10 November The Shanghai Wenhui Daily publishes Yao Wenyuan’s “On the New Historical Drama Hai Rui Dismissed from Office.” The production and publication of the article are arranged by Jiang Qing and Zhang Chunqiao and backed by Mao Zedong.
11 November The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) issues a circular to replace Yang Shankun with Wang Dongxing, Mao’s own chief bodyguard, as director of the CCP General Office.
Mid–November Mao leaves Beijing for East China.
8–15 December Mao chairs an enlarged session of the Politburo in Shanghai, at which Luo Ruiqing is removed as chief of general staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and general secretary of the Central Military Commission (CMC) upon Lin Biao’s initiative.
2–20 February The Symposium on the Works of Literature and the Arts in the Armed Forces, chaired by Jiang Qing with the direct backing of Lin Biao, is held in Shanghai. Later, the summary report of the conference is edited and revised by Chen Boda, Zhang Chunqiao, Jiang Qing, Liu Zhijian, and Mao Zedong himself.
5 February Liu Shaoqi chairs a meeting of members of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee in Beijing, at which the “Outline Report by the Five-Person Cultural Revolution Small Group Concerning the Current Academic Discussion” (soon to be known as the February Outline) is adopted—a document that is intended to confine the criticism of Wu Han and others to the academic sphere.
8 February Peng Zhen, Lu Dingyi, and Kang Sheng go to Wuhan to report to Mao about the Outline Report. Mao agrees with the document’s views.
12 February The CCP Central Committee (CC) issues the Outline Report within the party nationwide as a guiding document for the ongoing movement.
28–30 March Mao talks with Kang Sheng and others on three occasions: contradicting his earlier view of the February Outline, Mao accuses the CCP Beijing Municipal Committee, the Five-Person Cultural Revolution Small Group, and the CCP Propaganda Department of harboring evildoers and threatens to dissolve all three organs.
2 April Zhou Enlai writes Mao a formal report in support of Mao’s criticism of the Five-Person Group and the February Outline.
9–12 April At a meeting of the CC Secretariat chaired by Deng Xiaoping, Deng and Zhou Enlai criticize Peng Zhen for opposing Mao. They also decide to issue a CC document criticizing the February Outline and form a new group for drafting Cultural Revolution documents.
10 April Upon Mao’s finalization, the CC issues “Summary of the Symposium Convened by Comrade Jiang Qing at the Behest of Comrade Lin Biao on the Work of Literature and the Arts in the Armed Forces” as an intraparty document, which defines the current academic discussion as a struggle for leadership between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and calls for a “great socialist revolution on the cultural front” against an allegedly long-dominant “antiparty and antisocialist black line.”
16–26 April Mao chairs enlarged Politburo Standing Committee sessions in Hangzhou, criticizing Peng Zhen for his alleged antiparty crimes. Decisions are made that the Five-Person Group be dissolved and that a new Cultural Revolution small group be formed. Concurrently, a newly formed document-drafting group is working on the May 16 Circular.
4–26 May Under Mao’s remote control, Liu Shaoqi chairs the Politburo’s enlarged sessions in Beijing to expose and denounce the so-called Peng [Zhen]-Luo [Ruiqing]-Lu [Dingyi]-Yang [Shangkun] Anti-Party Clique. On 16 May, all attendees of the session (including Peng Zhen) vote to adopt a CC circular (May 16 Circular) to declare war on the “representatives of the bourgeoisie who have snuck into the party, the government, the army, and the various spheres of culture.” The adoption of the circular marks the official launching of the Cultural Revolution. On 23 May, the Politburo decides to dismiss Peng, Luo, Lu, and Yang from office and fill some of their positions with Ye Jianying as general secretary of the CMC, Tao Zhu as director of the CCP Propaganda Department, and Li Xuefeng as first secretary of the CCP Beijing Municipal Committee. It also decides to reorganize the CCP Beijing Municipal Committee.
7 May Mao writes a letter to Lin Biao commenting on a report on “Further Developments of Agricultural and Sideline Production in the Armed Forces” submitted by the PLA General Logistics Department. In the letter, Mao articulates his view of labor in a utopian society. On 15 May, the CC issues the letter nationwide as an intraparty document. The letter later becomes well-known as the “May 7 Directive.”
25 May A big-character poster entitled “What Are Song Shuo, Lu Ping, and Peng Peiyun Really Doing in the Cultural Revolution?” written by Nie Yuanzi and others, is put out on the campus of Peking University.
28 May The CC issues a name list of the newly established Central Cultural Revolution Small Group (CCRSG) members, with Chen Boda as head of the group, Jiang Qing, Wang Renzhong, Liu Zhijian, and Zhang Chunqiao as deputy heads, and Kang Sheng as adviser.
