Tensions between CCP and Mao/Aims and methods of Mao/ Role of GoF and Red Guards

Aim of regaining power after the GLF

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* Mao encouraged students to make propaganda posters that denounced Deng and Liu Shaoqi while praising Mao
* Mao publicly denounced Liu and Deng for capitalist tendencies
* Mao swims across the Yangtze river at 72yrs old which is heavily propagandised and showed his power even in old age

Aim of re-imposing Maoism

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* Mao encouraged the people to study of his writings
* The Little Red Book, which highlighted Mao’s ideological beliefs about socialism and the purging of the ‘Four Olds’
* Useful way of indoctrination and establishing cult of personality

Aim of purging capitalist and traditional elements

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* Encouraged students to name opponents of the regime
* Red Guard attacked and killed millions without evidence
* Public posters continued to repent the ‘four olds’ and were very effective

Gang of Four

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* Comprised of Jiang Qinq, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen.
* Purpose was to organise and carry out the Cultural Revolution
* Yao criticised “Hai Rui…”, Jiang staged revolutionary operas, Zhang and Wang spoke in Shanghai and encouraged students
* Influenced education, school structures and party polices on intellectuals
* Controlled media and used propaganda outlets
* Targeted Deng and Liu; able to get Deng exiled for conspiring against Mao

Red Guards

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* Student Led paramilitary groups mobilised by Mao to diminish the Four Olds and purge capitalism
* Used violence, accused intellectuals and teachers of capitalism and bashed/killed those who criticcised Mao
* E.g. At a girl’s school in Beijing, the Red Guards decided to rid to school of bourgeois elements. They accused the members of forming a ‘Black Gang’ (gangs who opposed Maoist Thought), and as such, they splashed the girls with black ink and then bashed them with nail-studded clubs. Vice principle Bian was murdered. 

Four Olds

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* Old Customs, old culture, old habits and old ideas
* Red Guards attacked anything traditional, even hairstyles or shoes
* Imposed their view on the population through violence and terror