Question

*OVER 40 POINTSSSSSSSSSSS*

Answer 1

Remark

It is very difficult to summarize all the plot maneuvering that went on in China during these ugly times beginning in 1966 and ending 11 years later. In that time there was a great deal of blood shed.

Here are some of the major points

1. Mao began to see his influence weakening so he began by setting up a power struggle. It was called the cultural revolution.
2. He believed the current governments in both the Soviet Union and China were placing too much emphasis on outstanding intellectual and engineering pursuits and not enough on ideological purity.
3. At the time of his death, 1.5 million people had been killed. The economy was in tatters and there was a 12% reduction in the population. That means that the 1.5 million really does not account for the 12% reduction in population.
4. He shut down the schools so that the main participants in this class war were students and the youth.  They made life unbearable for the elderly. It disrupted the natural flow of the Chinese centuries old set of traditions where it was the duty of the young to care for the old.
5. Once Mao died, Chou en Lei took power and calmed things down. Mao was one of the monsters of world leaders to rule in the mid 20th century. He joins the ranks of Stalin and Hitler. That's rare company.

That should be enough to get you started.

Answer 2

n 1966, China’s Communist leader Mao Zedong launched what became known as the Cultural Revolution in order to reassert his authority over the Chinese government. Believing that current Communist leaders were taking the party, and China itself, in the wrong direction, Mao called on the nation’s youth to purge the “impure” elements of Chinese society and revive the revolutionary spirit that had led to victory in the civil war 20 years earlier and the formation of the People’s Republic of China. The Cultural Revolution continued in various phases until Mao’s death in 1976, and its tormented and violent legacy would resonate in Chinese politics and society for decades to come.

In the 1960s, Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong came to feel that the current party leadership in China, as in the Soviet Union, was moving too far in a revisionist direction, with an emphasis on expertise rather than on ideological purity. Mao’s own position in government had weakened after the failure of his “Great Leap Forward” (1958-60) and the economic crisis that followed. Mao gathered a group of radicals, including his wife Jiang Qing and defense minister Lin Biao, to help him attack current party leadership and reassert his authority.

(Did you know? To encourage the personality cult that sprang up around Mao Zedong during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, Defense Minister Lin Biao saw that the now-famous "Little Red Book" of Mao's quotations was printed and distributed by the millions throughout China. had to add this fun fact :3)

-paps