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Period: to
Events of Cultural Revolution
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'Bombard the Headquarters'
- Mao's rallying cry to revolutionary students to attack Party leadership + cadres at all levels
- Declaration of war on Party by 'outsider' Mao
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Cultural Revolution Launched
- Mao holds rally in Tiananmen Square in Beijing to one million Red Guards waving copies of Little Red Book
- First of 8 rallies attended by 13 million R.Gs from all over China
- Start of campaign against 'all those people in authority who are taking the capitalist road'
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Chaos and violence across China
By end of August:
- Schools and Uni closed
- R.Gs target teachers, intellects + 5 black categories
- RGs have uniform, correction stations, aim to eradicate Four Olds + Western influence > clothing, haircuts, etc
- Historic culture destroyed > statues, temple, artefacts, books, buildings
- Homes invaded and students punish each other ; red by deed or red by birth
- Bourgeois activities were condemned and goods destroyed if deemed too expensive -
Factional rivalries among Red Guards appear
- WRGH set up in Shanghai with CRG support
- Shanghai CCP leadership support conservative mass organisation, the Shanghai Red Detachment
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Fighting between factional rivalries
- Tension between the factional rivalries escalated and by the end of December the rivalry had turned into street battles in Shanghai
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Collapse of CCP Party leadership in Shanghai , Revolutionary Rebels take over
- Shanghai port and railway paralysed by strikes in Jan
- Revolutionary rebels take control of main newspapers on 3 Jan
- Mao sends Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan to Shanghai to bring down Shanghai Party Committer and establish new political authority
- 5 Jan = WRGH announce city will be run by revolutionary rebels
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*Shanghai Revolutionary Committee set up*
- Zhang + Yao given no support by Mao, set up Shanghai people's commune which would be chosen by public + subject to democratic accountability
- Mao declares 'There must be a Party somehow. There must be a nucleus, no matter what we call it.'
- Launches Committee made up of 3 elements : RGs, Comm. Party officials + PLA representatives ; used as prototype for other cities and provinces
- PLA left to organise it
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Rebels seize power
- Throughout January rebel groups seized power in seven other provinces including Beijing
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February Crackdown on PLA
- PLA not subject to struggle meetings but CRG believes there is no sector immune from rectification campaign
- Mao prohibits PLA attacks but takes no action against radical cadets staging struggle meetings
- No clear leadership > Sichuan + Wuhan regional military commanders suppress radical RGs and arrest leaders with armed forces
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February Adverse Current
- A backlash of excess CR
- Mao criticise Jiang Qing and Chen Boda for not consulting him; other Politburo members voice their criticisms : RG overstep boundaries set in Sixteen Points so limits imposed on their force, travel and withdrawn from Party and gov. departments
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*Mao returns to original Cultural Revolution plan*
- Mao saw criticism as challenge to his authority and confirmation that his attack on the Party establishment was the right thing to do
- After Feb - politburo has virtually no power, CRG in charge
- Veteran Party cadres bolder + sustained criticisms
- PLA officers who cracked down on RGs labelled ultra-rightists and court martialled
- No armed force against RGs by PLA
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Factional rivalry escalates
- 1600 killed in clashes in Wuhan > Million Heroes and WRGH
- Commanders who imprisoned radicals purged
- Mao, Jiang + Chen support radicals
- Mao + Jiang want to arm radicals in fight against 'capitalist-roaders in PLA' supporting conservative mass organisations
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*'Dragging out capitalist-roaders in the army was unstrategic'*
- Crackdown on radical groups + leaders
- Earlier chaos blamed on May 16 Group
- Late August = 4 most radical CRG members purged
- September = RGs cannot seize weapons + PLA can open fire on radical groups in self-defence
- Focus no longer destruction of old, creation of new system
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*Purge of Red Guards*
- End of 1967 RG purge under pretext of clamping excess of May 16 Group
- 10 mil. suspicious, 3 mil. detained + questioned
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RG Purge widened in Spring 1968
- Widened into 'cleansing of class ranks'
- Further 1.8 mil arrested
- 10s of 1000s beaten to death or committed suicide
- Most of rest sent to labour camps
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PLA takes over Qinghua Univesity, Beijing
- Violence here brought about final suppression of RG
- CR leaders should be workers not students > 30,000 workers + PLA teams sent to campus to disarm RG students
- 10 killed in fighting
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Rustication programme
In 1968 - 1970:
- 5 mil youth sent to work-study programmes with peasants in country
- millions of Party cadres + intellects ordered into May Seventh Cadre Schools- Mao had forced rediscovery of revolutionary zeal into bureaucrats + RG in areas where they could cause little trouble
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Cultural Revolution declared 'a great and decisive victory'
- September = last of 29 provincial revolutionary committees set up ; entire country now red
- Victory declared in October Central Committee meeting
- Lui finally expelled from both Party and the government
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Cultural Revolution officially over
- Party Congress in April = official end of CR announced
- New Party constitution stressed Mao's 'guiding role' + importance of class struggle in Party ideology
- Mao's position now secured