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100-397: The principles include: Such principles marked a relaxation of control over ideology. In stating the four cardinal principles, an implication was that these four topics could not be questioned, but political ideas other than those in the list could be debated. Moreover, while the principles themselves are not subject to debate, the interpretations of those principles are. On the other hand,

200-513: 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

300-567: 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

400-603: 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

500-411: 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

600-418: 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

700-583: A position he held until the second NPC in 1959. From 1956 until his downfall in 1966, he ranked as the First Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party . Liu's work focused on party organizational and theoretical affairs. He drafted party regulations and oversaw the organizational development of the party consistent with Marxist-Leninist principles. He was an orthodox Soviet-style Communist and favored state planning and

800-600: 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

900-490: 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

1000-427: 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

1100-506: 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

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1200-717: 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,

1300-504: A total of 40 group consultations by top medical professionals regarding the treatment of this disease. Liu was closely monitored on a daily basis by a medical team, and they made the best effort given the adverse circumstances. He died in prison from complications due to diabetes at 6:45 a.m. on 12 November 1969 under a pseudonym in Kaifeng , and was cremated the next day. In February 1980, two years after Deng Xiaoping came to power,

1400-637: 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

1500-482: 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

1600-623: 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

1700-758: 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

1800-710: The Gulf of Tonkin Incident , Liu and his colleagues changed their views and began fully supporting the Third Front construction. By 1966, few senior leaders in China questioned the need for a widespread reform to combat the growing problems of corruption and bureaucratization within the Party and the government. With the goal of reforming the government to be more efficient and true to the Communist ideal, Liu himself chaired

1900-944: The May Thirtieth Movement . After the Chinese Civil War began in 1927, he was assigned by the CCP to work in Shanghai and Northeast China , and travelled to the Jiangxi Soviet in 1932. He participated in the Long March , and was appointed as the Party Secretary in North China in 1936 to lead anti-Japanese resistance efforts in the area. During the Second Sino-Japanese War , Liu led the CCP's Central Plains Bureau. After

2000-676: The New Fourth Army incident in 1941, Liu became a political commissar of the New Fourth Army . After Liu returned to Yan'an in 1943, he became a secretary of the CCP Secretariat and a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. After the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Liu became a vice chairman of the Central People's Government . After the establishment of

2100-507: The Seven Thousand Cadres Conference , indicating that Liu's later persecution was the result of a power struggle that went beyond the goals and well-being of either China or the Party. Liu was among the senior officials who in 1964 were initially reluctant to support Mao's proposed Third Front campaign to develop basic industry and national defense industry in China's interior to address the risk of invasion by

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2200-739: 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

2300-652: 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

2400-542: 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

2500-425: 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

2600-401: 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

2700-498: The 120th anniversary of the birth of Liu Shaoqi. Liu Shaoqi's legacy remains controversial in China. While his role in the Chinese Revolution and early economic reforms is acknowledged, his persecution during the Cultural Revolution and the subsequent suffering highlight the complexities of his political career. Liu's pragmatic approach to economic policy is now seen as a precursor to the reforms that transformed China in

2800-455: The CCP who had voiced any hesitation in following Mao's direction, including Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, were removed from their posts almost immediately and, with their families, subjected to mass criticism and humiliation. Liu and Deng, along with many others, were denounced as " capitalist roaders ". Liu was labeled as the "commander of China's bourgeoisie headquarters", China's foremost " capitalist-roader ", "the biggest capitalist roader in

2900-435: The Chinese Revolution and the early development of the People's Republic of China were significant and positive. Following the conclusion of the rehabilitation ceremony, Liu's ashes were scattered off the coast of the city of Qingdao in accordance to wishes he made prior to his death. On 23 November 2018, the CCP's general secretary Xi Jinping delivered a speech in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to commemorate

