All language subtitles for China_ A Century of Revolution - 01x02 - The Mao Years (1949-1976).MVGroup.English.updated.Addic7ed.com

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In October 1949,

the Chinese people celebrated
the victory of the Communist Party.

The leader of the Communists
and the hero of the revolution

was Mao Zedong.

For Mao and the
Chinese Communist Party,

taking power was
just a first step.

The real revolution
was about to begin.

In 1949,

China lay devastated by decades
of civil war and foreign invasion.

The previous regime,
corrupt and incompetent,

had left the country bankrupt.

People hoped the new
Communist government

would bring unity and peace,

pride and prosperity.

Everybody felt that
the liberation in 1949

was an historic demarcation.

Before that,

it was the old society
with many ugly things in it.

After the Communists came,

most people were idealistic

and they began to fight
for the same cause,

for a new China.

Mao and his colleagues

had a vision of
momentous change.

They wanted to transform
the lives of one quarter of mankind

and create a strong and
modern industrial China.

The Communists forged
a new political structure.

They set up a network
of party branches,

which reached
down from the capital

to every village
in the country.

At local levels,

officials explained
party programs.

Communism meant political
equality for everybody.

The people would be
masters of the country.

That was the propaganda.

People would have
enough to eat and wear.

Poverty would be
a thing of the past.

The reforms went far
beyond economics

into personal relations.

Before liberation,

women had to do
whatever they were told.

They had no rights.

There were three obedience
and four virtues.

Obedience to father
before marriage,

to husband after marriage,

and to your son
after your husband died.

You had no rights at all.

The government's
first major legislation

made women legally
equal to men.

Marriages arranged by
parents or matchmakers

were stopped.

Women could marry the men they loved,

so they were very happy.

The Communists organized
people into work units,

which provided employment,
health care, housing, and education.

Work units also gave the party

direct control
over people's lives.

Everyone belonged to a work unit.

At first, people weren't
comfortable with them,

but gradually
they got used to them.

In the countryside,
the changes were just as profound.

For centuries,

most peasants had struggled
to survive hardship and poverty.

During the revolution,

Mao had won peasant support

with promises of a better life.

Now, he gave them land.

Party officials told peasants

to seize property
from their landlords.

It was fierce.

The whole village,
hundreds of people

came beating drums.

They dragged me
to the meeting ground

and wanted to beat me.

I said, don't hit me.

I know my family has exploited
the people for generations.

I'll give you my house,
land, everything.

After they discussed it,

they labeled me
an enlightened son

of a landlord family.

They let me keep my house,

although there wasn't
much left in it.

But in fact, I did well.

Many people died.

Officials encouraged peasants

to humiliate and beat
their landlords.

Often, the violence
went much further.

Across China,

hundreds of thousands
of landlords were killed.

Nearly half of all
China's arable land

was distributed
to poor peasants.

Before land reform,

we only had three quarters
of an acre of land.

It was not enough to feed us all.

During land reform,

we got nearly
three acres of land.

Because we had more land,
we could grow more.

Gradually, our life became better.

Now, it was the people
who were the masters.

They really liked that.

Land and houses were
taken from the landlords

and given to them.

People saw that they benefited.

So they supported
the Communist Party.

The leaders of the party were
veteran revolutionaries

who had worked
with Mao for years.

Second in authority
was Liu Shaoqi.

Zhou Enlai was foreign minister
and then premier.

Gaining in prominence was
Deng Xiaoping.

Zhou Enlai was the gifted
administrator and the loyal servant

who never challenged Mao.

He had a human touch that made
him both popular and respected.

Liu Shaoqi was more reserved.

He was an Orthodox Communist,

a cautious economic planner,

and a devoted father.

Mao was married to Zhang Qing,
a former movie actress.

During the 1950s,
she never appeared in public.

Mao was the party visionary,
a poet,

and a romantic revolutionary

for whom no theory was sacred.

He was also an astute strategist.

Mao believed that China needed

strong international support,

and within weeks of
taking power in 1949,

he visited Moscow.

But Joseph Stalin
was a difficult ally.

For three days,

he did not even acknowledge
Mao's presence in Moscow.

Finally, he gave the Chinese
limited aid

and agreed to a defense treaty.

On his return to Beijing,

Mao addressed his colleagues.

Chief among the imperialists
was America.

The United States did not
recognize Mao's government.

Only months after this speech,

the two sides would be at war

in Korea.

In June 1950,

North Korea invaded South Korea.

America was outraged and
called for immediate action.

The United Nations sent
troops from 15 countries

to defend South Korea.

They were led by
the American general,

Douglas MacArthur.

After months of hard fighting,

the UN forces pushed
the North Korean army

out of the South.

In October,

they reached the
North Korean capital,

Pyongyang.

The original orders
we gave MacArthur were

when he was able to do so,

to expel the North
from the South,

and in doing so,

to keep well clear of
the Chinese borders,

because we did not
want to give them

any pretext to come in.

But MacArthur's troops
continued north,

towards the Yalu River,

on the border with China.

MacArthur had much
broader objectives

to take advantage of the attack,

to attack China

and remove Chinese communists

as a threat in the area.

And he is continually
trying to do things

that would bring China
into the war.

Mao's government was
barely a year old,

and in the midst of
radical reforms.

It could hardly afford a war,

but Mao felt the UN forces were

an intolerable threat
to China's security.

Under the command of
General Peng Dehuai,

a quarter of a million
Chinese troops

secretly crossed into Korea.

At the end of October 1950,

they attacked,
taking the UN forces

completely by surprise.

The UN troops soon fled

in a massive retreat.

In China,

the government launched
a propaganda campaign

called Resist America
and Aid Korea.

People donated money for planes
and ammunition for the war effort.

Every family gave.

We heard people saying
how our soldiers

were bravely fighting
in the icy fields,

and how they were
beating the Americans,

carrying them away in their
sleeping bags one by one.

We were so moved
that we all donated.

One day, I got my
two-week salary.

I gave it all.

By the spring of 1951,

the war was a grim stalemate.

Both sides were dug in
around the 38th parallel,

separating North and South Korea.

