1.2 Increasing conflict between Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi

In China, the three years from 1960 were known as the Three Years of Natural Disasters. Food was in desperate demand, and production fell dramatically. By the end of the Three Years of Natural Disasters, an estimated 44 million people had died from unnatural causes such as starvation and widespread famine.

Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping decided to end many Leap policies such as rural communes and restore the economic policies used before the Great Leap Forward.

Because of the success of their economic reforms, Liu and Deng had won prestige with many party members both in the central government and within the mass population. Together, Liu and Deng began planning to gradually retire Mao from any real power and turn him into a figurehead. To restore his political base and to try to correct mistakes without admitting to them, Mao initiated the Social Education Movement in 1963.

Mao later admitted to some general mistakes, while strongly defending the Great Leap Forward in concept. One great irony of the Social Education Movement is that it called for grassroots action, yet was directed from Mao himself. This movement, aimed primarily at schoolchildren, did not have any immediate effect on Chinese politics, but it did influence a generation of youths upon whom Mao could draw upon for support in the future.

In 1963, Mao began attacking Liu Shaoqi openly, stating that the idealism of "the struggle of the classes" must always be fully understood and applied, yearly, monthly, daily. By 1964, the Social Education Movement had become the new " Four Cleanups Movement", with the stated goal of the cleansing of politics, economics, ideas, and organization. The Movement was directed against Liu and Deng.

1.3 Influences elsewhere

In early 1960, historian and Beijing Deputy Mayor Wu Han published the first version of a historical drama entitled " Hai Rui Dismissed from Office " (pinyin: Hai Rui Ba Guan). In the play, a virtuous official was dismissed by a corrupt emperor. The play was initially published partly for the amusement of Mao Zedong, who enjoyed historical stories.

The story initially received praise from Mao. In 1965 Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing and her protégé Yao Wenyuan—who at the time was a little-known editor of a prominent newspaper in Shanghai—published an article criticising "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office." Jiang and Yao saw the play, which they labeled as "poisonous weeds," as an attack on Mao using the allegory of Mao Zedong as the corrupt emperor and Peng Dehuai as the virtuous official.

The publication of the Shanghai newspaper received much publicity nationwide, with many other prominent newspapers asking for publication rights of the same article. Beijing Mayor Peng Zhen, a supporter of Wu Han, established a committee studying the recent publication and emphasizing that the criticism had gone too far. But denunciations, whether public or silently, came from Jiang Qing and Lin Biao.

In May 1966 Jiang Qing and Yao Wenyuan once again published various articles with messages denouncing both Wu Han and Peng Zhen. On May 16 1966, under Jiang Qing's influence, a formal notice was issued, representing figuratively the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

In a later meeting of the CCP Politburo in 1966, the Group in Charge of the Cultural Revolution (GCCR) was formed. On May 18, Lin Biao said in a speech that "Chairman Mao is a genius, everything the Chairman says is greatly true; one of the Chairman's words will override the meaning of ten thousands of ours." Thus started the first phase of Mao's cult of personality led by Jiang Qing, Lin, and others. At this time Jiang and Lin had already seized some actual power. On May 29 1966, Tsinghua University's Middle School's first organization of Red Guards was formed. It was aimed at eliminating intellectuals and Mao's political enemies.

On June 1 1966, the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the CCP, stated that all "imperialists", "people with affiliations with imperialists", "imperialistic intellectuals", etc., must be purged. Soon, a movement began aimed at purging university presidents and other prominent intellectuals. On July 28 1966, representatives of the Red Guards wrote a formal letter to Mao, stating that mass purges and all else related were justified and right. Thus began the Cultural Revolution.

2 The Cultural Revolution

2.1 1966: Massive purges

On August 1 1966, the central decision-making body of the PRC passed a bill, "Decisions on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution". This bill stated that the official position of China's government was now supportive of the purging of intellectuals and imperialists. Most of these purging acts were to be the work of Mao's Red Guards.

On August 16, millions of Red Guards from all over the country gathered in Beijing for a peek at the Chairman. On top at the Tiananmen Square gate, Mao and Lin Biao made appearances to approximately 11 million Red Guards, receiving cheers each time. Mao praised their actions in recent purges.

