Part B – How accurate is it to say that Mao’s main motives for launching the Cultural
Revolution in 1966 were ideological rather than political? (20 marks)
I believe it’s accurate to say Mao’s main motives for launching the Cultural Revolution were
ideological rather than political. Mao was on a quest for permanent revolution - stated in Mao
Zedong Thought - and he used the Cultural Revolution to do this. We can assess and analyse
how “main'' of a motive they were, using the criteria of whether it was premeditated and
planned out or, if the number of reasons for one outweigh the number for the other, or the
size of the motive, like whether it was going to have a big impact. The Cultural Revolution
was an internal party purge that broadened into a mass national campaign to attack anything
or anyone seen to oppose Mao. Using the criteria, it will be made clear that Mao’s motives
were ideological rather than political.
A reason why Mao’s motives were ideological rather than political is because of the purge of
Liu and Deng. During the Third Year Plan in 1962-65, Mao put Liu and Deng in charge of
the economy. They introduced policies such as allowing communes to be broken up, closed
down inefficient projects that had been set up, and announced more realistic coal and steel
targets. Also, there was relaxation on the persecution of intellectuals - rightists” - who now
became needed and useful. However in 1962, at a Party Conference Liu implied Mao should
take blame for mistakes. This was the first time Mao’s image had been damaged, and he
withdrew from public life for a few months. Mao already didn’t like the policies Liu and
Deng introduced as it didn’t fit with his ideology, and to add insult to injury, Liu humalited
Mao in front of thousands at the Party Conference. This shows how Mao’s motives were
ideological, as he wanted to remove Liu and Deng from power as Mao didn’t think their
policies were “communist” enough and they were more pragmatists, and liked using experts.
Mao referred to them as “capitalist roaders” Furthermore, as Mao believed these policies
were unnecessary, he launched the Socialist Education Movement in 1963 which was aimed
to root out corruption within the rural cadres, and preach the virtues of a collective economic
approach. Mao wanted this to be another mass mobilisation campaign, however, the majority
of those killed were those who committed economic crimes. This lacked the ideological
approach Mao was after, thus this meant he wanted to use the Cultural Revolution to do what
he wanted to do during the Socialist Education Movement. The purge of Liu and Deng was
premeditated by Mao. Liu was seen as Mao’s successor up until the 7,000 cadre conference
of 1962. In 1964, Mao accused him of choosing the “capitalist road”, and Deng of trying to
run an independent kingdom, however Mao knew it was risky to confront them due to their
mass support they had in the Politburo so Mao waited until 1965. This was part of Mao’s plan
to purge Liu and Deng, as Mao went on to remove Peng Zhen which made Liu and Deng
believe they were safe. Deng and Liu were forced to make self-criticism, and were purged
from the Party, after Mao’s swim in Wuhan - birthplace of the republic, which was symbolic
and a good strategy from Mao as he was about to launch the Cultural Revolution. All of this
made Mao realise it was time to take the Cultural Revolution beyond the party, as if there
were people in the party that didn’t fit his ideals, then there would be many others too.
Overall, this shows how Mao’s main motives were ideological rather than political as all he
wanted to do was spread his beliefs, part of Mao Zedong Thought, and the premeditated
attack on Liu and Deng showed the Chinese people what could happen to them if they were
against Mao in any way. Also, the number of events in this one reason/motive heavily
outweigh all the political motives combined. Thus, Mao’s motives for launching the Cultural
Revolution were ideological rather than political.