3000-500: The Communist base at Yan'an ; in 1941, he became a political commissar of the New Fourth Army . He was elected as one of five CCP Secretaries at the Seventh Party Congress in 1945. In a report following the 7th Congress, Liu articulated four "mass points" to be instilled in every party member: "everything for the masses; full responsibility to the masses; faith in the self-emancipation of the masses; and learning from

3100-562: The Fifth Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued the "Resolution on the Rehabilitation of Comrade Liu Shaoqi". The resolution fully rehabilitated Liu, declaring his ouster to be unjust and removing the labels of "renegade, traitor and scab" that had been attached to him at the time of his death. It also declared him to be "a great Marxist and proletarian revolutionary" and recognized him as one of

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3200-478: The Great Leap Forward's failures highlighted the ideological rift between him and Mao. After Mao succeeded in restoring his prestige during the 1960s, Liu's eventual downfall became "inevitable". Liu's position as the second-most powerful leader of the CCP contributed to Mao's rivalry with him at least as much as Liu's political beliefs or factional allegiances in the 1960s, especially during and after

3300-558: 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

3400-470: The National People's Congress in 1954, Liu was elected as the chairman of its Standing Committee. In 1959, he succeeded Mao Zedong as the chairman of the People's Republic of China. During his chairmanship, he implemented policies of economic reconstruction in China, especially after the Seven Thousand Cadres Conference in 1962. Liu was publicly named as Mao's chosen successor in 1961. However, he

3500-530: The Party", and a traitor to the revolution; he was displaced as Vice Chairman of the CCP by Lin Biao in July 1966. By 1967, Liu and his wife Wang Guangmei were placed under house arrest in Beijing. Liu's major economic positions were attacked, including his "three freedoms and one guarantee" (which promoted private land plots, free markets, independent accounting for small enterprises, and household output quotas) and "four freedoms" (which permitted individuals in

3600-612: The People's Republic of China and were enshrined in Constitution of the People's Republic of China in 1982. 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

3700-625: 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

3800-663: 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

3900-611: 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

4000-624: 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

4100-580: The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 1954 to 1959, first-ranking vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1956 to 1966, and the chairman of the People's Republic of China , the head of state from 1959 to 1968. He was considered to be a possible successor to Mao Zedong , but was purged during the Cultural Revolution . In his early years, Liu participated in labor movements in strikes, including

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4200-662: The Third Five Year Plan, Liu stated: In the past, the infrastructure battlefront was too long. There were too many projects. Demands were too high and rushed. Designs were done badly, and projects were hurriedly begun ... We only paid attention to increasing output and ignored quality. We set targets too highly. We must always remember these painful learning experiences. Liu was publicly acknowledged as Mao's chosen successor in 1961; however, by 1962 his opposition to Mao's policies had led Mao to mistrust him. Liu's advocacy for pragmatic economic reforms and his criticism of

4300-690: The Third and Fourth Plenums of the Sixth Central Committee, and was elected to the Central Executive Committee (i.e., Politburo) of the Chinese Soviet Republic in 1931 or 1932. Later in 1932, he left Shanghai and traveled to the Jiangxi Soviet . Liu became the Party Secretary of Fujian Province in 1932. He accompanied the Long March in 1934 at least as far as the crucial Zunyi Conference , but

4400-477: 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

4500-486: The United States or the Soviet Union. In an effort to stall, Liu proposed additional surveys and planning. Academic Covell F. Meyskens writes that Liu and the high-ranking colleagues who agreed with him did not want to engage in another rapid industrialization campaign so soon after the failure of the Great Leap Forward and that instead they sought to continue the gradual approach of developing areas and increasing consumption. When fears of American invasion increased after

4600-577: 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

4700-675: The Yangzi Valley and at Anyuan on the Jiangxi-Hunan border. In 1925, Liu became a member of the Guangzhou -based All-China Federation of Labor Executive Committee. During the next two years he led numerous political campaigns and strikes in Hubei and Shanghai. He worked with Li Lisan in Shanghai in 1925, organizing Communist activity following the May Thirtieth Movement . After his work in Shanghai, Liu traveled to Wuhan . He

