Nationwide chaos

• 1.Rebellion of the Red Guards

  • Mao turned teenagers into a tool for power struggle and encouraged them to go out of school to take part in the revolution and struggle against revisionism.
  • In May 1966, students and teenagers across the country started to form the Red Guards and went to Beijing to see Mao.
  • Afterwards, more people went into towns and the countryside holding Mao's 'Little Red Book'.
• 1.Rebellion of the Red Guards

  • The Red Guards were composed of tens of thousands of secondary school or university students.
  • Mao told them 'to rebel is justified'.
  • By the summer of 1966, most of the secondary schools and universities had been closed down.
• 1.Rebellion of the Red Guards

  • The Red Guards were mobilized to destroy the 'four olds' and create the 'four news' (ideas, culture, customs and habits).
  • As a result, many cultural relics and historical sites had been ruined.
• 1.Rebellion of the Red Guards

  • The Red Guards would attack anyone whom they claimed was not living according to Mao's teachings.
  • The society was in total chaos.
  • Acts of brutality were everywhere.
  • Gangs of students, workers and peasants stormed the offices of CPC officials, government headquarters and schools, denouncing and even beating up anyone whom they considered not a 'full-blooded revolutionary'.
• 1.Rebellion of the Red Guards

  • Party and state cadres in all positions were attacked.
  • Party and state leaders such as Liu and Deng were criticized.
• 2. Unrest subsided

  • To avoid the complete loss of control over the situation, the government asked the Red Guards to go back to school since early 1967.
  • In July 1968, the PLA was stationed in educational constitutions to suppress armed conflicts.
  • The unrest gradually subsided when Mao launched the 'Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside' Movement in December 1968.
  • All young people in cities were mobilized and sent to the villages to be re-educated by peasants.