1966-1976

Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) during his last decade in power to renew the spirit of the Chinese revolution. Perhaps never before in human history has a political leader unleashed such massive forces against the system that he created. The resulting damage to that system were profound, and the goals that Mao sought to achieve ultimately remained beyond his grasp. The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution—cost some 30 million Chinese lives, disrupted the academic and business life profoundly, and left a terrible legacy. Mao justified the turmoil created by his initiatives to reverse the historic processes that he feared crept into the Chinese Communist movement. Some twenty-five years after his death, the Cultural Revolution remains mysterious, subject to a variety of interpretations. The most common explanation is that it was simply a power struggle between the so-called ‘Rightist’ factions in the Chinese Communist Party and government by the ‘radical Puritan’ factions led by the wide of Chairman Mao. The so-called Rightists were accused of authoritarian decision-making. The Rightists felt that a modern state required professional managers and civil servants who could oversee the industrialization of the nation. Ultimately, the prevalence of the Rightists killed the promise of an egalitarian Socialist society. The Chinese Communist Party is now a party based on privilege and the government has become repressive of mass political dissent, as was shown by the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. On the other hand, the widespread civil liberty violations during the height of the Red Guard hysteria leaves no comfort that these ideologues would have instituted a more benign rule.

Mao launched the Cultural Revolution because he questioned the revolutionary commitment of many Communist members and resented his diminished role in both the Chinese Communist Party as well as the greater Communist International then led by Nikita Khrushchev. Mao felt that the final stage in completing the Communist takeover of China was to transform the people through cultural purification. The ‘New Socialist Man’ would work unselfishly for the State.

Specifically, Mao feared the urban social stratification of his country. He ultimately adopted four goals for the Cultural revolution”

  • Replace his designated successors with leaders more faithful to his current thinking

  • Eliminate the deviant influences that had crept into the Party

  • Provide China’s youths with a revolutionary experience

  • Achieve some specific policy changes so as to make the educational, health care and cultural systems less elitists.

Implementation of the above goals led to almost a breakdown in the society. Mao shut down schools, encouraged his young protégés –the Red Guard (thugs)—to attack all traditional values and “bourgeois” things and to publicly chastise public officials. Quickly physical attacks replace verbal jousting, and ultimately a state of anarchy, terror, and paralysis so gripped China that the urban economy was disrupted. The Red Guard primarily derived from teenagers and college students took over schools, factories, and government agencies. Urban dwellers were forcibly removed to the countryside.

Several examples illustrate the insanity of the Cultural Revolution. The emphasis was on pragmatism—learning through actions! Medical students learned their trade through operating without medical training. Students burned textbooks and in essence taught themselves, having dismissed the faculty. Millions of urban dwellers were forcibly transferred to remote rural areas where they were expected to be productive farmers. The Red Guards held humiliating public trials where the accused inevitably were verbally castigated or even imprisoned. In the extreme, there were armed clashes of such intensity that Mao feared the outbreak of another Civil War. While never proven, a one-time support of Mao, Lin Biao, reputedly planned to assassinate Mao. His failed attempt led to the death of his followers and himself, in a widespread purge.

While initially the peasants and urban workers supported Mao’s reforms, ultimately they became disillusioned. The people recognized that behind the façade of legitimacy, they had been manipulated for personal political purposes. One side favored ideology, political mobilization, class struggle, anti-intellectualism, and xenophobia. The other side promoted economic growth, stability, educational progress, and a pragmatic foreign policy. Mao unsuccessfully tried to maintain a balance between these two forces while he struggled to find his successor who would embody his preferred combination of each. Ultimately, the later prevailed with the aid of the military.

Although the Cultural Revolution largely bypassed the vast majority of the people who lived in rural areas, it had serious consequences for China as a whole. The Cultural Revolution caused millions of Chinese illiterate and unprepared to partake in the economic growth that succeeded the death of Mao in 1976. Another serious problem was the corruption within the party and government. Both the fears engendered by the Cultural Revolution and the scarcity of goods that accompanied it forced people to fall back on traditional personal relationships and on bribery and other forms of persuasion to accomplish their goals. Concomitantly, the Cultural Revolution brought general disillusionment with the party leadership and the system itself as millions of urban Chinese witnessed the obvious power plays that took place under the name of political principle. After the Cultural Revolution made many people turn away from politics altogether.