4800-461: 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

4900-523: 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

5000-478: The campaign, particularly the widespread famine it caused. During the Lushan Conference in 1959, Liu emphasized the need for corrective measures and supported more moderate economic policies. At this Congress Liu stood together with Deng Xiaoping and Peng Zhen in support of Mao's policies against those who were more critical, such as Chen Yun and Zhou Enlai. As a result, Liu gained influence within

5100-417: 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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5200-454: 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

5300-463: 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

5400-538: The countryside to lease land, lend money, hire wage laborers, and engage in trade). Liu was removed from all his positions and expelled from the Party in October 1968. After his arrest, Liu disappeared from public view. At the Ninth Party Congress , Liu was denounced as a traitor and an enemy agent. Zhou Enlai read the Party verdict that Liu was "a criminal traitor, enemy agent and scab in the service of

5500-639: 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

5600-709: 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

5700-417: The development of heavy industry. He elaborated upon his political and economic beliefs in his writings. His best known works include How to be a Good Communist (1939), On the Party (1945), and Internationalism and Nationalism (1952). Liu spoke very strongly in favor of the Great Leap Forward at the Eighth CCP National Congress in May 1958. However, he later expressed concerns about the adverse effects of

5800-410: The enlarged Politburo meeting that officially began the Cultural Revolution . However, Liu and his political allies quickly lost control of the Cultural Revolution soon after it was called, when Mao used the movement to progressively monopolize political power and to destroy his perceived enemies. Whatever its other causes, the Cultural Revolution, declared in 1966, was overtly pro-Maoist, and gave Mao

5900-469: 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

6000-540: The imperialists, modern revisionists and the Kuomintang reactionaries". Liu's conditions did not improve after he was denounced in the Congress, and he died soon afterward. In a memoir written by Liu's principal physician, he disputed the alleged medical maltreatment of Liu during his last days. According to Dr. Gu Qihua, there was a dedicated medical team in charge of treating Liu's illness; between July 1968 and October 1969, Liu had seven total occurrences of pneumonia due to his deteriorating immune system, and there had been

6100-431: The late 20th century. Liu married five times, including to He Baozhen ( 何宝珍 ) and Wang Guangmei ( 王光美 ). His third wife, Xie Fei ( 谢飞 ), came from Wenchang , Hainan and was one of the few women on the 1934 Long March. His wife at the time of his death in 1969, Wang Guangmei, was thrown into prison by Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution; she was subjected to harsh conditions in solitary confinement for more than

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6200-430: The masses". After that Congress, he became the supreme leader of all Communist forces in Manchuria and northern China, a role frequently overlooked by historians. Liu became the Vice Chairman of the Central People's Government in 1949. In 1954 China adopted a new constitution at the first National People's Congress (NPC); at the Congress's first session, he was elected chairman of the Congress's Standing Committee ,

6300-430: 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

6400-529: 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

6500-406: 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

6600-426: 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

6700-459: 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

6800-515: The party. In April 1959, he succeeded Mao as Chairman of the People's Republic of China (Chinese President). However, Liu began to voice concern about the outcomes of the Great Leap in August 1959 Lushan Conference . To correct the mistakes of the Great Leap Forward, Liu and Deng Xiaoping led economic reforms that bolstered their prestige among the party apparatus and the national populace. The economic policies of Deng and Liu were notable for being more moderate than Mao's radical ideas. For example, in

6900-415: The period when the economic turmoil of the Great Leap Forward prompted the Party to delay the Third Five Year Plan , Liu led a group of high officials who worked to revive the economy through an increased role for markets, greater material incentives for workers, a lower rate of investment, a more moderate pace for developmental goals, and increased funding for consumer industries. During preliminary work on

7000-435: 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

7100-423: The power and influence to purge the Party of his political enemies at the highest levels of government. Along with closing China's schools and universities, and Mao's exhortations to young Chinese to randomly destroy old buildings, temples, and art, and to attack their teachers, school administrators, party leaders, and parents, the Cultural Revolution also increased Mao's prestige so much that entire villages adopted

