Editing Cultural Revolution (section)

== 1968: Purges ==
{{See also|Cleansing the Class Ranks}}
[[File:SZ 深圳博物館 Shenzhen Museum 深圳改革開放前歷史展廳 Before Reform and Opening-up History IX1 Anti-Liu Shaoqi.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|A rally in opposition to [[Liu Shaoqi]]]]

In May 1968, Mao launched a massive political purge. Many people were sent to the countryside to work in reeducation camps. Generally, the campaign targeted rebels from the CR's earlier, more populist, phase.<ref name="Xu2022" />{{rp|239}} On 27 July, the Red Guards' power over the PLA was officially ended, and the establishment sent in units to besiege areas that remained untouched by the Guards. A year later, the Red Guard factions were dismantled entirely; Mao predicted that the chaos might begin running its own agenda and be tempted to turn against revolutionary ideology. Their purpose had been largely fulfilled; Mao and his radical colleagues had largely overturned established power.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

Liu was expelled from the CCP at the 12th Plenum of the [[8th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|8th Central Committee]] in September, and labelled the "headquarters of the bourgeoisie".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Liu Shaoqi rehabilitated |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-5/lrs-liu.htm |access-date=June 10, 2020 |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref>

=== Mao meets with Red Guard leaders (July) ===
As the Red Guard movement had waned over the preceding year, violence by the remaining Red Guards increased on some Beijing campuses. Violence was particularly pronounced at [[Tsinghua University]], where a few thousand hardliners of two factions continued to fight. At Mao's initiative, on 27 July 1968, tens of thousands of workers entered the Tsinghua campus shouting slogans in opposition to the violence. Red Guards attacked the workers, who remained peaceful. Ultimately, the workers disarmed the students and occupied the campus.<ref name="Russo2020">{{Cite book |last=Russo |first=Alessandro |title=Cultural Revolution and revolutionary culture |year=2020 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4780-1218-4 |location=Durham, NC}}</ref>{{rp|205–206}}

On 28 July, Mao and the Central Group met with the five most important remaining Beijing Red Guard leaders to address the movement's excessive violence and political exhaustion.<ref name="Russo2020" />{{rp|205–206}} It was the only time during the Cultural Revolution that Mao met and addressed the student leaders directly. In response to a Red Guard leader's telegram sent prior to the meeting, which claimed that some "Black Hand" had maneuvered the workers against the Red Guards, Mao told the student leaders, "The Black Hand is nobody else but me! ... I asked [the workers] how to solve the armed fighting in the universities, and told them to go there to have a look."<ref name="Russo2020" />{{rp|210}}

During the meeting, Mao and the Central Group for the Cultural Revolution stated, "[W]e want cultural struggle, we do not want armed struggle" and "The masses do not want civil war."<ref name="Russo2020" />{{rp|217}}
{{Blockquote|text=You have been involved in the Cultural Revolution for two years: struggle-criticism-transformation. Now, first, you're not struggling; second, you're not criticizing; and third, you're not transforming. Or rather, you are struggling, but it's an armed struggle. The people are not happy, the workers are not happy, city residents are not happy, most people in schools are not happy, most of the students even in your schools are not happy. Even within the faction that supports you, there are unhappy people. Is this the way to unify the world?}}

===Mao's cult of personality and "mango fever" (August) ===
{{Main|Mango cult}}{{See also|Mao Zedong's cult of personality}}
[[File:1967-11 1967年 毛泽东接见红卫兵油画.jpg|thumb|A propaganda oil painting of Mao during the Cultural Revolution (1967)]]

