What actually happened as a result of these movements? People usually use them as evidence that Mao killed however many millions of people. I’m aware that they aren’t fondly remembered periods in Chinese history, but I’m not sure how accurate the wikipedia entry on the subjects are. Does anyone have further reading?

  • Muad'DibberA
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    1 year ago

    Mao presided over the greatest life expectancy increase in Chinese history. But the modern CPC regards the great leap forward as essentially a series of misguided solutions to the problem of rapid industrialization, and the cultural revolution as (overall) an ultraleftist deviation of Marxism which attempted to insert internal ideological struggle as primary, and ignore underdevelopment, rather than a scientific analysis of material conditions and development of the productive forces to solve the primary world contradiction: inequality between rich and poor countries. These mistakes were fully identified and corrected in the Deng Xiaoping era.

    A good intro article on the cultural revolution, and SWCC:

    Here is one statement by the CPC on the cultural revolution, cited in the article above:

    Society Firmly Rejects Cultural Revolution

    “It is not possible for such a revolution to be repeated. The decade of calamity caused severe damage, leaving permanent pain for many Chinese. Entirely denying the values of the Cultural Revolution will help Chinese society remain vigilant against the danger of all kinds of disorder.

    China’s development in recent decades started from complete denial of the Cultural Revolution in theory and shifting the focus of the country to economic construction in practice. In the over 30 years, we strived to recover from the losses. The shared goal has provided strong momentum for the country’s progress. It also helped strengthen social solidarity. The principle of not straying onto the wrong path has been widely endorsed by the public.

    We have bid farewell to the Cultural Revolution. We can say it once again today that the Cultural Revolution cannot and will not come back. There is no place for it in today’s China.”

    • @PolandIsAStateOfMind
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      1 year ago

      If anything, history proven that some sort of cultural revolution absolutely needs to be done. Every socialist state which didn’t do it or do it halfassedly experienced massive resurgence of petty bourgeois sentiment (sadly including China too) which is, just as Lenin predicted, way more dangerous than the haute bourgeoisie in the long run.