29 May At a routine meeting of the CC top leadership in Beijing, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping decide to send work groups to People’s Daily and to Peking University. Zhou reports the decisions to Mao by phone and obtains Mao’s approval. A group of students at Tsinghua University Middle School—mostly children of ranking officials—forms in secrecy an organization named “Red Guards.”
1 June People’s Daily publishes the editorial “Sweep Away All Cow-Demons and Snake-Spirits,” which is prepared by Chen Boda, who took over the leadership of the newspaper as head of the work group a day before. Following Mao’s instructions, the Central People’s Radio broadcasts on the evening the big-character poster written by Nie Yuanzi and others, and People’s Daily runs the text of the poster on 2 June with a commentary entitled “Hail the Big-Character Poster from Peking University.”
3 June Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping hold an enlarged session of the Politburo Standing Committee in Beijing. The meeting approves a proposal made by the new Beijing municipal party committee to dispatch work groups to colleges and middle and high schools in Beijing to lead the Cultural Revolution movement.
4 June Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping fly to Hangzhou to report to Mao in person about their decisions concerning the ongoing movement. Mao approves their work group policies and entrusts Liu with the responsibility for leading the Cultural Revolution movement in Beijing.
Mid-June Rebellious students in Beijing begin to have conflicts with the work groups. Following a traditional “class struggle” model, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping instruct the work groups to launch an “Anti-Interference” campaign on middle school and college campuses. Those opposing the work groups are persecuted as Rightists and reactionaries.
21 June Liu Shaoqi sends his wife Wang Guangmei to Tsinghua University as adviser to the work group. Wang leads attacks against those opposing the work group. Kuai Dafu, a representative of student rebels, is persecuted as a reactionary.
16 July Mao swims in the Yangzi River, demonstrating his good health and determination to carry out the Cultural Revolution.
18 July Mao returns to Beijing, soon to withdraw his support for the work group policy and accuse Liu and Deng of repressing students and misleading the ongoing political movement.
28 July The new CCP Beijing Municipal Committee announces its decision to withdraw work groups from college campuses.
29 July The Red Guards of the Beijing Institute of Aeronautics Middle School post the couplet “If the father is a hero, the son is a real man; if the father is a reactionary, the son is a bastard—It is basically like this,” advocating a theory of blood lineage and making teachers and students from politically disadvantaged families targets of the Revolution. The blood lineage theory causes a heated debate on middle school and college campuses across China and meets strong resistance from a majority of students and teachers.
1 August Mao writes a letter to Tsinghua University Middle School Red Guards in support of their “revolutionary rebel spirit,” which leads to an explosive development of Red Guard organizations in the country.
1–12 August The Eleventh Plenum of the CCP Eighth Central Committee is convened in Beijing.
5 August Mao writes “Bombarding the Headquarters—My Big-Character Poster,” accusing the Liu-Deng leadership of opposing the Cultural Revolution. Though their names are not mentioned in the poster, Liu and Deng become main targets of criticism at the plenum.
8 August The CC adopts “The Resolution of the CCP Central Committee Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” (to be known as the “Sixteen Articles”) as a guideline for the unfolding political movement.
12 August Major changes in the central leadership are adopted by the CC. Lin Biao replaces Liu Shaoqi as second in command and becomes Mao’s heir apparent.
18 August In army uniform and wearing a Red Guard armband, Mao receives a million students (many of them Red Guards) and teachers at Tiananmen Square. A violent Red Guard movement soon spreads across China.
19 August Beijing’s Red Guards declares war on “old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits” on the city’s streets. The campaign to destroy the Four Olds soon sweeps the entire country.
23 August The People’s Daily carries two editorials applauding the Red Guards’ revolutionary rebel spirit and their campaign to destroy the “Four Olds” in the capital city. The editorials inspire further violence and terror: during the 40 days in late summer known as the “Red August,” 1,772 innocent people were killed or committed suicide in the city of Beijing, 33,695 households were ransacked, 85,196 residents were expelled from the city, and 4,922 historic sites were ruined.
5 September The CC and the State Council (SC) issue a circular to support the “great revolutionary networking” campaign by granting travelers to Beijing free transportation and accommodation.
6 September With the support of the CCRSG, the “Capital College Red Guards Revolutionary Rebel Headquarters” (commonly known as the “Third Command Post”) is founded in Beijing.
3 October The Red Flag (Issue No. 13) editorial “March Forward along the Broad Road of Mao Zedong Thought” initiates the nationwide campaign to criticize the “bourgeois reactionary line.”
6 October The “Red Third Command Post” holds a mass rally of over a hundred thousand people in Beijing denouncing the bourgeoisie reactionary line of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. Zhou Enlai, Chen Boda, and Jiang Qing appear at the rally to show their support.
