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82-726: This office was founded in 1981, following the Cultural Revolution . Initially it was an office under the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party . Deng Liqun served as its first director. In 1987, after the ouster of reformer Hu Yaobang as CCP General Secretary and also as a result of Deng Liqun being politically sidelined, the office was re-organized and renamed as the Central Office for Political Structure Reform , headed by Bao Tong , at

164-513: A "sinister" attempt to oppose the party and advance revisionism. Mao promptly endorsed Nie's poster as "the first Marxist big-character poster in China". Approved by Mao, the poster rippled across educational institutions. Students began to revolt against their school's party establishments. Classes were cancelled in Beijing primary and secondary schools, followed by a decision on 13 June to expand

246-567: A corrupt emperor. While Mao initially praised the play, in February 1965, he secretly commissioned his wife Jiang Qing and Shanghai propagandist Yao Wenyuan to publish an article criticizing it. Yao described the play as an allegory attacking Mao; flagging Mao as the emperor, and Peng Dehuai, who had previously questioned Mao during the Lushan Conference , as the honest civil servant. Yao's article put Beijing mayor Peng Zhen on

328-666: A department focused on "social affairs" was created. The office is located within the CCP General Office , which has been called the party's "nerve center". Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution , formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution , was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his death in 1976. Its stated goal

410-603: A far-reaching revolutionary coalition, one that displaced existing Red Guard groups. On January 3, 1967, with support from CRG heavyweights Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan, the group of firebrand activists overthrew the Shanghai municipal government under Chen Pixian in what became known as the January Storm , and formed in its place the Shanghai People's Commune . Mao then expressed his approval. Shanghai's

492-614: A leader of the Red Guards, atop Tiananmen . This event instigated a wave of violence and mass killings in the city by the Red Guards, who also started a campaign to destroy the " Four Olds ". The killings by the Red Guards also impacted several rural districts in Beijing, such as in the Daxing Massacre , in which 325 people were killed from August 27 to September 1 in the Daxing District of Beijing. Meanwhile,

574-684: A member of the Secretariat. This accorded Wang a "deputy national leader" rank. Additionally, beginning in 2013, the Office of the Central Comprehensively Deepening Reforms Commission is located at this office and is headed by Wang Huning. The office is tasked with drafting the work reports to the party congresses and major party conferences, including Party Congress reports and plenum decisions, as well as drafting and revising "major documents of

656-411: A million Red Guards from across the country gathered in and around Tiananmen Square for an audience with the chairman. Mao mingled with Red Guards and encouraged them, donning a Red Guard armband. Lin also took centre stage, denouncing perceived enemies in society that were impeding the "progress of the revolution". Subsequently, violence escalated in Beijing and quickly spread. The 18 August rally

738-418: A new stage in the development of the socialist revolution in our country:" Although the bourgeoisie has been overthrown, it is still trying to use the old ideas, culture, customs and habits of the exploiting classes to corrupt the masses, capture their minds and endeavour to stage a comeback. The proletariat must do the exact opposite: it must meet head-on every challenge of the bourgeoisie ... to change

820-506: A number of people, including notable writers Lao She , Zhou Zuoren and Chen Mengjia , committed suicide or attempted suicide after being persecuted. During the massacres, Mao Zedong publicly opposed any governmental intervention against the student movement, and Xie Fuzhi , the Minister of Ministry of Public Security , instructed police and public security organizations to protect the Red Guards instead of arresting them. However,

902-600: A rally was held at the Great Hall of the People to announce the decision and reveal the tone of the movement to teachers and students. At the rally, Party leaders encouraged the masses to 'not be afraid' and take charge of the movement, free of Party interference. The work-teams issue marked a decisive defeat for Liu; it also signaled that disagreement over how to handle the CR's unfolding events would irreversibly split Mao from

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984-490: A report known as the February Outline . The Outline as sanctioned by the party center defined Hai Rui as a constructive academic discussion and aimed to distance Peng Zhen formally from any political implications. However, Jiang Qing and Yao Wenyuan continued their denunciations. Meanwhile, Mao sacked Propaganda Department director Lu Dingyi , a Peng ally. Lu's removal gave Maoists unrestricted access to

