horrific aspects of the campaign include many incidents of torture, murder, and public humiliation. Many people who are subjected to 'struggle' can no longer endure stress and suicide. In August and September 1966, there were 1,772 people killed in Beijing alone. In Shanghai there were 704 suicides and 534 deaths associated with the Cultural Revolution in September. In Wuhan there were 62 suicides and 32 murders during the same period. Peng Dehuai was brought to Beijing to be ridiculed publicly.
In October, Mao held a "Central Working Conference", essentially to convince them in party leadership that had not yet fallen in line with the "truth" of the Cultural Revolution. Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping were branded as part of the "reactionary bourgeois line" ( zichanjieji fandong luxian ) and angrily provided self-criticism. After the conference, Liu, who was once the most powerful man in China after Mao, was placed under house arrest in Beijing, then sent to a prison camp, where he was denied medical treatment and died in 1969. Deng Xiaoping was expelled during a period of education repeated 'three times, and finally sent to work in Jiangxi machinery factory.
1967
On January 3, 1967, Lin Biao and Jiang Qing used local media and grassroots organizations to produce the so-called "January Storm", in which the Shanghai municipality was essentially ousted. This paved the way for a young factory worker, Wang Hongwen factory worker to take over the city as leader of the Shanghai People's Commune, later renamed the Township Revolution Committee. In Beijing, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping were once again subjected to criticism; others attacked Deputy Prime Minister Tao Zhu, signifying that even central government officials are now a 'fair game' for attacks.
On January 8, Mao praised this action through the People's Party, encouraging all local government leaders to rise up in self-criticism, or criticism of others suspected of being "counter-revolutionary activities". Many local governments follow the example of Shanghai, with red guards or other revolutionary groups "seizing power" from established parties and organs of government.
In February, Jiang Qing and Lin Biao, with support from Mao, insisted that the class struggle was extended to the military. Many of the top generals of the People's Liberation Army who played a role in the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war voiced their concern and opposition to the Cultural Revolution. Foreign Minister Chen Yi and Deputy Prime Minister Tan Zhenlin verbally denounced the turn of events in Shanghai, stating that the movement would destroy the party. The party's party leader was later denounced as "Counterercurrent February". Many of these critics are accused of trying to sabotage the revolution, and fall into political disgrace afterwards.
At the same time, some Red Guard organizations rose in protest against other Red Guard organizations running different revolutionary messages, further complicating the situation and worsening the chaos. In April, at Mao's request, Jiang Qing tried to control the Red Guard groups by issuing orders to stop all "unhealthy activities." On April 6, 1967, Liu Shaoqi was openly and widely criticized by the Zhongnanhai faction whose members included Jiang Qing and Kang Sheng, and finally, Mao himself.
The situation quickly spins out of control; no checks and balances on local revolutionary activity. When government organizations and parties are scattered across the country, it is no longer clear who is truly loyal to Mao's revolutionary vision and who opportunistically ride a wave of chaos for their own benefit. In July, inter-group violence has become commonplace throughout the country. On July 22, Jiang Qing directed the Red Guards to replace the People's Liberation Army if necessary, since the allegiance of local Army units to the "revolutionary cause" was no longer assured. After initial praise by Jiang Qing, the Red Guards began stealing and looting from barracks and other army buildings. This activity, which the army generals could not stop, continued until the autumn of 1968.
In downtown Wuhan, as in many other cities, two major revolutionary organizations emerged, one in favor of establishment and the other against it. The groups fiercely fight over the city's control. Chen Zaidao, the general in charge of the region, helped suppress anti-establishment protesters. However, amid the commotion, Mao himself flew to Wuhan with a large group of central officials in an attempt to secure military loyalty in the area. In response, local agitators kidnapped Mao's envoy Wang Li, known as the Wuhan Incident. Subsequently, General Chen Zaidao was dragged to Beijing and criticized by Jiang Qing and other members of the Cultural Revolution Group.
