After the truly catastrophic failures of Mao Zedong's attempt at central planning and control called The Great Leap Forward in which twenty to forty million people in north central China died of starvation Mao withdrew from active rule and left Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping to guide the economy to recovery.

Pronunciation of names
q=ch, x=sh, zh=sound in measure and treasure
Liu Shaoqi = Lyoo Shou chee
Zhou Enlai = Zhoh En Lahy
Deng Xiaoping = Dung Shou ping

All had been loyal Maoists but they no longer believed in the brand of radical fervor that Mao advocated. Under the new leadership there was a shift to an emphasis on expertise rather than ideological purity. There is some evidence, according to Harrison Salisbury, that Mao made a formal agreement with the three that he would give them free rein to bring about a recovery of the economy and that he would stay out of government and politics for five years.

Mao Zedong

In 1966, after spending years studying political economy and the classics of Chinese history, Mao was ready to act. Mao was disillusioned with the revisionist direction that the Communist Party was taking in the Soviet Union and saw China probably heading in the same direction. He gathered a bloc of radicals to aid him in his attack on the leadership of the Communist Party. These included:

• Jiang Qing, Mao's wife
• Lin Biao, the Minister of Defense
• Chen Boda
• Kang Sheng
• Wang Dongxing, commander of Mao's bodyguard

Jiang Qing	" Lin Bao
Chen Boda	Wang Dongxing	Kang Sheng

before her days of radical chic

Jiang Qing

in her later years

Jiang Qing

Premier Zhou Enlai was not one of the radicals but he always deferred to and supported Mao.

Lin Biao was a factor in the power struggle but he was separate from the radicals and from the moderates. He was working toward his own eventual rise to supreme power. For material on Lin Biao's career see Lin Biao.

Lin Biao

Mao realized that it would not be easy to purge the Communist Party of its leaders. One misstep on his part and the leadership could effectively imprison him in some isolated palace and continue to rule in his name. It would take a social upheaval to keep the leadership disoriented and unsure of what actions to take. Although the Cultural Revolution was a disaster for China it was a brilliant piece of guerilla action on Mao's part in the power struggle he instigated.

In 1966 Mao staged a media event to indicate that he was still vigorous at 72 years of age and ready to resume leadership in China. It was a swim in the Changjiang (Yangtze River).

Mao Zedong
swimming (sort of)
in the Changjiang
(Yangtze River)

Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in August of 1966 at a Plenum of the Central Committee when he called for Red Guards to challenge Communist Party officials for their bourgeoisness and lack of revolutionary zeal. Articles in Party newspapers preceding this official launching introduced the concept of the Cultural Revolution.

Schools were closed to free students to join the Red Guards. The movement escalated but it also splintered into factions, all claiming fervent devotion to Chairman Mao. Mao promoted, or at least sanctioned, a personality cult that exceeded that created for Joseph Stalin. Lin Biao was a major influence in the creation of the personaliy cult for Mao.

The Team of Three

Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping

Mao first engineered the ousting of Liu Shaoqi from power. Liu was imprisoned and beaten. In 1968 he was taken to a solitary prison where he died sick and alone. Deng Xiaoping was removed from top offices but not imprisoned. He was sent to a remote factory to work as a machinist, a skilled he learned in France during his student days.

Deng as a student

Deng and his wife could communicate in their apartment only through written notes because their living quarters were bugged.

Deng as mature leader

Zhou Enlai remained in power but with waning influence over political events.

 
Defense Minister Lin Biao ordered the military to support the Cultural Revolution but disorder was emerging as different factions of the Red Guard and other radical movements fought each other for control of areas. In some cases these battles of the Red Guards and other elements of the Cultural Revolution involved fifty thousand people and were full scale military operations. When there occurred signs of impatience among the military in 1967 with the disorder of the Cultural Revolution, Mao ordered the military to suppress the movement. In 1968 Mao sent the Red Guards and other young people to the countryside supposedly for re-education by the peasants but in actuality simply to suppress the social disorder of the Cultural Revolution.

The turmoil and disruptions of the Cultural Revolution led to a decline in industrial production of 12 percent between 1966 and 1968.

Mao and his group of radicals were still in control of the government. Liu Shaoqi, the head of government of China, was deposed in 1968, beaten and tortured and died in 1969. In 1969 Lin Biao was officially designated as Mao's successor. Lin was the major creator of the personality cult of Mao. It was Lin who had the little Red Book of Mao's sayings printed up and distributed in the millions throughout China. Lin was the arch sycophant of all time.

