Chronology of China Under Mao

7/27/2019 Chronology of China Under Mao

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ChronologyofChinaunderMaoZedong,1949-1976ByProfessorCarolBenedict,AssociateProfessor,GeorgetownUniversity

1949:1 The Peoples Republic of China (P.R.C.)

is established on October 1.

1950: Signing of the Sino-Soviet Treaty. China

enters the Korean War. Marriage Law

promulgated, providing freedom of

marriage and divorce.

1952: Basic land reform completed. All land

deeds destroyed and land redistributed.

Many, perhaps two million, landlords

executed.

1954-55: Zhou Enlai plays a major role at the

Geneva Convention and the Bandung

Conference, establishing a new

diplomatic prominence for the P.R.C.

First constitution of the P.R.C. is

promulgated. Collectivization of

agriculture is stepped up.1956-57: In the wake of Khrushchevs

denunciation of Stalin and political

explosions in Poland and Hungary, Mao

calls for a Hundred Flowers

Movement to improve the relationship

between the CCP and the people. Critics

soon attack the legitimacy of the CCP

itself. The Party responds with an anti-

rightist campaign, suppressing the

opposition.

1958-60:Mao promotes a Great Leap Forwardin economic development, relying on

mass mobilization, the commune

system, and economic self-reliance. The

effort fails after highly inflated reports

of grain production lead central

planners to divert resources into

industry rather than agriculture.

Subsequent food shortages are

aggravated by bad weather and lead to

mass starvation in many rural areas.

In August, 1959, Defense Minister Peng

Dehuai ousted after he criticizes Maos

1Sources used for compiling this timeline include: Stanford

Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education

(SPICE) China's Cultural Revolution, 2005.; Maurice Meisner

(1999, 3rd ed.)Maos China and After, New York: Free Press,

pp. 309-432; and Amy Freedman, Chinas Cultural

Revolution, Department of Government, Franklin and

Marshall College(www.exeas.org/resources/pdf/china-

cultural-revolution.pdf).

sponsorship of the Great Leap Forward.

He is replaced by Lin Biao.

In 1960, withdrawal of the Soviet

technical advisors widens the Sino-

Soviet split. The CCP returns to more

conventional economic development

policies to deal with the post-Great Leap

Forward disaster.

1961-64: The polity and economy slowly recover

but the CCP becomes increasingly

divided over how to pursue economic

development. Mao and his more radical

associates (his wife, Jiang Qing and

Defense Minister Lin Biao) are pitted

against Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, and

other pragmatists. Wu Hans play Hai

Rui Dismissed from Office, presents aveiled attack on Maos dismissal of Peng

Dehuai (1961). Lin Biao leads

campaigns to increase political

consciousness in the military by

stressing the study of Mao Zedong

Thought using the first Little Red

Books(1962).

1965: Mao and Jiang Qing set the stage for the

Cultural Revolution when they direct a

literary critic, Yao Wenyuan, to publish

a scathing critique of the play, Hai RuiDismissed from Office. A few months

later, Jiang Qing writes a general

criticism of contemporary Chinese

literature and art, condemning it as

bourgeois, anti-party, and anti-socialist.

Mao begins to replace people in key

government positions with more radical

party members.

1966: The Cultural Revolution begins

unofficially with the May 16

Directive. Drafted by Mao and issued

in the name of the Politburo, the

directive states the CCPs intention to

oust representatives of the

bourgeoisie in the party at all levels.

Beijing CCP and municipal leaders are

purged and replaced with loyal Maoists.

Mao calls on students to struggle

against bourgeois elements in the

state and party apparatus. Students and


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young teachers at Beijing University

(Beida) are the first to respond. On May

25, Nie Yuanzi, a young philosophy

instructor, posts a big-character

poster (dazibao) denouncing the

university president. Although the

poster is immediately torn down, a

week later, Mao praises it as

revolutionary. With this signal of

support from Mao, students all over the

country become Red Guards.

By the summer of 1966, the Cultural

Revolution has become a national

student movement.

On August 5, 1966, Mao writes a dazibao

stating Bombard the headquarters.The poster is an attack on Liu Shaoqi,

the Vice-Chairman of the CCP. This

dazibao gives further authority and

support to Red Guard activities.

