3.1 Mao's reasons for launching the Cultural Revolution

Question 1

What were the 4 reasons for launching the cultural revolution?

Answer 1

• Divisions within CCP of ideologues and pragmatists
• Division within the CCP of supporters and opponents of Mao
• Quest for permanent revolution
• Attacks on bureaucracy

Question 2

What is an idealogue?

Answer 2

Somebody who prioritises ideology rather than results. Emphasises the means rather than the ends

Question 3

Why did Mao object to the economic policies of Liu and Deng?

Answer 3

Mao thought that there was too much revisionism in Liu and Deng’s policies for the Third Five Year Plan. The restoration of private trade and dismantling of communes that ended the famine was seen as un-communist

Question 4

What were ‘capitalist roaders’?

Answer 4

A title for veteran communists who still had capitalist mindsets. Mao saw them as taking the ‘wrong ideological choice’

Question 5

Why was Mao still concerned about the ex-ruling class?

Answer 5

Many who had political power in 1949-1950 still lived on the assumptions and behaviour of the people. Mao believed these people were holding back China’s progression. Mao believed that they were ‘capitalist roaders’?

Question 6

When did the divide between ideologues and pragmatists become apparent?

Answer 6

At the 7,000 cadre conference, summoned by Mao in 1962 to further rally support for the party.
Key events:
- Mao withdrew from public life
- Liu, Deng and Zhou left in charge

Question 7

What was the view of Deng and the pragmatists?

Answer 7

Key quote of Deng “It did not matter if a cat was black or white; as long as it caught the mouse, it was a good cat”
- Took priority to the fact that they could take any course of action necessary to produce the required results

Question 8

What was the view of Mao?

Answer 8

• Mao believed that China was recovering economically
• Believed the colour of cat did matter
• Believed change should come from below, and it should be halted once gone to far

Question 9

What was the Socialist Education Movement and why was it significant?

Answer 9

Continued to back the pragmatists by launching Socialist Education Movement in 1963.
Preached virtues of collective economic approach (mass mobilisation) and aimed to root out corruption in rural cadres.
Its failure led to the campaign against the “four olds”

Question 10

What was Mao’s intention of creating a new mass mobilisation campaign?

Answer 10

To renew a sense of class struggle among the peasants as it would allow them to identify and attack corrupt party officials in struggle sessions

Question 11

What did Liu’s direction do to the mass mobilisation campaign?

Answer 11

Under Liu Shaoqi, campaign was centrally controlled and discipline was restored by Party work teams. Thousands were executed for economic crimes.
Mao was unhappy with methods used to hack the ideological element of class struggle. This furthered the divide between idealogues and pragmatists.

Question 12

Why did Mao believe that permanent revolution was necessary in China?

Answer 12

Mao was worried that the gains he made in 1949 would slip away if the revolution was not preserved and old attitudes would return.
This is why he wanted to use mass mobilisation to directly involve the people in campaign to defend the changes they had helped bring about.
He believed this is what had gone wrong in Soviet Russia.

Question 13

Why might the arrival of a new generation have led Mao to push for a new revolution?

Answer 13

Younger members of the party had yet shown loyalty to Mao. They were too young to have take part in the Long March or the civil war. Mao believed they had to experience the revolutionary struggle to prepare them for any future conflict with the west (that Mao saw as inevitable).
Cultural revolution was the mass mobilisation of young people with the aim to defend the revolution.

Question 14

Why was the 1963 Socialist Education Movement important in getting this started?

Answer 14

The SEM had been an early attempt to regenerate revolutionary drive. It had failed due to Liu had prevented it becoming a mass mobilisation effort due to central control. The stronger tensions from this event between Mao and Liu had sparked the Wu Han affair which almost directly caused the cultural revolution.

Question 15

Who were the bureaucracy in China by 1965?

Answer 15

• The bureaucracy had been removed in 1949 but the new bureaucracy created to run China had become a self-satisfied elite, motivated by privileges of power.
• Mao needed to remove these people to avoid making the mistakes that Russia made where the bureaucracy lost touch with the masses.

Question 16

What did Mao conclude about the ‘capitalist roaders’?