1066-427: A time when almost all mass organizations claimed to be "leftist" or "revolutionary". PLA commanders had developed close working relations with the party establishment, leading many military units to repress radicals. Spurred by the events in Beijing, power seizure groups formed across the country and began expanding into factories and the countryside. In Shanghai, a young factory worker named Wang Hongwen organized

1148-506: A topic of controversy later. In May 1966, an expanded session of the Politburo was called in Beijing. The conference was laden with Maoist political rhetoric on class struggle and filled with meticulously prepared 'indictments' of recently ousted leaders such as Peng Zhen and Luo Ruiqing . One of these documents, distributed on 16 May, was prepared with Mao's personal supervision and was particularly damning: Those representatives of

1230-717: A total clampdown by the Portuguese government. The event set in motion Portugal's de facto abdication of control over Macau, putting Macau on the path to eventual absorption by China. By the beginning of 1967, a wide variety of grassroots political organizations had formed. Beyond Red Guard and student rebel groups, these included poor peasant associations, workers' pickets, and Mao Zedong Thought study societies, among others. Communist Party leaders encouraged these groups to "join up", and these groups joined various coalitions and held various cross-group congresses and assemblies. Mass organizations coalesced into two hostile factions,

1312-637: Is placed on you ... The world belongs to you. China's future belongs to you. During the Red August of Beijing, on August 8, 1966, the party's General Committee passed its "Decision Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution," later to be known as the "Sixteen Points". This decision defined the Cultural Revolution as "a great revolution that touches people to their very souls and constitutes

1394-482: The 12-3 incident . The event was prompted by the colonial government's delays in approving a new wing for a CCP elementary school in Taipa . The school board illegally began construction, but the colonial government sent police to stop the workers. Several people were injured in the resulting melee . On December 3, 1966, two days of rioting occurred in which hundreds were injured and six to eight were killed, leading to

1476-538: The Cultural Revolution . According to official statistics published in 1980 after the end of the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards in Beijing killed a total of 1,772 people during Red August, while 33,695 homes were ransacked and 85,196 families were forcibly displaced. However, according to official statistics published in November 1985, the number of deaths in Beijing during Red August was 10,275. On August 18, 1966, Chairman Mao Zedong met with Song Binbin ,

1558-623: The Cultural Revolution Group , Mao launched the Revolution and said that bourgeois elements had infiltrated the government and society with the aim of restoring capitalism. Mao called on young people to bombard the headquarters , and proclaimed that "to rebel is justified". Mass upheaval began in Beijing with Red August in 1966. Many young people, mainly students, responded by forming cadres of Red Guards throughout

1640-758: The Five Black Categories . Intellectuals and scientists were considered to be the Stinking Old Ninth , and many were persecuted. The country's schools and universities were closed, and the National College Entrance Examination were cancelled. Over 10 million youth from urban areas were relocated under the Down to the Countryside Movement policy. In December 1978, Deng Xiaoping became

1722-730: The Nanjing Massacre conducted by the Japanese military during the Second Sino-Japanese War . On May 16, 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in mainland, China . On August 5, Bian Zhongyun , the first vice principal of the Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University , was beaten to death by a group of Red Guards —mostly her students—and became the first education worker in Beijing killed by

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1804-739: The United Nations and reneged on its pledge to supply China with a nuclear weapon. Mao publicly denounced revisionism in April 1960. Without pointing at the USSR, Mao criticized its Balkan ally, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia . In turn, the USSR criticized China's Balkan ally, the Party of Labour of Albania . In 1963, CCP began to denounce the USSR, publishing nine polemics. One was titled On Khrushchev's Phoney Communism and Historical Lessons for

1886-652: The fall of Lin Biao in 1971, the Gang of Four became influential in 1972, and the Revolution continued until Mao's death in 1976, soon followed by the arrest of the Gang of Four. The Cultural Revolution was characterized by violence and chaos across Chinese society, including a massacre in Guangxi that included acts of cannibalism , as well as massacres in Beijing, Inner Mongolia , Guangdong , Yunnan , and Hunan . Estimates of

1968-578: The " Three Represents " of Jiang Zemin , the Scientific Outlook on Development of Hu Jintao , and the Chinese Dream of Xi Jinping . Wang Huning , who took charge of the office in 2002, is seen as one of the main advisors of Xi Jinping. Administratively, the office is at the same level as a ministry of state. Its former head Wang Huning, has been a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party since 2012, and prior to that,