While fighting continued,

peace talks began.

Finally, after two years,

the talks produced an armistice.

The Korean War
forced us to recognize,

and the American people
to recognize,

that the new regime,

the communist regime in China

was a fact of life

with whom we were
going to have to live.

In China, the war created
great national pride.

The Chinese army
had suffered terribly,

with nearly
one million casualties.

But it had fought to a standstill

the armies of the strongest
nations in the world.

And the Resist America campaign

proved how effectively
Mao's government

could mobilize
the entire country.

Now it began a series
of smaller campaigns

against people inside China.

People Mao called
enemies without guns.

Party officials encouraged people

to act as informers

using special letterboxes.

The Chiang family had one
of many small businesses

still operating in Wuhan.

My in-laws were capitalists.

They were told to report
all their property

to the government.

So they made an inventory
of everything in the store.

Later, there was
a struggle meeting.

The shop assistants
tied up my mother-in-law

because they didn't like her.

They yelled at her.

My brother-in-law
got impatient and said,

we don't have anything more.

You keep saying we have more,
but we don't.

Then they tied him up too,
saying he had a bad attitude.

What we used as
our dinner table

was actually a bench this long.

They told her to kneel on it.

It's very hard to kneel
on a bench like that.

If you bend just a little,
you fall.

You have to stay very
straight to kneel on it.

They kept us there
until 11 at night.

They really couldn't get
any more out of us.

Thousands were jailed
or executed.

People with money,
with foreign connections,

or with ties to the
previous regime.

With these campaigns,

the communists crushed all
potential political opposition.

But the vast majority of people
were not hurt by the campaigns.

For many Chinese,
life was improving.

In 1954,

Mao asked Dr. Li Zhisui
to be his doctor.

Mao was not like the rest of us.

He had no sense of time.

Day or night, 24 hours
were the same to him.

He worked whenever he wanted
and slept whenever he wanted.

He didn't have regular meetings

once a week or once a month.

Any leader who wanted
his permission

to make a decision
would send him a note.

After Mao read it,

he would write his comments
on it and send it back.

The leaders and their families
lived in Zhongnanhai,

a huge walled compound
in the heart of Beijing.

They spent their summers
at the same beach resort,

reserved for high officials.

Usually, the dance party started
at seven on Saturday evening.

Mao would come at about ten.

As soon as he entered,

people would all stand
and clap to welcome him.

Then, many girls would come
and ask him to dance.

He would sit for a while,

then dance with them,
one after another.

Supposedly, the party was
for all the leaders.

Actually, it was for Mao himself.

It was a recreational activity
organized for him.

While the leaders
danced to Western music,

the strongest foreign influence
in the mid-50s was Russian.

With the help of Soviet advisors,

Mao's government began

dozens of huge
industrial projects.

This development
and Soviet help

had to be paid for.

Mao looked at China's
peasants to foot the bill.

But traditional family farms
could not produce enough

to pay for industry.

In 1953,

the communists began
to socialize agriculture.

First, they encouraged families
to pool their property

in small farms
called cooperatives.

When you explained
clearly to people

what it meant to till
the land together,

with people working together,

we would have more manpower
and we would be able

to increase production and
our life would become better.

When people accepted this,

a few families started
working together.

After the cooperative
was set up,

our life was much better.

We could afford to raise pigs.

Before, we didn't have
enough grain to raise them.

When the pigs grew,
I sold them and got more cash.

I also sold vegetable seeds
in the town market.

We had more land, enough labor,

plus some sidelines,

so our income increased.

Cooperatives grew
at an astonishing speed.

By the end of 1955,

almost two-thirds of
the peasants had joined.

This was much faster
than Mao had ever hoped.

Seizing the momentum,

he ordered the country to move
to the next stage of socialism,

to collectivization.

But for most peasants,
this was going too far.

In collectives,

private property was abolished.

People had to give up
their animals,

their tools, and their land.

Party officials put intense
pressure on families to join.

By then, people were unhappy.

They weren't comfortable forming
a collective with the whole village.

Some villagers didn't
get on with others.

My father was quite well off,

so he didn't want to join either.

I was a party official
in the village.

I told him if I weren't
an official,

I wouldn't insist he join.

If you didn't join,
you wouldn't look good

in front of your neighbors.

With my persuasion and the
example of others, he gave in.

But he joined with reluctance.

His income was quite high.

It went down after he joined,
so he was unhappy.

Within months,

all of China's
600 million peasants

were working in
huge collectives.

For the first time in history,

the farm output
of the entire nation

was under government control.

The government decided
how much grain

the peasants could keep.

The rest had to be sold
at low prices to the state.

The grain ration for the peasants
was very low, not enough.

Plus, you had to obey
the leadership.

You had to fulfill
the state quota.

State first, then the people.

The peasants complained
about the policies.

They said, we can't keep
one extra ear of grain

for ourselves.

Do you think this is fair?

I said, it's not fair.

So I wrote to the
provincial leadership.

Things couldn't go on like this.

No matter how much you grew,
you still had to give it to the state.

You couldn't eat it.

The province sent people
down to investigate.

They saw things were
just the way I said,

but they couldn't solve it.

It was a big problem.

Collectives did not make
the peasants better off,

nor did they
increase production.

Mao still had to find a way

to finance his vision
of an industrial China.

The communists controlled
most intellectual life.

Plays and films had to
follow strict guidelines.

Mao saw that this control
was stifling

potentially useful new ideas.

He was also disturbed by the
emergence of a new elite

in the party itself.

In 1956, Mao decided
to encourage

constructive criticism
of the party.

He called for a hundred flowers
to bloom in the arts

and a hundred schools of thought
to contend in science.

I was all for the slogan of letting
a hundred flowers bloom.

We all felt that we had really
started to have democracy.

Soon, all the walls
in Beijing University

were covered with big posters.

People expressed
their points of view

and asked the Communist
Party for changes.

Yu Beijan called many high
school teachers unqualified.

Shang Daxue complained
medical research was falling behind.

More and more people criticized
party corruption and inefficiency.

Committee members
and leaders at all levels

were criticized
by ordinary people.