7200-403: The practice of offering prayers to Mao before every meal. In both national politics and Chinese popular culture, Mao established himself as a demigod accountable to no one, purging any that he suspected of opposing him and directing the masses and Red Guards "to destroy virtually all state and party institutions". After the Cultural Revolution was announced, most of the most senior members of

7300-532: 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

7400-429: The principal leaders of the Party. Lin Biao was blamed for "concocting false evidence" against Liu, and for working with the Gang of Four to subject him to "political frame-up and physical persecution". In 1980, Liu was posthumously rehabilitated by the CCP under Deng Xiaoping. This rehabilitation included a formal apology from the government, acknowledging that Liu had been wrongly persecuted and that his contributions to

7500-640: The principles were proclaimed as a sign of adherence to the communist ideology, thus paving the secure way to reevaluation of the Cultural Revolution while preserving ideological stability and legitimacy of the CCP as a response to the Democracy Wall movement. The Four Cardinal Principles were emphasized in the 1981 Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of

7600-511: 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

7700-659: 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

7800-680: The rest of the North China Bureau, in Beijing. In the same year, he challenged Zhang Wentian on the Party's historical problems, criticizing the leftist errors after 1927, thus breaching the consensus reached at the Zunyi Conference that the Party line had been essentially correct. Liu ran the Central Plains Bureau in 1939; and, in 1941, the Central China Bureau. In 1937, Liu traveled to

7900-407: 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. Liu Shaoqi Liu Shaoqi ( pronounced [ljǒʊ ʂâʊtɕʰǐ] ; 24 November 1898 – 12 November 1969) was a Chinese revolutionary and politician. He was the chairman of

8000-408: 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

8100-503: 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

8200-660: 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

8300-695: 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

8400-413: 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

8500-415: 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

8600-414: 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

8700-476: 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

8800-583: The years following his death until he was posthumously rehabilitated by Deng Xiaoping 's government in 1980, as part of the Boluan Fanzheng period. Deng's government granted Liu a national memorial service. Liu was born into a moderately rich peasant family in Huaminglou, Ningxiang , Hunan province; his ancestral hometown is located at Jishui County , Jiangxi . He received a modern education, attending Ningxiang Zhusheng Middle School and

8900-583: 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

9000-606: Was briefly arrested in Changsha and then returned to Guangzhou to help organize the 16-month-long Canton–Hong Kong strike . He was elected to the Party's Central Committee in 1927 and was appointed to the head of its Labor Department. Liu returned to work at the Party headquarters in Shanghai in 1929 and was named Secretary of the Manchurian Party Committee in Fengtian . In 1930 and 1931 he attended

9100-479: 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

9200-418: Was criticized and then purged by Mao soon after the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, eventually being placed under house arrest in 1967. He was forced out of public life and was labelled the "commander of China's bourgeoisie headquarters", China's foremost " capitalist-roader ", and a traitor to the revolution. He died in prison in 1969 due to complications from diabetes . Liu was widely condemned in

9300-703: 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

9400-467: 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

9500-460: 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

9600-859: Was recommended to attend a class in Shanghai to prepare for studying in Russia . In 1920, he and Ren Bishi joined a Socialist Youth Corps; the next year, Liu was recruited to study at the Comintern's University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow . He joined the newly formed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1921. The next year he returned to China and, as secretary of the All-China Labor Syndicate, led several railway workers' strikes in

9700-535: 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

9800-479: Was then sent to the so-called "White Areas" (areas controlled by the Kuomintang ) to reorganize underground activities in northern China, centered around Beijing and Tianjin . He became Party Secretary in North China in 1936, leading the anti-Japanese movements in that area with the assistance of Peng Zhen , An Ziwen , Bo Yibo , Ke Qingshi , Liu Lantao , and Yao Yilin . In February 1937 he established, with

9900-537: 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

10000-542: 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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