2050-599: The "16 May Notification", this document summarized Mao's ideological justification for CR. Initially kept secret, distributed only among high-ranking party members, it was later declassified and published in People's Daily on 17 May 1967. Effectively it implied that enemies of the Communist cause could be found within the Party: class enemies who "wave the red flag to oppose the red flag." The only way to identify these people

2132-425: The "Three Supports and Two Militaries" initiative, in which PLA troops were sent to schools and work units across the country to stabilize political tumult and end factional warfare. The three "Supports" were to "support the left", "support the interior", "support industry". The "two Militaries" referred to "military management" and "military training". The policy of supporting the left failed to define "leftists" at

2214-401: The "literary battle" against Peng raged, Mao fired Yang Shangkun —director of the party's General Office , an organ that controlled internal communications—making unsubstantiated charges. He installed loyalist Wang Dongxing , head of Mao's security detail. Yang's dismissal likely emboldened Mao's allies to move against their factional rivals. On 12 February 1966, the "Five Man Group" issued

2296-558: The Headquarters , rallying people to target the "command centre (i.e., Headquarters) of counterrevolution." Mao wrote that despite having undergone a communist revolution, a "bourgeois" elite was still thriving in "positions of authority" in the government and Party. Although no names were mentioned, this provocative statement has been interpreted as a direct indictment of the party establishment under Liu and Deng—the purported "bourgeois headquarters" of China. The personnel changes at

2378-625: The People's Republic of China, symbolically bringing the decades-long Chinese Civil War to a close. Remaining Republican forces fled to Taiwan , and continued to resist the People's Republic in various ways. Many soldiers of the Chinese Republicans were left in mainland China, and Mao Zedong launched the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries to eliminate these soldiers left behind, as well as elements of Chinese society viewed as potentially dangerous to Mao's new government. This

2460-712: The Plenum reflected a radical re-design of the party hierarchy. Liu and Deng kept their seats on the Politburo Standing Committee, but were sidelined from day-to-day party affairs. Lin Biao was elevated to become the CCP's number-two; Liu's rank went from second to eighth and was no longer Mao's heir apparent. Along with the top leadership losing power the entire national Party bureaucracy was purged. The extensive Organization Department , in charge of party personnel, virtually ceased to exist. The top officials in

2542-552: The Propaganda Department were sacked, with many of its functions folded into the CRG. The Little Red Book was the mechanism that led the Red Guards to commit to their objective as China's future. Quotes directly from Mao led to actions by the Red Guards in the views of other Maoist leaders. By December 1967, 350 million copies had been printed. One of these quotes was the famous line " Political power grows out of

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2624-550: The Red Guards burned 2.3 million books as well as 3.3 million paintings, art objects, and pieces of furniture. On August 22, 1966, Mao approved a document from the Ministry of Public Security , ordering "do not use police force—no exception—to intervene or suppress the movement of revolutionary students". On the following day, Mao gave a talk at a Work Conference of the Central Committee of CCP , publicly supporting

2706-472: The Red Guards. There has been comparison between the date "18 August 1966", which was the key point during Red August, and the Kristallnacht , which was the prelude of Nazi Germany 's Holocaust . Moreover, Red August along with the subsequent massacres across China during the Cultural Revolution has also been compared to the Nanjing Massacre conducted by the Japanese military during

2788-537: The Red Guards. On August 18, 1966, Mao Zedong met with Song Binbin , a leader of the Red Guards, atop Tiananmen of Beijing . Mao asked Song Binbin whether the "Bin" in her given name was the same Chinese character as that in Chinese Chengyu "Wen Zhi Bin Bin (文质彬彬)"; upon receiving confirmation, Mao commented that, “Yao Wu Ma (要武嘛)”, meaning "be valiant" or "(you'd) better fight". After this meeting,

2870-624: The Soviet Union would assist "genuine communists" who overthrew Mao and his "erroneous course". Chinese leadership also feared the increasing military conflict between the United States and North Vietnam , concerned that China's support would lead to the United States to seek out potential Chinese assets. In 1963, Mao launched the Socialist Education Movement , the Cultural Revolution's precursor. Mao set

2952-477: The USSR. In 1956, Khrushchev denounced his predecessor Josef Stalin and his policies , and began implementing economic reforms . Mao and many other CCP members opposed these changes, believing that they would damage the worldwide communist movement. Mao believed that Khrushchev was a revisionist , altering Marxist–Leninist concepts, which Mao claimed would give capitalists control of the USSR. Relations soured. The USSR refused to support China's case for joining