In the same year, Chinese New Year celebrations were banned in China; they were only restored 13 years later.
1968
In the spring of 1968, a great campaign began, aimed at promoting Mao who had been revered to god-like status. On July 27, 1968, the strength of the Red Guards in power officially ended and the central government sent a unit to protect many areas that remained the target of the Red Guards. A year later, the Red Guard factions were completely demolished; Mao was afraid that the mess they were causing - and could still cause - might start running his own agenda and turn against what remained of the party organization. Their goals have been largely fulfilled; Mao and his radical counterparts have consolidated their political power.
In early October, Mao started a campaign to clean up disloyal officials. Many were sent to the countryside to work in forced labor camps. Liu was "forever expelled" from the Communist Party at the 12th Plen of the 8th Central Committee in September 1968, and labeled the "bourgeois headquarters", which apparently refers to Mao's Bombarding Headquarters was written two years earlier.
In December 1968, Mao began "Down to the Rural Movement". During this movement, which lasted for the next decade, young intellectuals living in the city were ordered to go to the countryside. The term "intellectual" is actually used in a broad sense to refer to a graduate high school student. In the late 1970s, these "young intellectuals" were finally allowed to return to their hometowns. This movement is partly a way of moving the Red Guards from town to countryside, where they will cause less social disturbance.
Lin Biao Phase
Power transition
The Ninth Party Congress was held in April 1969, and served as a means to "revitalize" the party with fresh thinking and new cadres after many old guards were destroyed in the struggles of previous years. The Party's institutional framework set up two decades earlier has been almost completely undermined: the delegates to this Congress are effectively elected by the Revolutionary Committee rather than by election by party members. The military representation increased by a large margin from the previous Congress (28% of the delegates were members of the PLA), and the selection of more PLA members to the new Central Committee reflected this improvement. Many military officers who were appointed to senior positions loyal to PLA Marshal Lin Biao, opened a new gap between military and civilian leadership.
Lin Biao was officially appointed to be the Party's number two, with its name written in the Constitution of the Communist Party as Mao's "closest friends" and "universally recognized successors." Lin delivered the keynote address in Congress: a document compiled by hard-liners left by Yao Wenyuan and Zhang Chunqiao under Mao's guidance. The report is very critical of Liu Shaoqi and other "counter-revolutionaries", and draws many from the quotes in the Little Red Book. Congress established the central role of Maoism in the soul of the party, reintroducing Maoism as the party's official party ideology in the party's constitution. Finally, Congress elected a new Politburo with Mao Zedong, Lin Biao, Chen Boda, Zhou Enlai, and Kang Sheng as members of the new Politburo Standing Committee. Lin, Chen, and Kang are all beneficiaries of the Cultural Revolution. Zhou, who was demoted, voiced his unequivocal support for Lin in Congress. Mao also restored the function of some formal party institutions, such as the operations of the Politburo party, which ceased to function between 1966 and 1968 because the Central Cultural Revolutionary Group was in control of the de facto state.
PLA get featured role
Mao's efforts to reorganize the party and state institutions produced mixed results. Many distant provinces remained turbulent as the political situation in Beijing began to stabilize. The faction's struggles, many violent, continued at the local level despite a declaration that the Ninth Congress marked a temporary "victory" for the Cultural Revolution. Furthermore, despite Mao's efforts to show unity in the Congress, the factional division between the PLA Lin Biao camp and the radical camp of Jiang Qing intensified. Indeed, personal dislike of Jiang Qing attracted many civilian leaders, including prominent theorist Chen Boda, closer to Lin Biao.
Between 1966 and 1968, China was internationally isolated, having expressed its hostility to the Soviet Union and the United States. Disputes with the Soviet Union escalated after a border clash on the Ussuri River in March 1969 when Chinese leaders prepared for an all-out war. In October, senior leaders were evacuated from Beijing. In the midst of tension, Lin Biao issued what appeared to be an executive order to prepare for war to the PLA's eleven Military Areas on October 18 without passing Mao. This invited the Chairman's anger, who saw it as evidence that his authority was prematurely premeditated by his declared successor.
