Cultural Revolution 1966-76, Mass Control Flashcards
Reasons for Cultural Revolution
Division in CCP, Ideologues vs Pragmatists.
Permanent Revolution.
Bureaucracy.
Mao’s Supporters.
Mao’s Opponents.
Division in CCP
Following GLF, Mao retired from day-to-day running’s of China, replaced by Liu Shaoqi + Deng Xiaoping.
Advocated slower, more pragmatic decision making.
Angered Mao, didn’t reflect ideological commitment.
Cultural Revolution sough to destroy opponents + return China to Mao’s ideologically driven policies.
Permanent Revolution
People got too comfortable, slip back to old ways, needed on going revolution.
New generation didn’t remember struggles of civil war, lacked revolutionary zeal.
Attack Bureaucracy
Bureaucrats becoming bourgeois, stopped creating revolution, too comfy/lazy.
Bureaucrats corrupt + inefficient, taking advantage of their status.
Labelled Mandarins.
Mobilized masses to purge bourgeois bureaucrats, replacing them with zealous, new Communists loyal to him.
Mao’s Supporters
Ideologues
Chen Boda (Chief of propaganda), Kang Sheng (Chief of Secret Police), Jiang Qing & Lin Biao (Head of PLA).
Believed gov + Party had become bureaucratized and a campaign needed to remove counter-revolutionary opponents.
Mao’s Opponents
Pragamtists, more rational Communism.
Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping.
Couldn’t simply be remove, too popular, Cultural Revolution used to attack them.
Play, Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, told of a Ming dynasty official dismissed for criticising Emperor - hidden criticism of Mao’s treatment of Peng Dehuai?
Publication made by Peng Zeng (mayor of Beijing) - criticized + forced to resign. A good friend of Liu and Deng, making it easier for their dismissal.
Red Guard
Group of violent youngsters dedicated to Mao.
Enforced policies.
Wearing Red Guard armband, board train for free if they supported Mao.
Used position to see rallies, or travel country after years of repression.
Some participated in torture + intimidation of those denounced “class enemies”, others simply chanted slogans or attended rallies through peer pressure.
Mao’s Hold on Youth
Didn’t remember GLF didn’t blame Mao.
School taught them Mao was a great hero (Civil War + Korea).
Indoctrination, easy to control them.
Little Red Book portrayed him as a god.
His book, Big Character Poser, called on them to “Bombard the Headquarters”, attacking the pragmatists in the CCP - they obeyed.
Little Red Book
1964, Lin Biao & Chen Boda commissioned publication of Mao’s most famous statements.
Every soldier read, learned and adhered to it.
Army, youth, Red Guard followed its ideas. A near religious power.
750m copies
Some believed it had miracle powers. One disabled person declared learning Mao Zedong Thought had enabled him to walk again.
Reports that reading quotations from book had raised a man from the dead.
Mass Rallies
08/1966.
Chen Boda invited millions of students to a series of mass rallies in Beijing.
Lin Biao organized transportation of students to capital.
Confucianism taught children to not question the authority of their elders.
Mao encouraged them to attack all symbols of authority - teachers, gov officials, enemies within the Party (Liu & Deng).
Demons + Monsters - describe anyone who refused to abandon the “Four Olds”.
Attack on Four Olds
08/1966.
Red Guard to attack “old” ideas, cultures, customs, habits.
Religious buildings destroyed.
Religious ideas, Confucianism + ancestor worships condemned.
Road signs changed = British Embassy now stood on “Anti-Imperialism Road”.
Growth of Anarchy
Red Guard got carried away.
Ban on youth from bourgeois background lifted, wanted to prove revolutionary credentials, committing brutal crimes.
Rival groups developed from different schools - who was the most ideologically committed.
Terror
1967, “January Storm”, Red Guard seized power from CCP, setting up a new gov modeled on 1871 Paris Commune.
PLA to shut down commune.
PLA didn’t want chaos to spread in its ranks, so crushed radicals.
Mao encouraged radicals to use greater violence.
Before civil war broke out, Mao realized China was vulnerable to attack from foreign nations, so used PLA to restore order.
800k deaths.