Answer 16

Mao believed they were hijacking the party and had been intensified during the Socialist Education Movement, and when Liu and Zhou had tried to calm student unrest in 1966. Mao decided it was time to wage a new rectification campaign to root out corruption from the party. Those with Bourgeois attitudes would be cleansed.

Question 17

Who was Lin Biao and why were they significant?

Answer 17

• Former military commander, replaced Peng Dehuai as defence minister after the Lushan Conference.
• Strong supporter of Mao. Responsible for Mao’s personality cult in 1960s.
• Co-created and promoted The Little Red Book in the army.
• Brought the PLA close to Mao giving him a greater base of power that Mao used to overthrow Liu, Deng and other rivals.

Question 18

Who was Jian Qing and why were they significant?

Answer 18

• Mao’s 4th Wife.
• She was forced out of politics until the Lushan Conference.
• Became Mao’s closest ally and cultural enforcer during the Cultural revolution.
• Known as Madame Mao.
• Close links to radical intellectuals in Shanghai and led the Gang of Four.

Question 19

Who was Kang Sheng and why were they significant?

Answer 19

• Mao’s chief of secret police.
• He was ruthless, effective and corrupt.
• Organised rectification campaigns in Yanan years.
• Worked closely with Jiang Qing

Question 20

Who was Chen Boda and why were they significant?

Answer 20

Headed the Central Cultural Revolutionary Group which directed the cultural revolution from inside the politburo and collaborated with Lin Biao to create Little Red Book.
Previous editor for Party Journal, The Red Flag.

Question 21

Who did Mao oppose and why did he oppose them?

Answer 21

Main opponents were pragmatists, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping as well as economic planners such as Chen Yun and Bo Yibo. They wanted technical experts to play a greater role in the economy.

Question 22

Why was the Conference of 1964 crucial in the beginning of the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 22

Mao accused Liu of being a “capitalist roader” at this conference and accused Deng of attempting to run an independent kingdom. Liu and Deng both had strong support inside the Politburo and Mao could not risk confronting them at the time.

Question 23

Why was the Wu Han affair significant in the beginning of the CR?

Answer 23

Liu and Deng both had strong support inside the Politburo and Mao could not risk confronting them prior to 1965.
They then began attacking Wu Han (who was the secretary to Mayor Peng Zhen). This was then escalated by Shanghai radicals, backed by Lin Biao.
Mao could then move against his rivals to remove Peng from his post whilst Liu was on a foreign visit. This led to the creation of CCRG.

Question 24

How did Mao turn against the pragmatists in March of 1966?

Answer 24

Whilst Liu was on a foreign visit, Mao could now move against his rivals to remove Peng. Liu had no choice but to support him upon his return; choosing to safeguard their positions rather than supporting Peng. Later, the CCRG was created - dominated now by Mao’s supporters.

Question 25

What was a wall poster campaign?

Answer 25

• May 1966
• Wall poster campaign began in Beijing University. Handwritten, wall posters were used to spread protest propaganda that the Red Guards used to denounce their victims. Liu and Deng attempted to supress the protests but this was ignored.

Question 26

How did Liu and Deng react to the wall poster campaign by the students?

Answer 26

Liu and Deng attempted to supress the protests. Sent work teams to try to direct students criticisms to specific individuals rather than the party in general. These attempts were ignored and further alienated Mao who wanted a full-scale attack on the party.

Question 27

How did Mao announce his return to politics and in what fashion did he do this?

Answer 27

• Mao’s swim across the Yangtze.
• Mao had a great return to politics by swimming in the Yangtze. This showed the public he was physically ready for showdown as well as it being a return to the birthplace of the revolution.

Question 28

How did Mao attack Liu and Deng in July 1966?

Answer 28

Mao returned to Beijing and forced Liu and Deng to make self-criticisms before the Party Central Committee for their error in sending work teams to universities to supress the poser campaign. Both were accused of being “spearheads of the erroneous line”.

Question 29

Why do some historians suggest that August 1966 was the beginning of the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 29

The first of 8 mass rallies began in August 1966 in Tiananmen Square. Red Guards unleashed to attack the “four olds”. This got the Cultural revolution fully underway.