Boluan Fanzheng

Hu Yaobang, then General Secretary of Communist Party of China, helped Deng Xiaoping launch "Boluan Fanzheng" and was assigned by Deng to take charge of the rehabilitation of millions of victims persecuted in Cultural Revolution.[32]

After Mao Zedong died in September 1976, Hua Guofeng succeeded Mao as the Chairman of the Communist Party of China and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Hua largely continued Maoist policies and proposed the "Two Whatevers" ("Whatever Chairman Mao said, we will say and whatever Chairman Mao did, we will do").[33]

In May 1978, Deng Xiaoping together with Hu Yaobang and others launched a large-scale debate across China, discussing the criteria for testing truth and criticizing the "Two Whatevers".[34] Deng along with his allies supported the opinion that "practice is the sole criterion for testing truth", which first appeared in an article published by Guangming Daily and gained widespread support from the Chinese society.[34][35][36][37]

On December 13, 1978, Deng made a speech at the closing ceremony of the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of CPC, during which he replaced Hua Guofeng to become the paramount leader of China.[38][39] In the speech titled "Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth from Facts, and Unite as One in Looking to the Future (解放思想，实事求是，团结一致向前看)", Deng urged Chinese people to seek truth from facts and pointed out that if the Party, the country, and the people continued to follow the Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong with stubborn mindset and blind superstition, then they would never move forward, and they would perish.[40][41][42][43]

On September 9, 1976, Mao Zedong died, and on October 6, Hua Guofeng together with Ye Jianying and Wang Dongxing arrested the Gang of Four, putting an end to the Cultural Revolution.[1][44] From November 20, 1980 to January 25, 1981, a special court under the Supreme People's Court conducted a trial of the Gang of Four as well as six other people, eventually announcing death penalties with a two-year reprieve for Jiang Qing and Zhang Chunqiao, and imprisonment of various terms including life imprisonment for other members.[45][46]

At the same time, in the late 1970s, Deng Xiaoping and his allies began to dismantle the Maoist line of continuous class struggles, changing the focus of the CPC and the Chinese government to "economic construction" and "modernization".[12][13][14] In 1980–1981, Hua Guofeng resigned from his positions as the Chairman of the CPC, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission and the Premier of the People's Republic of China.[47]

In June 1981, at the 6th Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of CPC, the Communist Party unanimously passed a resolution drafted by Deng and others, comprehensively invalidating the Cultural Revolution, calling it "a domestic havoc launched mistakenly by the leader (Mao Zedong) and taken advantage of by the counter-revolutionary gangs (Lin Biao and the Gang of Four)" and that it "was responsible for the most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the country, and the people since the founding of the People's Republic".[31][48][49]

During the Boluan Fanzheng period, Hu Yaobang, then General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, was assigned by Deng Xiaoping to take charge of the rehabilitation of the victims persecuted in the "unjust, false, erroneous cases (冤假错案)" since the Anti-rightist Campaign in 1957.[32][50][51] Within a few years after 1978, victims in over 3 million such cases were rehabilitated.[52] Some of the notable victims included:

• Liu Shaoqi, 2nd Chairman of the People's Republic of China, who were persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution.
• Peng Dehuai, one of the ten Marshalls of China and the 1st Minister of National Defense, who were persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution
• He Long, one of the ten Marshalls of China and Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China, who were persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution.
• Xi Zhongxun, senior member of CPC and father of Xi jinping.
• Bo Yibo, senior member of CPC and father of Bo Xilai.
• Tao Zhu, senior member of CPC.

During the Cultural Revolution, the Little Red Book recording the quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong was popular and Mao Zedong's cult of personality reached it peak. At the time, the Constitution and rule of law was largely overlooked.[53]

The first constitution of China, known as the "1954 Constitution", came into effect in 1954. However, in 1958, Mao Zedong publicly advocated the "rule of man" instead of the "rule of law",[54] saying:[55][56]

We can't rule the majority of people by relying on law. The majority of people [can be ruled only] by relying on the cultivation of [good] habits. The army's reliance on rule by law didn't work; what's actually worked has been the 1,400-man conference. Who could remember so many clauses of a civil code or criminal law? I participated in the formulation of the Constitution, even I can't remember [it].

During the Cultural Revolution, China's Constitution was revised in 1975 and the second constitution, known as the "1975 Constitution", absorbed Maoism, the "absolute leadership of CPC" as well as some descriptions of the CPC organization into its main content, while removing the positions such as the President and the Vice President of the People's Republic of China.[57][58]

After the Cultural Revolution, under the guidelines of Hua Guofeng's "Two Whatevers", a third constitution, known as the "1978 Constitution", was published in 1978.[59] Although some of the expressions associated with the Cultural Revolution were deleted, most of the contents of the 1975 Constitution were kept, such as the "leadership of CPC".

