Socialist Education Movement

The Socialist Education Movement (simplified Chinese: 社会主义教育运动; traditional Chinese: 社會主義教育運動; pinyin: Shèhuìzhǔyì Jiàoyù Yùndòng, abbreviated 社教运动 or 社教運動), also known as the Four Cleanups Movement (simplified Chinese: 四清运动; traditional Chinese: 四清運動; pinyin: Sìqīng Yùndòng) was a 1963–1965 movement launched by Mao Zedong in the People's Republic of China.[1] Mao sought to remove reactionary elements within the bureaucracy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), saying that "governance is also a process of socialist education."[2][3]

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Some Chinese sources state that the movement resulted in 77,560 deaths, with 5,327,350 people being persecuted.[4][5] In the movement, the relationship between CCP Chairman Mao Zedong and Chinese President Liu Shaoqi, Chairman Mao's potential successor, deteriorated.[6] The Socialist Education Movement is regarded as the precursor of the Cultural Revolution, during which President Liu was persecuted to death as a "traitor" and "capitalist roader".[7][8]

Goals

During the 1960s, Mao's view of class struggle focused on two distinct dimensions.[9] One level was class struggle within society to avoid revisionism, a process which required socialist education.[9] The second level was struggle within the Party itself to address bureaucratism and the fear that Party bureaucrats might become a new bourgeoisie.[9]

Thus, the goal of the socialist education movement was to "purify politics, purify economics, purify the organization, and purify thought" in opposition to revisionism.[1] It lasted until 1966. What this movement entailed was that intellectuals were sent to the countryside to be re-educated by peasants (see Down to the Countryside Movement). They still attended school, but also worked in factories and with peasants.

Aftermath

When the Cultural Revolution began, rural regions had not yet completed the Socialist Education Movement, and the committees in charge of it converted into Cultural Revolution leading groups.[10]

See also

References
  1. Xu, Youwei; Wang, Y. Yvon (2022). Everyday Lives in China's Cold War Military Industrial Complex: Voices from the Shanghai Small Third Front, 1964-1988. Palgrave MacMillan. p. 361. ISBN 9783030996871.
  2. "People's Republic of China: III". University of Maryland. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  3. MacFarquhar, Roderick (1997). "The Origins of the Cultural Revolution". Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192149978.001.0001. ISBN 9780192149978.
  4. Yang, Jisheng (2017-07-04). 天地翻覆: 中国文化大革命历史 (in Chinese). 天地图书.
  5. Song, Yongyi (2006). "被掩藏的历史：刘少奇对"文革"的独特贡献" (in Chinese). Modern China Studies. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
  6. Su, Weimin (2015-07-23). "杨尚昆谈"四清"运动：毛泽东刘少奇之间的裂痕由此产生". The Paper. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  7. Baum, Richard (1969). "Revolution and Reaction in the Chinese Countryside: The Socialist Education Movement in Cultural Revolutionary Perspective". The China Quarterly. 38 (38): 92–119. doi:10.1017/S0305741000049158. ISSN 0305-7410. JSTOR 652308. S2CID 154449798.
  8. "People's Republic of China: III". University of Maryland. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
  9. Cai, Xiang; 蔡翔 (2016). Revolution and its narratives : China's socialist literary and cultural imaginaries (1949-1966). Rebecca E. Karl, Xueping Zhong, 钟雪萍. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 358. ISBN 978-0-8223-7461-9. OCLC 932368688.
  10. Walder, Andrew G. (2016-01-01). "Rebellion of the Cadres: The 1967 Implosion of the Chinese Party-State". The China Journal. 75: 109. doi:10.1086/683125. ISSN 1324-9347.
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