Purging of the CCP Membership (2a.3)

Question 1

How many Politburo members held their posts?

Answer 1

Only 9/23 members of 1966

Question 2

How many regional first secretaries were purged?

Answer 2

4/6

Question 3

What % of provincial and regional officials were purged?

Answer 3

70%

Question 4

How many members of Central Committee that met in 1966 were purged by 1968?

Answer 4

2/3

Question 5

What % of local party officials were purged?

Answer 5

20%

Question 6

How many cadres were sent to May 7th cadre schools?

Answer 6

3 million

Question 7

What happened at the May 7th cadre schools?

Answer 7

• Rediscover revolutionary zeal
• Political study and hard physical labour alongside the peasantry
• Camps far away from home
• Torture and beatings (sometimes fatal)

Question 8

How many first secretaries lost their jobs?

Answer 8

25/29

Question 9

What happened at the ninth party congress?

Answer 9

• Declared cultural revolution to be over
• Adopted new party constitution, stressing importance of Mao Zedong Thought and the continuation of class war

Question 10

Increased influence of the PLA

Answer 10

• 2/3 delegates to the Congress was members
• As were 45% of the new Central Committee and 1/2 the Politburo
• Extent of Mao’s control over the new party: so many veteran members had been purged and replaced by less experienced newcomers that his ability to manipulate was greater than ever

Question 11

What was the effect of the scrutiny on factories/shops/offices/schools?

Answer 11

• Serious fall in industrial production
• Down by 13% in 1967 and further in 1968

Question 12

What was the ‘cleansing of class ranks’ campaign?

Answer 12

• 1968
• Committees set up across country given task of eradicating all signs of capitalism
• Accounted for 100,000 deaths

Question 13

What was the ‘One Strike and Three Antis’ campaign?

Answer 13

• Remove all attitudes preventing economic progress
• Mao halted it in 1971

Question 14

What happened with the embassies?

Answer 14

• 1967 mob of red guards broke into British embassy in Beijing, physically attacking staff
• Staff poured out of Chinese embassy in London with sticks and machetes, staged demonstration against continued British control of Hong Kong
• 30 countries experienced violent incidents involving Chinese
• Burma and Indonesia locals attacked Chinese expatriates in retaliation