Mao's Reasons for Launching the Cultural Revolution

Mao's Reasons for Launching the Cultural Revolution

Mao called on the Red Guards ( a group of violent young people) to rise up and purge the Party. Mao also decided that traditional Chinese culture had to be destroyed and replaced with new, communist culture. Old buildings and monuments were destroyed as well as ancient books and religious people. Mao also created the Cultural Revolution Group that was a group of seventeen dominated by ideologues (Chen Boda, Yao Wenyuan, Zhang Chunqiao and Jiang Qing)/ It helped to create criticisms of top Party members through their control of media and propaganda. Soon the violence widened, meaning anyone could be attacked who was considered to lack loyalty in Mao. China almost reached a civil war, until Mao used the PLA to control the Red Guards. Mao's enemies had now been removed and his power was unrivalled.

The Failure of the Great Leap Forward: Because Mao had retired from frontline politics, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping were running China. However, Mao bcame suspicious of them and the dedication of the Party leaders to communism. Mao believed the bourgeoisie and 'capitalist roaders' had infiltrated the Party.

Divisions within the CCP: Because the daily running of the country was left to Mao's allies and he did very little to take part in the politics of the country, Mao became wary of his friends. Many had spoken out against him before, such as Zhou's critical attitude towards th ambitious targets of…