3034-646: The World , in which Mao charged that Khrushchev was a revisionist and risked capitalist restoration. Khrushchev's defeat by an internal coup d'état in 1964 contributed to Mao's fears, mainly because of his declining prestige after the Great Leap Forward. Other Soviet actions increased concerns about potential fifth columnists . As a result of the tensions following the Sino-Soviet split, Soviet leaders authorized radio broadcasts into China stating that

3116-523: The [party] Centre. Why is it impermissible to oppose K? I have issued a big character poster myself, ' Bombard the Headquarters !' Some problems have to be settled soon. For instance, the workers, peasants, and soldiers should not interfere with the students' great Cultural Revolution. Let the students go into the street. What is wrong with their writing big-character posters or going into the street? Let foreigners take pictures. They take shots to show aspects of our backward tendencies. But it does not matter. Let

3198-461: The barrel of a gun ." The passage continues: Revolutionary war is an antitoxin which not only eliminates the enemy's poison but also purges us of our filth. Every just, revolutionary war is endowed with tremendous power and can transform many things or clear the way for their transformation. The Sino-Japanese war will transform both China and Japan; Provided China perseveres in the War of Resistance and in

3280-575: The bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the Party, the government, the army, and various spheres of culture are a bunch of counter-revolutionary revisionists. Once conditions are ripe, they will seize political power and turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Some of them we have already seen through; others we have not. Some are still trusted by us and are being trained as our successors, persons like Khrushchev for example, who are still nestling beside us. Later known as

3362-417: The class suspension nationwide. By early June, throngs of young demonstrators lined the capital's major thoroughfares holding giant portraits of Mao, beating drums, and shouting slogans. When the dismissal of Peng and the municipal party leadership became public in early June, confusion was widespread. The public and foreign missions were kept in the dark on the reason for Peng's ousting. Top Party leadership

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3444-454: The conference, Liu, once a powerful moderate pundit, was placed under house arrest, then sent to a detention camp, where he was denied medical treatment and died in 1969. Deng was sent away for a period of re-education three times and was eventually sent to work in an engine factory in Jiangxi . Rebellion by party cadres accelerated after the conference. In Macau , rioting broke out during

3526-463: The country. A selection of Mao's sayings were compiled into the Little Red Book , which became revered within his cult of personality . In 1967, emboldened radicals began seizing power from local governments and party branches, establishing new revolutionary committees in their place. These committees often split into rival factions, precipitating armed clashes among the radicals . After

3608-639: The death toll vary widely, typically ranging from 1–2 million. Red Guards sought to destroy the Four Olds (old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits), which often took the form of destroying historical artifacts, cultural and religious sites, and targeting others deemed to be representative of the Four Olds. Tens of millions were persecuted, including senior officials: most notably, president Liu Shaoqi , as well as Deng Xiaoping , Peng Dehuai , and He Long . Millions were persecuted for being members of

3690-709: The defensive. Peng, Wu Han's direct superior, was the head of the Five Man Group , a committee commissioned by Mao to study the potential for a cultural revolution. Peng Zhen, aware that he would be implicated if Wu indeed wrote an "anti-Mao" play, wished to contain Yao's influence. Yao's article was initially published only in select local newspapers. Peng forbade its publication in the nationally distributed People's Daily and other major newspapers under his control, instructing them to write exclusively about "academic discussion", and not pay heed to Yao's petty politics. While

3772-591: The founding of the People's Republic of China. During this period, the term was used interchangeably with "cultural construction" and referred to eliminating illiteracy in order to widen public participation in civic matters. This usage of "cultural revolution" continued through the 1950s and into the 1960s, and often involved drawing parallels to the May Fourth Movement or the Soviet cultural revolution of 1928–1931. On 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong declared

3854-522: The imperialists make a scandal about us. On August 26, Xie Fuzhi , the Minister of Ministry of Public Security , also ordered to protect the Red Guards and not arrest them, claiming that it was not incorrect for the Red Guards to beat "bad people" and it was fine if the "bad people" were killed. On the next day, Daxing Massacre broke out in the Daxing District of Beijing . And in his subsequent meetings with top public security officials from different provinces, Xie reiterated his point of view that