The prospect of war lifting the PLA has become more prominent in domestic politics, increasing Lin Biao's role at the expense of Mao. There is some evidence to suggest that Mao was encouraged to seek closer ties with the United States as a means of avoiding the PLA's dominance in domestic affairs that would result from military confrontations with the Soviet Union. During his meeting with US President Richard Nixon in 1972, Mao hinted that Lin had opposed seeking a better relationship with the United States.
After Lin was confirmed as Mao's successor, his supporters focused on restoring the position of Chairman of the State (President), which had been abolished by Mao after the purge of Liu Shaoqi. They hope that by allowing Lin to lighten up into a constitutionally approved role, whether Chairman or Vice Chairman, Lin's succession will be institutionalized. The consensus in the Politburo is that Mao should consider the office with Lin to be Vice Chair; but for unknown reasons, Mao had voiced his explicit opposition to the recreation of that position and he considered it.
The intermittent rivalry intensified in the Second Plenum of the Ninth Congress in Lushan held in late August 1970. Chen Boda, now in tune with the PLA faction loyal to Lin, galvanized support for the restoration of the office of the President of China, despite Mao's wishes to the contrary. In addition, Chen launched an attack on Zhang Chunqiao, a persistent Maoist who embodied the Cultural Revolution, on the evaluation of Mao's legacy.
The attack on Zhang gained support from many audiences in Plenum, and may have been interpreted by Mao as an indirect attack on the Cultural Revolution itself. Mao confronted Chen publicly, denouncing him as a "fake Marxist", and removed him from the Standing Committee of the Politburo. In addition to Chen's cleansing, Mao asked Lin's top generals to write self-criticism in their political position as a warning to Lin. Mao also inaugurated some of his supporters to the Central Military Commission, and placed his loyalists in leadership roles in the Beijing Military Region.
Lin Biao Flight
In 1971, the differences of interest between the civil and military wing of leadership were evident. Mao is plagued by the new excellence of the PLA, and the cleansing of Chen Boda marks the beginning of the gradual decline of PLA's political involvement. According to official sources, sensing a reduction in Lin's power base and declining health, Lin's supporters were planning to use the military force they still had to overthrow Mao in a coup.
Lin's son Lin Liguo and other high-level military conspirators formed a coup apparatus in Shanghai, and was dubbed the plan to overthrow Mao with the Power of Outline for Project 571, which sounded similar to the "Military Uprising" in Mandarin. It is debatable whether Lin Biao is involved in this process. While official sources state that Lin planned and executed the alleged attempted coup, experts such as Jin Qiu described Lin as a passive character manipulated by members of his family and supporters. Qiu believes that Lin Biao has never been personally involved in compiling the Outline and the evidence shows that Lin Liguo designed the coup.
The Outline is thought to primarily consist of an air bombing plan through the use of the Air Force. Initially targeted Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan, but later will involve Mao himself. If the plan to succeed, Lin will capture his political rival and take power. The attempted murder was allegedly committed against Mao in Shanghai, from 8 September to 10 September 1971. The perceived risk to Mao's security was allegedly conveyed to the Chairman. An internal report alleges that Lin had planned to bomb a bridge that Mao would cross to reach Beijing; Mao reportedly avoided this bridge after receiving intelligence reports.
In the official narrative, on September 13, 1971, Lin Biao, his wife Ye Qun, Lin Liguo, and his staff members attempted to flee to the Soviet Union as if seeking asylum. On the way, Lin's plane crashed in Mongolia, killing all passengers. The plane apparently ran out of fuel on the way to the Soviet Union. A Soviet team investigating the incident could not determine the cause of the accident, but hypothesized that the pilot was flying low to avoid radar and misjudge the plane's height.