From this period until 1976, the Red Guards expanded their areas of authority and accelerated their purging actions. The Red Guards began by passing out leaflets, spreading Communist propaganda, and posting the names of supposed "counterrevolutionaries" on bulletin boards. They assembled in large groups and wrote propagandistic plays. The Red Guards held public executions of supposed "counterrevolutionaries," looted their homes, tortured and might have even killed their relatives.

By 1966 the Red Guards had become the foremost authority of China. People that were labeled as the "Bourgeoisie" were tortured brutally without trial. Laws were broken freely; the police were no longer an effective force. Soon, the Red Guards went even further. They set fire to temples, mosques, churches, and other religious institutions. The country fell into a state of mass chaos. By the end of 1966 the Red Guards also started a massive campaign to destroy ancient art, artifacts, and antiques; vandalize ancient buildings; and burn ancient scrolls and books.

Also in this period of time monks, nuns and missionaries were widely criticised and purged. Some were later sent to labor camps, tortured, or killed. The Red Guards also criticised, looted, and tortured their own teachers. Seeing this situation unfold, many intellectuals were tortured to mental breakdown or committed suicide. Many prominent politicians and former leaders were also purged and labeled as "counterrevolutionaries"; Liu Shaoqi was sent to a detention camp, a virtual prison, where he later died in 1969 due to a lack of food and other necessities of life. Deng Xiaoping was sent to work in an engine factory until brought back years later by Zhou Enlai.

The work of the Red Guards was praised by Mao Zedong. On August 22 1966, Mao issued a public notice, which stopped "all police intervention in Red Guard tactics and actions." Those in the police force who dared to defy this notice were labeled as "counterrevolutionaries."

On September 5, 1966, yet another notice was issued, encouraging all Red Guards to come to Beijing over a stretch of time. All fees, including accommodations and transportation, were to be paid by the government. On October 10 1966, Lin Biao publicly criticised Liu and Deng as "capitalist roaders" and "threats." Later, Peng Dehuai was brought to Beijing to be publicly displayed and ridiculed; he was then purged.

2.2 1967: Political power struggles

On January 3 1967, Lin Biao and Jiang Qing were behind the "January Storm," in which many prominent Shanghai municipal government leaders were heavily criticised and purged. This raised Wang Hongwen into real power in the city and in the city's CCP power apparatus. In Beijing, Liu and Deng were once again the targets of criticism, but others, who were not as engaged in the CCP criticism sessions, like Chen Boda and Kang Sheng, pointed at the wrongdoings of the Vice-Premier of the State Council Tao Zhu . Thus started a political struggle among central government officials and local party cadres, who seized the Cultural Revolution as an opportunity to accuse rivals of "counterrevolutionary activity."

On January 8, Mao praised these actions through the People's Daily, urging all local governmental leaders to rise in self-criticism or criticism and purging of others. This started the massive power struggles of purge after purge among some local governments, which stopped functioning altogether. Involvement in some sort of "revolutionary" activity was the only way to avoid being purged, but it was by no means a certain way out of being purged.

At the same time, many large and prominent Red Guard organizations rose in protest of other Red Guards organizations, further complicating the situation. This led to a notice to stop all unhealthy activity within the Red Guards. On April 6th, Liu Shaoqi was openly and widely denouced by a Zhongnanhai faction. This was followed by protest and mass demonstrations, most notably the one in Wuhan on July 20 which Jiang Qing openly denounced as "counterrevolutionary activity"; she later personally flew to Wuhan to criticise Chen Zaidao, the general in charge of the Wuhan area.

On July 22, Jiang Qing directed the Red Guards to replace the People's Liberation Army when needed and render the existing forces useless. After the initial praise by Jiang Qing, the Red Guards started to steal and loot from barracks or army buildings. This activity, which could not be stopped by any army general, went on until the fall of 1968.

2.3 1968: Cult of personality

In spring 1968, a massive campaign began aimed at promoting Mao Zedong to godlike status. Mao was depicted as the origin or source of life's necessities. At this time, Lin Biao began to gain power for himself.

Mao had lost basic control over the country; he could not stop anything, from looting to huge protests. On July 27, the authority of Red Guards over the army was declared ended, and the central government sent in units to protect many areas still being targeted by Red Guards. Mao had supported this idea, and promoted it by allowing one of his "Highest Directions" to be heard by all of the people.