They had quite a tough time,

so they did not like 100 flowers.

They felt as if they were
punching bags.

They were not happy.

Under pressure from the party,

Mao reversed himself.

In June 1957,

he published an article
calling the people

who had spoken out
enemies and rightists.

Mao appointed Deng Xiaoping

to lead the anti-rightist
movement.

I was supposed to have
committed 29 crimes.

One was that I supported the
policy of letting 100 flowers bloom.

It was Mao Zedong himself
who started the policy.

How could it be a crime?

But it was.

The rightists were denounced
in front of their colleagues

in struggle meetings.

Professor Ge Pei-Chi
was criticized

in this meeting at the
People's University

in Beijing.

Ge Pei-Chi was my neighbor.

He was already done for.

That's what we called it.

I saw his youngest child,

who was about
five or six months old.

His nurse had quit.

The baby was crawling
outside the building

under the burning sun.

I felt sorry for him
and picked him up.

Some people said,
you shouldn't do that.

Ge Pei-Chi is a bad person.

Why are you holding his child?

You'll get into trouble.

They meant well.

I said, the baby hasn't
done anything wrong.

Ge Pei-Chi's family was
ostracized for years.

Ge Pei-Chi himself spent
the next two decades

doing hard labor.

I had been in the revolutionary
ranks for so many years.

At the meeting, I was the
most senior person there.

But I was finished.

I suddenly realized that
I had fallen from the sky...

down to the earth.

I could never get up again.

I was a rightist,
and I was kicked out.

In an internal party document,

Mao estimated that about
ten percent of the people

were rightists.

Local officials
interpreted this to mean

they had to find ten rightists

among every hundred people.

They accused my wife of telling
my son to tell other children that

their land and house were ours.

It wasn't true.

She never said anything like that.

But when you were told to confess,

you had to say something.

They wouldn't let you go
if you didn't.

People at the meeting shouted,

struggle against her, hit her.

She was just a peasant woman.

She wasn't like me.

I could make things up on the spot
so I wouldn't get hurt.

She couldn't do that.

What could we do?

Someone took her backstage.

He said to her,
just say anything.

Say you were wrong
in saying this or doing that.

But my old woman was stupid.

Her mind did not work fast.

She was taught what to say.

She walked onto the stage saying,

okay, okay, I'll say that.

But once she was there,
she forgot everything.

She was scared stiff.

When she got home,
she cried and cried.

It was 1958 during
the anti-rightist movement.

It was the first time
she was ever repudiated.

But she was not
labeled the rightist.

She was not qualified.

Not at all qualified.

Nearly one million people
were condemned as rightists.

They were sent to jail
and prison camps

or to work in the countryside.

The anti-rightist campaign
effectively silenced

China's intellectuals.

Mao had decided that
they were no longer needed.

Mao was also beginning
to question

China's relationship
with the Soviet Union.

When Nikita Khrushchev and Mao
met in 1958,

they kept up appearances
of solidarity.

But in private, they disagreed
on major issues.

During the visit,

Mao did not tell Khrushchev

that he was about
to launch military action

against his old enemy,
the Nationalists.

When the Communists
took power in 1949,

the defeated
Nationalist government

fled to Taiwan,
also called Formosa.

Led by Chiang Kai-shek,

they still claimed to be
the true government of China.

And they had American support.

The United States
must remove any doubt

regarding our
readiness to fight,

if necessary,

to preserve the vital stake
of the free world

in a free Formosa.

The Nationalists hoped one day

to retake the mainland.

Their troops trained on islands

which lay just off China's coast.

In August 1958,

the Communists began
to shell them.

President Eisenhower stood firm

in his commitment
to the Nationalists.

Mao did not want a war
with the United States.

After a few tense weeks,

he stopped the bombardment.

The crisis petered out,

but it had lasting
repercussions.

While Khrushchev backed the
Chinese Communists in public,

he was furious with Mao.

The attack could have
triggered a superpower war.

In 1959,

the two men met
for the last time.

A year later,
they broke off relations.

But foreign criticism
did not sway Mao's government.

They viewed conflict
with the Nationalists

as a purely domestic matter.

The same was true

they asserted of
their actions in Tibet.

For centuries, this remote
and religious land

had been regarded
by the Chinese

as part of China.

In 1950, the Communists
enforced their claim

by taking over Tibet.

In 1959,

Tibetans rebelled.

The People's Liberation Army
crushed the revolt.

As reports of atrocities
and destruction

reached the outside world,

China's international
isolation deepened.

Mao's first concern was still
China's economy.

Industrial output had
doubled in five years,

but he was not satisfied.

Mao Zedong always
hoped to build

a socialist economy in China

faster than the Soviet Union.

He always thought

fighting the Revolutionary War
was very difficult.

There must be a way
to speed up

agricultural or
industrial production.

Could it be more difficult
than fighting a war?

In 1958,

Mao launched his most
ambitious campaign to date,

the Great Leap Forward.

His goal was to make China

the industrial equal
of Western nations

in just 15 years.

His method was to mobilize
the entire country

to work day and night

by promising a better future.

We built reservoirs,
planted cotton,

cultivated trees and
things like that.

When we worked,
we had a slogan.

Catch the stars and moon.

We had to work when the stars
and moon were out.

We had breakfast very early
and came home very late.

So we worked all day long.

We were so enthusiastic.

To make work exciting,

flags flew high in the fields
and loudspeakers squealed.

People shouted slogans
one after another.

Mao decided to visit some villages

to see what was going on.

I went with him.

Once we came to a village
and saw a banner

with these words on it.

People's communes are good.

He read the words.

People's communes are good.

A reporter happened to be next
to Mao and took down his words.

The next day, the words
appeared in the newspapers.

That's how people's
communes started.

Mao's word was so powerful

that almost overnight,

people's communes
sprang up across China.

A commune encompassed
many villages

with thousands of families.

Each day was
strictly regimented

and family life was
virtually abolished.

Children were placed
in communal nurseries

while their parents
worked around the clock.

People ate in the fields
or in communal dining halls.

To increase industrial output,

communes were ordered
to make steel.

The slogan was,

to overtake England and
catch up with America.

