Mao Zedong’s Policies Devastated China During the Cultural Revolution
In Mao Zedong’s Policies Devastated China During the Cultural Revolution, host Andrew Marr explains reveals that millions of people were targeted, killed, or “re-educated” during this time. One resistor, Deng Xiaoping, was exiled and his son tortured and disabled under Mao. They returned to China later to rise to power and merge capitalism and communism to reshape China’s future. This video is excerpted from BBC’s A History of the World, a story of human history that uses reenactments, modern footage, and storytelling to explain history’s greatest achievements.
Advisory: Contains scenes of moderate violence.Lesson Express
Q: What happened in China in the 1950s?
A: Millions of people died in a famine when Chairman Mao tried to turn rural China into an industrial powerhouse.
Q: What happened during the Cultural Revolution?
A: Fanatical Red Guards targeted those suspected of being right-wing capitalists, and millions of people died or were placed into forced re-education.
Q: How did Deng Xiaoping change China?
A: He became the most powerful man in China by introducing capitalist reforms to help revive the economy.
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