3936-577: The killings made by Red Guards were not public security issues and it would be a mistake if the public security was to arrest the Red Guards. By the end of August 1966, the situation had grown out of control, forcing the Central Committee of CCP and the Chinese government to take multiple interventions, which gradually brought the massacres to an end. On September 5, People's Daily published an article ( 用文斗, 不用武斗 ) calling for an end to

4018-430: The mental outlook of the whole of society. At present, our objective is to struggle against and overthrow those persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road, to criticize and repudiate the reactionary bourgeois academic "authorities" and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes and to transform education, literature and art and all other parts of the superstructure not in correspondence with

4100-537: The morale of the Red Guards was significantly boosted, triggering their massive slaughter in Beijing. In particular, on August 25, 1966, thousands of Red Guards started a week-long massacre in Langan Market ( 榄杆市 ) of the Chongwen District . At the same time, Red Guards launched a nationwide campaign to destroy the " Four Olds ". In Beijing alone, a total of 4,922 historic sites were ruined, and

4182-529: The most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the people, the country, and the party since the founding of the People's Republic." Given its broad scope and social impact, memories and perspectives of the Cultural Revolution are varied and complex in contemporary China. It is often referred to as the "ten years of chaos" ( 十年动乱 ; shí nián dòngluàn ) or "ten years of havoc" ( 十年浩劫 ; shí nián hàojié ). The terminology of cultural revolution appeared in communist party discourses and newspapers prior to

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4264-521: The movement's most radical elements, fearing that the movement would spin out of control. In July, Mao, in Wuhan, crossed the Yangtze River, showing his vigor. He then returned from Wuhan to Beijing and criticized party leadership for its handling of the work-teams issue. Mao accused the work teams of undermining the student movement, calling for their full withdrawal on July 24. Several days later

4346-621: The new paramount leader of China , replacing Mao's successor Hua Guofeng . Deng and his allies introduced the Boluan Fanzheng program and initiated reforms and opening of China , which, together with the New Enlightenment movement , gradually dismantled the ideology of Cultural Revolution. In 1981, the Communist Party publicly acknowledged numerous failures of the Cultural Revolution, declaring it "responsible for

4428-521: The party centre" and "some major speeches of central leaders." It also provides insights and research for party ideology and theories, as well as the feasibility of major policy initiatives. It is also to analyze and collect data on the state of the economy and send related recommendations to the party leadership. The office is composed of several departments, each overseeing politics, economics, "party-building", philosophy and history, culture, international affairs, general affairs, and rural affairs. In 2007,

4510-524: The party leadership. On 1 August, the Eleventh Plenum of the 8th Central Committee was convened to advance Mao's radical agenda. At the plenum, Mao showed disdain for Liu, repeatedly interrupting him as he delivered his opening day speech. On July 28, Red Guard representatives wrote to Mao, calling for rebellion and upheaval to safeguard the revolution. Mao then responded to the letters by writing his own big-character poster entitled Bombard

4592-435: The political movement of the 1950s that squarely targeted intellectuals, the new movement was focused on established party cadres, many of whom were part of the work teams. As a result, the work teams came under increasing suspicion as thwarting revolutionary fervor. Party leadership subsequently became divided over whether or not work teams should continue. Liu Shaoqi insisted on continuing work-team involvement and suppressing

4674-532: The press. Mao delivered his final blow to Peng at a high-profile Politburo meeting through loyalists Kang Sheng and Chen Boda . They accused Peng of opposing Mao, labeled the February Outline "evidence of Peng Zhen's revisionism", and grouped him with three other disgraced officials as part of the "Peng-Luo-Lu-Yang Anti-Party Clique". On 16 May, the Politburo formalized the decisions by releasing an official document condemning Peng and his "anti-party allies" in

4756-511: The radicals who backed Mao's purge of the Communist party, and the conservatives who backed the moderate party establishment. The "support the left" policy was established in January 1967. Mao's policy was to support the rebels in seizing power; it required the PLA to support "the broad masses of the revolutionary leftists in their struggle to seize power." In March 1967, the policy was adapted into

