The cultural revolution in China lasted from 1966 to 1976 in China. It’s stated goal was to cancel capitalist and traditional elements from society, and to establish a new thinking based on Chairman Mao Zedong and the Communist Party’s beliefs.
The message was sent that “to rebel is justified.” Targets were anyone who was tied to any of the “Four Olds” (old customs, culture, habits, and ideas). Old thinkers were everywhere the communist playbook said, and are “systematically” trying to preserve their power and subjugate people.
The Red Guards, as they mobs became known, destroyed historical artifacts and statues, and cultural and religious sites. Libraries burned. Religion was considered a tool of oppression so religious sites were destroyed – including the Temple of Confucius.
Police were told not to intervene in Red Guard activities, and if they did, officials sided with the Red Guard over law enforcement officers.
Education was targeted, as it was the way the old values were preserved and transmitted. Teachers were widely persecuted and schools and universities eventually closed down. (It’s estimated that over 10 million former students were sent to rural labor camps to toil under the Down to the Countryside Movement.)
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Eventually the Red Guards would move on to killing people openly. Some 20 million were believed to have perished. The exact death toll is unknown.
It was not a war on oppression, it was a war on the way people thought. And the communists weren’t looking for justice for all people, they were looking for control.