Editing Cultural Revolution (section)

=== Repression of ethnic minorities ===
{{See also|Inner Mongolia incident|Shadian incident}}
[[File:Panchen Lama during the struggle (thamzing) session 1964.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The [[Panchen Lama]] during a struggle session]]
[[File:Sampho and his wife during the Cultural Revolution.jpg|thumb|Struggle session of [[Sampho Tsewang Rigzin]] and his wife]]

The Cultural Revolution wrought havoc on minority cultures and ethnicities. Languages and customs of [[ethnic minorities in China]] were labeled as part of the Four Olds, texts in ethnic languages were burned, and bilingual education was suppressed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Qingxia |first1=Dai |last2=Yan |first2=Dong |date=March 2001 |title=The Historical Evolution of Bilingual Education for China's Ethnic Minorities |journal=Chinese Education & Society |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=7–53 |doi=10.2753/CED1061-193234027 |issn=1061-1932 |quote=Ethnic languages were repudiated as one of the "four olds" and large numbers of books and documents pertaining to ethnic languages were burned.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wu |first=Jiaping |date=May 2014 |title=The Rise of Ethnicity under China's Market Reforms |journal=[[International Journal of Urban and Regional Research]] |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=967–984 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-2427.2012.01179.x |issn=0309-1317 |quote=Campaigns of 'class eradication' became more radical during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and had a disastrous effect on ethnic culture. Ethnic traditions were seen as part of the 'four olds' (old ideas, customs, culture and habits; in Chinese, sijiu) that had to be destroyed.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chunli |first=Xia |date=2007 |title=From Discourse Politics to Rule of Law: A Constructivist Framework for Understanding Regional Ethnic Autonomy in China |journal=International Journal on Minority and Group Rights |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=399–424 |doi=10.1163/138548707X247392 |issn=1385-4879 |jstor=24675396 |quote=Traditional minority designs and colourful lace were marked as "four olds" (sijiu) and burnt.}}</ref> In [[Inner Mongolia]], some 790,000 people were persecuted during the Inner Mongolia incident. Of these, 22,900 were beaten to death, and 120,000 were maimed,<ref name="Mac" />{{rp|258}} during a witch hunt to find members of the alleged separatist New Inner Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. In [[Xinjiang]], copies of the [[Qur'an]] and other books of the [[Uyghur people]] were apparently burned. Muslim imams reportedly were paraded around with paint splashed on their bodies.<ref name="Yongming Zhou 1999, p. 162">{{Cite journal |date=January 2001 |last=Fung |first=Edmund S. K. |title=Anti-Drug Crusades in Twentieth-Century China: Nationalism, History, and State Building. Zhou Yongming |journal=The China Journal |volume=45 |issn=1324-9347 |page=162 |jstor=3182405}}</ref> In the [[Koreans in China|ethnic Korean]] areas of northeast China, clashes took place.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lovell |first=Julia |title=Maoism: A Global History |year=2019 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday |isbn=978-0-525-65605-0 |pages=114–115 |quote=Events took a horrific turn in the frontier town of Yanbian, where freight trains trundled from China into the DPRK, draped with the corpses of Koreans killed in the pitched battles of the Cultural Revolution, and daubed with threatening graffiti: 'This will be your fate also, you tiny revisionists!' |author-link=Julia Lovell}}</ref>

In [[Yunnan]] Province, the palace of the [[Dai people]]'s king was torched, and a massacre of Muslim [[Hui people]] at the hands of the PLA in Yunnan, known as the [[Shadian incident]], reportedly claimed over 1,600 lives in 1975.<ref name="Yongming Zhou 1999, p. 162" /> After the Cultural Revolution, the government gave reparations for the Shadian Incident, including the erection of a Martyr's Memorial in Shadian.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Khalid |first1=Zainab |date=4 January 2011 |title=Rise of the Veil: Islamic Modernity and the Hui Woman |url=http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2068&context=isp_collection |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140809045544/http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2068&context=isp_collection |archive-date=9 August 2014 |access-date=25 July 2014 |website=SIT Digital Collections |series=Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection |publisher=SIT Graduate Institute |pages=8, 11 |format=PDF |id=Paper 1074}}</ref>