On August 8, 1966, the Eighth Central

Committee of the CCP passes the

Decision of the Central Committee of

the Chinese Party Concerning the Great

Proletarian Cultural Revolution. This

document, known as the Sixteen

Points,acknowledges the legitimacy ofthe Red Guards and their activities. This

marks the official beginning of the

Cultural Revolution.

August 18, 1966: Mao greets the Red

Guards in Tiananmen Square. He gives

them his blessing and directs the police

and the army not to intervene as they

smash the Four Olds. Numerous

rallies are held in the square over the

next several months with Red Guards

dressed in military garb holding high

their Little Red Books and chanting

Long Live Chairman Mao.

1966-67: The Red Guard movement picks up

steam. Red Guards travel for free

around the country, attend rallies, and

collect and trade Mao buttons. They also

denounce and physically attack teachers

and officials and they ransack the homes

of intellectuals, destroying or

confiscating anything identified as the

Four Olds.Red Guards parade

through the streets searching for

enemies of the revolution while

singing revolutionary songs and

shouting slogans. From August to

September, 1966, the escalating fervor

results in many fatal beatings. Several

prominent intellectuals commit suicide

after being struggled against.

Factions of Red Guards begin to fight

with one another. Each group is

determined to demonstrate that they

are more loyal to Mao Zedong and therevolution than others. Initially this

competition is limited to outward

manifestations of loyalty such as

wearing the biggest Mao buttons,

shouting slogans, or singing

revolutionary songs more loudly than

other Red Guard groups. Revolutionary

zeal quickly spreads and loyalty to the

Great Helmsman comes to be

demonstrated above all by violent

revolutionary struggle against classenemies. As Red Guards begin to be

killed, the original goals of the

revolution are often displaced by the

desire for revenge.

In February 1967, the CCP, with Maos

blessing begins to rein in the more

anarchistic tendencies of the Red

Guard movement. The Shanghai

Peoples Commune, formed by rebel

factory workers is dissolved. Students

are urged to return to school and some

Red Guards factions are branded as

counterrevolutionary. The CCP and

the army begin to establish

revolutionary committees to take

charge of the Cultural Revolution.

Between March and August, 1967,

power struggles and factional fighting


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erupt within the ranks of the Peoples

Liberation Army itself, with mutinous

PLA divisions defying orders from

central headquarters. During the

summer, the specter of civil war

looms. Mao decides the Cultural

Revolution must end. In September,

1967, the army is instructed to restore

order throughout the country. This

takes time, however, and some of the

more radical militant groups fight on

into 1968. Many die during the final

suppression of Red Guards and other

radicals in the spring and summer of

1968.

1968: As the Cultural Revolution wanes in thespring of 1968, the cult of Mao becomes

ever more extravagant. Backed by Lin

Biao and Jiang Qing a nation-wide

campaign portrays Mao as almost a

god-like figure. Images of Mao are

ubiquitous, not only in propaganda

posters but on everyday household

items like cigarette lighters and tea

mugs. Statues and portraits of Mao are

placed everywhere. Every published

book and article opens with a quotefrom Chairman Mao and his Little Red

Book is found in virtually every home

and workplace. Households set up

tablets of loyalty around which family

members gathered to pay reverence.

Despite this extensive cult of

personality, Mao still has little control

over the activities of many Red Guard

factions.

During the spring and summer of 1968,

the last battles of the Cultural

Revolution are fought in pitched

battles on Beijing university campuses.

In July, after personally informing Red

Guard leaders that they should

disband, the CCP sends PLA-directed

Workers Mao Zedong Thought

Propaganda Teams to campuses to end

the fighting and discipline the students.

Students, known as sent-down youth

are packed off to the countryside to

be reeducated by the peasants.

Also sent to the countryside are

hundreds of thousands of intellectuals

and party officials. These May Seventh

Cadre Schools become a prominent

feature of Chinese political life in the

years after the manic phase (1966-68)

of the Cultural Revolution ends.

