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Mao Zedong
1966 May Chinese Communist Party (CCP) issues the May 16 notice announcing the start of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution May 25 – A big-character poster (dŕzěbŕo in Chinese) in Beijing University denounces school leaders; sparks soon spread to other universities and schools, with Red Guards spurning classes to join the revolution and vowing to ‘die fighting to protect Chairman Mao’ Aug Mao Zedong supports the Red Guards in a speech to the 11th plenum of the eighth CCP Congress Aug Mao writes a dŕzěbŕo headlined ‘Bomb the Headquarters’, a clear attack on State President Liu Shaoqi. Aug CCP plenum ends with a 16-point document on the revolution setting down so-called guidelines Aug-Nov Mao receives an estimated 11 million Red Guards from across the country on eight occasions in Tiananmen Square Aug The Cultural Revolution condemns every form of religion and bans all open expression of faith—churches and temples are shut down and destroyed; believers are imprisoned 1967 Jan Red Guards and workers seize power in Shanghai; the revolution reaches the army provoking clashes July Liu Shaoqi and his wife Wang Guangmei are publicly denounced; Liu is stripped of his duties weeks later and power is left in the hands of Lin Biao and Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing July Insurrections erupt in big cities Aug The eighth Central Committee of the CCP approves the Cultural Revolution 1968 Oct Liu is expelled from the party Dec ‘Down to the Countryside Movement’ begins with hundreds of thousands of purged cadres sent to rural areas for re-education. 1969 The party ratifies the overthrow of Liu, branding him a ‘renegade, traitor, and scab’ Nov 12 Liu dies in Kaifang, Henan but the news of his death is not immediately announced 1971 Sep Mao’s designated successor, Lin, dies in a plane crash in Mongolia 1973 Apr Deng Xiaoping is rehabilitated and named vice-premier 1976 Jan Premier Zhou Enlai dies Apr Hua Guofeng succeeds Zhou as premier Apr About 2 million people gather in Tiananmen Square to protest against the Gang of Four Sept Mao dies Oct Hua orders the arrest of Gang of Four, marking the end of the Cultural Revolution
1981 June
A ‘resolution on several historic issues of the CCP since the founding
of the People's Republic’ is adopted by the party; the resolution states
that Mao should shoulder ‘main responsibility’ for the Cultural
Revolution, which resulted in ‘the most severe setback and the heaviest
losses suffered by the party and the people since the founding of the
People's Republic’ |