Concessions to minorities were abolished during the Cultural Revolution as part of the Red Guards' attack on the "Four Olds". [[People's commune]]s, previously only established in parts of Tibet, were established throughout [[Tibet Autonomous Region]] in 1966,<ref>{{cite book |first1=John |last1=Powers |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=wksCKIivSNUC|page-PR35}} |title=Historical Dictionary of Tibet |first2=David |last2=Templeman |publisher=Grove |year=2007 |isbn=978-0810868052 |page=35}}</ref> removing Tibet's exemption from China's land reform, and reimposed in other minority areas. The effect on Tibet was particularly severe as it came following the repression after the [[1959 Tibetan uprising]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Adam Jones |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=TkPqxCBbF7UC |page=97}} |title=Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction |publisher=Routledge |year=2006 |isbn=978-0415353854 |pages=96–97}}</ref><ref name="cycle">{{cite book |author=Ronald D. Schwartz |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=s_7WkbZAaWEC |page=12}} |title=Circle Of Protest |year=1996 |isbn=978-8120813700 |pages=12–13 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass  }}</ref> The destruction of nearly all of its over 6,000 monasteries, which began before the Cultural Revolution, were often conducted with the complicity of local ethnic Tibetan Red Guards.<ref name="Ardley">{{cite book |last=Ardley |first=Jane |title=Tibetan Independence Movement: Political, Religious and Gandhian Perspectives |publisher=Routledge |year=2002 |isbn=978-0700715725 |doi=10.4324/9780203221150}}</ref>{{rp|9}} Only eight were intact by the end of the 1970s.<ref>{{cite book |author=Thomas Laird |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=As_4aQjGaUEC |page=345}} |title=The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama |year=2007 |isbn=978-1555846725 |page=345 |publisher=Open Road }}</ref>

Many monks and nuns were killed, and the general population was subjected to physical and psychological torture.<ref name=Ardley/>{{rp|9}} An estimated 600,000 monks and nuns lived in Tibet in 1950, but by 1979, most were dead, imprisoned or had disappeared.<ref name=Ardley/>{{rp|22}} The Tibetan government in exile claimed that many Tibetans died from famines in 1961–1964 and 1968–1973 as a result of forced collectivization,<ref name="cycle" /><ref>{{cite book |first1=Kimberley Ens |last1=Manning |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=aHPTn2Rq9IUC |page=23}} |title=Eating Bitterness: New Perspectives on China's Great Leap Forward and Famine |first2=Felix |last2=Wemheuer |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0774859554 |page=23}}</ref> however, the number of Tibetan deaths or whether famines, in fact, took place in these periods is disputed.<ref>{{cite book |first=Warren W. |last=Smith |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=WYiVlfLzlRUC |page=6}} |title=Tibet's Last Stand?: The Tibetan Uprising of 2008 and China's Response |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2009 |isbn=978-0742566859 |page=6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=John Powers |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=D96ifo76RZEC |page=142}} |title=History As Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People's Republic of China |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0198038849 |page=142}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Barry |last1=Sautman |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=Z4hsGZ-idEwC |page=240}} |title=Contemporary Tibet: Politics, Development, and Society in a Disputed Region |first2=June Teufel |last2=Dreyer |publisher=M. E. Sharp |year=2006 |isbn=978-0765631497 |pages=238–247}}</ref> Despite persecution, some local leaders and minority ethnic practices survived in remote regions.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Schwartz |first1=Ronald |title=Religious Persecution in Tibet |url=http://www.tibet.ca/_media/PDF/Religious-Persecution-in-Tibet.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923042104/http://www.tibet.ca/_media/PDF/Religious-Persecution-in-Tibet.pdf |archive-date=23 September 2013 |access-date=5 December 2018 |website=www.tibet.ca |publisher=Memorial University of Newfoundland}}</ref>

It was felt that pushing minority groups too hard would compromise China's border defenses. This was especially important as minorities make up a large percentage of the population that live in border regions. In the late 1960s, China experienced a period of strained relations with some of its neighbors, notably with the Soviet Union and India.<ref name="Dreyer">{{cite book |last1=Dreyer |first1=June Teufel |title=China's Political System: Modernization and Tradition |publisher=Macmillan |year=2000 |isbn=0-333-91287-X |edition=3rd |location=London |pages=289–291}}</ref>