“Cultural Revolution”

A nationwide political movement initiated and led by Mao Zedong. The “Cultural Revolution”, which lasted ten years between May 1966 to October 1976, was a civil strife that was wrongly launched by the leaders and exploited by the counter-revolutionary careerist cliques, which brought serious disasters to the Party, the country and the people of all nationalities, and caused the most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the state and the people since the founding of New China. Mao Zedong's subjective desire behind launching the “Cultural Revolution” was to resist the imperialist attempts for "peaceful evolution" of China towards capitalism, to eliminate the various phenomena related bureaucratism and the privilege demanding mindset and so forth, and to prevent the restoration of domestic capitalism, to find a way for the people to participate in the supervision and management of state affairs. Since the founding of New China, Mao Zedong had made several attempts to realize this desire.

However, in the mid-1960s, under the guidance of "taking class struggle as the key link", Mao Zedong made a serious mistake in estimating the situation of class struggle in the country and the political situation of the Party and the country at that time, and even thought that "revisionism was emerged from the Central Committee", and that the whole country was facing the real danger of capitalist restoration, therefore, carrying out the “Cultural Revolution” and mobilizing the masses openly, comprehensively and from the bottom up to expose the above-mentioned dark side was seen as the only way to regain the power usurped by the "capitalist faction in the central government".

The process of the “Cultural Revolution” can be divided into three stages: (1) from its launch in May 1966 to the Ninth National Congress of the CPC in April 1969. This stage centered on the destruction of the so-called "bourgeois headquarters" and the call on the whole country for carrying out a national struggle for power. The Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee in May 1966 and the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee in August 1966 marked the launching of the “Cultural Revolution” in an all-round way. At this time, the individual leadership with “Left” deviationist mistakes actually replaced the collective leadership of the Central Committee. Lin Biao, Jiang Qing and Kang Sheng took the opportunity to incite "overthrow everything and fight a civil war in an all-round way", which caused serious turmoil throughout the country. Around February 1967, leading figures of the Political Bureau and the Military Commission, such as Tan Zhenlin, Chen Yi, Ye Jianying, Li Fuchun, Li Xiannian, Xu Xiangqian and Nie Rongzhen, strongly criticized the erroneous practices of the “Cultural Revolution” and they were subsequently repressed and attacked as "February Countercurrent". The Ninth National Congress of the CPC legitimized the erroneous theory and practice of the “Cultural Revolution”, and strengthened the position of Lin Biao, Jiang Qing and Kang Sheng in the Party Central Committee.

(2) From the Ninth National Congress of the Party to the Tenth National Congress of the Party in August 1973. This stage centered on the struggle of the Party against Lin Biao's counter-revolutionary clique. From 1970 to 1971, Lin Biao's counter-revolutionary clique conspired to seize supreme power and instigate a counter-revolutionary coup d'etat by its control on the armed forces. This was the bad result of the “Cultural Revolution” which overthrew a series of basic principles of the Party, and it objectively revealed the falsity behind the theory and practice of the “Cultural Revolution”. Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai wisely suppressed this coup plot. With the support of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai presided over the daily work of the Central Committee and began to take a new turn, but the situation was reversed again when Zhou Enlai's correct opinion to criticize the extreme “Left” trend of thought was rejected.

The Tenth National Congress of the CPC continued the “Left” mistakes of the Ninth National Congress, which strengthened the power of the Jiang Qing’s counter-revolutionary clique.

(3) From the Tenth National Congress of the Party to October 1976.

This stage was centered on the struggle of the Party and the people against the Jiang Qing’s counter-revolutionary clique.

In 1974, Mao Zedong first approved the “Criticize Lin (Biao), Criticize Confucius” campaign, and after discovering that Jiang Qing and others were usurping power, he severely criticized them, pointing out that they were the “Gang of Four” and that Jiang Qing had the ambition towards being the chairman of the Party Central Committee and to manipulate the "formation of cabinets".

In 1975, with the support of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping was selected to preside over the daily work of the Central Committee and carried out a comprehensive Rectification of all fronts, which led to a significant improvement in the situation. However, Mao Zedong could not tolerate Deng Xiaoping's systematic correction of the mistakes of the “Cultural Revolution” and launched the so-called " Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts” campaign, which plunged the whole country into chaos again.

Zhou Enlai died in January 1976. In April, a powerful nationwide protest was launched to mourn Premier Zhou and denounce the “Gang of Four”, represented by the Tian’anmen Square Incident, expressing the voices of the masses. In September 1976, Mao Zedong passed away. Jiang Qing clique intensified its conspirative activities to seize the supreme power of the Party and the state. On October 6, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee suppressed the Jiang Qing’s counterrevolutionary clique in a single blow smoothly and brought the “Cultural Revolution” to the end. Mao Zedong launched the “Cultural Revolution” out of the consideration of avoiding a capitalist restoration, but he misjudged the actual situation in China and adopted the wrong method, which led to a tragedy; which was a mistake made by a great Marxist in his quest to find a better way in building socialism.

In this historical period, Mao Zedong still led the whole Party and the people, upheld the basic system of socialism and the people's democratic dictatorship, maintained the unity of the Party and the country, remained vigilant in safeguarding the security of the country, and made great achievements in diplomacy. During this decade, the Party and the country experienced major setbacks and suffered serious losses in economic construction. However, thanks to Mao Zedong's efforts to curb the interruptions and sabotages masterminded by Lin Biao and the “Gang of Four” to a certain extent, and thanks to Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and other revolutionaries from the older generation who have worked hard to reverse the negative current and with the hard work of the whole nation, the construction of the national economy also developed to a certain extent, and breakthroughs were made in national defense, science and technology and diplomacy in this turbulent decade.

The damage caused by the “Cultural Revolution” to the Party, the state and the people were enormous, and the lessons it provided were extremely painful and profound. However, the CPC survived despite these mistakes and setbacks, on the contrary, it was able to learn from these mistakes it made, and eventually rely on its own strength and the support and help of the people, it completely corrected the mistakes, and put the work of the Party and the state back on the right track. This fact proves that the CPC, as a Marxist political party responsible to the people, has the ability to purify itself and is capable of self-development.