Tuesday marked the 40th anniversary of the infamous May 16 Notice that officially started China's Cultural Revolution, leading to the ferreting out of "capitalist roaders" and encouraging the Red Guards to embark on a campaign of chaos.
This period has been termed a "disaster" with official Chinese figures putting the death toll at 2 million, 7 million injured and the breakup of 70,000 families.
Chinese culture has a history that dates back thousands of years -- a fact that the Chinese have always been proud of. How then could have the country descended into such a period of self-destruction when there weren't even outside aggressors involved? Never before in Chinese history had such levels of cruelty, violence and lack of morality been seen.
The Cultural Revolution's rise can be attributed to two main causes: the despotic rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the dictatorial hold of Mao Zedong (�??). If China had not been under a communist regime at the time, the Cultural Revolution would never had taken place even if Mao were on the scene. Likewise, if Mao hadn't ruled China, the country could have avoided the bloodshed and tragedy even with the CCP in power.
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