In early October, Mao decided to purge many officials, who were sent to the countryside working in labor camps. In the same month, at the 12th Plenum of the 8th Party Congress, Liu Shaoqi was "forever expelled from the party" and Lin Biao was made the Party's Vice-Chairman, second only to Mao.

In December 1968, Mao began the " Down to the Countryside Movement ." During this Movement, which lasted for the next decade, young intellectuals were ordered to go into the country and receive "education" from "middle and poor peasants." Mao saw this as a way to remove future emerging forces who could be of threat to the CCP.

3 Time dominated by Lin Biao

3.1 Transition of the party apparatus

On April 1st, 1969, at the CCP's Ninth Congress, Lin was the big winner. Officially becoming China's second in charge, also holding military power. Lin's biggest political rival, Liu Shaoqi had been purged, and Zhou Enlai's power was gradually fading.

The Ninth Congress started with Lin Biao delivering a Political Report, being critical of Liu and other "counterrevolutionaries" and continuously quoting Mao's Little Red Book. The second thing to be tackled was the new party constitution, when it was modified to officially design Lin as Mao's successor. Henceforth at all occasions Mao's name was to be linked with Lin's. Thirdly, a new Politburo was elected with Mao Zedong, Lin Biao, Chen Boda, Zhou Enlai, and Kang Sheng being the five new members of the Politburo Standing Committee. This new politburo consisted mostly of those who rose because of the Cultural Revolution, with Zhou barely keeping his status, as he ranked fourth.

3.2 Attempts at expanding power base

After being confirmed as Mao's successor, Lin's focus lay on the restoration of the State President position, which was only abolished by Mao because of Liu Shaoqi's dismissal from power. His aim was to become Vice-President with Mao holding onto the position of State President.

On August 23rd, 1970, the Second Plenum of the CCP's Ninth Congress was once again held in Lushan. Chen Boda was the first to speak, widely praising Mao using many huge adjectives and boasting Mao's status, with the intentions of raising his. At the same time Chen was asking for the return of the position of State President. Mao was deeply critical of the speech delivered by Chen, removing him of the position of Politburo Standing Committee member. With this started a series of criticism sessions across the country for people who use "deceit" for gains, calling them "Liu Shaoqi's representative for Marxism and political liar."

Chen's removal from the Politburo Standing Committee was also seen as a warning towards Lin Biao. After the Ninth Congress Lin continuously asked for promotions within the party and the Central Government, leading Mao to think that Lin wanted supreme power and oust Mao himself. Chen's speech also added on to Mao's apprehensions. If Lin was to be Vice-President, then after the President's death he would legally have supreme power and control of the country.

3.3 Lin's attempted military coup

Main Article: Lin Biao's Military Coup

Because of Mao's refusal to let Lin gain more prominence within the party and the government, Lin became deeply angered. Adding on to the reason that his power base was shrinking day by day within the Party Apparatus, Lin decided to use the military power in his hands to try to oust Mao in a coup. Soon afterwards Lin and son Lin Liguo and other loyal comrades founded a coup organ in Shanghai, aimed solely at ousting power from Mao by the usage of force. In one of the known documents, Lin stated in Shanghai that "A new power war has surged upon us, if indeed we could not take control of revolutionary activity, these control rights will fall on someone else."

Lin's plan consisted mainly of aerial bombardments and the wide usage of the Air Force. If the plan was to succeed, Lin could successfully arrest all of his political rivals and get the supreme power he had wanted. But if his plan was to fail, there would be great consequences awaiting him.

Assassination attempts were made against Mao in Shanghai from

September 8th to 10th, 1971. It was learned

that before these attacks on Mao there was initial knowledge of Lin's activities from local police, who stated that Lin Biao was coordinating a huge political plot and Lin's loyal backers were receiving special training in the military.

From these events onwards came continuous allegations and reports of Mao being attacked. One of these reports suggested that en route to Beijing in his private train Mao was physically attacked, another suggested that Lin had bombed a bridge that Mao was to cross to reach Beijing, which Mao avoided because of intelligence suggesting such an incident that led Mao to change routes. In these nervous days guards were placed every 10-20 meters on the railway tracks of Mao's route to avoid attempts of assassination.

