Cultural Revolution/Cultural Rectification Is the Answer to Our Country’s Woes? In 1966, after spending years studying political economy and the classics of Chinese history, Mao was ready to act. Mao was disillusioned with the revisionist direction that the Communist Party was taking in the Soviet Union and saw China probably heading in the same direction. He gathered a bloc of radicals to aid him in his attack on the leadership of the Communist Party. Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in August of 1966 at a Plenum of the Central Committee when he called for Red Guards to challenge Communist Party officials for their bourgeoisies and lack of revolutionary zeal and for nurturing corruption within the bureaucracy. Articles in Party newspapers preceding this official launching introduced the concept of the Cultural Revolution. Schools were closed to free students to join the Red Guards. The movement escalated but it also splintered into factions, all claiming fervent devotion to Chairman Mao. Mao promoted, or at least sanctioned, a personality cult that exceeded that created for Joseph Stalin. Lin Biao was a major influence in the creation of the personality cult for Mao. Mao felt that he could no longer depend on the formal party organization, convinced that it had been permeated with the capitalist and bourgeois obstructionists. He turned to Lin Biao and the PLA to counteract the influence of those who were allegedly `left in form but `right in essence. The PLA was widely extolled as a great school for the training of a new generation of revolutionary fighters and leaders. Maoists also turned to middle-school students for political demonstrations on their behalf. These students, joined also by some university students, came to be known as the Red Guards. Millions of Red Guards were encouraged by the Cultural Revolution group to become a shock force and to bombard with criticism both the regular party headquarters in Beijing and those at the regional and provincial levels. Red Guard activities were promoted as a reflection of Maos policy of rekindling revolutionary enthusiasm and destroying outdated, counterrevolutionary symbols and values. Maos ideas, popularized in the Quotations from Chairman Mao, became the standard by which all revolutionary efforts were to be judged. The four big rights--speaking out freely, airing views fully, holding great debates, and writing big-character posters --became an important factor in encouraging Maos youthful followers to criticize his intraparty rivals. The four big rights became such a major feature during the period that they were later institutionalized in the state constitution of 1975. The result of the unfettered criticism of established organs of control by Chinas exuberant youth was massive civil disorder, punctuated also by clashes among rival Red Guard gangs and between the gangs and local security authorities. The party organization was shattered from top to bottom. (The Central Committees Secretariat ceased functioning in late 1966). The resources of the public security organs were severely strained. Faced with imminent anarchy, the PLA--the only organization whose ranks for the most part had not been radicalized by Red Guard-style activities--emerged as the principal guarantor of law and order and the de facto political authority. And although the PLA was under Maos rallying call to support the left, PLA regional military commanders ordered their forces to restrain the leftist radicals, thus restoring order throughout much of China. The PLA also was responsible for the appearance in early 1967 of the revolutionary committees, a new form of local control that replaced local party committees and administrative bodies. The revolutionary committees were staffed with Cultural Revolution activists, trusted cadres, and military commanders, the latter frequently holding the greatest power. The Student Based Purge Propaganda The Cultural Revolution (文化大革命, Wenhua Dageming, 1966-1976) was a mass campaign of enormous dimensions participated on by the studentry. Aside from the general revolutionary high-tide that swept China, the period was marked by a large number of sub-campaigns. Indeed, whenever the situation called for a shift in orientation within the larger framework of the Cultural Revolution, this was engineered by setting in motion a new campaign. Some 1.5 million mostly corrupt government officials were purged and humiliated during the Cultural Revolution, including friends, co-revolutionaries and 10 top brass like Liu Shaoqi who dressed like a fashion model and his wife Wang Guangmei, Peng Duhei, Deng Xiao Peng who was denounced by his own daughter Deng Rong for engaging excessive life style, abusive factory and commune managers, even those who supported it but were tempted to grab power like Lin Biao, and millions of others suffered imprisonment, seizure of property, torture or general humiliation by the Red Guards composed of young students age 12 – 21 years old. Later on, Mao Zedong denounced his wife Jiang Qing in favour of Deng Xiao Peng who was rehabilitated. Jiang Qing who was indirectly purged by Mao Zedong committed suicide in jail in 1991 with an original death penalty sentence, but commuted to life imprisonment. China was turned topsy-turvy by the students for almost ten year that cleansed the government hierarchy of corrupt and revolutionary railroaders. The Cultural Revolution’s short-term effects may have been felt mainly in China’s cities, but its long-term effects would impact the entire country for decades to come. Mao’s large-scale attack on the party and system he had created would eventually produce a result that strengthened China’s foundation as a Nation and as a Super Power as it is today. Mao Zedong waged a Cultural Rectificatory Revolution, if I may say, that he practiced with truthfulness, so that he died a poor man without properties nor wealth – he didn’t own a house, a car, jewellery, vast track of lands, Frank Sinatra phonographic records, wristwatches and never used western toothpaste and toiletries in his life time. The Chronology of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution May 1966: Articles in Communist Party newspapers introduce the concept of a Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. August 1966: Mao officially launches the Cultural Revolution with a speech at Central Committee of the Communist Party. August 1966: At a mass meeting in Tiananmen Square Mao puts on a red armband, the emblem of the Red Guards. He decrees that