In the spring of 1968, a massive campaign aimed at enhancing Mao's reputation began. On 4 August, Mao was presented with mangoes by the Pakistani foreign minister [[Sharifuddin Pirzada|Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada]],<!-- Name not mentioned in sources but dates appear to be correct --> in an apparent diplomatic gesture.<ref name="Murck2013">{{cite book |first=Alfreda |last=Murck |title=Mao's Golden Mangoes and the Cultural Revolution |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=mymWMQEACAAJ}} |year=2013 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-3-85881-732-7}}</ref> Mao had his aide send the box of mangoes to his propaganda team at [[Tsinghua University]] on 5 August, who were stationed there to quiet strife among Red Guard factions.<ref name="Walder2015">{{cite book |first=Andrew G. |last=Walder |title=China Under Mao |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=n_qpBwAAQBAJ |page=280}} |year=2015 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-05815-6 |pages=280–281}}</ref><ref name="Murck2013"/>

Several months of "mango fever" followed as the fruit became a focus of a "boundless loyalty" campaign for Mao. More replica mangoes were created, and the replicas were sent on tour around Beijing and elsewhere. Many revolutionary committees visited the mangoes in Beijing from outlying provinces. Approximately half a million people greeted the replicas when they arrived in [[Chengdu]]. Badges and wall posters featuring the mangoes and Mao were produced in the millions.<ref name="Walder2015" />

The fruit was shared among all institutions that had been a part of the propaganda team, and large processions were organized in support of the "precious gift", as the mangoes were known.<ref name="Leese2011">{{citation |author=Daniel Leese |title=Mao Cult: Rhetoric and Ritual in China's Cultural Revolution |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=iqjviY6aFloC |page=221}} |year=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-49811-1 |pages=221–222}}</ref> A dentist in a small town, Dr. Han, saw the mango and said it was nothing special and looked just like a sweet potato. He was put on trial for "malicious slander", found guilty, paraded publicly throughout the town, and then shot in the head.<ref name="Moore2013">{{cite news |last1=Moore |first1=Malcolm |date=7 March 2013 |title=How China came to worship the mango during the Cultural Revolution |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9914895/How-China-came-to-worship-the-mango-during-the-Cultural-Revolution.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151120055831/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9914895/How-China-came-to-worship-the-mango-during-the-Cultural-Revolution.html |archive-date=20 November 2015 |access-date=28 January 2016 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=Beijing}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-mao-mango-cult-of-1968/ |title=The Mao Mango Cult of 1968 and the Rise of China's Working Class |last1=Marks |first1=Ben |website=Collectors Weekly |access-date=28 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191105161815/https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-mao-mango-cult-of-1968/ |archive-date=5 November 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

It has been claimed that Mao used the mangoes to express support for the workers who would go to whatever lengths necessary to end the factional fighting among students, and a "prime example of Mao's strategy of symbolic support."<ref name="Schrift2001">{{cite book |last1=Schrift |first1=Melissa |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=MQFBcWSPRdYC |page=98}} |title=Biography of a Chairman Mao Badge: The Creation and Mass Consumption of a Personality Cult |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8135-2937-0 |pages=96–98 |access-date=September 29, 2019}}</ref> Through early 1969, participants of Mao Zedong Thought study classes in Beijing returned with mass-produced mango facsimiles, gaining media attention in the provinces.<ref name="Leese2011" />

=== Down to the Countryside Movement (December) ===
{{Main|Down to the Countryside Movement}}
In December 1968, Mao began the Down to the Countryside Movement. During this movement, which lasted for the following decade, young bourgeoisie living in cities were ordered to go to the countryside to experience working life. The term "young intellectuals" was used to refer to recent college graduates. In the late 1970s, these students returned to their home cities. Many students who were previously Red Guard supported the movement and Mao's vision. This movement was thus in part a means of moving Red Guards from the cities to the countryside, where they would cause less social disruption. It also served to spread revolutionary ideology geographically.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Donald N. |last1=Sull |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=-2PVYI4kAtQC |page=18}} |title=Made In China: What Western Managers Can Learn from Trailblazing Chinese Entrepreneurs |last2=Yong |first2=Wang |publisher=Harvard Business School Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-1591397151 |pages=17–18}}</ref>