IGCSE History

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• Revolution in China 1949 - 1996 (A14)
  • 1949 - 1976
    • China under Mao
    • Reform under Liu and Deng
    • The reasons for the Cultural Revolution
    • The impact of the Cultural Revolution
    • China 1971 - 1976
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• Conflict and Crisis is the Middle East 1946 - 1996 (A16)
  • Unit overview
  • 1946 - 1967
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• The USA 1917-1929 (B7)
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• China under Mao Zedong 1949 - 1959 (B10)
  • The creation of the Communist State
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• The Changing Nature of Warfare (C3)
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  • Warfare at the beginning of the 20th Century
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The Reasons for the Cultural Revolution

The main reason Mao gave in China for the Cultural Revolution was that the government and the CCP were becoming too remote from the people. He criticised the increase in the numbers of experts and specialists in the economy and the party. He also complained that in the Chinese education system preference was given to the children of urban families and to members of the party hierarchy. Mao stated that this was creating a privileged middle class in China. It was true that the policies of Liu and Deng were encouraging the development of a body of intellectuals, such as scientists and technologists, and that these people were increasingly influential in the Chinese economy and society. However, they were also allowing China to develop much more rapidly than it had under Mao in the 1950s.

Mao’s real reason for his criticisms was simply that he wanted to regain his dominant position in the Party and undermine the positions of Liu and Deng. Since 1959 he had had much less influence over policy, the Cultural Revolution was, therefore, an attempt to appeal to the mass of Chinese people over the heads of the Party leadership. The most effective way of doing this was to undermine the positions and policies of Liu and Deng.

Mao accused Liu and Deng of were betraying the revolution from within. He also stated his belief in permanent revolution. This meant that there had to a continuous process of change in which authority was continually challenged and no one group or class was allowed to take control.

Mao was also heavily influenced by his wife Jiang Qing. She took the ideas of Mao even further than he did and wanted to destroy all Chinese traditional culture and replace it with purely socialist ideas. Consequently the Cultural Revolution took the form of attacks on anything that was ‘old’. On the other hand anything that was ‘new’ was accepted, almost without criticism.

A more worthwhile aim of Mao was to equalise the value of physical and mental labour. He seems to have been trying to ensure that workers in different industries and in different areas of the society and the economy should be equally rewarded for their contribution. However, in the devastation that occurred in China from 1966 to 1968, this aim was almost entirely forgotten.

Mao’s main tactic in the Cultural Revolution was to use the Red Guards. These were set up in 1966. They were students and other young people who put up posters throughout the country praising the ‘thoughts of Chairman Mao’, which were published in a ‘Red Book’. On 18 August more than a million Red Guards attended a mass rally in Tiananmen Square. Mao urged them to attack the four 'olds', old culture, old thoughts, old customs and old habits.

The Red Guards began to attack teachers, intellectuals, scientists, civil servants and doctors, in fact anybody who represented authority. These people were often humiliated by being tied up and forced to recite from Mao’s book. They were then forced to confess their guilt. But the first confession was never accepted and the victims were forced to adopt the 'aeroplane' position with head down, arms aloft and knees bent.

The Red Guards took over public transport and the radio and television networks. This enabled them to transport Red Guard units around China to deal with any opposition. They could also prevent any news broadcasts that attacked the Cultural Revolution. Some workers who refused to accept the Red Guards demands found themselves overwhelmed by sheer numbers. It was impossible for any opposing views to be put forward because all the media were controlled by the Red Guards.

The attacks went to the very highest level and were carried out with great bitterness. Liu and Deng were both dismissed. Liu was arrested and died in prison in 1973. Deng had to face public humiliation in front of 3,000 Red Guards. His son was thrown from a window and broke his spine.

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