Official accounts have been questioned by foreign scholars, which has cast doubt on Lin's choice of the Soviet Union as a destination, plane route, passenger identity, and whether a coup actually took place.
On September 13, the Politburo met in an emergency session to discuss Lin Biao. Only on Sept. 30 Lin's death was confirmed in Beijing, which led to the cancellation of National Day celebrations the following day. The Central Committee kept the information hidden, and news of Lin's death was not released to the public until two months after the incident. Many supporters of Lin sought refuge in Hong Kong; those who live on land are cleansed. The incident captured the insolent party leadership: the concept that Lin could betray Mao delegitimized a broad body of political rhetoric of the Cultural Revolution, since Lin had been immortalized into the Party Constitution as Mao's "closest friends" and his "successors. "For several months after the incident, party information officials struggled to find the" right way "to frame the incident for public consumption.
"Gang of Four" and its fall
Antagonisms against Zhou and Deng
Mao became depressed and closed after the Lin Biao incident. With Lin gone, Mao has no ready answer for who will succeed him. Feeling a sudden loss of direction, Mao tried to reach out to his old friends whom he had criticized in the past. Meanwhile, in September 1972, Mao transferred a thirty-eight-year-old cadre from Shanghai, Wang Hongwen, to Beijing and made him Vice-Chairman of the Party. Wang, a former factory worker from a peasant background, seems to be being prepared for succession. Jiang Qing's position was also strengthened after Lin's flight. He has a tremendous influence with radical camps. With Mao's declining health, it is clear that Jiang Qing has his own political ambitions. He was allied with Wang Hongwen and propaganda specialists Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan, forming a political clique later dubbed the "Gang of Four".
In 1973, the round-by-turn political struggle has left many lower-level institutions, including local governments, factories, and trains, a shortage of competent staff required to perform basic functions. The country's economy has fallen into chaos, which necessitates the rehabilitation of lower-level lower-level officials. However, the party's core became deeply dominated by the recipients of the Cultural Revolution and leftist radicals, whose focus continued to uphold the ideological purity of economic productivity. The economy remains largely a domain of Zhou Enlai, one of the few moderate 'left'. Zhou seeks to restore a viable economy, but is hated by the Gang of Four, which identifies him as their main political threat in post-Mao succession.
In late 1973, to weaken Zhou's political position and distance himself from Lin's treachery, the "Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius" campaign began under Jiang Qing's leadership. The stated goal is to clear China's new Confucian thinking and condemn Lin Biao's actions as a traitor and regressive. Recalling the first years of the Cultural Revolution, the battle was done through historical allegory, and although Zhou Enlai's name was never mentioned during this campaign, the name of the Premier spokesman, Duke of Zhou, was a frequent target.
With a fragile economy and Zhou sick with cancer, Deng Xiaoping returned to the political stage, taking the post of Deputy Prime Minister in March 1973, in the first series of a series of promotions approved by Mao. After Zhou resigned from active politics in January 1975, Deng was effectively responsible for government, party and military, earning an additional degree from the Chief of General Staff of the PLA, Vice Chairman of the Communist Party, and Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission within a short span of time.
Deng's speed of rehabilitation took on a radical camp, who saw themselves as Mao's "right" political and ideological heirs, in shock. Mao wanted to use Deng as a counterweight to military factions in the government to suppress the remaining influence of those previously loyal to Lin Biao. In addition, Mao also lost faith in Geng Four's ability to manage the economy and saw Deng as a competent and effective leader. Allowing the country in its gnawing poverty will not benefit the positive legacy of the Cultural Revolution, which Mao works hard to protect. Deng's return set the scene for a protracted factional fight between the radical and moderate Gang of Four led by Zhou and Deng.
At that time, Jiang Qing and his colleagues held effective control of the mass media and party propaganda networks, while Zhou and Deng controlled most of the government's organs. On some decisions, Mao attempted to reduce the influence of the Gang, but on others, he approved of their demands. The Four of Four's gang in political and media control did not prevent Deng from returning his economic policies. Deng is firmly opposed to Party factionalism, and his policy aims to promote unity as a first step towards restoring economic productivity.