4838-557: The realms of culture and religion. Historical sites throughout the country were destroyed. The damage was particularly pronounced in the capital, Beijing. Red Guards laid siege to the Temple of Confucius in Qufu , and other historically significant tombs and artifacts. Libraries of historical and foreign texts were destroyed; books were burned. Temples, churches, mosques, monasteries, and cemeteries were closed and sometimes converted to other uses, or looted and destroyed. Marxist propaganda depicted Buddhism as superstition, and religion

4920-401: The reorganization of the centre of the [Youth] League; let us wait four months. Decisions taken hurriedly can do only harm. Work teams were dispatched in a hurry; the left was struggled against in a hurry; meetings of 100,000 were called in a hurry; appeals were issued in a hurry; opposition to the new municipal [party] committee of Peking was said, in a hurry, to be tantamount to an opposition to

5002-447: The same day. In Heilongjiang, local party secretary Pan Fusheng seized power from the party organization under his own leadership. Some leaders even wrote the CRG asking to be overthrown. Red August Red August ( simplified Chinese : 红八月 ; traditional Chinese : 紅八月 ; pinyin : Hóng Bāyuè ) is a term used to indicate a period of political violence and massacres in Beijing beginning in August 1966, during

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5084-408: The scene by " cleansing " powerful Beijing officials of questionable loyalty. His approach was not transparent, executed via newspaper articles, internal meetings, and by his network of political allies. In late 1959, historian and deputy mayor of Beijing Wu Han published a historical drama entitled Hai Rui Dismissed from Office . In the play, an honest civil servant , Hai Rui , is dismissed by

5166-435: The situation had begun to spiral out of control by the end of August 1966, forcing the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chinese government to take multiple interventions which gradually brought the massacres to an end. Red August is considered the origin of the Red Terror in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It has also been compared with Nazi Germany 's Kristallnacht , as well as with

5248-439: The socialist economic base, so as to facilitate the consolidation and development of the socialist system. The implications of the Sixteen Points were far-reaching. It elevated what was previously a student movement to a nationwide mass campaign that would galvanize workers, farmers, soldiers and lower-level party functionaries to rise, challenge authority, and re-shape the superstructure of society. On 18 August in Beijing, over

5330-572: The strongest terms, disbanding his "Five Man Group", and replacing it with the Maoist Cultural Revolution Group (CRG). The Cultural Revolution can be divided into two main periods: The early phase was characterized by mass movement and political pluralization. Virtually anyone could create a political organization, even without party approval. Known as Red Guards, these organizations originally arose in schools and universities and later in factories and other institutions. After 1968, most of these organizations ceased to exist, although their legacies were

5412-419: The student movement and opposing any intervention to the "Cultural Revolution of students": In my view, Peking is not all that chaotic. The students held a meeting of 100,000 and then captured the murderers. This caused some panic. Peking is too gentle. Appeals have been issued, [but after all] there are very few hooligans. Stop interfering for the time being. It is still too early to say anything definite about

5494-522: The surface, incredible industrialization, but also caused some of the worst famines in modern history, while still falling short of projected goals. The Great Leap Forward soon came to be seen as one of Mao's greatest mistakes, eventually costing him some of his official status in the Communist Party . In the early 1950s, the PRC and the Soviet Union (USSR) were the world's two largest communist states. Although initially they were mutually supportive, disagreements arose after Nikita Khrushchev took power in

5576-426: The time the main secretary to then-party leader Zhao Ziyang . Bao was later purged along with his boss, when Zhao fell out of favour after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre . In that year, the Political Reform Office was merged with the "Central Rural Research Office", after which it took on its current name. The office was a major force behind crafting the ideologies of three successive administrations:

5658-413: The travel expenses of Red Guards. At the rallies, Lin called for the destruction of the "Four Olds"; namely, old customs, culture, habits, and ideas. Some changes associated with the "Four Olds" campaign were mainly benign, such as assigning new names to city streets, places, and even people; millions of babies were born with "revolutionary" names. Other aspects were more destructive, particularly in

5740-415: The united front, the old Japan will surely be transformed into a new Japan and the old China into a new China, and people and everything else in both China and Japan will be transformed during and after the war. The world is yours, as well as ours, but in the last analysis, it is yours. You young people, full of vigor and vitality, are in the bloom of life, like the sun at eight or nine in the morning. Our hope

5822-414: The victims were teachers who were attacked or killed by their own students. The first such victim was Bian Zhongyun , the deputy principal of Beijing Normal University Female Middle School , who was killed on 5 August by Red Guards following several hours of physical abuse and public humiliation. The leader of the Red Guards, who had organised on campus only days prior, was 19-year-old Song Binbin , who