During the Boluan Fanzheng period, Deng Xiaoping made an important speech titled "On the Reform of the System of Party and State Leadership (党和国家领导制度改革)" on August 18, 1980, proposing to the National People's Congress that China needed political reforms and a systematic revision of its Constitution.[60][61] Deng pointed out that the Constitution must be able to protect the civil rights of Chinese nationals and must demonstrate the principle of separation of powers; he also described the idea of "collective leadership", advocating "one man, one vote" among the leaders to avoid the dictatorship of the General Secretary of CPC.[60][61] In December 1982, the fourth Constitution of China, known as the "1982 Constitution", was passed by the 5th National People's Congress, embodying Chinese-style constitutionalism, and much of its content remain effective as of today.[62][63] Within the 1982 Constitution,

• Cultural Revolution vocabulary such as "continuous revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat" was deleted;
• the descriptions of the organization of Communist Party of China was excluded;
• the statement of "the country is led by the Communist Party of China" was deleted (reversed by Xi Jinping in 2018);[64]
• the statement of "all state organs, the armed forces, all political parties and public organizations and all enterprises and undertakings must abide by the Constitution and the law" was added;[65]
• the positions of President of China and Vice President of China were re-established, with a two-consecutive-term limit and five years for each term (the term limits were cancelled by Xi Jinping in 2018).[66][67]

Yao Tongbin, the prominent Chinese missile scientist who was beaten to death during the Cultural Revolution, was recognized as a "marytr (烈士)" in the Boluan Fanzheng period.[68]

During the Cultural Revolution, academics and intellectuals were regarded as the "Stinking Old Ninth" and were widely persecuted.[69] Notable academics, scientists and educators who died due to the Cultural Revolution included Xiong Qinglai, Jian Bozan, Lao She, Tian Han, Fu Lei, Wu Han, Rao Yutai, Wu Dingliang, Yao Tongbin and Zhao Jiuzhang.[70] As of 1968, among the 171 senior members at the headquarters of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, 131 were persecuted, and among all the members of the academy nationwide, 229 were persecuted to death.[71] As of September 1971, more than 4,000 staff members of China's nuclear center in Qinghai were persecuted: among them, 40 committed suicides, five were executed, and 310 were permanently disabled.[72]

In Boluan Fanzheng period, Deng Xiaoping himself was in charge of the rehabilitation of scientists and intellectuals who were persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.[73] In March 1978, Deng emphasized at the National Science Conference that intellectuals were part of the working class and that the core of modernization was the modernization of science and technology.[74][75] Later, he also emphasized that knowledge and talented people must be respected, and the wrong thought such as disrespecting intellectuals must be opposed.[75] One of his notable statements was that "science and technology are primary productive forces".[76][77]

Since the Boluan Fanzheng period, various new genres of literature have emerged, including the "scar literature", the "contemplative literature (反思文学) " and the "literature of reforms (改革文学)".[31][78]

China's education system came to a virtual halt during the Cultural Revolution. In the early months of the Cultural Revolution, schools and universities were closed. Primary and middle schools later gradually reopened, but all colleges and universities were closed until 1970, and most universities did not reopen until 1972.[79] The university entrance exams were cancelled after 1966, to be replaced later by a system whereby students were recommended by factories, villages and military units.[80] Values taught in traditional education were abandoned. In 1968, the Communist Party instituted the Down to the Countryside Movement, in which "Educated Youths" (zhishi qingnian or simply zhiqing) in urban areas were sent to live and work in agrarian areas to be re-educated by the peasantry and to better understand the role of manual agrarian labor in Chinese society.

In 1977, Deng Xiaoping restored the university entrance exam (Gaokao) after its ten-year halt, re-establishing the higher education system in China and changing the life of tens of millions.[81][82][83] Deng viewed science and education as the fundamentals of China's Four Modernizations.[82][84] A compulsory education system was proposed during the Boluan Fanzheng period, and with the support of Deng and others, the compulsory education was written into the "1982 Constitution" and China's nine-year compulsory education was eventually established in 1986 under law (Law on Nine-Year Compulsory Education).[81][85] In 1985, under the recommendation of Zhao Ziyang, then Premier of China, the National People's Congress designated "September 10" as the annual National Teacher's Day.[86]

Renowned Chinese American mathematician Shiing-Shen Chern once proposed to Deng to raise the basic salary of professors in mainland China, adding 100 RMB in the monthly payment, which was soon approved by Deng.[87]

Keeping the image of Mao Zedong on Tiananmen was one of the main controversies after the Cultural Revolution.