Just like the Leap restructuring after being led by Liu Shaoqi, Deng streamlined the railway system, steel production, and other economic fields. However, by the end of 1975, Mao saw that the economic restructuring of Deng might negate the legacy of the Cultural Revolution, and launched a campaign against "rehabilitating the case for the right", referring to Deng as the "far right" state. Mao directed Deng to write self-criticism in November 1975, a move praised by the Gang of Four.
Death of Zhou Enlai
On January 8, 1976, Zhou Enlai died of bladder cancer. On January 15 Deng Xiaoping delivered Zhou's official speech at a funeral attended by all of China's most senior leaders in the absence of Mao himself, who was increasingly critical of Zhou. Surprisingly, after Zhou's death, Mao chose not a Gang of Four or Deng Xiaoping to become Prime Minister, but chose Hua Guofeng relatively unknown.
The Four Gang grows worried that spontaneous and large-scale popular support for Zhou can turn a political tide against them. They act through the media to impose a set of restrictions on public display open to mourning for Zhou. Years of hatred over the Cultural Revolution, public persecution of Deng Xiaoping (seen as Zhou's allies), and the prohibition of mourning in public led to the increasing popular dissatisfaction with Mao and the Gang of Four.
Official attempts to enforce restrictions on mourning include removing public warnings and tearing posters to commemorate Zhou's achievements. On March 25, 1976, Shanghai Wen Hui Bao published an article calling Zhou "the capitalist roader within the Party who wants to help the unrepentant capitalist path [Deng] regain his power." This propaganda effort to obscure Zhou's image, however, only strengthens the public attachment to Zhou's memory.
Tiananmen Incident
On April 4, 1976, on the eve of the annual Qingming Festival of China, a traditional mourning day, thousands gathered around the People's Heroes Monument on Tiananmen Square to commemorate Zhou Enlai. The Beijing people honored Zhou by laying bouquets, banners, poems, plaques, and flowers at the foot of the Monument. The most obvious purpose of this warning is to praise Zhou, but the Four Gang is also attacked for their actions against the Premier. A small number of slogans left in Tiananmen even attacked Mao himself, and his Cultural Revolution.
Up to two million people may have visited Tiananmen Square on April 4. All walks of life, from the poorest farmers to high-ranking PLA officials and high-caliber children, are represented in the activities. Those who participated were motivated by a mixture of anger over Zhou's treatment, the revolt against the Cultural Revolution and the fear of China's future. The event seems to have no coordinated leadership but appears to be a reflection of public sentiment.
The Central Committee, under the leadership of Jiang Qing, labeled the 'counter-revolutionary' event, and cleared the warning items box shortly after midnight on April 6th. Attempts to suppress the mourners caused great unrest. Police cars were burned and a crowd of over 100,000 people forced their way into several government buildings around the square. Many of those arrested were then sentenced to prison labor camps. Similar incidents occur in other major cities. Jiang Qing and his allies pinned Deng Xiaoping as the 'mastermind' of the incident, and issued a report on the official media for the effect. Deng was officially disarmed from all positions "inside and outside the Party" on 7 April. This marks Deng's second cleanup in ten years.
Mao's Death and Gang's Four Arrests
On September 9, 1976, Mao Zedong died. To Mao's supporters, his death symbolizes the disappearance of China's communist revolutionary foundations. When his death was announced on the afternoon of September 9, in a press release entitled "Notices of the Central Committee, NPC, State Council, and CMC to the entire Party, the entire Armed Forces and to people of all nationalities" to sadness and mourning, with people crying in the streets and public institutions shut down for more than a week. Hua Guofeng leads the Funeral Committee.
