Cultural Revolution 1966-76, Opponents Flashcards
Liu Shaoqi
Popular pragmatist.
Mao encourage students to rise up, Shaoqi sent Party “Work Teams” onto campus to control violence.
Subjected to constant struggle meetings for his “rightist” sentiment.
Wife publicly denounced & children sent to countryside to live as slaves.
Liu wrote to Mao begging to resign, denied.
9th Party Congress, Jiang Qing denounced him as an American CIA spy.
Stripped of post + replaced by Lin Biao.
Exiled from Beijing.
12/11/1968 died + buried in an unmarked grave.
Deng Xiaoping
Military Commander.
Helped Shaoqi’s implement economic reforms.
Mao annoyed he never consulted him. Accused of trying to establish his own “Independent Kingdom”.
Disappeared from public eye.
Son attempted to escape torture by jumping out window, paralyzed from waist down (pushed by Red Guard?).
Returned to help end Cultural Revolution.
Gang of Four blamed him for violent clashes with police during 1976 Qingming festival.
Convinced Mao to remove his positions of government leadership.
After Mao’s death, became most important leader in PRC.
Lin Biao + PLA
Mao’s most subservient follower.
Replace Peng Dehuai, Lushan Conference.
Create Little Red Book, compulsory reading for PLA.
Newspaper published quotations from Mao everyday. Soldiers cut them out, making their own collection which they studied + recited.
Mao relied on loyalty of PLA to deal with Cultural Revolution after it spiraled out of control.
PLA Campaign
1963.
Army propaganda turned Lei Feng (soldier) into a national hero. Cult of Lei Feng (soldier) encouraged obedience to Mao Zedong Thought.
Described by Party as one of Mao’s good warriors.
Helped create loyalty to Mao.
Purging CCP Membership
“Bombard the Headquarters”.
Rectification Campaign against CCP to remove bourgeois/elitist members.
70%-80% of Party cadres & 60%-70% of central government purged.
Yunnan, 14k Party cadres executed as “traitors”.
9/23 Politburo members survived.
2/3 Central Committee deposed to hard labor.
3m bureaucrats + cadres exiled to countryside.
1/2m Chinese killed.
1975, new Party constitution named Mao Zedong Thought as official guiding principle of CCP.
Purging of Capitalist Roaders & Foreigners
“Capitalist roader” - those suspected of not being ideologically committed to communism.
People interrogated to ensure beliefs were sufficiently revolutionary + family backgrounds scrutinized.
Mob of Red Guard stormed British embassy in Beijing. Staff attacked + embassy set on fire.
Cultural Revolution broke all rules of international diplomacy.
Citizens from 30 countries attacks/abused.
Attacks on Foreigners
Soviet staff who bough tickets for families to leave China trapped in cars by mob for 16hrs.
British journalist, Anthony Grey, put in solitary confinement for 26 months & Red Guard broke into his house, killing his cat.