Although these reports were conflicting and sometimes fabricated, it is known for sure that after September 11th of the same year, Lin never appeared in public again, neither did his backers, of whom most attempted to escape to Hong Kong. Most of these attempts failed, and around 20 army generals were arrested.

It was also learned that on September 13th, 1971, Lin Biao and his family travelled by plane to the Soviet Union. En route Lin's plane crashed in Mongolia, killing all on board. On the same day, the CCP Politburo met in an emergency session to discuss about Lin Biao. Only until September 30th was the information of Lin's death confirmed in Beijing, which led to the cancellation of the National Day celebration events that were scheduled for the following day.

The exact cause of the plane crash remains a mystery, although it is widely believed that Lin's plane ran out of fuel or there was an abrupt engine failure. There was also speculation that the plane was shot down by Chinese missiles. Nonetheless, Lin's attempted coup had failed and led to the complete destruction of his image in the CCP and China.

4 Times of the "Gang of Four"

4.1 Developments and Pi-Lin Pi-Kong Campaign

After Lin Biao's death in 1971, Mao, aged 78, was busy trying to find a new successor. In September 1972, Shanghaiese Wang Hongwen was transferred to work in Beijing for the Central Government, becoming the Party Vice-Chairman in the subsequent year.

At the same time, under the influence of Premier Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping was transferred back to Beijing. In the preceding time, Mao was already shaken deeply by the Lin Biao plot and had to rely on Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping again. Compared to Extreme Leftism , Mao was still no fan of the Right.

In 1974, a campaign that appears to sound absurd in convention was started by Jiang Qing and several backers (later to be known as the Gang of Four): the Pi-Lin Pi-Kong campaign, or literally Criticise Lin Biao, Criticise Confucius. This widely publicised campaign was aimed at Premier Zhou Enlai, for he allegedly possessed "unhealthy" ideas related to Lin and Confucius, but Zhou's name was never mentioned throughout the campaign. Since the death of Lin Biao, Zhou has become the main political rival for the power succession of the Gang of Four. But the weary population was tired of so many campaigns that had proved useless or devastating, and were not too much interested in this one. This campaign had failed to achieve its goals.

In October Premier Zhou Enlai became gravely ill and was admitted into day-to-day hospital care. Deng Xiaoping was named First Vice-Premier and was the actual one in charge of daily business of the State Council matters. Deng continued to further expand Zhou's Four Modernizations idea for a better China. In September 1975, Mao himself was also admitted into hospital with grave illness.

4.2 1976: Cultural Revolution's end

1976 became a very important year of the Cultural Revolution. On January 8th, Zhou Enlai died of bladder cancer. The subsequent day Beijing's Monument of the martyrs already started filling up with wreaths in mourning of the people's beloved Premier. The event was unprecedented. On January 15th, Zhou's funeral was held, and events commemorating Zhou across the country were held. Deng Xiaoping delivered Zhou's official eulogy.

In February, the rival Gang of Four had started to criticise the only one left to oppose them, Deng Xiaoping. With permission from Mao, Deng was once again demoted. But after Zhou's death, Mao did not select a member of the Gang of Four for premier, but the not very well known Hua Guofeng.

April 5th was China's Qing Ming Festival, a traditional day of mourning for those who passed away. Since late March there were already people gathered in Tiananmen Square, mourning the death of Zhou Enlai. At the same time the people were also signaling an expression of anger towards the Gang of Four. Gradually many were writing messages of hate against the Gang of Four and then posting them. On April 5th, around 2 million people were gathered in and around Tiananmen Square, already turning into a form of protest against the Gang of Four. The Gang of Four had ordered police in to clear the wreaths and messages of hate, and disperse the crowds. This later became known was the Tiananmen incident. The Gang of Four pointed to Deng Xiaoping as the incident's planner. This incident was later politically rehabilitated in the winter of 1978.