Shortly before he died, Mao was accused of writing the message "With you responsible, I feel comfortable", to Hua. Hua uses this message to reinforce his position as a substitute. Hua has been widely regarded as lacking in political skill and ambition, and does not seem to pose a serious threat to the Four Gangs in the race for succession. However, Gang's radical ideas also clashed with influential elders and most of the party's reformers. With the support of the army and Marshal Ye Jianying's support, on October 10, the Special Unit 8341 called on all members of the Four Gang to be captured in a bloodless coup.
Aftermath
Although Hua Guofeng publicly denounced the Gang of Four in 1976, he continued to call on Mao's name to justify Mao's era policy. Hua pioneered what is known as the Two Property, that is, "Any policy that comes from Chairman Mao, we must continue to support," and "Whatever direction is given to us from Chairman Mao, we must keep following." Like Deng, Hua wanted to reverse the destruction of the Cultural Revolution; but unlike Deng, who wanted to propose a new economic model for China, Hua intends to move China's economic and political system toward Soviet-style planning in the early 1950s.
It became increasingly clear to Hua that, without Deng Xiaoping, it was difficult to continue the country's daily affairs. On October 10, Deng Xiaoping personally wrote to Hua asking to be transferred back to state and party affairs; the party elders also asked for Deng's return. With mounting pressure from all parties, Hua named Deputy Prime Minister Deng in July 1977, and subsequently promoted it to other positions, effectively catapulting Deng to China's second most powerful figure. In August, the Eleventh Congress Party was held in Beijing, officially naming Hua Guofeng, Ye Jianying, Deng Xiaoping, Li Xiannian and Wang Dongxing as new members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo.
In May 1978, Deng seized the opportunity to upgrade his gang  © Hu Yaobang to power. Hu published an article in Guangming Daily, intelligently utilizing Mao's quotes while praising Deng's ideas. After this article, Hua started to divert his tone of voice to support Deng. On July 1, Deng published Mao's self-criticism report of 1962 about the failure of the Great Leap Forward. With an expanding power base, in September 1978, Deng began publicly attacking Hua Guofeng's "Two Debts."
On December 18, 1978, the important Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee was held. At the congress Deng called for "the liberation of the mind" and urged the party to "seek truth from fact" and abandon ideological dogma. Plenum officially marks the beginning of an era of economic reform. Hua Guofeng was involved in autocritics and called his Two Whatevers a mistake. Wang Dongxing, Mao's trusted ally, was also criticized. In Plenum, the Party reversed its verdict on the Tiananmen Incident. Former disgraced leader Liu Shaoqi was allowed to do a state funeral that was late.
At the Fifth Plenum held in 1980, Peng Zhen, He Long and other leaders who had been cleansed during the Cultural Revolution were politically rehabilitated. Hu Yaobang became head of the party as General Secretary. In September, Hua Guofeng resigned, and Zhao Ziyang, another Deng ally, was named Prime Minister. Deng remained Chairman of the Central Military Commission, but official power was transferred to a new generation of pragmatic reformers, reversing the policy of the Cultural Revolution almost entirely.
Policies and effects
The effects of the Cultural Revolution directly or indirectly touch all Chinese populations. During the Cultural Revolution, much economic activity was stopped, with the "revolution", regardless of interpretation, becoming the country's primary goal. Mao Zedong's mind became the main operating guide for all things in China. The authority of the Red Guards overwhelms the military forces, local police, and the law in general. Traditional Chinese art and ideas are ignored and publicly attacked, with praise for Mao practiced in their place. People are encouraged to criticize cultural institutions and question their parents and teachers, which are strictly prohibited in traditional Chinese culture.
The commencement of the Cultural Revolution brought a large number of Red Guards to Beijing, with all the fees paid by the government, and the rail system was in turmoil. The Revolution aims to destroy the "Four Parents" (old habits, old culture, old habits, and old ideas) and set appropriate "Four News", and this can range from name change and hair cuts, to persecution. house, destroy cultural treasures, and desecrate the temple. Within a few years, many ancient buildings, artifacts, antiques, books, and paintings were destroyed by the Red Guards. The traditional Chinese cultural and institutional status in China was also severely damaged by the Cultural Revolution, and the practice of many traditional customs weakened.
