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Few episodes in history have been the object of such widely divergent interpretations as the events of Mao Zedong's last decade. For the sake of convenience, I shall refer to the movement launched in 1966 by the name Mao gave it, but disputes have raged since the beginning as to whether it was in fact either cultural or revolutionary, let alone proletarian.
Historians have long recognized that Chiang Kai-shek's (Jiang Jieshi) anti-communist purge in April 1927 marked a crucial turning-point in the history of the Kuomintang. It answered with finality some very basic questions about the fate of the party. Most importantly, the purge ensured that the Chinese Communist Party would not be able to take control of the Kuomintang, something which had not been a foregone conclusion before the purge. In addition, the conflagration drove many young activists from the Kuomintang and dampened the enthusiasm of many who remained in its ranks.
Mao Zedong, dissatisfied with the growing ossification of the Party and government bureaucracies, in the spring of 1966 launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. He believed that China's youth required a “revolutionary experience” to renew their faith in a revolution that had taken place before most of them had been born or were old enough to remember. The Cultural Revolution (1966–76) quickly became a period of widespread, often violent, social upheaval that affected the performance of industry.
On the 18 April 1936 General Li Zongren gave a stirring, patriotic interview to the Canton Gazette. In the current situation argued Li, China must stand and resist the Japanese since, “despite sacrifices, a war of resistance may pave the way for the regeneration of our nation.” He was later even more emphatic, ”… a war of resistance is essential for national regeneration.” These seem rather prescient remarks in the light of subsequent events; a new type of society did emerge in parts of China during the war against Japan. Perhaps it should be noted in passing that the form of regeneration expedited by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was nevertheless hardly what Li Zongren had in mind in 1936. Indeed, he felt able to endorse it only late in life.