Lin Biao as Minister of Defense instituted martial law in response to military clashes between Chinese and Soviet troops on the northern border at the Amur River (Heileongjiang, "Black Dragon River" in Chinese). Some feel that Lin Biao instigated these border clashes to give himself an excuse to declare martial law and enhance his control of the country.

Lin's actions prompted anxieties not only among those opposing Mao's radical group but even within the radical group. Mao's wife Jiang Qing opposed Lin but Chen Boda supported him. Mao purged Chen Boda in 1970 and in 1971 Lin Biao was killed when his airplane crashed in Mongolia while he was attempting to flee the country, apparently heading for the Soviet Union. Lin's choosing of the Soviet Union as the destination of his flight indicated that he did not see the Soviet Union as an implacable enemy that had been attacking China. Instead it indicates that Lin instigated the border clashes in order to declare a state of military alert that enhanced his power.

Lin was accused of plotting the assassination or kidnapping of Mao. Apparently Lin intended to execute a coup d'etat.

The top command in the army was replaced after Lin's fall. Zhou Enlai emerged more influential in the period immediately after Lin's fall.

Zhou Enlai

In 1972 both Mao and Zhou experienced health failures; Mao had a stroke and Zhou found he had cancer. To bring stability to the country Mao and Zhou brought Deng Xiaoping back to the Beijing government from his factory manager job. The radical group under Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, was still powerful enough to oppose Deng and Zhou. From the middle of 1973 to the middle of 1974 the radicals dominated the political events. But by the middle of 1974 the concern for the economic chaos led Mao to favor Deng. In the fall of 197 5 however, Jiang Qing and her group were able to convince Mao that Deng would not carry on Mao's visions for the future of China and in April of 1976 Deng was again removed from office.

When Mao died in September of 1976 a coalition of army and political leaders united and arrested Jiang Qing and her radical supporters, subsequently dubbed the Gang of Four. Deng re-emerged in 1977 as the paramount leader of the country.

The ill treatment of Deng Xiaoping was mild compared to that given to other top figures of the Communist Party, although it should be noted that one of his sons was pushed out of an upper story window and was permanently paralyzed from the waist down. As noted above, Liu Shaoqi, who was officially the head of government in China, and his wife were imprisoned and tortured. Liu's wife, Wang Guangmei, was lured by trickery out of her home and taken to a mass meeting and publically humiliated. Her captors dressed her in a skirt split up to hip level to imply she was a whore.

Wang Guangmei
the wife of Liu Shaoqi

Liu died from the beatings and his wife was imprisoned in solitary confinement for about a decade.

Liu Shaoqi

Peng Dehuai, the revolutionary general who was denounced as a counter-revolutionary by Mao when Peng asserted that the Great Leap Forward was not working, was taken captive by radicals during the Cultural Revolution and held for about a decade. He was beaten severely trying to make him confess to being a counter-revolutionary but refused to comply. He finally died without breaking under his ordeal.

The Chronology of the
Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
(Wuchanjieji Wenhua Dageming)
.