9–28 October A CC work session is held in Beijing. On 16 October, Chen Boda gives a speech entitled “The Two Lines in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.” The script of the speech, with Mao’s final touches, is distributed nationwide on 24 October. Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping criticize themselves at the work session.
13 November Zhang Chunqiao, representing the CCRSG, resolves the conflict between the Workers Command Post of Shanghai and the local authorities during the Anting Incident. Zhang acknowledges the Workers Command Post as the first cross-industry mass organization in the country, a decision Mao is soon to endorse.
16 November The CC and the SC issue a circular to halt the “great revolutionary networking” temporarily.
Mid-November-December A number of big-character posters criticizing Lin Biao and the CCRSG appear in Beijing. The CCRSG and rebel Red Guards attack the writers of the posters and name their criticism a “Black Wind in November.”
4–6 December Lin Biao convenes an enlarged session of the Politburo Standing Committee to hear reports from Gu Mu on the recently held Industrial and Transportation Symposium (for national planning). Lin criticizes Gu’s outline report for diverging the focus from the Cultural Revolution to economic production, and vows to push the mass movement further into all sectors of society, including industrial and transportation circles.
5 December Old Red Guards at a number of middle schools in Beijing form the “United Action Committee of the Capital Red Guards.” The organization opposes the CCRSG’s radical policies toward party veterans while upholding the theory of blood lineage.
15 December Directed by Lin Biao, an enlarged session of the Politburo Standing Committee passes “The CC Directive on Implementing the Cultural Revolution in Rural Areas” and authorizes its nationwide dissemination. This is the official beginning of the Cultural Revolution in the countryside.
16 December Lin Biao publishes the “Foreword to the Second Edition of the Quotations from Chairman Mao.”
25 December About 5,000 rebels from Tsinghua University demonstrate at Tiananmen Square, shouting the slogan “Down with Liu Shaoqi!”
26 December At his 73rd birthday, Mao has a party with the CCRSG members and toasts to the unfolding of an all-round civil war for 1967.
30 December The Kangping Avenue Incident, an armed conflict between rebels and conservatives, breaks out in Shanghai. The conflict involves more than 100,000 factory workers, the first factional battle on such a large scale.
4–5 January Rebels begin to seize power at the Shanghai newspapers Wenhui Daily and Liberation Daily. This is the beginning of the “January Storm.”
6 January One million Shanghai rebels hold a rally denouncing the CCP Shanghai Municipal Committee and assume its power.
8 January At a reception for the CCRSG members, Mao speaks of the Shanghai rebels’ power-seizure as a great revolution.
11 January Following Mao’s directives, the CC, the SC, the CMC, and the CCRSG send a telegram to the rebel organizations in Shanghai, congratulating them for their assumption of the municipal power.
13 January The CC and the SC issue the “Regulations on Strengthening Public Security during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” (also known as the “Six Regulations of Public Security”).
16 January Red Flag carries the editorial “Proletarian Revolutionaries Unite” to make power-seizure a nationwide campaign. Within a month, the new power structure called “Revolutionary Committee” is established in several provinces including Shanghai, Heilongjiang, Guizhou, and Shandong.
18 January The Journal of Middle School Cultural Revolution is premiered in Beijing, carrying Yu Luoke’s “On Family Background.”
23 January Following Mao’s instructions, the CC, the SC, the CMC, and the CCRSG issue the “Decision to Provide the Revolutionary Masses of the Left with Firm Support from the PLA.” The army’s involvement in the Cultural Revolution begins.
5 February “Shanghai People’s Commune” is founded. The name of the new power organ is to be changed to “Shanghai Municipal Revolutionary Committee” on 24 February at Mao’s suggestion.
11 and 16 February Zhou Enlai chairs top-level CC briefing sessions in Zhongnanhai. Chen Yi, Ye Jianying, Tan Zhenlin, and other senior PLA and SC leaders criticize the radicals of the CCRSG. Their criticism is soon to be denounced by Mao as a “February Adverse Current.”
23 February Zhao Yongfu, deputy-commander of the Qinghai Military District, orders the PLA soldiers to retake by force a newspaper office building occupied by the rebel civilians. The violent conflict leaves 173 dead and 224 injured.
5 March The CC orders military control in Jiangsu Province where widespread chaos caused by factional conflict hindered the establishment of the provincial Revolutionary Committee. Military control is soon to be applied to other provinces under similar circumstances.
16 March Following Mao’s directive, the CC authorizes the distribution of materials concerning the release of 61 party veterans, including Bo Yibo, Liu Lantao, An Ziwen, and Yang Xianzhen, from the Kuomintang prison in the 1930s. The group is named a “traitors’ clique.” The CC document intensifies mass organizations’ hunt for “renegades” among party veterans. The CCP Special Case Examination Group on Liu Shaoqi is also set up in March.
