Mao’s reinvention: the destruction of the Capitalist Roader

The Great Proletarian Revolution was filled of bloodshed and terror in an attempt for a dictator to regain long lost power. This revolution was to undertake the cleansing of political capitalist roaders trying to undermine Communist China. To do so, Mao needed the support of the masses in which he employed millions of students to begin to find capitalist opposition to his ideas, and regain political stature amidst the removal of opposing ideas. This event was to make use of the members of the Communist Red Guard, which Mao created to occupy the strength of teenage masses in china. The Red Guard, although great in strength, had eventually become a major weakness for the revolution. Mao used the Cultural Revolution to regain political stature through the removal of capitalist opposing thought, and did so using the removal of four olds to cover over this. This was significantly effective, but created lasting effects that he struggled to control until his death. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution had begun in 1966. The revolution was based on a sixteen point decision made by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party relating to the removal of capitalists. This decision was to remove all “old ideas, culture, customs and habits” from the bourgeoisie (a social class based on capital) and replace them with the “new ideas, culture, customs and habits of the proletariat to change the mental outlook of the whole of society.” These old ideas and cultures were referred to as the four olds of Chinese past. The removal of these ideas was to unite proletarian revolutionaries against capitalists within the party. Red Guards were to reconnect throughout China through many broad networks put forth during the revolution where millions of Chinese adapted their jobs to accommodate and connect the Red Guard