Government and Politics of China
Introduction
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a ten-year political campaign which aimed at rekindling revolutionary fervour and purifying the party. After several national policy failures, especially the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong regained public prestige and control of the Communist Party of China (CCP). On 16 May, 1966, he announced that the Party and Chinese society were permeated with liberal bourgeois elements who meant to restore capitalism to China, and that said people could only be remover with post-revolutionary class struggle. Ideological cleansing began with attacks by young Red Guards on so-called "intellectuals" to remove "bourgeois" influences. The Red Guards purged the country, the military, urban workers, and the leaders of the CCP, until there remained no one politically dangerous to Mao. Although Mao declared the Cultural Revolution ended in 1969, the political intrigues continued until 1976 with the arrest of the Gang of Four. Even if Mao’s idea of launching the Cultural Revolution was a social political reform, its consequences resulted in a series of incalculable damage and lost. Therefore how to regard the Cultural Revolution is an important topic to analyse.
Positive and Negative Effects of the Cultural Revolution
Although the Cultural Revolution largely bypassed the vast majority of the people who lived in rural areas, it had highly serious consequences for the Chinese economic system in short term. The political instability and the zigzags in economic policy produced slower economic growth and a decline in the capacity of the government to deliver goods and services. In addition, the Cultural Revolution also left more severe and long-term legacies.
Chaotic social and political environments
Firstly, the ten years of the Cultural Revolution brought China’s education system to a virtual halt. Many intellectuals were sent to rural labour camps. These resulted in a serious generation gap among almost an entire
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a ten-year political campaign which aimed at rekindling revolutionary fervour and purifying the party. After several national policy failures, especially the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong regained public prestige and control of the Communist Party of China (CCP). On 16 May, 1966, he announced that the Party and Chinese society were permeated with liberal bourgeois elements who meant to restore capitalism to China, and that said people could only be remover with post-revolutionary class struggle. Ideological cleansing began with attacks by young Red Guards on so-called "intellectuals" to remove "bourgeois" influences. The Red Guards purged the country, the military, urban workers, and the leaders of the CCP, until there remained no one politically dangerous to Mao. Although Mao declared the Cultural Revolution ended in 1969, the political intrigues continued until 1976 with the arrest of the Gang of Four. Even if Mao’s idea of launching the Cultural Revolution was a social political reform, its consequences resulted in a series of incalculable damage and lost. Therefore how to regard the Cultural Revolution is an important topic to analyse.
Positive and Negative Effects of the Cultural Revolution
Although the Cultural Revolution largely bypassed the vast majority of the people who lived in rural areas, it had highly serious consequences for the Chinese economic system in short term. The political instability and the zigzags in economic policy produced slower economic growth and a decline in the capacity of the government to deliver goods and services. In addition, the Cultural Revolution also left more severe and long-term legacies.
Chaotic social and political environments
Firstly, the ten years of the Cultural Revolution brought China’s education system to a virtual halt. Many intellectuals were sent to rural labour camps. These resulted in a serious generation gap among almost an entire