18 March In response to the February Adverse Current, Mao decides to replace the meetings of the Politburo with the “extended CCRSG routine meetings” as executive gatherings of the de facto CCP top leadership. Zhou Enlai is to chair these meetings. Regular attendees include members of the CCRSG and a number of military and government officials.
19 March The CC announces its decision not to resume the “great revolutionary networking” campaign.
30 March With Mao’s approval, Qi Benyu’s article “Patriotism or Betrayal? A Critique of the Reactionary Film Inside Story of the Qing Court” is published in People’s Daily. Without mentioning his name, the article refers to Liu Shaoqi as the “biggest capitalist-roader within the party” and “China’s Khrushchev” for the first time, which stirs up a new wave in a nationwide campaign against Liu.
10 April A mass rally of 300,000 is held at Tsinghua University to struggle against Liu Shaoqi’s wife Wang Guangmei and 300 senior party officials.
20 April The Beijing Municipal Revolutionary Committee is established.
6 May A massive armed conflict between two rebel factions occurs in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, leaving 40 to 50 people dead and 127 wounded. After the “January Storm,” factional violence with heavy involvement of the military spreads across China. Armed conflicts, more severe than that of Chengdu, take place in Yibin (Sichuan Province), Zhengzhou (Henan Province), and Wuhan (Hubei Province) during the summer months of 1967.
6 June The CC, the SC, the CMC, and the CCRSG jointly issue a circular order to stop widespread violence and chaos and to reinforce the law. The circular proves to be ineffective.
14 June A number of radical students form the “May 16 Capital Red Guard Corps” in Beijing and attack Zhou Enlai. With the support of the CCRSG, the Beijing Public Security Bureau disbands the organization and arrests its leaders before long.
13 July Mao departs from Beijing on an inspection tour of North, Central-South, and East China. He arrives in Wuhan, Hubei Province, on the following day.
20 July Infuriated by some central leaders’ unbalanced treatment of the two rival factions and unaware of Mao’s presence in Wuhan, members of the mass organization Million-Strong Mighty Army and soldiers from the PLA Unit 8201 of the Wuhan Military Region storm the guesthouse where Mao is staying and take Wang Li and Xie Fuzhi by force for questioning. Upon receiving a letter from Lin Biao that depicts the disturbance in Wuhan as a mutiny, Mao quietly leaves for Shanghai on the early morning of 21 July.
25 July Upon their safe return to Beijing, Xie Fuzhi, and Wang Li receive a heroes’ welcome by Lin Biao and other central leaders at a mass rally of a million people at Tiananmen Square. The central leadership is soon to denounce the July 20 Incident as a “counterrevolutionary riot.” The leaders of the Wuhan Military Region are removed. The persecution of members of the Million-Strong Mighty Army results in 600 deaths and 66,000 injuries.
Following Mao’s instructions, Jiang Qing promotes the slogan “verbal attack and armed defense” at a reception for rebels from Henan.
1 August Red Flag carries an editorial entitled “The Proletariat Must Firmly Grasp the Gun: Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the PLA.” The editorial calls upon the masses to “ferret out a handful of capitalist-roaders inside the army.”
7 August Wang Li receives rebels at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and voices support for their effort to seize power at the Ministry.
9 August Lin Biao receives new commanders of the PLA Wuhan Military Region and announces his assessment of the Cultural Revolution: “its achievement is greatest, greatest, greatest; its cost is minimal, minimal, minimal.”
13 August A massacre of the so-called “Five Black Categories” in Dao County, Hunan Province, begins. In the following 65 days, 4,519 innocent people are killed.
22 August About 20,000 students from the Beijing Foreign Language Institute, Tsinghua University, and other schools, storm the office of the British chargé d’affaires in Beijing to protest the arrest of Chinese journalists in Hong Kong. The demonstrators beat the British personnel and set the office building on fire. Under the leadership of the CCP underground organizations, ultraleftists in Hong Kong launch Cultural Revolution-type riots against the British authorities during the summer months of 1967.
30 August In response to Zhou Enlai’s report about the involvement of Wang Li and some other members of the CCRSG in foreign and military affairs, Mao decides to arrest Wang Li, Guan Feng, and Qi Benyu (Qi’s arrest to be implemented in January 1968) to reassure and pacify Zhou Enlai and military leaders.
5 September The CC, the SC, the CMC, and the CCRSG jointly issue an order forbidding the seizure of weaponry, equipments, and other kinds of military supplies from the PLA by mass organizations.
8 September With Mao’s approval, the People’s Daily publishes Yao Wenyuan’s article “On Tao Zhu’s Two Books.”
25 September Newspapers report on Mao’s inspection tour of North, Central-South, and East China, his return to Beijing, and his call for rival mass organizations to stop factional fighting and form a grand alliance.
