China: The Cultural Revolution

Question 1

February 1963

Answer 1

Mao drafts the “Early Ten Points” which proposed a mass mobilisation of the masses to criticise the Party bureaucracy

Question 2

Four Clean Ups

Answer 2

Economy | Organisation | Politics | Ideology, all should be cleansed of revisionist state bureaucratism

Question 3

Later Ten Points

Answer 3

Deng Xiaoping revises Mao’s Early Ten Points and insists that mass mobilisation should be organised by work teams of cadres and disruption kept to a minimum

Question 4

Hai Rui Dismissed from Office (2)

Answer 4

A play written by the deputy mayor of Beijing, Wu Han, which seemed like an attack on Mao’s dismissal of Peng Dehuai
In 1965, Mao used the play to force the resignation of both Wu Han and Beijing mayor Peng Zhen by painting them as right-wing revisionists

Question 5

March 1966

Answer 5

The Cultural Revolution Group is formed, consisting of ideologues such as: Chen Boda, Jiang Qing, Yao Wenyuan and Zhang Chunqiao

Question 6

July 1966

Answer 6

Mao swims in the Yangzi River in a widely publicised event marking his return to politics

Question 7

5 August 1966

Answer 7

Mao launches attacks on State President Liu Shaoqi in a big-character poster entitled “Bombard the Headquarters”

Question 8

The Red Guards

Answer 8

Mao’s revolutionary soldiers, made up of young people, organised into local groups who were loyal to Mao and not the Party

Question 9

Why were young people drawn to the Cultural Revolution? (6)

Answer 9

Mao’s popularity during his early years (the Civil War, Land Reform and the Korean War)
Mao provided an outlet for youth against the rigid Confucian norms
Pragmatic careerism for the children of lower Party cadres
An opportunity for some children (or the “Black Elements”) to overcompensate for their family’s mistakes
A chance for some to travel the country and experience freedom
Peer pressure

Question 10

18 August 1966

Answer 10

1st mass rally in Tiananmen Square attended by over a million people – the Cultural Revolution begins in earnest

Question 11

19 August 1966

Answer 11

The Four Olds Campaign is launched

Question 12

The Four Olds Campaign

Answer 12

A campaign to destroy “old customs, culture, habits and ideas” – by storming private properties, burning books, destroying historical sites and beating up people

Question 13

7 million

Answer 13

The number of library books lost, stolen or destroyed in 4 provinces alone

Question 14

Tibetan cultural destruction (4)

Answer 14

Buddhist scriptures ripped up and used as toilet paper
Prayer flags taken down
Long hair ordered to be cut
All valuables in monasteries were ordered to be emptied

Question 15

Daxing County

Answer 15

Across 2 days 300 people in Daxing County were beaten to death in public

Question 16

August-November 1966

Answer 16

8 mass rallies were held in Tiananmen Square

Question 17

Escalating anarchy (3)

Answer 17

Rival Red Guard factions fighting
Violence between rural Red Guards and farmers
Mao could not control a movement that was built on opposing all control

Question 18

Industrial production: 1966-1976

Answer 18

Industrial production ground to a halt and fell by 14%

Question 19

130 million

Answer 19

The number of young people who stopped attending school or university between 1966 and 1970

Question 20

January Storm (5)

Answer 20

30th December 1966 – January 1967
100,000 radical Red Guards composed of underprivileged workers defeated 20,000 opposing Red Guards who had been mobilised by the local Party
Radicals destroyed party establishment and modelled new forms of control on the Paris Commune of 1871
Meted out violence and torture on opposing Red Guards

Question 21

PLA vs Red Guards (3)

Answer 21

February 1967: Commander of the PLA protests against Mao’s encouragement of chaos
April 1967: PLA kills 1000 Red Guards in Wuhan
PLA prevents Red Guards from seizing hydrogen bomb facilities

Question 22

Liu Shaoqi (5)

Answer 22

Subjected to constant struggle meetings
Beaten, abused, held in solitary confinement and lost the ability to speak
Stripped of all posts
Family sentenced to solitary confinement or labour
Died on 12 November 1969 after being denied medical care

Question 23

Deng Xiaoping (2)

Answer 23

Sent to work in a tractor factory in the countryside

His son attempting to escape torture by jumping out a window – left paralysed from the waist down

Question 24

80%

Answer 24

Percentage of regional Party cadres that were purged during the Cultural Revolution

Question 25

Purge of the Central Committee

Answer 25

2/3 of the Central Committee deposed

Question 26

How many officials were killed in the purges of the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 26

Over 500,000

Question 27

What happened to the British Embassy during the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 27

Staff in the embassy were beaten and the building set on fire

Question 28

September 1967 (3)

Answer 28

Revolutionary Committees, instead of autonomous communes, are formed by Mao to administer regional areas
Gave token representation to radicals and mass organisation
Recalled previous personnel who had been purged

Question 29

1.84 million

Answer 29

The number of people arrested by the PLA for allegedly being “spies” or “counter-revolutionaries”

Question 30

22 December 1968

Answer 30

Mao starts the “Up to the mountain, down to the village” or the send-down movement

Question 31

The Send-down Movement

Answer 31

Wherein 18 million Red Guards were sent to remote areas of the countryside so they could, ostensibly, learn from peasants but were, in reality, being rid of

Question 32

April 1969 (3)

Answer 32

The Ninth National Congress of the CCP
The violent phase of the Cultural Revolution ends
Lin Biao named Mao’s successor

Question 33

1971

Answer 33

The beginning of Sino-American rapprochement.

Question 34

September 1971 (2)

Answer 34

Death of Lin Biao in a plane crash after fleeing Mao’s security forces Accused of planning a coup using the PLA which had gained immense political power during the Cultural Revolution

Question 35

April 1973

Answer 35

Deng Xiaoping is recalled by Mao and reappears in public for the first time since the Cultural Revolution

Question 36

1974: Moderates

Answer 36

Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, and other moderate leaders chip away at policies introduced during the Cultural Revolution

Question 37

1974: Ideologues

Answer 37

The Gang of Four mount a campaign to “criticize Confucius” – a veiled attack on Zhou Enlai in order to defend the Cultural Revolution

Question 38

January 1976

Answer 38

Zhou Enlai dies

Question 39

February 1976

Answer 39

Hua Guofeng named acting premier and therefore Mao’s successor

Question 40

April 1976

Answer 40

A mass demonstration occurs in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square over the removal of wreaths honouring Zhou Enlai

Question 41

9 September 1976

Answer 41

Mao Zedong dies

Question 42

October 1976

Answer 42

Hua Guofeng leads the arrest of the Gang of Four (Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen and Yao Wenyuan)