1969: On January 1, 1969, an editorial in the

Peoples Daily declares the Cultural

Revolution a success. In April, the Ninth

Congress of the CCP convenes. Lin Biao

is promoted to vice chairman of the CCP

and the Chinese Constitution isrewritten to name him as Maos

successor. Mao declares the official end

of the Cultural Revolution at this

meeting.

1971: Although the Cultural Revolution is

officially over, tensions remain between

many PLA and Party leaders. Mao

becomes increasingly suspicious of his

chosen successor Lin Biao. The CCP

later charges that in September 1971, LinBiao attempted to assassinate Mao

Zedong and stage a coup detat.

According to official accounts, Lin Biao

tries to flee to the Soviet Union but

his plane crashes in Mongolia. Lin Biao

becomesperson non-grata within China:

his picture is airbrushed out of pictures

and the forward he penned for the

Little Red Book is ripped out of tens

of thousands of copies.

For many Chinese, the Lin Biao Affair

raises more questions than it answers.

They begin to question the legitimacy of

the Cultural Revolution and even Mao

Zedong himself.

1972-74: In February, 1972, President Richard M.

Nixon visits China and signs the

Shanghai Communique. This begins the

process of normalizing relations


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between the United States and China,

completed under President Jimmy

Carter in 1979.

Also in 1972, Maos wife, Jiang Qing,

initiates theCriticize Lin Biao

campaign, in an effort to blame Lin for

all of the mistakes of the Cultural

Revolution. In 1974, this is expanded to

the Criticize Lin Biao, Criticize

Confucius campaign. Nominally a

movement to eradicate feudal ways, this

is actually an effort to discredit Zhou

Enlai, the highly respected premier.

With Zhou Enlais influence, Deng

Xiaopingwho had been denounced as

a capitalist roader and removed fromhis posts during the Cultural

Revolutionreenters the political scene

and becomes vice premier in 1973.

1975: TheFourth National Peoples Congress

is convened. Zhou Enlai inaugurates a

program of economic development

known as the Four Modernizations.

This becomes Chinas guiding policy

doctrine after Mao dies in 1976 and

Deng Xiaoping becomes Chinas leaderin 1978.

1976: On January 8, 1976, Zhou Enlai dies of

cancer. Deeply loved by the Chinese

people, his passing is genuinely

mourned. During the annual Qing Ming

(Tomb Sweeping Day) Festival that falls

on April 5, thousands gather to pay

their respects by laying wreaths in

Tiananmen Square. When the

government attempts to remove the

makeshift memorials, a riot ensues.

This event is known as the Tiananmen

Incident of 1976. Jiang Qing and her

supporters, collectively known as the

Gang of Four are popularly believed

to have ordered the crackdown on those

gathered to commemorate Zhou Enlai.

After Zhou Enlais death, Deng

Xiaoping becomes the first vice premier.

He is immediately criticized by Jiang

Qing. Mao demotes Deng Xiaoping and

names as his successor the relatively

unknown Hua Guofeng.

On September 9, 1976, Mao Zedong

dies. Hua Guofeng becomes the

chairman of the CCP, chairman of its

Military Affairs Commission, thus

officially succeeding Mao.

Four weeks later, in October 1976, Hua

Guofeng orders the arrest of Jiang

Qing and three of her supporters and

labels them the Gang of Four. Their

arrest marks the end of the stalemate

phase of the Cultural Revolution (1969-1976).

1980-1981: The government, now led by Deng

Xiaoping, blames all of the excesses of

the Cultural Revolution on Lin Biao and

the Gang of Four.The Gang of

Fourare put on trial in 1980.

Unrepentant, Jiang Qing is

condemned to death with a two-year

reprieve. In 1983 this is commuted to

life in prison. Diagnosed in 1991 withthroat cancer, Jiang Qing is released on

medical grounds. She is alleged to have

committed suicide in her hospital room

in May, 1991.

On June 29, 1981, the CCP adopts the

Resolution on Certain Questions

in the History of Our Party Since the

Founding of the P.R.C. Mao Zedong

is said to have been 30 percent in error

and 70 percent correct over the course of

his revolutionary career.

Chronology of China Under Mao

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