7 October The CC issues a circular publicizing Mao’s talks during his inspection tour, in which Mao offers a positive assessment of the Cultural Revolution: The situation across China “is not just good but great; it is better than ever.”
14 October The CC, the SC, the CMC, and the CCRSG issue a notice that classes be resumed at all schools. The decision is implemented with limited success.
7 November Drafted by Chen Boda and Yao Wenyuan with Mao’s approval, a joint editorial entitled “March Forward along the Road of the October Socialist Revolution: Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution,” appears in the People’s Daily, the Red Flag, and the Liberation Army Daily, articulating a theory of continuing revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat.
27 November At a forum of Beijing workers, Jiang Qing proposes that a campaign to rectify class ranks be launched nationwide.
22 March Lin Biao and Jiang Qing accuse Generals Yang Chengwu, Yu Lijin, and Fu Chongbi of carrying out antiparty activities. Lin makes false charges against the three at rallies of military officers on 23 March and 27 March. Mao greets the assembly of military officers on 24 March to show his support for Lin.
23 April–26 July A “Hundred-Day Armed Struggle” takes place on the campus of Tsinghua University in Beijing.
25 May The CC and the CCRSG issue “The Experience of the Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory Military Control Commission in Mobilizing the Masses to Struggle against the Enemies” with Mao’s comments. The document offers guidelines for the Rectify the Class Ranks campaign.
3 July The CC, the SC, the CMC, and the CCRSG jointly issue a public notice concerning factional violence in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The armed conflict in Guangxi in the summer of 1968 results in casualties numbering tens of thousands—perhaps over a hundred thousand—including cases of cannibalism in several counties.
20 July The newly established Inner Mongolia Revolutionary Committee moves to hunt for members of the “Inner Mongolia People’s Revolutionary Party” as part of the Rectify the Class Ranks campaign. The operation involves severe physical abuse and continues well into 1969, falsely implicating 346,000 citizens and leaving 16,222 dead.
24 July The CC, the SC, the CMC, and the CCRSG jointly issue a public notice concerning factional violence in some areas of Shaanxi Province. Two months after the document is issued, 70,000 pieces of weaponry and 4 million pieces of ammunition are confiscated.
27 July Mao sends a workers propaganda team and a PLA propaganda team to Tsinghua University to end factional violence there. Five workers are killed and 700 are wounded when the armed Red Guards open fire on them.
28 July Mao receives the “five Red Guard leaders of Beijing”: Nie Yuanzi, Kuai Dafu, Han Aijing, Tan Houlan, and Wang Dabin. At the reception, Mao indicates his resolve to send students away from campus to end the longtime factional conflict. This meeting marks the beginning of the end of the Red Guard movement.
25 August The CC, the SC, the CMC, and the CCRSG jointly issue a circular announcing the decision of the central leadership to dispatch workers’ propaganda teams to the nation’s educational institutions.
7 September The People’s Daily and the Liberation Army Daily carry a joint editorial celebrating the establishment of Revolutionary Committees in all provinces and autonomous regions in the country and announcing that the Cultural Revolution is entering its “struggle, criticism, reform” stage. A mass rally is held in Beijing to mark the completion of the Cultural Revolution power establishment in the nation as “all red across China.”
5 October The People’s Daily publishes a report on the Liuhe “May 7 Cadre School” in praise of its experience in revolutionizing government organizations. The report initiates a nationwide drive to send millions of cadres and government workers to “May 7 Cadre Schools” to do manual labor.
13–31 October The Enlarged Twelfth Plenum of the CCP Eighth Central Committee is held in Beijing. Over 65% of the living members and alternate members of the Eighth Central Committee are absent because they had been denounced since 1966. Mao chairs the opening session. A number of senior party veterans are under attack for their involvement in the February Adverse Current of 1967.
31 October At its Twelfth Plenum, the Eighth CC approves the “Investigative Report on the Crimes of the Traitor, Spy, and Renegade Liu Shaoqi” by the Central Case Examination Group and moves to expel Liu permanently from the CCP. All delegates, except Chen Shaomin, vote in support of the report and the motion.
22 December The People’s Daily publishes Mao’s directive calling on urban “educated youths” (middle and high school students) to go to the countryside to receive reeducation from the poor and lower-middle peasants. A nationwide “Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside” movement follows. The number of “sent down” urban youths totals 17 million by 1980. The beginning of this movement marks the end of the Red Guard movement.
2–17 March Sino-Soviet border clashes take place along the Ussuri River.
1–24 April The Ninth National Congress of the CCP is held in Beijing. Mao presides over the opening session. He speaks at the Military Region Commander session on 13 April and calls the Ninth Congress as a meeting of unity and success.
14 April A new CCP Constitution is adopted with the support of all delegates. In the new Constitution, Lin Biao is designated as the successor of Mao.