It has been argued that the Boluan Fanzheng program launched by Deng Xiaoping had limitations and controversies, such as including the "Four Cardinal Principles" into the 1982 Constitution which have been forbidding people from challenging China's socialist path, the Mao Zedong Thought and Marxism–Leninism as well as the leadership of the Communist Party.[16][17] Establishing the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong on Tiananmen Square as well the keeping an image of Mao on Tiananmen were also disputed.[15][88] Furthermore, some scholars have pointed out that Deng himself had demonstrated personal limitations in his views on Mao and on totalitarianism; these could be seen, for example, when Deng insisted that among all that Mao had done to the Chinese people, "70% was good and 30% was bad", while attributing many of the disasters in Cultural Revolution to Lin Biao and the Gang of Four.[15][18][23]

After his death, Mao has been viewed as a controversial figure worldwide. In the late 1970s, political dissidents in China such as Wei Jingsheng led the "Democracy Wall" movement in Beijing, criticizing Mao as well as Maoism and the one-party state in China, demanding democracy and freedom.[89][90] However, Wei's initiatives were eventually suppressed by Deng.[91]

During the Boluan Fanzheng period as well as the following Reform and Opening-up period, Deng Xiaoping on one hand stressed the idea of "emancipate the mind", while on the other hand repeatedly warned against the "Bourgeois liberalization".[92] In 1983, the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign was launched in mainland China; moreover, in late 1986, the "Anti-Bourgeois Liberalization Campaign" was launched.[93][94][95] The two campaigns were led by left-wing politicians and both received support from Deng to a certain degree, but both of the campaigns were called off eventually due to the interventions from Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, who were regarded as allies of Deng and were the leading reformists inside the Communist Party of China (CPC).[93][95][96][97]

After the Cultural Revolution, the Central Committee of CPC failed to systematically "clear" the elements associated with the Revolution out of the Chinese society, banning comprehensive reflections and reviews on this period of history at a societal level.[21][22][23][24] Some researchers and observers have argued that the main reason for such behavior of CPC is that a comprehensive review on the Cultural Revolution would fundamentally threaten the legitimacy of CPC as the ruling party in China.[26][25] Others have pointed out that even though Deng and other senior CPC officials had confessed that the CPC had made numerous mistakes in the past, yet they were still protecting the one-party system of CPC in China.[17][98]

The statues of Mao Zedong built during the Cultural Revolution can still be seen in various places of mainland China today. The image shows one such statue in Yunnan Province, where tens of thousands of people died in local massacres during the Revolution..

Massacres took place across mainland China during the Cultural Revolution. However, many of the leaders and the perpetrators of these massacres either received minor punishment (such as getting expelled from CPC) in the Boluan Fanzheng period, or received no punishment at all, sparking public outrage. Relatives of the victims in some massacres chose to visit Beijing in person, petitioning for justice.

• In Guangxi Massacre, 100,000-150,000 people died according to official investigations, and massive cannibalism occurred.[99] However, people who took part in the massacre or cannibalism received no punishment at all or only minor punishments—up to 14 years in prison.[100][101]
• In Inner Mongolia Incident, 20,000-100,000 people died, but Teng Haiqing, the leader who was in charge of this massive purge, did not receive any legal trial or punishment at all because he was considered by the CPC to have made achievements in the past wars.
• In Daoxian Massacre of Hunan Province, 9,093 people died. However, only a small number of the perpetrators were ever punished, and none of them were sentenced to death.[102] Several leaders of the massacre were either expelled from the CPC or received various terms of imprisonment; in Dao County, the epicenter of the massacre, only 11 people were ever prosecuted, receiving up to 10 years in prison.[102]

In the 1980s, notable scholars such as Ba Jin called on the Chinese society to erect "Cultural Revolution museums" so that the future generations could learn from this period of history and prevented it from happening again.[103][104][105] The proposal received support from many Chinese citizens, but the Communist Party offered no response. On the contrary, Ba Jin received personal attacks during the "Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign" and the "Anti-Bourgeois Liberalization Campaign" launched by left-wing conservatives in the 1980s.[106]

In 1996, the local government of Shantou, Guangdong decided to erect the first Cultural Revolution museum in mainland China, which was opened to the public in 2005.[104][107] However, the museum was forced to close in 2016 after Xi Jinping came to power.[108]