Red Guards can travel for free on public transportation. October 1966: At mass meeting in Tiananmen Square for National Day Mao calls for the Red Guards to destroy the Four Olds: old ideas, old behaviour, old excessive life style and old corrupt ways (originally in Mandarin: Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas). Fall 1966: Mao closes schools and calls for the formation of the Red Guards to challenge Party officials and to attack anything bourgeois. Millions heed his call. Officials, intellectuals and generally older people in positions of power and influence are attacked verbally and physically by the Red Guards. Mao leaves Beijing, leaving Liu Shaoqi and other top leaders with the problem of dealing with the Red Guards and the social turmoil that had been created. Mao later returns to Beijing after a much publicized swim in the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River). Mao deems Liu Shaoqi a counter-revolutionary. Later Lius wife is publically humiliated at mass meeting. She and Liu are arrested and imprisoned. Liu is beaten and tortured and dies. January 1967: Red Guards achieve the overthrow of provincial party committee officials and replace them with radicals. February 1967: Party officials call for an end to the Cultural Revolution but Mao continues to support the Cultural Revolution. July 1967: The Wuhan Incident: Red Guards attack the political leadership of the city of Wuhan. The city administration and supporters militarily resist the Red Guards. The Incident has the aspects of a full-fledged civil war. Zhou Enlai personally intercedes to resolve the situation. The city administrators are arrested but Zhou sees that the radicalism of the Red Guards must be curbed. Summer 1967: Rival factions of Red Guards and Rebel groups fight each other. Armed battles involving thousands and tens of thousands of people take place. Mao ultimately orders Lin Biao to use the Army to bring order to the Red Guards movement. The attempt to unify the factions of the Red Guards fails. Mao replaces the pre-Cultural Revolution party officials with radicals who support the Cultural Revolution. 1968: The disorder caused by the Cultural Revolution results in a 12 percent decline in industrial production in 1968 compared to 1966. The Army takes control of government offices, schools and factories. Millions of young people are sent to the countryside to learn from the peasants. April 1969: Border clashes with the Soviets leads to a declaration of martial law under Lin Biao, Minister of Defense. Communist Party and its Central Committee become dominated by military people. Lin Biao is declared the official successor to Mao. April 1969: Mao decides to open talks with the U.S. to form a relationship to counter the threat of the Soviet Union. 1970-71: Jiang Qing and other radicals begin to oppose Lin Biao as successor to Mao. August 1971: Chen Boda, a supporter of Lin Biao, is arrested and disappears. September 1971: Lin Biao is killed in a plane crash in Mongolia attempting to flee China. Lin is accused of plotting to kidnap or kill Mao and take control of China himself. Late 1971-mid 1973: Zhou Enlai tries to organize a recovery of China from the Cultural Revolution. Mao has a stroke and Zhou finds he has cancer. February 1972: President Richard Nixon visits China. The Shanghai Communique is issued which defines a new relationship between the United States and the Peoples Republic of China. Early 1973: Deng Xiaoping is rehabilitated and brought back to organize the recovery. Mid 1973 to mid-1974: Jiang Qing and her radicals are dominant in the government. July 1974: Mao shifts support to Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. Fall 1975: Mao shifts support back to Jiang Qing and her radicals. Deng Xiaoping formally removed from power. January 1976: Zhou Enlai dies. February 1976: Hua Guofeng is appointed as acting Premier. April 1976: There are public tributes to Zhou Enlai in Tiananmen Square which Jiang Qing gets Mao to declare to be counter-revolutionary. Authorities use the military to break up the public demonstrations. July 1976: A major earthquake devastates North China. Hundreds of thousands die. Beijing government turns down outside aid. September 1976: Mao Zedong dies. Hua Guofeng was made Party Chairman but did not long wield much power. October 1976: Armed forces arrest Jiang Qing and her radical associates. They are called The Gang of Four to emphasize that they represent only a small cabal of radicals. 1977: Deng Xiaoping emerges as paramount leader of the Peoples Republic of China. Deng had been dropped from the leadership roles after the April 1976 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. In July 1977 he returned to his official positions and in addition he was the chief of staff of the Peoples Liberation Army. Dengs leadership was not a result of the formal offices he held but instead from a consensus among the top leaders to follow his lead, although it did not hurt for him to have control of the army. In the power struggle between Deng Xiaoping and Hua Guofeng, Hua had the offices of Premiership and Party Chairmanship but Deng had the PLA. November 1980-January 1981: Jiang Qing and the other members of the Gang of Four are put on trial. Jiang Qing is sentenced to death but with a two year reprieve. The death sentence is never carried out. 1991: Jiang Qing commits suicide in prison, thus bringing the Cultural Revolution Era to its final, final close. The leadership of Deng Xiaoping continued until his death in 1997 even when he held no formal office in the Chinese government. Mao Zedong waged a revolution that he practiced with truthfulness, so that he died a poor man without properties nor wealth – he didn’t owned a house, a car, jewellery, vast track of lands, Frank Sinatra phonographic records, wristwatch and never used western toothpaste and toiletries in his life time. Dr. Delmar Topinio Taclibon, Bt., DKR, KRSS, BSCE, MBA, PhD.D.A. References: San Jose University Department of Economics, USA Mao’s China and After: A History of the People’s Republic, Maurice Meiser, Copyright 1977 and 1986, The Free Press, Macmillan Publishing Co.., Inc., USA The Private Life of Chairman Mao,, Zhisui Li, Copyright 1994 Mao for Beginners, Eduardo del Rio, Copyright 1980 Eldest Son – Zhou Enlai and the Making of Modern China, Han Suyin, 1994 edition, PIMLICO, London Powerhouse Museum Chinaposters
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:56:24 +0000
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