China’s struggle to reflect, 50 years on from the Cultural Revolution

Monday marks the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of China’s Cultural Revolution, a decade of political and social turmoil labelled a ­“catastrophe” by the Communist Party despite its apparent eagerness to contain public discussion of the topic.

Click here for the SCMP’s multimedia package on the Cultural Revolution

On May 16, 1966, Beijing issued a directive to rid society of “members of the bourgeoisie threatening to seize political power from the proletariat”. In so doing, it ushered in a decade-long violent class struggle.

50 years after the Cultural Revolution, there’s no forgetting the horrors of ‘us versus them’

In the 10 tumultuous years from 1966, the country underwent massive sociopolitical upheaval that drove countless politicians and intellectuals to their deaths, killed civilians in armed conflicts, and destroyed priceless cultural relics and artefacts.

The official death toll was more than 1.7 million – twice the number of deaths suffered by Britain and the United States combined in the second world war.

China must let the dark deeds of the Cultural Revolution come to light

Despite Beijing’s verdict in the 1980s that the revolution was a “catastrophe”, authorities fear discussion of the turmoil could embarrass the party and may damage the reputation of Mao Zedong, who reportedly called the revolution one of his two greatest achievements.

After close to four decades of the market reform it embraced after the end of the revolution, the party warns against extreme views on the turmoil and has taken care to contain public discussion that might challenge its ambiguous verdict.

How political hatred during Cultural Revolution led to murder and cannibalism in a small town in China

It’s a verdict doubted by both ends of the political spectrum. Liberals urge further reflection, arguing that democratic reforms are necessary to prevent a similarly destructive revolution.