chinese cultural revolution

History

2022

We explain what the Chinese Cultural Revolution was, its causes, stages and consequences. Also, the power of Mao Zedong.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution was promoted by Mao Zedong to impose his doctrine.

What was the Chinese Cultural Revolution?

It is known as the Chinese Cultural Revolution or the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to a sociopolitical movement that occurred between 1966 and 1977 started by Mao Zedong, leader of the Party Communist Chinese. This sort of Revolution within Revolutionary China marked in a very significant way the future of the society China.

His goal was to do away with the capitalist and traditional elements of Chinese society. For this, it consisted of imposing in its entirety the doctrine ideological dominant within the party, known as Maoism (since its author was Mao himself).

The logic of the Cultural Revolution was driven by the strong personality cult of Mao Zedong unleashed in Communist China at the time, which led to the purge of leaders Communists who opposed him, accused of being revisionists. As will be seen, it was a particularly violent period of the history contemporary china.

For example, violent youth gangs known as the Red Guard were formed. These groups began throughout the country the persecution of all those who were accused of detractors, beating them, imprisoning them, publicly humiliating them, confiscating their property and sentencing them to forced labor, if not simple execution.

The Cultural Revolution triumphed by force and implanted Maoist procedures throughout the country. In 1969 it was declared finished by Mao himself. However, many of his activities continued until the death of the leader in 1976. Then his most fervent followers were arrested, accused of crimes committed during the Cultural Revolution.

The latter were known as the "Gang of Four": Mao's own widow, Jian Qing, and his three collaborators: Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen. Thereafter, a reformist government headed by Deng Xiaoping began the gradual dismantling of Maoist policies.

Background to the Chinese Cultural Revolution

The Chinese Civil War (1927-1949) culminated in the victory of the communist side and the founding of the People's Republic of China, headed from the beginning by the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong. In the new regime, large estates were collectivized, industrialization and modernization of infrastructures.

Consequently, the GNP increased year-on-year between 4 and 9%. However, in 1958 Mao proposed the Great Leap Forward, a rapid campaign of collectivization and industrialization of the countryside, combining various elements of the experience of the Soviet Union in a particular Chinese way.

This policy failed, due to the verticality of Chinese domestic politics and the dynamics of the cult of Mao's personality. The result was poor production and statistics doctored into not admitting unsolved problems.

However, a terrible famine among the peasantry, which claimed around 30 million victims, according to some historians, was undeniable. As a result, Mao lost the leadership of the state but continued to lead the party.

Causes of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

The main cause of the Cultural Revolution has to do with the internal struggles of the Chinese Communist Party, in which Mao Zedong was faced by leaders such as Liu Shaoqui, Peng Dehuai and Deng Xiaoping. Both factions accused themselves of being counterrevolutionary or of gentrification, and had a different understanding of the fate of revolutionary China.

As he did not resign himself to losing the can and his influence in the country, Mao began this fierce campaign of ideological reaffirmation, radicalizing young people and members of the army, and calling them to confront anyone who deviated from the most orthodox commandments of the Revolution.

Key to this process were Lin Biao, Mao's loyal defense minister, and Mao's own wife, Jiang Qing (a former actress), who used the prestige of the Leader revolutionary to confront factions within the Communist Party and promote his own aspirations to power.

In 1966 the Central Committee of the party approved its "Decision on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" (or "Sixteen points") thus turning what was initially a student movement into a nationwide campaign.

Stages of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

Mao's Red Book spread the doctrine of the Cultural Revolution.

Broadly speaking, the Cultural Revolution occurred in the following stages:

  • Mass mobilization (May-August 1966). In its initial stage, the Cultural Revolution massively mobilized the country's students, and later workers, military and civil servants, to the conformation of Red Guards that persecuted and defeated the supposed enemies bourgeois that, infiltrated in the country, prevented the Revolution from advancing towards its destination. These ultra-fanatized groups traveled all over the country, financed by the Condition, recruiting members for their cause and organizing mass rallies, in which the abandonment of old Chinese customs was encouraged and the figure of Mao Zedong was exalted. At the height of the mobilization, traditional Chinese temples were destroyed, looted libraries and they burned books, while the youth marched with Mao's Red Book under their arms.
  • The Red Terror (August 1966-January 1967). Towards the end of 1966, the country was in chaos. The robberies and lynchings of the Red Guards had ceased to be guarded by the police under party instruction. Those who disrespected it were accused and punished as counterrevolutionaries. Between August and September some 1,772 people were murdered and in October Mao convened a “Central Labor Conference”, where he managed to force self-criticism from his opponents, supposedly reactionaries and bourgeoisie, thus eliminating entirely his opposition in the party.
  • Return to power of Mao (January 1967-April 1969). With no visible opponents, Mao summoned the army to restore order to the nation during the first months of 1967. However, the Red Guards acted freely for another year. In April 1969, the IX Congress of the Communist Party of China was convened, where Mao's authority as party leader and military leader was reaffirmed. His doctrine was adopted as the central ideology of the party and the nation. At the same time, Lin Biao was appointed as his second in command and successor. The Cultural Revolution had officially ended.

Consequences of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

The main consequences of the Cultural Revolution were:

  • The return of Mao Zedong to power. Mao ruled China from the presidency of the party (not so that of the Republic, which was abolished in 1970 by Mao himself), until his death in 1976. His main detractors were imprisoned, and although Deng Xiaoping survived, working in a factory of Liu Shaoqi instead died in a detention camp in 1969, after being denied medical assistance.
  • The devastation of the Chinese elites. Unlike the Great Leap Forward, which devastated the peasantry and the most vulnerable sectors, the Cultural Revolution had as its main victims the Chinese intellectuals and communist leaders opposed to Mao, generating a profound decline in the education, which was limited to repeating revolutionary slogans after the abolition of university entrance exams and redefinition of study programs. The same was true of most writers and intellectuals, accused of gentrification for having expressed an interest in more than Mao's thought.
  • A blow to traditional Chinese culture. Buddhism and traditions Chinese were violently rejected during the Cultural Revolution, and in raids, looting and burning temples, relics and much of the traditional Chinese cultural heritage were lost. This was an invaluable loss in cases like Qin Shi Huang's great Confucian Purge. Of the 80 cultural heritage sites in Beijing, 30 were totally destroyed.
  • Persecution, public humiliation and executions. Millions of people were persecuted, harassed, and publicly humiliated during the Cultural Revolution, and hundreds of thousands were executed, starved, or put to work to death. Their assets were confiscated, their relatives persecuted, raped, tortured or forcibly displaced to the camp. Estimates of the number of deaths during this period vary between several million and 400,000, a minimum figure that has been recognized. The truth about this may never be known, as many deaths were covered up by authorities or lacked formal records at the time.
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