On September 9th, 1976, Mao Zedong died. Before dying Mao had written a message on a piece of paper stating "With you in charge, I'm at ease" to Hua Guofeng. Hence Hua became the Party's Chairman. (Although there has been controversy as to what the message really meant.) Before Hua was widely considered one with not too much political skill or urge, and no threat to the Gang of Four in power succession. But under influence of prominent generals like Ye Jianying and partly under influence of Deng Xiaoping, and the support of the Army, Hua ordered the arrest of the Gang of Four following Mao's death. By October 10th, the 8341 Special Regiment had all members of the Gang of Four arrested, thus concluding the Cultural Revolution as a whole.

5 After the Revolution

Even though Hua Guofeng publicly denounced and arrested the Gang of Four in 1976, he continued to invoke Mao to justify his policies. Hua opened what was known as the Two Whatevers, saying "Whatever policy originated from Chairman Mao, we must continue to support," and "Whatever directions were given to us from Chairman Mao, we must continue to work on their basis." Like Deng, Hua's goal was to reverse the damage of the Cultural Revolution, but unlike Deng, who was not against new economic models for China, Hua intended to move the Chinese economic and political system to resemble Soviet-style planning of the early 1950's.

Soon afterwards Hua found that without Deng Xiaoping, it was hard for him to continue on daily affairs of the state. On October 10th, Deng Xiaoping personally wrote a letter to Hua, asking to be transferred back to state and party affairs. Also, unconfirmed information allegedly stated that Politburo Standing Committee member Ye Jianying would resign if Deng was not allowed back into the Central Government. With increasing pressure from all sides, Hua decided to bring Deng back into regular state affairs, first naming him Vice-Premier of the State Council in July 1977 and various other positions. In actuality Deng had already become China's number two figure. In August, the Party's Eleventh Congress was held in Beijing, officially naming (in order ranking) Hua Guofeng, Deng Xiaoping, Ye Jianying, Li Xiannian, and Wang Dongxing as the latest members of the Politburo Standing Committee.

In May, 1978, Deng seized an opportunity for protégé Hu Yaobang to be elevated into further power. Later Hu published an article on the Bright Daily Newspaper to cleverly use Mao's quotations while expanding Deng's power base. After reading this widely publicized article, almost everyone supported Hu and thus became Deng's supporters. On July 1st, Deng publicized Mao's self-criticism report of 1962 regarding the Great Leap Forward. With an expanding power base, in September 1978 Deng had already started to openly attack Hua Guofeng's "Two Whatevers."

On December 18th, 1978, the Third Plenum of the Eleventh CCP Congress was held. Deng stated that "a liberation of thoughts" and "an accurate view leads to accurate results" was needed within the party. Hua Guofeng gave self-criticisms, stating his own "Two Whatevers" was wrong. Wang Dongxing, formerly Mao's trusted supporter, was also criticised. At the Plenum, the Qingming Tiananmen Square incident was also politically rehabilitated.

In the Fifth Plenum of the Eleventh CCP Congress held in 1980 Peng Zhen and many others purged during the cultural revolution were politically rehabilitated. Hu Yaobang was named General-Secretary of the CCP and Zhao Ziyang, another of Deng's protégés, was named into the Central governing apparatus. In September, Hua Guofeng resigned, with Zhao Ziyang named the new Premier. Deng was the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. By this time, Deng was the foremost and paramount figure in Chinese politics.

6 Effect

The effects of the Cultural Revolution directly or indirectly touched all of China's populace. During the Cultural Revolution most economic activity was halted, with "revolution" being the only objective. The start of the Cultural Revolution brought huge numbers of Red Guards to Beijing, with all of their expenses paid by the government, and the railway system was in turmoil. Countless ancient buildings, artifacts, antiques, books, and paintings were destroyed by Red Guards. By December 1967, 350 million copies of Mao's Quotations had been printed.

Elsewhere, the 10 years of Cultural Revolution also brought the education system to a halt. The university entrance exams were cancelled during this period, only restored by Deng Xiaoping in 1977. Many intellectuals were purged or "sent down" to rural labor camps. It seems that everyone with skills over that of the average person was the target of political struggle in some way. According to most Western observers and followers of Deng Xiaoping, this led to almost a generation of know nothings; nearly a generation of China's scientists and other useful intellectuals were missing.

Mao Zedong Thought had become the central operative guide to all things in China. The authority of the Red Guards surpassed that of the army, local police authorities, and the law in general. China's traditional arts and ideas were ignored, and Mao praised doing so. People were encouraged to criticize cultural institutions and question their parents and teachers, which had been strictly forbidden in Confucian culture. This was emphasized even more during the Anti-Lin Biao; Anti-Confucius Campaign.

