Editing Cultural Revolution (section)

=== Violent struggles, struggle sessions, and purges ===
{{main|Violent Struggle|Struggle session|Cleansing the Class Ranks}}
[[File:文革墓群.jpg|thumb|The Cultural Revolution Cemetery in [[Chongqing]], where 400–500 people killed in factional clashes are buried, out of a total of at least 1,700 deaths.<ref name="Buckley">{{cite news |last1=Buckley |first1=Chris |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/world/asia/china-cultural-revolution-chongqing.html |title=Chaos of Cultural Revolution Echoes at a Lonely Cemetery, 50 Years Later |date=April 4, 2016 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=16 February 2020 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>]]

''Violent struggles'' were factional conflicts (mostly among Red Guards and "rebel groups") that began in Shanghai and then spread to other areas in 1967. They brought the country to a state of civil war.<ref name="Song-2011a" /><ref>{{cite news |last1=Phillips |first1=Tom |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/11/the-cultural-revolution-50-years-on-all-you-need-to-know-about-chinas-political-convulsion |title=The Cultural Revolution: all you need to know about China's political convulsion |date=11 May 2016 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=16 February 2020 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Weapons used included some 18.77&nbsp;million guns{{notetag|Some claim 1.877 million.{{why|date=October 2023}}}}, 2.72&nbsp;million grenades, 14,828 cannons, millions of other ammunition and even armored cars and tanks.<ref name="Song-2011a" /> Notable violent struggles include the battles in Chongqing, in [[Sichuan]], and in [[Xuzhou]].<ref name="Song-2011a" /><ref name="Buckley" /><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Ramzy |first1=Austin |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/world/asia/china-cultural-revolution-explainer.html |title=China's Cultural Revolution, Explained |date=May 14, 2016 |work=The New York Times |access-date=February 16, 2020 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Researchers claimed that the nationwide death toll in violent struggles ranged from 300,000 to 500,000.<ref name="Song-2011c" /><ref name="Open Magazine-1999" /><ref name="Song-2011a" />

The recorded rate of violence rose in 1967, reaching a peak that summer before dropping suddenly.<ref name="Walder-20192"/> During 1967, casualties were relatively low as the weapons used were primarily clubs, spears, and rocks until late July.<ref name="Walder-20192"/> Although firearms and heavier weapons began to spread during summer, most were neither trained nor committed fighters and therefore casualties remained relatively low.<ref name="Walder-20192"/> The peak of collective violence in summer 1967 dropped sharply after August, when Mao became concerned about rebel attacks on local army units and thereafter made clear that his prior calls to "drag out" army commanders was a mistake and he would instead support besieged army commands.<ref name="Walder-20192"/>{{rp|150}}

The greatest number of casualties occurred during the process of restoring order in 1968, although the overall number of violent conflicts was lower. Walder stated that while "rising casualties from a smaller number of insurgent conflicts surely reflected the increasing scale and organizational coherence of rebel factions, and their growing access to military weaponry[,]" another important factor was that "[t]he longer that local factional warfare continued without the prospect of an equitable political settlement, the greater the stakes for the participants and the more intense the collective violence as factions fought to avoid the consequence of losing."<ref name="Walder-20192"/>{{rp|154–155}}

In addition to violent struggles, millions of Chinese were violently persecuted, especially via struggle sessions. Those identified as spies, "[[running dog]]s", "revisionists", or coming from a suspect class (including those related to former landlords or rich peasants) were subject to beating, imprisonment, rape, torture, sustained and systematic harassment and abuse, seizure of property, denial of medical attention, and erasure of social identity.<ref name="Harding" /> Some people were not able to stand the torture and committed suicide. Researchers claimed that at least 100,000 to 200,000 people committed suicide during the early CR.<ref name="Song-2011c" /><ref name="Open Magazine-1999" /> 

At the same time, many "unjust, false, and mistaken" cases appeared due to political purges. In addition to those who died in massacres, a large number of people died or became permanently disabled due to [[lynching]] or other forms of persecution. From 1968 to 1969, the Cleansing the Class Ranks purge caused the deaths of at least 500,000 people.<ref name="Song-2011a" /><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Ding |first1=Shu |year=2004 |script-title=zh:文革中的"清理阶级队伍"运动 – 三千万人被斗，五十万人死亡 |url=http://archives.cnd.org/HXWK/author/DING-Shu/zk0412b-0.gb.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816021356/http://archives.cnd.org/HXWK/author/DING-Shu/zk0412b-0.gb.html |archive-date=16 August 2017 |access-date=13 January 2020 |website=China News Digest |language=zh}}</ref> Purges of similar nature such as the [[One Strike-Three Anti Campaign]] and the campaign towards the [[May Sixteenth elements]] were launched in the 1970s.<ref name="Song-2011b">{{Cite web |last1=Song |first1=Yongyi |author-link=Song Yongyi |date=September 2011 |script-title=zh:文革中"非正常死亡"了多少人？ |url=http://www.chinainperspective.com/ArtShow.aspx?AID=12445 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120513113444/http://www.chinainperspective.com/ArtShow.aspx?AID=12445 |archive-date=2012-05-13 |website=China in Perspective |language=zh}}</ref><ref name="Open Magazine-1999" /> For example, a political purge in Yunnan province, the [[Zhao Jianmin spy case]], resulted in 17,000 deaths and wrongfully persecuted a total of 1.38 million people.<ref name="Song-2011a" />