Great Chaos in China - Article Example

On January 3, 1967, Lin Biao and Jiang Qing employed the local media, which was used as a medium to criticize and purge many prominent Shanghai municipal leaders. This counter-revolutionary activity paved way for Wang Hongwen to take charge as a city leader of the Municipal Revolutionary Committee, and abolishment of municipal government. Political struggles took place among the government arms and individuals saw this as an opportunity to put the blame on rivals. Mao used the Peoples’ Daily Paper to promote these wrangles where he urged officials to rise in self-criticism, and rise against others suspected of being on the opposite camp.

Many power struggles ensued among the local government, and this led to the collapse of the government structure (Schoenhals 278). Schoenhals, in this article, claims that the great strike against cultural revisionism launched by Mao Zedong under the name “Great cultural revision” has attracted many writers over the last two decades. The CPP Chairman Mao is obscured with the personal responsibility for what happened in China in the summer of 1967 (Schoenhals 277).