• May 1966: Articles in Communist Party newspapers introduce the concept of a Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
• August 1966: Mao officially launches the Cultural Revolution with a speech at Central Committee of the Communist Party.
• August 1966: At a mass meeting in Tiananmen Square Mao puts on a red armband, the emblem of the Red Guards. He decrees that Red Guards can travel for free on public transportation.
• October 1966: At mass meeting in Tiananmen Square for National Day Mao calls for the Red Guards to destroy the Four Olds: old ideas, old behavior etc.
• Fall 1966: Mao closes schools and calls for the formation of the Red Guards to challenge Party officials and to attack anything bourgeois. Millions heed his call. Officials, intellectuals and generally older people in positions of power and influence are attacked verbally and physically by the Red Guards. Mao leaves Beijing, leaving Liu Shaoqi and other top leaders with the problem of dealing with the Red Guards and the social turmoil that had been created. Mao later returns to Beijing after a much publicized swim in the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River). Mao deems Liu Shaoqi a counter-revolutionary. Later Liu's wife is publically humiliated at mass meeting. She and Liu are arrested and imprisoned. Liu is beaten and tortured and dies.
• January 1967: Red Guards achieve the overthrow of provincial party committee officials and replace them with radicals.
• February 1967: Party officials call for an end to the Cultural Revolution but Mao continues to support the Cultural Revolution.
• July 1967: The Wuhan Incident: Red Guards attack the political leadership of the city of Wuhan. The city administration and supporters militarily resist the Red Guards. The Incident has the aspects of a full fledged civil war. Zhou Enlai personally intercedes to resolve the situation. The city administrators are arrested but Zhou sees that the radicalism of the Red Guards must be curbed.
• Summer 1967: Rival factions of Red Guards and Rebel groups fight each other. Armed battles involving thousands and tens of thousands of people take place. Mao ultimately orders Lin Biao to use the Army to bring order to the Red Guards movement. The attempt to unify the factions of the Red Guards fails. Mao replaces the pre-Cultural Revolution party officials with radicals who support the Cultural Revolution.
• 1968: The disorder caused by the Cultural Revolution results in a 12 percent decline in industrial production in 1968 compared to 1966. The Army takes control of government offices, schools and factories. Millions of young people are sent to the countryside to "learn from the peasants."
• April 1969: Border clashes with the Soviets leads to a declaration of martial law under Lin Biao, Minister of Defense. Communist Party and its Central Committee become dominated by military people. Lin Biao is declared the official successor to Mao.
• April 1969: Mao decides to open talks with the U.S. to form a relationship to counter the threat of the Soviet Union.
• 1970-71: Jiang Qing and other radicals begin to oppose Lin Biao as successor to Mao.
• August 1971: Chen Boda, a supporter of Lin Biao, is arrested and disappears.
• September 1971: Lin Biao is killed in a plane crash in Mongolia attempting to flee China. Lin is accused of plotting to kidnap or kill Mao and take control of China himself.
• Late 1971-mid 1973: Zhou Enlai tries to organize a recovery of China from the Cultural Revolution. Mao has a stroke and Zhou finds he has cancer.
• February 1972: President Richard Nixon visits China. The Shanghai Communiqué is issued which defines a new relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China.
• Early 1973: Deng Xiaoping is rehabilitated and brought back to organize the recovery.
• mid 1973 to mid 1974: Jiang Qing and her radicals are dominant in the government.
• July 1974: Mao shifts support to Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping.
• Fall 1975: Mao shifts support back to Jiang Qing and her radicals. Deng Xiaoping formally removed from power.
• January 1976: Zhou Enlai dies.
• February 1976: Hua Guofeng is appointed as acting Premier.
• April 1976: There are public tributes to Zhou Enlai in Tiananmen Square which Jiang Qing gets Mao to declare to be counter-revolutionary. Authorities use the military to break up the public demonstrations.
• July 1976: A major earthquake devastates North China. Hundreds of thousands die. Beijing government turns down outside aid.
• September 1976: Mao Zedong dies. Hua Guofeng was made Party Chairman but did not long wield much power.
• October 1976: Armed forces arrest Jiang Qing and her radical associates. They are called The Gang of Four to emphasize that they represent only a small cabal of radicals.
• 1977: Deng Xiaoping emerges as paramount leader of the People's Republic of China. Deng had been dropped from the leadership roles after the April 1976 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. In July 1977 he returned to his official positions and in addition he was the chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army. Deng's leadership was not a result of the formal offices he held but instead from a consensus among the top leaders to follow his lead, although it did not hurt for him to have control of the army. In the power struggle between Deng Xiaoping and Hua Guofeng, Hua had the offices of Premiership and Party Chairmanship but Deng had the PLA.
• November 1980-January 1981: Jiang Qing and the other members of the Gang of Four are put on trial. Jiang Qing is sentenced to death but with a two year reprieve. The death sentence is never carried out.
• 1991: Jiang Qing commits suicide in prison, thus bringing the Cultural Revolution Era to its final, final close.
• The leadership of Deng Xiaoping continued until his death in 1997 even when he held no formal office in the Chinese government.

For the story of the rise of Mao see the Long March.

See the story of the episode of the Great Leap Forward.

For the story of an offshoot of the Cultural Revolution in Heileungjiang Province in North China see People or Monsters.

The thesis of this webpage was used as the debate topic for the University of Cambridge for one year in the 1980's.

For information on how Mao provided secret military information about the Nationalist Chinese Army to the invading Japanese Army during World War II see Homare

For other material on the history of China see the Economic History of China.