24 April The CCP Ninth Central Committee is elected. Only 27 percent of the Eighth Central Committee members and alternate members retain their seats. The rest are mostly cultural revolutionaries.
28 April The First Plenum of the CCP Ninth Central Committee is convened in Beijing to elect the new Politburo and its standing committee. Nearly half of the new Politburo members are close associates of Lin Biao in the military.
14 October In the name of preparations against Soviet military attacks, the CC issues an urgent notice to evacuate senior party leaders from Beijing. Numerous senior leaders leave the capital for the provinces within a week. Most of them do not return until after the downfall of Lin Biao in September 1971.
12 November Liu Shaoqi dies in Kaifeng, Henan Province, after three years of abuse in unlawful custody. His family members are not informed of his removal from Beijing to Kaifeng and of his death until years later.
31 January The CC issues its “Directive Concerning the Strike against Counterrevolutionary Destructive Activities.”
5 February The CC issues its “Directive Concerning Anti-Graft and Embezzlement and Anti-Speculation and Profiteering” and “Notice on Anti-Extravagance and Waste.” These two documents, along with the 31 January CC Directive, provide guidelines for a nationwide “One Strike and Three Antis” campaign. During a 10-month period (February–November 1970), 1.87 million people are persecuted as traitors, renegades, and counterrevolutionaries, over 284,800 are arrested, and thousands are executed.
5 March Yu Luoke, author of “On Family Background,” is executed in Beijing.
17–20 March Following Mao’s instructions, a CC work session is held in Beijing in preparation for the Fourth National People’s Congress of the PRC. Mao suggests that the position of the president of state be eliminated in a new PRC constitution.
27 March The CC issues its “Notification Concerning the Investigation of the ‘May 16’ Counterrevolutionary Conspiratorial Clique,” both to lead the investigation further and check the excesses of persecution. The hunt for members of the “May 16” counterrevolutionary clique continues until the end of the Cultural Revolution. An estimated 3.5 million people are falsely implicated in this nine-year-long campaign.
12 April In a brief message, Mao rejects Lin Biao’s suggestion that Mao serve as president of the PRC.
27 June The CC approves the Proposal by Peking University and Tsinghua University to resume admissions of students. By the end of 1970, approximately 41,870 “worker-peasant-soldier students” enter colleges nationwide.
22 August The Politburo Standing Committee meets in Lushan, Jiangxi Province. At the meeting, all of the committee members, except Mao, favor the retaining of the office of the PRC president.
23 August–6 September The Second Plenum of the CCP Ninth Central Committee is held in Lushan. At the opening session, Lin Biao speaks of Mao as a genius and proposes that Mao be the head of the proletarian dictatorship. During small-group sessions on 24 August, Lin’s associates, including Chen Boda, lead the attack on Zhang Chunqiao without mentioning his name and voice support for the retaining of the office of the national president. On 31 August, Mao writes “Some Views of Mine,” to be known as his second big-character poster, attacking Chen Boda. A scapegoat of the Mao-Lin conflict, Chen is soon dismissed from office.
16 November The CC issues a document concerning Chen Boda’s “antiparty problems.” The Criticize Chen and Conduct Rectification campaign is launched within the party.
18 December Mao receives U.S. journalist Edgar Snow. During the conversation, Mao indicates his intention to improve Sino-American relations. He also blames Lin Biao for promoting the Mao cult without mentioning Lin’s name.
26 January The CC issues the “Criminal Records of the Anti-Party Element Chen Boda” nationwide.
8 February The CC establishes a special investigation group on the “May 16” clique.
18–24 March Lin Liguo and his young colleagues in the air force meet in Shanghai allegedly to draft a coup plan called the 571 Project Summary.
7 April Mao decides to invite the United States ping-pong team to visit China.
29 May The Politburo issues a report on China-American talks to prepare the nation for the dramatic change in the PRC government’s diplomatic policy toward the United States.
14 August–12 September Mao tours South China. During his meetings with local leaders, Mao criticizes Lin Biao and his followers.
12 September Lin Liguo’s alleged plan to assassinate Mao is aborted. Mao returns to Beijing in the evening.
13 September Upon learning of Mao’s attack on Lin Biao and Mao’s arrival in Beijing, Lin, his wife Ye Qun, and their son Lin Liguo board the aircraft Trident 256 at Shanhaiguan military airfield in the early morning, heading for the Soviet Union. The plane crashes near Undurkhan in Mongolia; all passengers and crew are killed.
18 September The CC issues a circular concerning Lin Biao’s “renegade escape,” charging him with treason.
29 September The CC issues a circular announcing its decision to remove Lin Biao’s associates Huang Yongsheng, Wu Faxian, Li Zuopeng, and Qiu Huizuo from office.
