Editing Cultural Revolution (section)

==Background==

===Creation of the People's Republic===
{{Main|Proclamation of the People's Republic of China}}

On 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong declared the People's Republic of China, symbolically bringing the decades-long [[Chinese Civil War]] to a close. Remaining [[Republic of China|Republican]] forces fled to [[Geography of Taiwan|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.

===Great Leap Forward===
{{Main|Great Leap Forward|Great Chinese Famine}}
{{See also|Seven Thousand Cadres Conference}}

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 the surface, incredible industrialization, but also caused the [[Great Chinese Famine]], while still falling short of projected goals.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}
In early 1962, at CCP's [[Seven Thousand Cadres Conference]], Mao made [[Self-criticism (Marxism–Leninism)|self-criticism]], after which he took a semi-retired role, leaving future responsibilities to [[Liu Shaoqi]] and [[Deng Xiaoping]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

{{Excerpt|Great Leap Forward|paragraphs=2}}

===Impact of international tensions and anti-revisionism===
{{main|Sino-Soviet split}}
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 the USSR. In 1956, Khrushchev [[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|denounced his predecessor Josef Stalin and his policies]], and began implementing [[Khrushchev Thaw|economic reforms]]. Mao and many other CCP members opposed these changes, believing that they would damage the worldwide communist movement.<ref name=Mac>{{cite book |last1=MacFarquhar |first1=Roderick |last2=Schoenhals |first2=Michael |title=Mao's Last Revolution |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-674-02332-1}}</ref>{{rp|4–7}}

Mao believed that Khrushchev was a [[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionist]], altering [[Marxism–Leninism|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 the [[United Nations]] and reneged on its pledge to supply China with a nuclear weapon.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|4–7}}

Mao 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.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|7}}

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 the Soviet Union would assist "genuine communists" who overthrew Mao and his "erroneous course".<ref name="Meyskens2020" />{{rp|141}} 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.<ref name="Meyskens2020">{{Cite book |last=Meyskens |first=Covell F. |title=Mao's Third Front: The Militarization of Cold War China |year=2020 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-108-78478-8 |doi=10.1017/9781108784788 |s2cid=218936313}}</ref>{{rp|141}}

=== Views of revolutionary practice ===
Mao contended that capitalist tendencies had begun to grow in China.<ref name=":222">{{Cite book |last=Chen |first=Xiaomei |title=Red Legacies in China: Cultural Afterlives of the Communist Revolution |date=2016 |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]] |isbn=978-0-674-73718-1 |editor-last=Li |editor-first=Jie |series=Harvard contemporary China series |volume=18 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London |chapter=Performing the "Red Classics": From The East is Red to The Road to Revival |doi=10.1163/9781684171170_007 |jstor=j.ctt1sq5t95 |editor-last2=Zhang |editor-first2=Enhua}}</ref>{{Rp|page=151}} He viewed the Cultural Revolution as perpetual revolution aimed at opposing "representatives of the bourgeoisie and counterrevolutionary revisionists" who had "sneaked into the party, the government, the army, and cultural circles."<ref name=":222" />{{Rp|pages=151-152}}

The meaning and nature of revolution was a frequent theme in the speeches of central leadership during the Cultural Revolution.<ref name=":232" />{{Rp|page=71}} They contended that the Cultural Revolution was an unprecedented event that had to be carried out by the people rather than directed from above and that the best test was revolutionary practice.<ref name=":232" />{{Rp|page=71}} [[Tao Zhu]] stated:<ref name=":232" />{{Rp|page=71}}
{{Blockquote|text=You can't say you are the true revolutionaries and they are fake. This is mass organizing. Their organizations may also be revolutionary. You may have a revolutionary competition. Good ones will grow, bad ones will collapse ... True or fake revolutionaries will be distinguished in revolutionary practice.}}

=== Socialist Education Movement and ''Hai Rui Dismissed from Office'' ===
{{See also|Socialist Education Movement|Hai Rui Dismissed from Office}}

[[File:Luo Ruiqing.jpg|thumb|upright|The purge of General [[Luo Ruiqing]] solidified the PLA's loyalty to Mao]]

In 1963, Mao launched the [[Socialist Education Movement]].<ref name="Baum-1969">{{cite journal |last=Baum |first=Richard |year=1969 |title=Revolution and Reaction in the Chinese Countryside: The Socialist Education Movement in Cultural Revolutionary Perspective |journal=[[The China Quarterly]] |volume=38 |issue=38 |pages=92–119 |doi=10.1017/S0305741000049158 |issn=0305-7410 |jstor=652308 |s2cid=154449798}}</ref> Mao set the scene by "[[Purge|cleansing]]" powerful Beijing officials of questionable loyalty. His approach was executed via newspaper articles, internal meetings, and by his network of political allies.<ref name="Baum-1969" />

In late 1959, historian and deputy mayor of Beijing [[Wu Han (historian)|Wu Han]] published a historical drama entitled ''[[Hai Rui Dismissed from Office]]''. In the play, an honest [[civil servant]], [[Hai Rui]], is dismissed by a corrupt emperor. While Mao initially praised the play, in February 1965, he secretly commissioned [[Jiang Qing]] and [[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.<ref name="Mac" />{{rp|15–18}}

Yao's article put Beijing mayor [[Peng Zhen]] on 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, and not pay heed to Yao's petty politics.<ref name="Mac" />{{rp|14–19}} While the "literary battle" against Peng raged, Mao fired [[Yang Shangkun]]—director of the [[General Office of the Chinese Communist Party|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.<ref name="Mac" />{{rp|14–19}}

On 12 February 1966, the "Five Man Group" issued 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 of the Chinese Communist Party|Propaganda Department]] director [[Lu Dingyi]], a Peng ally.<ref name="Mac" />{{rp|20–27}}

Lu's removal gave Maoists unrestricted access to 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".<ref name="Mac" />{{rp|20–27}} On 16 May, the Politburo formalized the decisions by releasing an official document condemning Peng and his "anti-party allies" in the strongest terms, disbanding his "Five Man Group", and replacing it with the Maoist Cultural Revolution Group (CRG).<ref name="Mac" />{{rp|27–35}}