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Cultural Revolution was a catastrophe and Mao was responsible, China’s Communist Party upholds in landmark statement
- Historic resolution adopted by top party leadership reasserts previous narrative on the decade of turmoil and bloody Tiananmen crackdown
- Document cements President Xi Jinping’s status on a par with Mao and Deng, seen as paving the way for him to stay on at the helm
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China’s Communist Party has reiterated its official verdicts on the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989.
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That is according to a new historical resolution adopted by its top leadership last week, only the third such resolution in the party’s 100-year history.
The resolution, according to the full text released by state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday, states that the party never swerved from its rejection of the Cultural Revolution, which plunged China into a decade of chaos and violence from 1966.
Officially titled “Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Communist Party of the Past 100 Years”, the resolution also cements President Xi Jinping’s status on a par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
The 36,000-word document, adopted at the sixth plenum of the Central Committee, hails Xi – who is also the party’s general secretary – for having engineered “major ideological breakthroughs” and identifies him as the leader who will steer China towards achieving national rejuvenation and becoming a great global power.
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