*Liu Shaoqi
Head of state
Senior vice-chairman of CCP
*Deng Xiaoping
*Zhou Enlai
Chairman of the Party
Chairman of Central Military Commission
"Treated as a dead ancestor"
Lost influence in CCP Central Committee in 1959
Bases of support
People's Liberation Army
Peng Dehuai’s criticism, 1959
Removed as Minister of Defense, 1959
Minister of Defense, 1959-
Lin Biao
Personal Popularity
Minister of Defense, Lin Biao
Political department of the PLA
Quotations of Chairman Mao
1 billion copies, 1964-7
Propaganda Poster: “Soldiers love reading Chairman Mao’s books the most” (Skaff modified translation, 1966)
Mao buttons, songs and dances
School curriculum
1) Attack "4 olds" (New Culture Movement)
Old customs, habits, culture, and thinking
Propaganda Poster: “Criticize the old world and build a new world with Mao Zedong Thought as a weapon” (1966)
2) Overthrow "capitalist roaders" within Party
Reinvigorate political consciousness of people
Frustrated with "bourgeois ideology"
Regain unchallenged authority
“The Cultural Revolution was a campaign to destroy [Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping]" (Dr. Li Zhisui, The Private Life of Chairman Mao (NY: Random House, 1994), p. 470.)
Under house arrest, November 1966
Purged as "capitalist roader...renegade, traitor, scab" and agent of GMD, Oct. 1968
Died 1969
Founded April 1966
*Jiang Qing (Madame Mao)
*Red Guards, August 1966
Schools closed, Fall 1966
Red Guard attacks on "rightists"
Youth "Seek experiences”
How did Jung Chang travel the country and visit Beijing (chapter 18)?
“With the euphoria, fear, excitement, and tension that gripped the country, violence grew apace.” (Spence, p. 545)
“The whole country was like a pressure cooker,” Wild Swans, p. 326 (1st ed.) or p. 335 (2nd ed.)
Red Guard Factionalism
Ex: 26 August vs. Red Chengdu, Wild Swans, ch. 19
Following "the true will of Chairman Mao"
Campaign to find “capitalist roaders”
Central government loses control