The Purges of Class Enemies Flashcards
What was Mao encouraging when he told the people to “Bombard the Headquarters”?
To attack the CCP
What did Mao launch against the CCP to remove any members who had been bourgeois / elitist?
Who did he replace them with?
“rectification campaign”
Young, fervently revolutionary people
What was the impact of the “rectification campaign”?
DEVASTATING
• up to 70-80% of all party cadres at regional & provisional level purged
• 60-70% in the organs of central government
• as many as 14,000 Party cadres executed as “traitors” in Yunnan
• 4/6 of the regional Party First Secretaries removed
• 23/39 provincial Party Secretaries removed
• only 9/23 Politburo members survived the purge
• 2/3 or the Central Committee were purged
What happened to many of the people that were purged under the “rectification campaign”?
Sent to undertake “productive labour and political study” aka.. back-breaking hard labour and indoctrination in May Seventh Cadre Schools
3m bureaucrats and cadres exiled to the countryside
Others beaten/tortured
Estimated half a million Chinese were killed
First Party Secretaries of Shanxi and Yunnan committed suicide (escape torture, intimidation)
How do we know Mao had defeated his opponents in the CR?
1975: the new Party constitution named Mao Zedong Thought as an official guiding principle of the CCP
What was the label— “capitalist roader”?
Used to criticise anyone suspected of:
- not being ideologically committed to Communism
- wanted to take the “capitalist road” instead
- People were interrogated to check that their beliefs were sufficiently revolutionary
- Family backgrounds scrutinised to check if they had any bourgeois family members
What happened to foreigners in China?
(ESP those from capitalist or “imperialist” nations)
Attacked.
A mob of Red Guards stormed the British embassy in Beijing: staff attacked, embassy set on fire
Also mobs sieged Soviet & French embassies: set up loudspeakers to broadcast Maoist slogans
Families of western embassy staff DENIED VISAS to leave China
Broke all the rules of international diplomacy: in total, citizens of 30 countries attacked/abused
Attacks on foreigners:
• Dutch
The Dutch chargé d’affaires was imprisoned in the embassy by a mob for nearly 6 months
Attacks on foreigners:
Soviet
Soviet staff who left the embassy to buy tickets do grit families to leave China were trapped by a mob in their cars for 16 hours
Posters put up at train stations: “Smash Brezhnev’s Head”
Attacks on foreigners:
• French
French trade counsellor confronted outside his embassy
Made to stand in the freezing cold while being denounced for seven hours
The police watched; did nothing to assist him
Attacks on foreigners:
• BRitainnnnneia brittaineia rules the waves oh our fair and pleasant land god save my quuuueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen a good scout is always prepared salute the flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag yay yay yay pleasant pleasant great to god to country to Queen we love freedom and the old education education education
British JOURNALIST:
Anthony Grey
Put into solitary confinement for 26 months
Later: Red Guards broke into his house and killed his cat.