The idea was that
if everybody worked hard

and everywhere in the country
people refined steel,

then we would catch up
very soon.

People collected waulks,
pots, bed frames and tools,

anything made of iron or steel.

They built small furnaces
to melt them.

The biggest challenge was
to keep the furnaces fueled.

We burned tables, chairs,
window frames.

And finally,

we even opened old coffins
and used the wood.

They really stank.

We kept the fires
burning day and night.

And for convenience,

we built work sheds
close to the furnaces.

One day I worked very late
and I was totally exhausted.

We had separate sheds
for men and women.

But I was so tired
I couldn't tell the difference.

I just walked into a shed,
laid down and fell asleep.

When I woke the next morning,
I found I was in the men's shed.

Of course, it was all right.

Nobody cared.

All we cared about was making
as much steel as we could.

At night, you could see many
furnaces along the railroad.

Fire shot out of the furnaces.

This made people excited.

China was going through
a great change.

China was becoming
a very rich and strong country.

All this seemed to have
happened overnight.

Mao was very pleased.

But the steel people made

was useless.

We used it to make
pots of all sizes.

But when people heated them,

they cracked and leaked.

If only we had the equipment
to make good steel.

But we didn't.

We only had people.

Our methods were very primitive.

Of course, we didn't make
good steel.

People were unhappy,

but nobody dared say anything.

The result was that everything
made of iron and steel

was taken from every family
and was made useless.

We had no tools left to use.

While the government called
on everyone to make steel,

they also wanted
to increase farm output.

How could we increase
the grain harvest?

People said that if you did close
planting and used more fertilizer,

you would definitely increase output.

People got carried away.

They were hot-headed.

From Mao Zedong and
the Central Party Committee

down to leaders at all levels,

everyone was full of enthusiasm.

During the Great Leap Forward,
we believed miracles could happen.

There was a saying,

the corn will grow
higher the more you desire.

Communes and schools reported
their wonderful news to the party.

If one commune said they could
turn out 150 tons an acre,

another one would say
their target was 180 tons.

Each commune or school would
promise a higher amount

until the last school
gave their highest figure.

Our school set the target
of 470 tons an acre.

We dug a hole,

something like a
swimming pool.

We thought if we put
all the fertilizer in it,

we would achieve our target.

Then we poured the seeds in,

which build up into
a layer about this thick.

There was a photograph
in the People's Daily

that showed the wheat in a field
supporting the weight of children.

Some leaders of the Central Party
Committee were so happy

that they put this photo
on their desks at work.

Most people believed it.

We were surprised
to see that photo

and wondered how
it could be possible.

But because we were city people,
we couldn't be sure it was a fake.

When I went with Mao
to the villages,

I really did see so much
grain in the fields,

so much rice.

The yields were so high.

At the time,

I thought everything was true.

After the anti-rightist campaign,

few dared to ask questions.

Only one teacher spoke out.

How thick would the wheat be
if we did produce 470 tons?

Immediately,

he was accused of
being a rightist,

and not believing
in the party.

Later, I learned it was all fake.

The peasants were
putting on a show for us.

They moved grain
from other places

and put it all in one field.

It was all a show for Mao.

Under pressure to produce more,

to launch satellites to heaven,

as it was called,

party officials inflated
production figures.

An ominous cycle began

as the state took more
and more grain

based on false figures,

leaving the peasants
with nothing to eat.

For example,

the output was 5 tons of grain,

but 10 tons were reported.

Then the state would collect grain
based on 10 tons.

Our commune committee
calculated that

our yield was
1800 pounds an acre.

It didn't qualify us
to go up to heaven,

but the deputy had an idea.

He added the melons,
fruits, pears,

peaches, turnips and
vegetables to the grain,

counting them as grain output.

So the yield became
2600 pounds per acre.

Now we were qualified
to go up to heaven.

The commune committee
did not want to calculate this way.

It was cheating.

But those people were higher up.

What could we do?

I have this problem.

I get emotional very easily.

I wondered why

the higher the official,

the more he dared to lie.

To deceive the party
and the people.

Zhang Hongbin,
the financial secretary,

was horrified when he heard
such an enormous figure.

He said,
are you letting people eat?

This is sheer absurdity.

Party officials
ignored the protests

and continued to submit
the inflated figures.

The state took the grain
accordingly.

It was sent to feed the cities,

repay Soviet debts,

or left to rot in warehouses.

Peasants across China were
beginning to starve.

Han Wei was one of the
four provinces worst hit.

All my mother could do was
gather weeds with my aunt.

There wasn't enough grain,

so we ate weeds.

By the summer of 1959,

the leaders knew
the Great Leap Forward

was going badly wrong.

Mao decided to go
back to Shaoshan,

his hometown,
to have a look.

He wanted to find out the truth.

He wanted people to speak freely.

I think that when
he was in Shaoshan,

he found that there
really were problems

in the Great Leap Forward.

After his trip,

Mao decided to moderate
production targets.

In July 1959,
the party met

at the mountain resort
of Lu Shan

to set new,

realistic goals.

Minister of Defense
Peng Dehuai,

the hero of the Korean War,

was one of Mao's oldest
revolutionary comrades.

For my generation of officials,

Peng Dehuai was a very
down-to-earth peasant

and an excellent combat general.

He hated fraud and hypocrisy.

He said what was on his mind.

Back in the early days,

if he needed to talk to Mao and
saw that Mao was still in bed...

he would go and pull off his quilt,
saying, get up, let's talk.

He said, but now
it's very difficult

to have that kind of
relationship.

He is the chairman.

It's so hard to see him,

let alone discuss things with him.

Peng wrote to Mao,
describing what he saw

as the problems of the
Great Deep Forward.

What Peng intended
as loyal criticism,

Mao saw as
political treachery.

When Mao Zedong
started the meeting,

he said he had not slept
all night.

He couldn't sleep, even after
he took his sleeping pills.

He just got up and
called this meeting.

He was very serious.

You could see that at times
he was very angry.

He said, it's all right
for you to oppose me.

When I have no alternative,

I'll just take the Liberation Army,

go up to the mountains,

and carry out guerrilla warfare.

