China and Cultural Revolution

      China is officially known as the People’s Republic of China. It has the world’s largest population and is the third largest country in the world, geographically. It shares borders with many countries; Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burma, India, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Vietnam. There quite a few languages spoken in China, such as; Mandarin, Yue, Wu, Minbei, Minnan, Xiang. Gan, and Hakka. The capital city is Beijing, but the city with the highest population is Shanghai. China endures things such as typhoons, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, and droughts. It is the second largest economy. It was the third country to send someone to space. It has the largest man made structure in the world, the Great Wall of China that runs 5,500 miles long. The Giant Panda originates from China. China is a communist country and it has remained strongly in power because it controls many aspects of their life like what they watch on TV, what they learn in school, even how many children they can have.

            The Cultural Revolution, known in full as the Proletarian Cultural Revolution, began in 1966. It was initiated by then leader, Mao Zedong. He felt China was straying from what he felt was best for it and wanted to reassert his beliefs for how China should be governed. Mao was concerned with the notion that a privileged class was emerging from the progress China had being making since 1949. He also felt that this privileged class was emerging at his own expense. He began calling on the nation's youth to take a stand against those that were leading China down the wrong direction. Mao intentionally wanted to create a cult for himself that would help him oust any communist party members that did not fully support him. His main selling point in trying to recruit people was that he believed everyone should be equal; that no one was better than anyone else. He created this image of peasants, workers, and educated people all working together for the good of China. Groups known as Red Guards came together to encourage other youths to criticize those Mao viewed as a threat. Over time, some of these Red Guards got out of hand, even fighting amongst each other on who had the right ideas of which way China should go. It even got to the point where they began taking their anger out on foreigners and the British Embassy got burned down completely. During this time, the Chinese economy began to decline.

            Historians mostly view the removal of Liu Shao-chi in October 1968 as the end of the cultural war because it is said that Mao saw his removal as of a potential rival. I also read that the revolution continued in various phases up until Mao's death in 1976. Either way, it was a violent time and 1.5 million people were killed and millions of others suffered through situations such as imprisonment, seizure of property, torture, and overall humiliation. Mao in the end created the opposite effect of what he had intended, leaving many Chinese people losing faith in their government altogether.