3 October The CC issues the “Circular Concerning the Dissolution of the CMC Administrative Group and the Establishment of the CMC Administrative Conference Office.” Ye Jianying is appointed head of the Conference Office in charge of the PLA’s routine affairs.
25 October The United Nations passes a motion to restore the seat of the PRC in the United Nations and its Security Council.
14 November At a reception for the participants of the Chengdu Symposium, Mao reverses his early verdict on the February Adverse Current.
11 December The CC issues to party committees at the provincial level the first set of materials concerning the “Struggle to Defeat the Counterrevolutionary Coup of the Lin-Chen Anti-Party Clique.” The nationwide campaign against the Lin Biao clique is officially launched.
10 January Mao makes the last-minute decision to attend the memorial service of Chen Yi, one of the senior leaders implicated in the February Adverse Current.
13 January The CC issues its second set of materials concerning the “Struggle to Defeat the Counterrevolutionary Coup of the Lin-Chen Anti-Party Clique.” The CC also authorizes the distribution of the first set of materials (dated 11 December 1971) at the grassroots level nationwide.
21–28 February U.S. President Richard Nixon visits China. Mao meets Nixon on 21 February. A joint communiqué is signed in Shanghai on 27 February, with both sides embracing the prospects of the normalization of relations.
2 July The CC issues its third set of materials concerning the “Struggle to Defeat the Counterrevolutionary Coup of the Lin-Chen Anti-Party Clique” and the “Investigation Report on the Past Counterrevolutionary Crimes of the Kuomintang Anti-Communist, Trotskyist, Traitor, Spy, and Revisionist Chen Boda.”
3 August Deng Xiaoping writes Mao a letter in which he criticizes Lin Biao, vows never to attempt to reverse the verdict of his case, and asks for a second chance to work for the party.
14 August Mao comments on Deng Xiaoping’s letter, acknowledging his merits and distinguishing him from Liu Shaoqi.
7 September Considering Wang Hongwen to be a candidate for the position of his successor, Mao transfers Wang from Shanghai to Beijing.
10 March With Mao’s approval, the CC issues its resolution to reinstate Deng Xiaoping as an active party member and vice-premier of the SC.
20 April A decision is made at a CC work session to reinstate a number of the party veterans and to admit Wang Hongwen, Hua Guofeng, Wu De, and a few others into the Politburo.
19 July A letter of plea and complaint written by Zhang Tiesheng at the college entrance examination is published in Liaoning Daily. With the support of Jiang Qing and the cultural revolutionaries in the central leadership, all major newspapers reprint the letter three weeks later, setting off an anti-intellectual propaganda campaign nationwide. The newly revived attention to examination scores is denounced as a bourgeois counteroffensive against the revolution in education.
20 August The CC approves the “Investigation Report on the Counterrevolutionary Crimes of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique,” permanently expelling Lin Biao, Chen Boda, and other “Clique” members from the party.
24–28 August The Tenth National Congress of the CCP is held in Beijing. Wang Hongwen delivers a report on the revision of the CCP Constitution.
30 August At the First Plenum of the CCP Tenth Central Committee, Wang Hongwen is elected a vice-chairman of the CCP, Zhang Chunqiao a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, and Jiang Qing and Yao Wenyuan members of the Politburo.
25 November–5 December Following Mao’s instruction, the Politburo holds an enlarged session to criticize Zhou Enlai’s “revisionist line” and “Right capitulationism” because Zhou agrees to negotiate with the U.S. on military matters. Jiang Qing names the Mao-Zhou conflict the “eleventh line struggle in the party.” Deng Xiaoping is also present at the meeting and criticizes Zhou. Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen began to band together as a “gang of four.”
12 December Mao chairs a Politburo meeting. At this meeting, Mao criticizes the work of the Politburo and the CMC under the leadership of Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying. Mao also suggests rotating commanders of the major military regions and appointing Deng Xiaoping to the positions of the PLA chief of general staff and a member of the CMC and the Politburo.
18 January Following Mao’s directive in response to Jiang Qing and Wang Hongwen’s request, the CC authorizes the distribution of “Lin Biao and the Way of Confucius and Mencius,” a collection of materials prepared by Jiang’s supporters at Peking University and Tsinghua University. The “Criticize Lin and Criticize Confucius” campaign is launched nationwide. The campaign implicitly aims at Zhou Enlai.
6–19 April The PRC delegation, led by Deng Xiaoping, attends the 6th Special Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. This is the PRC’s first delegation at the UN.
17 July Mao criticizes the Gang of Four for the first time: at a meeting of the Politburo, Mao calls Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen a “little faction of four.”
29 September The CC issues a circular announcing its decision to redress the case of Marshal He Long.
4 October Mao proposes that Deng Xiaoping be first vice-premier of the SC.
18 October To gain more government positions at the upcoming Fourth National People’s Congress of the PRC, Wang Hongwen, representing the Gang of Four, goes to Changsha to see Mao and lodge complaints about Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. Mao rebukes him.