Finally, the resolution was that

Peng Dehuai was against
the Communist Party.

When Mao left the room,
I was following him.

Peng was in front of us.

Mao called him.

Marshall Peng,

if there are any questions,
we can talk.

Peng swung his arm and said,

what's there to talk about?

There's nothing more to say.

Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi
agreed with Peng,

but even they did not
dare speak out.

Nobody had the courage
to oppose Mao Zedong.

He was considered
absolutely correct.

He stood high and looked far.

People thought they were
not up to Mao's level.

Even if someone wanted
to make a comment,

he would not dare say anything
or reveal his own feelings.

As a result,

production goals were not cut.

Officials continued to demand

more grain than
the peasants could give.

The great leap forward
continued through 1960.

Millions of peasants
were starving.

Old peasants said in a fury,

no, grain comes from the
blood and sweat of peasants.

It doesn't grow
on the backs of intellectuals.

Who do they think
they're fooling?

In wartime, we protected them
and saved their lives.

Now we provide them
with food and clothing.

They have full stomachs,

and still they come to cheat us.

Don't they have a conscience?

Mao Zedong's family was a typical
big family in the countryside,

with several generations
living together.

There were 36 people altogether.

During the three years of famine,

one died after another.

Eventually, only three people
were left alive.

At first, when someone died,

they would take the body
and bury it.

Later, they didn't have the
strength to take the bodies out.

They could only look at them.

They watched the bodies
being eaten by rats,

and their eyeballs dug out.

People didn't even have the
strength to chase the rats away.

The famine was very
severe and widespread,

but newspapers did not
report it at all.

People only knew that
their local area was suffering.

To keep the news from spreading,

peasants were not allowed
to leave their areas,

even to beg.

At first, peasants ate everything
they had at home.

Then they ate Ganyan earth.

It's a kind of white clay.

There's a legend in the village,

passed down from
generation to generation.

It says that this clay was
provided by old mother Ganyan,

who sympathized
with the poor people.

People would eat it
during the famine

because it was very fine.

But still, it was
hard to swallow.

At first, the peasants
could swallow a little.

But after four or five days,

it destroyed their intestines,

and they died.

After eating all the grass
roots and tree bark,

they ate the earth.

The famine lasted three years.

An estimated
30 million people died.

Mao's revolution,

fought to give the Chinese
people a better life,

had helped create the largest

famine in history.

In 1961, Peng Dehuai,
a lone voice, wrote,

Grains scattered across the ground.

Potato leaves withered.

Strong young people
have gone to make steel.

Only children and old women
reap the crops.

How will they eat next year?

Please, think of the people.

A campaign called

Remember the Bitter Past and
Think of the Sweet Present

was launched.

The peasants were told,

Chairman Mao and the party
want you to talk about

your suffering before 1949.

So that young people will realize

what a happy life they have now.

And how they owe all this

to the party and Chairman Mao.

The peasants started
to talk about the Bitter Past.

Then they forgot that
they were supposed

to be talking about the
old society before 1949.

They got carried away

and talked about the famine
of the last three years.

They cried and cried.

The officials were
scared to death.

It was as if the peasants

were blaming the Communist
Party and Chairman Mao.

They said, Grandma Zhang,
Grandpa, you can't talk like this.

The peasants said, why not?

So many in our families died.

Never ever have we had
such a terrible time.

In China, between 1959 and 1961,

an estimated 30 million people

died of hunger.

Officially, the Communist
government

blamed the catastrophe
on floods and drought.

But in party meetings,

they admitted that
the famine was

largely created by their
own policies.

Their efforts to
rebuild the country

would spark a struggle
inside the party.

A struggle that would engulf
the Chinese people

in chaos and terror.

Mao Zedong was the head
of the Communist Party,

the man who had instigated
the disastrous policies of

the Great Leap Forward.

But no one would ever
dare hold him responsible.

Mao's reputation remained

untarnished.

During this time,

Mao had chosen to withdraw

from day-to-day government.

Liu Shaoqi took over.

Although people
respected Liu Shaoqi,

and he had great authority,

he could not compare with Mao.

I remember after Mao
resigned as head of state,

the People's Congress elected
Liu Shaoqi to succeed him.

We had parades to celebrate.

But people shouted,

Long live Chairman Mao.

Not a single person shouted,

Long live Chairman Liu.

Liu was a veteran revolutionary,

and one of the most conscientious
and talented in the party.

He worked with Zhou Enlai
and Deng Xiaoping

to rebuild the country.

They had to do it
without foreign help.

China's communist government
had long viewed America

as its principal enemy.

Now, as U.S. involvement
in the Vietnam War escalated,

so did anti-American rhetoric.

Relations with the Soviet Union

were no better.

In the 1950s,

Soviet experts had helped

build Chinese industry.

But by the end of the decade,

disagreements between Mao
and Nikita Khrushchev

reached breaking point.

Soviet experts shredded
their blueprints

and returned home.

Now, Liu shifted economic focus

from developing heavy industry

to making consumer goods.

He relaxed controls
on the peasants.

They remained in communes,

but they were allowed
to make money

farming on the side.

China's recovery was fast.

People who had
worked day and night

were given time off.

The early 1960s were
quiet years for Mao.

He studied political economy.

He read the Chinese classics
of warfare and romance.

Later, there were
more dance parties.

Before, they were once a week

on Saturday.

Then they were
increased twice a week

on Wednesday and Saturday.

There was another big change.

Another room was set up
by the ballroom.

Sometimes, during the party,

Mao took young girls
into this room

to rest with him.

He would rest for an hour or so.

I think Mao got great pleasure

from these parties.

By 1963,

Mao had tired of
political seclusion.

At 70, he still dreamed

of realizing a communist utopia.

He began to plan the final

and most revolutionary act

of his political career.

Minister of Defense Lin Biao

became his strongest ally.

In 1964,

Lin published
a pocket-sized book

called, Quotations from
Chairman Mao Zedong.

First, it was distributed
throughout the army,

then in work units and
schools across the country.

We were educated to love the party,

our country, and our leader.

