Red Guards Strengthen Mao's Base

It is interesting to note that although the Red Guard's movement was a kind of mass movement, it was essentially built on the loyalty to Mao and the central task was to protect Mao's dominance. It was also led by Mao's personal aide Chen Po-ta, and Mao's wife Chiang Ch'ing. The programme of reforming the traditional customs helped to create an atmosphere of rebellion, thus setting the stage for the purge of the Liu faction.

Mao even advanced demagogic slogans directed against "bureaucracy", calling for the creation of democratic institutions modelled on the Paris Commune. The students took this rhetoric in good faith and many began to attempt joining with workers to set up communes. Thus the mass movement set into motion powerful forces which threatened to break out of the narrow constraints the Maoists had originally intended.

When Mao found himself losing grip on the situation, he quickly brought the army into play, dissolving and dispersing the Red Guards and re-establishing discipline in the factories. This resulted in a big increase in the relative weight of the army within the political hierarchy. Mao emerged as the leader with supreme power taking the place of the Liuist Politbureau, while leaving a whole generation of city youth disenchanted with the regime.

The Cultural Revolution came to an end in April 1969 at the 9th Congress of the CCP, at which Liu and his supporters were expelled from the party. By the 10th Congress, Mao had virtually eliminated all the leaders of the CCP who participated in the Long March, the civil war and the founding of the People's Republic. This created a dilemma for Mao, since, at his advanced age, the continuity and the survival of the bureaucracy after his death must be a constant source of concern. He decided to follow Stalin by filling his administration with unknown mediocrities and former opponents who had capitulated and publicly humbled themselves, thus destroying their authority in the eyes of the masses.