Historical Context
Phoebe Richards
Raymond Cunningham. "Study." Flickr, 30 Jun 2009.
The Cultural Revolution
The Chinese Cultural Revolution began in 1966 when Chairman Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (who had held office since 1949), began to purge China's high-ranking political and intellectual class, hoping to return the country to his revolutionary ideals. After losing power in the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward and its resulting economic crisis, Mao began to see how the revolution was failing (as in becoming less ideological and more practical) in the Soviet Union and wanted to keep his nation from going down the same path. He could see social stratification coming back into play within the party's intellectual class, particularly in urban areas. In thinking that only his ideas were the best for China, Mao plunged the country into chaos over perceived capitalist infiltration, and Chinese citizens paid the price dearly.
Timeline of Events
- → 1966:
- • August: Mao announces the start of the cultural revolution; calls for the youth to begin attacking traditional & bourgeoise (capitalist owning class) elements in China, which included the elderly, intellectuals, religious figures, etc. and for the CCP to cleanse China of anti-Maoist elements.
- • Schools are shut down; Red Guard militias are formed.
- • By end of year, a cult of personality begins to form around Mao.
- → 1967:
- • January: Red Guard continue to attack the elderly & intellectual class, key Party leaders (President Liu Shaoqi, General Secretary Deng Xiaoping) are removed from power & local party committees are shut down to make room for a new governing structure.
- • February: key party leaders begin calling for the end of the Revolution.
- • Summer: cities are dissolving into anarchy influenced by the Red Guards; the army under Lin Biao fails to reassert control of the conflict; divisions increase within/between the army & the Red Guards.
- → 1968:
- • Industrial production dips to 12% below that of 1966.
- • Mao attempts to rebuild & reassert control over the CCP; millions of Red Guards are forced to leave the cities for rural areas; power struggle within the CCP begins.
- → 1969:
- • April: defense minister Lin Biao (a major supporter of Mao) officially declared Mao’s successor.
- • Spring: CCP leadership is dominated by military men; Lin consolidates power & takes control of the Sino-Soviet border to declare martial law; many imprisoned party leaders are killed or suffer severely under the new regime.
- → 1970:
- • divisions within the party form between Mao and his wife Jiang Qing’s faction & Lin’s group; Mao was suspicious of a successor who wanted to assume power so quickly.
- → 1971:
- Lin is killed in a thinly veiled assassination attempt; many in China grow disillusioned with Mao & his radical form of rule after working for so long to put him and Lin into power, only for Lin to then be killed.
- → 1972:
- • The premier Zhao Enlai benefits most from Lin’s death, working to bring a sense of normalcy back to China.
- • Education is reformed & previously purged officials are brought back into the fold of government.
- • Mao suffers a severe stroke; Zhao finds out he has a fatal malignancy.
- → 1973:
- • Deng Xiaoping comes back into power to be groomed to succeed Mao.
- • Jiang Qing (Mao’s wife) and her more radical faction reemerge.
- • Mid-year: a campaign based on Lin and Confucian ideology is used to critique Zhao’s more moderate faction.
- → 1974:
- • Economic difficulties and overall chaos force Mao to shift favor more toward the moderates.
- • Zhao is hospitalized.
- → 1975:
- • Deng gains more power over the course of the year.
- • Late fall: Deng is rejected by Mao, who fears that his ascendancy would lead to a rejection of both the Cultural Revolution & Mao himself.
- • Propaganda posters are used to repudiate his policies; posters had become the most popular means of distributing propaganda.
- → 1976:
- • Zhao dies, Deng is formally purged.
- • Mao dies.
- • October: the radical faction is purged by a coalition of political & military leaders.
- → 1977:
- • Deng officially succeeds Mao as the leader of China.
How it Relates of Saboteur & How Mr. Chiu is Treated
In purging the Chinese upper class of intellectuals and high-ranking party members, Mao sowed prejudice & distrust among the wider population towards them. In Saboteur, the normalization of brutality & emphasis on following orders created a culture of oppression that led to Mr. Chiu’s resentment, distaste, and spitefulness towards the system, ultimately culminating in his mass infection of innocents.