The Cultural Revolution also caused external effects. Workers in Hong Kong went on strike, Quotes from Chairman Mao was published in many languages to be circulated in many African and other third-world countries, and China's image was considerably damaged in the West.

Estimates of the death toll from 10 credible Western and Eastern sources put the number of people directly killed, civilians and Red Guards included, at about 500,000 in the true chaos years of 1966-1969.

The Cultural Revolution years saw the Chinese people leave behind many uncritical habits of conformist and authoritarian thinking. This is no where better seen than in the words of the student leaders of Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. According to student leader Shen Tong in his book, Almost a Revolution, the trigger for the famous hunger-strikes of 1989 was a "dazibao," the big-character poster (leaflet) brought to fame in the Cultural Revolution as a means of public political discussion and outlawed after the Cultural Revolution. When students organized demonstrations in their millions not seen since the Cultural Revolution, youth from outside Beijing rode the trains in to Beijing and relied on the hospitality of the train workers and Beijing residents just as their counterparts rode the trains freely in the Cultural Revolution. Also as in the Cultural Revolution, students formed factions with names similar to those of Red Guard factions using the term "Headquarters" for instance, and according to Shen Tong, these factions even went to the extent of kidnapping members of other factions, just as they did in the Cultural Revolution. Finally, in some small minority of cases, some of the student leaders of 1989 had been youth activists in high school during the Cultural Revolution. It was during the Cultural Revolution that criticism of high-level authority in public became more thinkable than ever in the PRC; although criticism of Mao Zedong still remained entirely off-limits.

6.1 Historical views

Today the Cultural Revolution is seen by most people inside and outside of China, including the Communist Party of China and Chinese democracy movement supporters, as an unmitigated disaster and as an event to be avoided in the future. There are no politically significant groups within China that defend the Cultural Revolution. However, there are many workers and peasants in China who, left behind by economic liberalization and the widening rich-poor gap, feel nostalgia towards the Cultural Revolution (as well as the Maoist Era in general), during which the proletariat was glorified. Author Gao Mobo has written essays praising the Cultural Revolution as a golden age of urban and rural development.

Among those who condemn the Cultural Revolution, the cause and meaning of the Cultural Revolution remain highly controversial. Supporters of the Chinese democracy movement see the Cultural Revolution as an example of what happens when democracy is lacking and place responsibility for the Cultural Revolution at the hands of the Communist Party of China. Similarly human rights activists and conservatives in the West also see the Cultural Revolution as examples of the dangers of statism. Briefly put, these views of the Cultural Revolution attributes its cause to too much government and too little popular participation.

By contrast, the official view of the Communist Party of China sees the Cultural Revolution as what can happen when one person establishes a cult of personality and manipulates the public in a way to destroy party and state institutions. In the view of the Communist Party, the Cultural Revolution is an example of too much popular participation in government rather than too little and that it is an example of the dangers of anarchy rather than statism. The consequence of this view is the consensus among the Chinese leadership that the lesson of the Cultural Revolution is that China must be governed by a strong party institution in which decisions are made collectively and according to rule of law in which the public has only limited input.

These contradictory views of the Cultural Revolution were put into sharp relief during the Tiananmen Protests of 1989 when both the demonstrators and the government justified their actions as being necessary to avoid another Cultural Revolution.

7 Bibliography

• Simon Leys (penname of Pierre Ryckmans) was one of the first analysts to describe the reality of Cultural Revolution in those five books:
  • The Burning Forest: Essays on Chinese Culture and Politics (1986) BooksEnthsiast.com
  • Broken Images: Essays on Chinese Culture and Politics (1979)
  • Chinese Shadows (1978) BooksEnthsiast.com
  • The Chairman's New Clothes: Mao and the Cultural Revolution (1977)

8 See also

• The Hundred Flowers Movement
• Maoism
• Great Leap Forward
• List of CCP Campaigns
• History of the People's Republic of China

9 External links

• A Film and Website about Cultural Revolution
• Another website about the Cultural Revolution

History of China Communism Communist Revolutions People's Republic of China

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