Even if we didn't
understand his words,

we deeply believed that
he was always right.

As long as we did what Mao said,

we were doing the right thing.

My teachers taught me that

Chairman Mao was the
great savior of China.

And he brought
liberation to China.

This idea was stamped
in my mind and ran

through my blood.

The cult of Mao soon elevated him

to the stature of a living God,

all powerful but remote.

For Mao rarely appeared in public.

His speeches were not broadcast.

Most Chinese had never

heard his voice.

Liu, Deng, and Zhou

did not oppose the cult.

Mao personified the revolution.

To attack him would undermine
their own legitimacy.

Instead,

they quietly ignored
his radical ideas.

Their programs of
careful economic growth

were working.

By 1966,

China was increasingly prosperous

and the world's fifth nuclear power.

But Mao was more and
more dissatisfied.

He did not control party policy,

and he felt that Liu Shaoqi
and the other leaders

were betraying the revolution.

Mao disagreed with
people like Liu Shaoqi

on building the economy.

Zhou Enlai and Liu wanted
to curb radical policies.

Mao wasn't happy.

Mao thought that curbing
radicalism was wrong.

For Mao,

communism could be achieved

only through radical means.

Through continuing revolution,

a never-ending process

of struggle and change.

He decided that the
Communist Party itself,

the party he had led
for more than 30 years,

was the main obstacle
to his vision of revolution.

In May 1966,

Mao began an attack on the party.

Through the columns of
China's main newspaper,

he called on young people
to attack party officials

and replace them with
true revolutionaries.

Mao Zedong had unleashed

the Great Proletarian
Cultural Revolution.

For the first time since 1949,

our Supreme Leader
Chairman Mao,

a godlike figure,

called on people
at the very bottom of society.

People like us students
with no work and no profession.

He told us to rebel
against party officials.

This had a tremendous impact on us.

It was said there were people
who were against Chairman Mao.

We felt it was time for us
to give our blood and our lives

to protect Chairman Mao.

Young people took to the streets.

They wrote wall posters,

attacking their teachers
and party officials.

Within days,

schools and universities
were in turmoil.

Having launched the
Cultural Revolution,

Mao left Beijing.

Liu Xiaochi and Deng Xiaoping

were left to manage
the growing disorder.

They asked Mao for instructions,

but he gave them none.

On July 16, 1966,

Mao staged a huge media event,

swimming in the Yangtze River.

It was a signal to the nation

that Mao, aged 73,

was vigorous and in command.

Two days later,

he returned to the capital.

A meeting was held

in the Great Hall of the People.

The students from
Beijing University

and other colleges.

At the meeting,

Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping,
and Zhou Enlai

were sitting on the stage.

Unknown to the participants,

Mao was listening backstage.

Dr. Li sat next to him.

Liu Shaoqi described

how the Cultural
Revolution started.

He said,

we veteran revolutionaries have
encountered new problems,

and we don't know
how to deal with them.

Mao immediately said,

I hear you.

What veteran revolutionaries?

You're an old
counter-revolutionary.

My heart sank.

It was already very clear
that in Mao's eyes,

Liu Shaoqi was no longer
the head of state.

No longer a communist.

He was an old
counter-revolutionary.

Mao had already condemned him.

I knew Liu Shaoqi
would have no way out.

No way out.

Within weeks,

Mao reordered
the party hierarchy.

Deng Xiaoping was
demoted to number six.

Liu Shaoqi even lower
to number eight.

Lin Biao replaced him.

King Mao says,

Maoism consists of
thousands of truths,

but they all boil down
to one phrase.

It's right to rebel.

Students banded together

to carry out Mao's orders.

They called themselves
Red Guards.

On August 18, 1966,

Mao began a series of
public appearances,

greeting millions of young people

in Tiananmen Square.

Donning the armband
of the Red Guards,

Mao gave them his blessing.

We saw Mao wave to us.

He said something,
but we couldn't hear clearly.

Later we learned that he said

we should carry on the
Cultural Revolution to the end.

We felt it was the
greatest honor of our lives

to see Mao in person.

With Mao's approval,

the Red Guards traveled for free

around the country

to gain revolutionary experience.

In September 1966,

schools did not open
for the academic year.

This was the first chance we had

to break away from our parents,

to do whatever we wanted.

The first morning
we were in high spirits.

We sang revolutionary songs

as we walked.

We walked the whole day.

The second day we had
blisters on our feet

and we were exhausted.

Army trucks often
passed us on the way.

The Liberation Army men would say,

Chairman Mao's Red Guards,
where are you going?

We answered,

we're going to Beijing
to see Chairman Mao

to get revolutionary experience.

Then they would say, good,

our truck is empty,
we'll give you a lift.

We would answer,

thank you Liberation Army men,

we want to walk to Beijing.

We'll spread Mao Zedong thought

and get revolutionary
experience on the way.

The 13 of us
walked and walked

for many days.

On October 1, 1966,

National Day,

the rallies with Mao reached
their most extravagant level.

Lin Biao,

now called Mao's closest
comrade in arms,

led the ceremony.

Mao encouraged the Red Guards

to attack Western influences

and to destroy the four Olds.

Old ideas, old culture,

old customs, old habits.

Without this destruction, he said,

socialism cannot be achieved.

The Red Guards tore
down street signs

and put up new
revolutionary names.

They ransacked museums,

libraries and temples.

They searched and looted
people's homes.

At first they took my books,

together with a bookcase.

The second time
they searched for money.

There were things
that would get me in trouble.

Later they took
the sewing machine

and sofa, even the desk.

There was no reason for it.

My children were scared to death,

shaking with fear.

Groups of Red Guards

roamed the countryside,

urging peasants to attack

local officials.

They came to Wugong

in November 1966.

Some villagers seized
the chance to take revenge

against officials who for years

had given the best grain

to the state.

They criticized old Xu.

They said, you old woman,

you sifted and selected

until there wasn't a single husk

in the grain.

You delivered such
good grain to the state,

you didn't want to leave
any for us to eat, did you?

Several people went up
to the platform and

put a tall paper hat,

it was at least this tall,

on old Xu's head.

