Cultural Revolution/Aftermath 66-76 Flashcards
Mao’s reasons for launching cultural revolution:
Divisions within the CCP between ideologues and pragmatists
Mao stepped back from day to day politics after the GLF
Liu and Dengs pragmatic reforms angered Mao who believed the Communist revolution was being subverted by people who weren’t ideologically committed
Cult rev to destroy them and return China to ideologically driven policies
Mao’s reasons for launching cultural revolution:
Quest for permanent revolution
Mao believed final creation of a Communist China demanded ongoing revolution
If people became too comfortable they’d slip into old traditions/customs
Believed every new generation needed to experience revolution
He knew people didn’t remember the struggles of the civil war, so wanted to mobilise the masses and forge them into revolutionaries
Mao’s reason for launching cultural revolution: Attacks on bureaucracy
Mao believed bureaucrats would become comfortable and lazy, they would take advantage of their status to improve own lives (rewarding themselves with luxuries eg houses/cars/food)
Created to mobilise the masses to purge bourgeois bureaucrats and replace them with those loyal to Mao
Mao’s reason for launching cultural revolution: Divisions within the CCP between supporters/opponents of Mao’s policies
Supporters:
Central Cultural Revolution Group
Believed government/party had become bureaucratised and campaign needed to remove counter-revolutionary ops
Opponents:
Pragmatists within party who believed the GLF had failed as it was too ambitious (Liu and Deng)
Believed intellectuals and experts needed to help run the economy - Mao used CR to attack enemies as they were too popular to remove
Red guards and red terror:
Mao’s hold on young people
Young people didn’t blame Mao for great famine as they didn’t remember it - in school they learnt he was a hero who defeated Nationalists, given land to peasants and stood up to Americans
They read the little red book and believed the cult of personality portrayed Mao as a god
Red guards and red terror:
The Little Red Book
1964 - head of PLA, Lin Biao commissioned the publication of a collection of Mao’s most famous statements
Every soldier ordered to read it and learn to adhere to each instruction
Then young people in Red Guards read it - some believed it would work miracles e.g. newspaper reports said that doctors with book had cured blind people
Red guards and red terror:
Mass rallies of 1966
August 1966, Mao and Chen Boda invited millions of students to attend mass rallies in Beijing
Lin Biao helped organise transportation
“China’s future belongs to you” Mao said encouraging them to rebel against authority e.g. teachers and government officials
Red guards and red terror:
Red guards attacks on four olds
August 1966 Mao launched four olds campaign to urge red guards to attack “old ideas, old customs, old culture and old habits” - described as bourgeois feudal classes to repress Chinese people
Religious buildings destroyed, confucianism and ancestor worship condemned
Shop signs changed to Permanent Revolution
Children’s names changed to “Red Glory”
The growth of anarchy and use of terror
Red guards out of hand from the destruction of four olds
Many authority figures tortured/murdered
People with bourgeois background in Red guards were desperate to prove how loyal they were so committed brutal crimes
Violence a result of peer pressure/removal of rivals
Red guards from different backgrounds started fighting each other
The use of terror
In January storm of 1967 Red Guards seized power from the CCP itself and set up a government modelled on 1871 Paris Commune - Mao used PLA to close down the commune PLA then crushed radicals
Then Mao sided with radicals encouraging greater violence
Then as civil war looked likely Mao used PLA to once again restore order
Why did young people join the Red Guards
Revolution offered opportunities to youths, anyone wearing the armband would be allowed to board a train for free
Young people travelled to Beijing to cheer on Mao at vast rallies or visited places Mao lived, others took a chance to travel across the country after years of control/repression
Cultural destruction
Cultural objects related to Four Olds were attacked by hordes of Red Guards (sculptures, statues and artefacts defaced)
Libraries with western books/traditional literature were burned
Temples ransacked
Zhou Enlai managed to save the treasures of the Forbidden City by sending the PLA to protect it
Attacks on Mao’s political opponents:
Liu Shaoqi
Mao was jealous of his popularity
Liu had been subjected to constant struggle meetings and was abused/beaten
His family targeted, wife was publicly denounced and children sent to countryside to live as peasants
Liu begged Mao to be able to resign (he was ignored)
9th party congress Jiang Qing denounced him as a traitor and he was exiled to Beijing in prison - where he died as he was neglected from medication
Attacks on Mao’s political opponents:
Deng Xiaoping
Mao claims that Deng never consulted him on “anything at all”
Accused of trying to establish his own ‘Independent Kingdom’
He was sent to a tractor factory - his son attempted to escape torture by jumping out a window (some say pushed by Red Guards) paralysed from the waist down
Deng later returned to the party to help end Cultural revolution
Gang of Four didn’t like Deng and convinced Mao to take away his position but after Mao’s death he became leader
The purging of the CCP membership
Mao encouraged people to attack the CCP
‘Rectification campaign’ against CCP to remove elitist/bourgeois members and replace them with young revolutionaries
Impact:
•14,000 Party cadres executed as traitors
•Only 9/23 Politburo members survived
•2/3 of Central committee deposed
Many sent to productive labour (hard-labour)
In total 3 million bureaucrats/cadres exiled to countryside
Estimated half a million Chinese killed
Purging of capitalist roaders and foreigners living in China
People interrogated to check beliefs were revolutionary and family backgrounds scrutinised to check if they had any bourgeois family members
Foreigners were attacked - particularly those from capitalist nations
Broke all rules of international diplomacy - in total citizens of 30 countries attacked/abused
Winding down the Cultural Revolution 1968-76:
Restoration of order by the PLA
Mao was worried China would be vulnerable to attack from foreign countries (specifically USSR)
The economy was suffering from constant violence
PLA was happy to restore order as they fear the Red Guards were too powerful and may try to denounce the PLA
Up to 1.84 million people were arrested for being spies, thousands imprisoned/beaten/died from suicide
Restored order to education - schools reopened after 2 years of being closed
Winding down the Cultural Revolution 1968-76:
‘Up to the mountains and down to the villages’ campaign
18 million young guards were sent to cool off to the countryside for this campaign
Mao said it was to help understand the importance of manual labour and realise how important peasants were to the revolution
In reality it helped Mao restore order - helped reduce urban unemployment
Young people hated it and were shocked by how hard peasants worked
One positive was the barefoot doctors initiative - helped train paramedics who could care for the peasants
Lin Biao Affair
Mao’s most trusted servant and was named successor to Mao after Lin was purged - but he believed Lin was plotting to use the PLA to seize power
1971 - Lin realised he had lost Mao’s trust and decided to flee to USSR but he didn’t fuel his plane so it crashed and he died
Lin was described as a secret enemy spy which led Chinese people to no longer trust what the government told them
Reigning in the Gang of Four
Feared pragmatists would take over when Mao died so launched an ‘anti-Confucius’ campaign which denounced people like Lin, Zhou and Deng - campaign failed
People were fed up with the constant campaigns - gang of four were unpopular
The government removed wreaths from graves in Qingming festival (mourning dead) which lead to violence breaking out
Gang of four blamed Deng, he was removed from the party - Hua Guofeng was made successor
The death of Mao 1976
9th September 1976 - Mao died
His took over as Party leader and Head of State
He used the PLA to arrest the Gang of four as he knew he was vulnerable without Mao
Deng returned from exile and used his support within the party to replace Hua
