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4 Communist Crusade and Capitalist Stronghold Mao’s Everlasting Revolution and the United States, 1957–1979 The fiasco that was the Hundred Flowers Movement of 1957 taught the Chi‑ nese government an unforgettable lesson: never take public opinion lightly. Its confidence shaken and its prestige damaged, the state grew ever more vigilant in its efforts to shape public outlook on the world. Guidance must be con‑ stant and heretical ideas must be dispelled swiftly. The government was now convinced, more than ever, that for China to be strong and productive, her people must unify in one common worldview and share the same aspirations. With convictions such as this, the Communist Party gave the Chinese people some daunting tasks in the years that followed. In the Great Leap Forward from 1958 to 1960, Mao tried to speed up the industrialization of China through total mass mobilization. Chinese peasants were compelled to surrender land ownership to newly created communes; Chinese from all lines of work were called upon to take part in an all‑out drive to expand China’s industries—in particular, to double China’s steel production almost instantly. The improbable campaign, featuring the so‑called Backyard Furnaces set up all across the country, turned out to be a disaster. Instead of fostering economic growth, it led to the negligence of crops in the fields. Widespread famine followed. This terrible blunder, however, only reinforced Mao’s desire to prove himself as effective a leader in peace as he had been in wartimes, leading him to even more radical measures to build China into a classless, well‑ordered, powerful communist state that could stand up against the West. When some of his comrades questioned his judgment and challenged his decisions, Mao fought back. At the Lushan Conference in July 1959, Mao removed from office his defense minister Marshal Peng Dehuai, who had boldly spoken out against the Great Leap Forward. A few years later, in 1966, Mao launched 91 92 / China’s America an even wilder campaign, the Great Cultural Revolution, starting a political maelstrom that would last a whole decade. Mao urged his revolutionary fol‑ lowers to rise up and strike down the so‑called “capitalist roaders,” especially those officials at various levels who, in Mao’s view, had abandoned communism and would settle for a capitalist way of life. Mao’s devout followers, especially the young, ardently responded to the Great Helmsman’s call, embarking on a fervent crusade against anyone who showed any individualist inclinations. As Mao’s Red Guards attacked those who were suspected of disloyalty to the Everlasting Revolution, China was plunged into a great turmoil that would not end until Mao’s death in 1976. Many factors contributed to the unremitting radicalization of Chinese politics from the late 1950s to the mid‑1970s. On the personal level, Mao’s great hunger for power and his utopian vision for an egalitarian society played a major role. In terms of general domestic affairs, China’s centrally controlled economy dictated an emphasis on devotion and collectivist thinking. With regard to foreign relations, during much of the period under examination, the United States was fiercely hostile to China and pursued policies aimed to isolate and undermine the communist state. In particular, Washington continued its support for Taiwan, which riled the Chinese to no end. When in the late 1950s the Soviet Union decided to soften its stance against the United States and sought “peaceful coexistence” with the Americans, Mao broke ranks with the Russian leaders, whom he denounced as “revisionists.” This ideological debate and division within the international communist movement further radicalized Chinese politics.1 Given the circumstances, not surprisingly America faired very poorly in China during the period in question. The sporadic expressions of warm sentiment toward the Untied States in 1957 were now a matter of the past. The official verdict on America as a decadent and yet deadly enemy of the Chinese revolution was firmly reestablished. At the height of the Great Cul‑ tural Revolution, the United States, along with Russian revisionists who had surrendered to the vicious Americans, appeared as the root of the very evil that the Chinese revolutionaries sought to eradicate from their country and from the whole world once and for all. The virtually complete isolation of China from the Western world from the 1950s to the 1970s made feasible the reduction of America to sheer evil. A whole generation of Chinese grew up with no exposure to the United States other...

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