They held her by
the scruff of the neck

and paraded her through the streets.

The violence soon turned against

traditional targets
of class struggle,

like the former landlord's son,

Li Maoshou.

I was tied up, hung up,

and beaten.

One afternoon
I passed out four times.

I stopped breathing.

Later they didn't even
have to hit me.

My breathing would stop
when they hung me up.

That's how bad it got.

In China, fathers and sons

traditionally have close ties.

But now you had to end
your relationship.

It was really sad,

but you just had to do it.

After my son was
struggled against

for the first time,

I claimed that our relationship
had been broken off.

Awful things would
have happened to him

if I hadn't done that.

Throughout China,

party officials, intellectuals,

people with foreign connections,

former businessmen, millions

were paraded and beaten in public.

It is estimated that at least
400,000 people were killed.

We called him Secretary Zhang.

He was the secretary
at the state farm

where my mother had worked.

We all knew him
when we were children.

Once he dragged me by the ear

for hundreds of yards,

the side of my head got all swollen.

He treated his subordinates
very badly.

When the Cultural Revolution came,

the Red Guards and workers
dragged him out

to struggle with.

He was not treated nicely

because he'd been
so mean to people.

He was forced to kneel
on the ground,

on sand, broken stones and glass,

for more than two hours.

He knelt with a heavy board
hanging from his neck.

It had his name written on it,

with red crosses through it.

That's how someone who was
going to be shot was treated.

The board was hanging
on a very thin wire.

So after two hours,

blood oozed out on the wire

and dripped down.

He was over 50, or close to 60,

and he was struggled
against many, many times

because people really hated him.

Soon he died.

The people we beat up were
all hooligans and loose women

whose names were given
to us by the workers.

I put them on a truck and
told them to kneel down.

I whipped them
with a leather belt.

There were men and women.

Most were women.

We beat them hard.

I had a kind of animal instinct.

I used to enjoy beating people.

I didn't know most of the people
who were struggled against.

When we heard different views,
we wondered,

if you sympathized
with a party official,

did it mean you were
too simplistic?

Did it mean you lacked
political consciousness

and couldn't see his evil
capitalist rotor nature?

Whenever a question came up,

our first reaction
was not to believe

the official might be innocent,

but that we were too naive

and too inexperienced.

I didn't think about it much.

Chairman Mao called
on us to be involved

with affairs of state,

to be active in making revolution.

We felt this was revolution.

Chairman Mao had said,

a revolution is an insurrection,

an act of violence by which

one class overthrows another.

It's not a dinner party.

We had to be rough
and harsh and wild.

In my class, there was a student

whose grandfather had
owned a big fabric store,

so he was a capitalist.

I heard that everyone was to go
to their house to criticize him.

I got there late,
and by the time I arrived,

the capitalist had been
beaten to death.

I remember that his head was all

swollen and dark and bruised.

I didn't look for long,
and then we all left.

But later I learned
that this capitalist

was killed after my
classmates got there.

Other students and
probably red guards

from the neighborhood
also got involved.

All those people beat him to death,

including his own granddaughter,

my classmate.

I didn't think much
about it then,

because this kind of thing
happened a lot.

But years later,

I thought about it many times,

and I wanted to find an answer.

The question was very difficult.

It was,

if I had not arrived late,

what would I have done?

Would I have beaten him?

He was a capitalist,

but at the same time

he was a man, an old man.

I have never been able
to answer this question.

By 1967,

the radical Cultural Revolution group

dominated the government.

Members included Lin Biao

and Mao's wife, Jiang Qing.

She often appeared
as Mao's spokesperson

and had gained great power.

Her calls for violent struggle
were immediately obeyed

by millions of red guards.

Moderate leaders
repulsed by the fanaticism

and felt closer to Zhou Enlai.

Zhou's role in the
Cultural Revolution

is ambiguous.

He tried to moderate events,

but in the end he always
sided with Mao.

He tried to protect people,

but his power had limits.

Many close to him

would soon be brutally attacked.

People from the Cultural
Revolution group told us

to drag out Liu Shaoqi

and Deng Xiaoping

and overthrow them.

Crowds of people filled the street.

Loud speakers were blasting
towards Jiang Nanhai,

demanding that Liu be handed over

to be struggled against.

It was very revolutionary,

very fashionable to drag him out.

Zhou tried to send
the students away.

He warned Liu and his wife,

Wang Guangmei,

to stay inside the leader's compound

at Jiang Nanhai.

In April 1967,

red guards tricked Wang
into leaving,

saying one of her daughters
had had an accident.

They dragged her
in front of this crowd.

They dressed her as a whore

and repeatedly humiliated her.

Later,

Wang Guangmei was jailed.

She spent 12 years
in solitary confinement.

Deng Xiaoping was struggled against

and exiled to a remote village.

Liu Shaoqi was attacked and beaten.

He was kept under
house arrest for two years.

Then,

weakened by torture and cancer,

no longer able to eat, speak

or use his hands,

he was wrapped in a sheet and

flown to this remote prison.

Weeks later,

Liu Shaoqi,

China's head of state for 10 years,

died naked and alone.

In 1967,

the Cultural Revolution
entered a new stage,

factional warfare.

The red guards had never
been a unified movement.

At first,

only students with good
communist backgrounds

were admitted.

The millions of young
people left out,

formed their own groups,

and called themselves

rebels.

We organized our
own red guards.

We called ourselves

the red guards of Mao
Zedong thought.

We were part of the rebels.

We made armbands
the same as the others.

You say you're defending
Chairman Mao?

Okay, so am I.

You're making revolution?

So am I.

At first, the rebels and red guards

clashed over ideology.

Then, they fought for local power.

Soon, millions of
workers and soldiers

joined the conflicts.

In Shanghai, the rebel group,

led by colleagues of Mao's wife,

Jiang Qing,

overthrew the local
party committee.

Mao immediately
supported the rebels.

Now that the revolutionary forces
in Shanghai have risen up,

he declared,
there is hope for China.

Across the country,

rebel groups responded

by trying to seize power

from local party authorities.

Each faction had its own weapons.

They robbed military arsenals.