7 November The big-character poster “On Socialist Democracy and the Socialist Legal System: Dedicated to the Fourth People’s Congress” by Li Yizhe (a penname adopted by three young authors) appears in Guangzhou. The poster suggests that the rule of law be established in a new constitution to protect the rights of ordinary citizens.
5 January Upon Mao’s suggestion, the CC appoints Deng vice-chairman of the CMC and chief of general staff of the PLA and Zhang Chunqiao director of the General Political Department of the PLA.
8–10 January The Second Plenum of the CCP Tenth Central Committee is convened in Beijing. Zhou Enlai’s agenda for the Fourth National People’s Congress and Deng Xiaoping’s appointments are approved at the Plenum.
13–17 January The Fourth National People’s Congress is held in Beijing. Zhu De, and Zhou Enlai are reelected as chairman of the NPC and premier of the SC, respectively. Zhou Enlai delivers the government work report, reiterating the blueprint of “four modernizations” for China (modernization in agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology), a proposal initially adopted at the first meeting of the Third National People’s Congress (December 1964–January 1965). A new constitution is adopted by the Fourth Congress.
25 January Deng Xiaoping talks to ranking PLA officers about the rectification of the army. An all-round nationwide campaign aiming to rectify the errors of Cultural Revolution begins.
1 March Zhang Chunqiao speaks against “empiricism” at a meeting of the General Political Department of the PLA, making insinuations against the moderate faction of party veterans headed by Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping.
4 April Following instructions from Mao Yuanxin, the authorities of Liaoning Province execute Zhang Zhixin, an outspoken critic of the Cultural Revolution, on a counterrevolutionary charge.
3 May At a reception for Politburo members in Beijing, Mao speaks against factionalism in the central leadership, reproaches the Gang of Four led by Jiang Qing, and dismisses Zhang Chunqiao’s antiempiricist remarks concerning veteran leaders. Later, the Politburo holds two meetings to criticize the Jiang Qing group.
24 June–15 July Enlarged sessions of the CMC are held in Beijing. Deng Xiaoping and Ye Jianying give speeches calling for a reform and restructuring of the PLA in the overall rectification campaign.
13 August Liu Bing, deputy-secretary of the CCP Tsinghua University Committee, and three other committee members write Mao, criticizing Chi Qun and Xie Jingyi, Jiang Qing’s trusted leaders at Tsinghua. They write a second letter on 13 October about the same issue. The letters reach Mao via Deng Xiaoping and prompt Mao’s angry responses to Liu and Deng.
14 August Mao Zedong comments on the classical novel Water Margin. A nationwide political campaign to appraise Water Margin begins, in which Zhou Enlai is attacked by innuendo as a capitulator within the party.
2 November Upon hearing several reports from Mao Yuanxin, his liaison at the Politburo, who is harshly critical of Deng Xiaoping and his rectification program, Mao expresses his concern about the widespread negative attitude toward the Cultural Revolution.
20 November Upon Mao’s request, the Politburo holds a meeting to evaluate the Cultural Revolution. At the meeting, Deng Xiaoping declines to take charge of drafting a resolution on the issue.
26 November The CC issues Mao’s criticism of Liu Bing and others along with their letters to Mao. The “Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend” campaign begins. Most of Deng Xiaoping’s official duties are soon suspended.
8 January Premier Zhou Enlai dies.
15 January Deng Xiaoping delivers a memorial speech at the state funeral for Zhuo Enlai. This is Deng’s last public appearance until after the Cultural Revolution.
21 and 28 January Mao proposes that Hua Guofeng be appointed acting premier of the SC and that Hua take charge of the routine work of the CC.
25 February The CC holds a conference of provincial and military region leaders in Beijing to promote the “Criticize Deng, Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend” campaign.
Late March and Early April Millions of Beijing citizens visit Tiananmen Square during the Qingming Festival (4 April in 1976) season to commemorate Zhou Enlai. Numerous posted elegies contain a strong political message against the cultural revolutionary faction of the central leadership. Mourning activities become a mass protest movement in Beijing and a number of large cities around the country.
5 April With Mao’s approval, Beijing authorities send thousands of soldiers, policemen, and militia members to Tiananmen Square to crack down on the protesters.
7 April Following Mao’s directives, the Politburo passes resolutions to dismiss Deng Xiaoping from office and appoint Hua Guofeng first vice-chairman of the CC and premier of the SC.
6 July Chairman of the National People’s Congress Zhu De dies.
9 September Chairman Mao Zedong dies.
6 October After nearly a month’s careful planning with Wang Dongxin and Ye Jianying, Hua Guofeng orders the arrest of the Gang of Four: Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao, and Yao Wenyuan. The Cultural Revolution ends.