The Aftermath of the Cultural Revolution


Hua proved unable to establish himself firmly as Mao's successor. By 1980, through clever maneuvering and the backing of his supporters in the Party, the administration, and the 'professional' factions in the PLA, Deng Xiaoping had replaced Hua as ruler of China. Many people allied with Deng who had suffered at the hands of the radicals were released from prison to take up political duties once again or were given posthumous rehabilitations. Deng dismantled the People's Commune agricultural system, created Special Economic Zones that opened China's ports to foreign investment, began to break up the large state-owned industrial concerns, and encouraged the growth of small enterprise. These economic reforms have been called 'market socialism' and have created material affluence, but only for some. Combined with demographics (it has been estimated that by the year 2000, there will be over 30 million young Chinese men for whom there will be neither enough jobs nor wives - in any society, such a large group of young unattached males is an ideal source of social disruption), extreme corruption in the Party itself, and the fact that the level of contact between ordinary Chinese and the outside world has exponentially increased, has created immense social pressures and widespread cynicism towards politics.

The ultimate defeat of the radical factions and the subsequent reforms by the Rightists killed the promise of an egalitarian Socialist society. The Chinese Communist Party is now a party based on privilege and the government has become violently repressive of mass political dissent, as was shown by the Tienanmen Square Massacre in 1989. Deng Xiaoping died in February 1997. It appears that Jiang Zemin has succeeded him as the leader, but before long the torch of power will have to pass to new hands.


In the end, it would seem that the Cultural Revolution, instigated by the Party's chief radical, achieved nothing but chaos and violence. Certainly, no one wants to return to the days when ideological postures prompted mass mob violence. However, the final irony occurs when one reads how the distance of twenty years and more has prompted several bizarre instances of profitable nostalgia. High-gloss oil paintings symbolic of the Mao personality cult command high prices at auctions, and there are many avid collectors of the thousands of varieties of small Mao badges that everyone had to wear to demonstrate their loyalty during the Cultural Revolution. In Beijing one can even visit the "Cultural Revolution Cafe", where the waitresses are dressed as Red Guards, music of the period is always playing, and busts of Mao and Zhou Enlai sit on shelves over the cash register.