The revolution also aims to "wipe out all monsters and demons" (literally "ghostly snake spirit"), that is, all class enemies who promote bourgeois ideas within parties, governments, armies, among intellectuals , as well as those from exploitative family backgrounds or who belong to one of the Five Black Categories. A large number of people who are considered "monsters and demons" regardless of guilt or innocence are openly condemned, humiliated, and beaten. In their revolutionary spirit, students criticize their teachers, and children criticize their parents. Many died of ill-treatment or suicide. In 1968, young people were mobilized to go to the countryside in the Down to the Countryside Movement so they could learn from the peasants, and the departure of millions of people from the cities helped to end the most violent phase of the Cultural Revolution.
Although the influence of the Cultural Revolution is a disaster for millions of people in China, there are positive results for some parts of the population, such as in rural areas. For example, the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution and the enmity of the widely accepted intellectual elite has undermined the quality of education in China, especially in the higher education system. However, radical policies also provide many in rural communities with high school education for the first time, which has allegedly facilitated rural economic development in the 70s and 80s. Similarly, a large number of health personnel were deployed to the countryside as barefoot physicians during the Cultural Revolution. Some farmers are given informal medical training, and health care centers are established in rural communities. This process leads to marked improvements in health and life expectancy of the general population.
After the most violent phase of the 1960s came to an end, attacks on traditional culture continued in 1973 with Anti-Lin Biao, the Anti-Confucian Campaign as part of the struggle against the moderate elements within the party. The Cultural Revolution brought to the fore the many internal power struggles within the Communist party, many of which had nothing to do with the greater battle among Party leaders, but instead resulted from local factionalism and little rivalry not normally associated with the "revolution" itself.. Due to the chaotic political environment, the local government lacks organization and stability, if they exist at all. Different members of factions often fought in the streets, and political assassinations, especially in rural dominated provinces, were common. The masses spontaneously engage in factions, and take part in open wars against other factions. The ideology that drives these factions is vague and sometimes absent, with the struggle for local authority being the sole motivation for mass involvement.
Education
The Cultural Revolution brought China's education system to a virtual stop for some time. In the early months of the Cultural Revolution, schools and universities were closed down. Primary and secondary schools were gradually reopened, but all colleges and universities were closed until 1970, and most universities were not reopened until 1972. The university entrance examination was canceled after 1966, to be replaced by a system where students were recommended by factories , villages and military units, and entrance exams were not restored until 1977 under Deng Xiaoping. According to documents for the prosecution of the Gang of Four, 142,000 cadres and teachers in the educational circle were persecuted, noting dead academics, scientists and educators including Xiong Qinglai, Jian Bozan, Rao Yutai, Wu Dingliang and Zhao Jiuzhang.
Many intellectuals were sent to rural labor camps, and many survivors left China shortly after the revolution ended. Many survivors and observers claim that almost anyone who has skills beyond the average person is targeted by political "struggles" in several ways. The whole generation of tortured and uneducated individuals is often referred to in the West and in China as the 'lost generation'.
During the Cultural Revolution, basic education was emphasized and expanded rapidly. While the school years were reduced and the standard of education fell, the proportion of Chinese children who had completed primary education increased from less than half before the Cultural Revolution to almost all after the Cultural Revolution, and those who completed junior high school increased from 15% to more than two-thirds. Educational opportunities for rural children are growing considerably, while children from urban elites become constrained by anti-elitist policies.
The impact of the Cultural Revolution on popular education varied across regions, and formal literacy measurement did not continue until the 1980s. Some districts in Zhanjiang have an illiterate rate as high as 41% about 20 years after the revolution. Chinese leaders at the time denied that there was an illiteracy problem from the start. This effect is reinforced by the elimination of qualified teachers - many districts
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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