The Cultural Revolution - Winding Down Flashcards
Up to the mountains and down to the villages
- 18 million Red guards sent to ‘cool off’
- gave red guards to learn from peasants by ‘serving the people’ through manual labour
- schools and universities remained closed as part of Rustification campaigns
- Red guards with party connections able to return to cities, those without feared permanent exile
The rise and fall of Lin Bao
• official successor to Mao
• Lin attempted to reinstate the Head of State position that was previously held by Liu Shaoqi
• Mao saw this as an attempt to take the job for himself
• Mao feared the power of the PLA and a potential military coup
Lin’s death
• Lin feared he was to be purged himself
• his escape plane was not fully fuelled and he was killed when it crashed alongside his family
• Lin’s death caused problems - he was previously described as Mao’s closest comrade, now he had been denounced as a traitor
Deng Xiaoping’s return to power 1
- by the early 1970s Mao’s health was deteriorating
- Mao decided to call Deng Xiaoping back from the tractor factory
- Deng picked to join the politburo’s standing committee and appointed PLA chief of staff
The four modernisations
• ‘four modernisations’ : advancement in agriculture, industry, defence and science and technology
• focused on technical expertise the opposite of Mao’s trust in mass mobilisation
• Deng understood people wanted a return to normality and pragmatism
The Gang of Four
• the Gang of Four attempted to gain control through the ‘criticise Lin criticise Confucius campaign’
• subtly targeted Deng and Zhou - Jiang Qing’s 2 main rivals
• the campaign aimed to mobilise revolutionary forces against them
• campaign failed as people saw through personal motives
Zhou Enlai’s death
- 8 January 1976 Zhou Enlai died in Beijing
- Treated with genuine affection by the public, 1 million payed their respects
- Deng delivered the eulogy, and was attacked by Jiang Qing
- Gang of Four had misread the feeling of the public
- Some laid wreaths which the government attempted to remove
- Met with public backlash
Deng’s removal from power
• Gang of Four blamed Deng for ‘counter revolutionary move’
• Deng was banished to a pig farm in the south
• People weren’t interested in another political campaign by the Gang of Four
Mao’s Death
- Mao picked bureaucrat Hua Guofeng who was relatively unknown
- Mao hoped he would comprise between the pragmatists and ideologues
- Mao died 9 September 1976
- Earthquake before in July killed a 1/4 million, and was interpreted as a bad omen, showing traditional superstitions remained
Post-Mao
- Hua Guofeng called for loyalty to Maoism
- Mao’s bodied was put on display in Tiananmen Square with 300,000 passing by, but few showed genuine grief
- Jiang Qing was now ignored
- Hua ordered the arrest of the Gang of Four
Return of Deng 2
- Hua Guofeng was no match for the popularity of Deng Xiaoping
- He returned to Beijing and clearly had the support of the party
- Deng became China’s paramount leader
- Deng introduced economic reforms which were embraced in China
- ‘ To be rich and glorious ‘ was announced by Deng