5904-422: The violent combat and massacres. Nevertheless, millions of Red Guards continued to arrive in Beijing to see Mao Zedong at Tiananmen Square on several occasions, including September 15, October 1 and so on. During Red August, killing methods by the Red Guards included beating, torture, whipping, strangling, trampling, boiling, beheading and so on. In particular, the method used to kill most infants and children

5986-476: The way for disorder in the capital. On 25 May, under the guidance of Cao Yi'ou  [ zh ] —wife of Mao loyalist Kang Sheng— Nie Yuanzi , a philosophy lecturer at Peking University , authored a big-character poster along with other leftists and posted it to a public bulletin. Nie attacked the university's party administration and its leader Lu Ping. Nie insinuated that the university leadership, much like Peng, were trying to contain revolutionary fervor in

6068-531: Was alleged to have participated personally in the murder of Bian. At a mass rally held on 18 August, Song met Mao, and gifted him a Red Guard armband by tying it around his arm. In September, Shanghai experienced 704 suicides and 534 deaths; in Wuhan, 62 suicides and 32 murders occurred during the same period. Peng Dehuai was brought to Beijing to be publicly ridiculed. Between August and November 1966, eight mass rallies were held, drawing in 12 million people, most of whom were Red Guards. The government bore

6150-479: Was caught off guard by the sudden protest wave and struggled with how to respond. After seeking Mao's guidance in Hangzhou , Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping decided to send in 'work teams'—effectively 'ideological guidance' squads of cadres—to the city's schools and People's Daily to restore some semblance of order and re-establish party control. The work teams had a poor understanding of student sentiment. Unlike

6232-703: Was filmed and shown to approximately 100 million people in its first month of release. On 22 August, a central directive was issued to prevent police intervention in Red Guard activities, and those in the police force who defied this notice were labeled counter-revolutionaries. Central officials lifted restraints on violent behavior. Xie Fuzhi , the national police chief, often pardoned Red Guards for their "crimes". The campaign included incidents of torture, murder, and public humiliation. Many people who were indicted as counter-revolutionaries died by suicide. During Red August, 1,772 people were murdered in Beijing; many of

6314-491: Was knocking them against the ground or slicing them in half. Red August of Beijing is regarded as the origin of Red Terror in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, instigating Red Guards' movement in multiple cities including Shanghai , Guangzhou , Nanjing and Xiamen , where local political leaders, intellectuals, teachers and members of the Five Black Categories were persecuted and even killed by

6396-467: Was looked upon as a means of hostile foreign infiltration, as well as an instrument of the ruling class. Clergy were arrested and sent to camps; many Tibetan Buddhists were forced to participate in the destruction of their monasteries at gunpoint. In October 1966, Mao convened a "Central Work Conference", mostly to enlist party leaders who had not yet adopted the latest ideology. Liu and Deng were prosecuted and begrudgingly offered self-criticism. After

6478-460: Was one of the earliest examples of mass arrests, detainments, and killings across all of China that would later be mirrored in the Cultural Revolution. The Great Leap Forward, similar to the Five-year plans of the Soviet Union , was Mao Zedong's proposal to make the newly created People's Republic of China an industrial superpower. Beginning in 1958, the Great Leap Forward did produce, at least on

6560-470: Was the first provincial level government overthrown. Provincial governments and many parts of the state and party bureaucracy were affected, with power seizures taking place. In the next three weeks, 24 more province-level governments were overthrown. "Revolutionary committees" were subsequently established, in place of local governments and branches of the Communist Party. For example, in Beijing, three separate revolutionary groups declared power seizures on

6642-537: Was through "the telescope and microscope of Mao Zedong Thought ." While the party leadership was relatively united in approving Mao's agenda, many Politburo members were not enthusiastic, or simply confused about the direction. The charges against party leaders such as Peng disturbed China's intellectual community and the eight non-Communist parties . After the purge of Peng Zhen, the Beijing Party Committee effectively ceased to function, paving

6724-542: Was to preserve Chinese socialism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society . Though it failed to achieve its main objectives, the Cultural Revolution marked the effective return of Mao to the center of power in China after his political sidelining , in the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward and the Great Chinese Famine . In May 1966, with the help of

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