And army units supported
one faction or another.

They gave them side weapons.

I really wanted to have a gun.

Before and after every action,

we used Mao's songs and quotations

to encourage ourselves.

Be resolute, be daring,

overcome all obstacles,

and be victorious.

They weren't just small fights.

It was real war.

There were ex-servicemen
on both sides.

They'd fought in many wars.

Both sides had expert
marksmen and soldiers

who could drive tanks
and use artillery.

Several people died in each battle.

In Beijing, embassies were attacked.

Rebel factions occupied
the foreign ministry

for two weeks.

The violence Mao had unleashed

had spiraled beyond
even his control.

He described the summer of 1967

as utter chaos

and all-out civil war.

Again and again,

Zhou Enlai, on Mao's behalf,

ordered the different
factions to stop fighting.

But they did not.

Finally, in July 1968,

Mao turned on the
Red Guards and rebels,

personally ordering them
to disband.

This time, they obeyed,

as soldiers took over
schools and colleges

and terrorized the students

into submission.

A few people called
the dictatorship team came in.

The person who was
declared a criminal

was dragged out of his seat.

Then two from the
dictatorship team

would hit the person's legs with
their rod so that he would kneel.

Then they'd handcuff you
and announce your crimes.

They shoved your head down.

The rest of the audience
would shout slogans

and you were dragged away.

It was scary.

You never knew who would be next.

By the end of 1968,

rigid conformity and repression

ruled people's lives

as never before.

The army, under Lin Biao,

pushed the cult of Mao
to new heights.

People had to report

all their thoughts to Mao

twice a day.

Twice a day, wherever they were,

they danced the loyalty dance.

I was a little disgusted
with the cult of Mao

and I said a few things.

Lin Biao had said every sentence

Chairman Mao said was the truth.

I said nobody can say everything

that is the truth.

So I was labeled
a reactionary student.

At school, they held several

criticism meetings against me.

What was most unbearable,
and even today,

still makes me uncomfortable,

was that none of my friends
would speak to me.

I became totally isolated.

We heard older people
talk about Jiang Qing

and knew they really
looked down on her.

So we made up jokes.

And we said the chaos
of the Cultural Revolution

was due to Jiang Qing,

and Mao should divorce her.

Jiang Qing's group heard
about what we said.

For his casual remarks,

Jiang Longlong spent
the next ten years in jail.

At the end of 1968,

Mao started a campaign

to have city youth,
former red guards and rebels,

re-educated by the peasants.

Millions of families
were wrenched apart

as young people were
sent to spend years

in China's most remote regions.

But for some,

it was a chance to start anew.

After we got onto the tractor,

one of the students
asked me something.

I remember that as soon
as she opened her mouth,

I cried because it had been
a very, very long time

since anyone had spoken to me.

Later I told them
I was not like them.

I was someone who was wrong,

who was guilty.

But they were
especially nice to me.

We stayed together for five years.

Even now, they are my best friends.

April 1969

Most delegates at the
congress were radicals

who had risen to power
through the Cultural Revolution.

Many moderate officials were
still under attack and in prison.

Lin Biao,

long seen as Mao's heir apparent,

was officially appointed
his successor.

Lin's keynote speech

signaled a new
government preoccupation

with foreign relations.

He denounced both the Soviet Union

and the United States

as imperialists and enemies.

Just weeks before,

fighting had broken out
on the border between

China and the Soviet Union.

Mao and Zhou Enlai

now saw the Soviet Union

as a greater threat

than their traditional enemy,
America.

They sent signals to the U.S.

that they would
like to begin talks.

Lin Biao opposed
the overtures to America.

He is alleged to have
plotted a coup against Mao.

In September 1971,

when the plot was discovered,

Lin reportedly tried to escape.

But his plane crashed
over Mongolia.

The death of Lin Biao was
a great shock to everyone.

Before his death,

the entire propaganda
machine treated him

as the heir to Mao Zedong.

He had very high stature,

second only to Mao.

People treated him as
a revolutionary saint.

Now suddenly he was a traitor,

a very bad person.

After Lin Biao died,

we stopped the daily rituals
praising Mao and Lin.

The fanaticism faded.

It was as if we had all
been in a dream.

For the first time,

people began to question

Mao's infallibility.

Did Mao trust the wrong person?

If Mao had trusted Zhou Enlai
instead of Lin Biao,

would that have been better?

There was a vague feeling
that Mao had made a mistake.

But of course, no one
dared talk about it.

After the Lin Biao incident,

Mao looked calm on the surface.

But from a doctor's point of view,

I knew that his health
was greatly affected.

Sometimes I tried to persuade him

to take medicine
for his pneumonia

and heart disease.

He would take some,
and then refuse.

One day, at the
beginning of February,

he asked me,

Do you know that
Nixon is coming?

I answered, Yes, I do.

He said, Can you get me well

before Nixon comes?

I said, Yes, I can,

but you'll have to cooperate.

He said, Alright,
we can start now.

In February 1972,

after months of secret
negotiations,

President Richard Nixon
arrived in Beijing

to begin a new
relationship with China.

Nixon saw two major advantages

to this improved
relationship with China.

First, I think Nixon
always saw the relationship

on his own merit.

The other involved a major
Soviet role in Southeast Asia.

Hanoi was a proxy

of the Soviet Union.

Now, I think Nixon recognized

that a great restraint on Moscow

would be the result of an
improved relationship

between Beijing
and the United States.

I remember that Mao said to Nixon,

After our two countries
resumed diplomatic relations,

we will still have to curse you
a little in our newspapers.

Calling you American imperialists,

you can also curse us a bit.

This is just for show,
firing a few empty shots.

It'll be easier for ordinary people

to accept.

If we suddenly say that

the American imperialists

are no longer imperialists

and they've become friends of China,

people will find it hard to accept.

We expected and frequently received

diatribes for public consumption,

both in the press and

in the diplomacy itself.

The real, the careful issue was
not to be carried away by this,

and overly offended by it,

as we attempted to achieve

a greater outcome.

The outcome was
an historic agreement

called the Shanghai Communiqué.

The Communiqué,

which we have issued today,

will make headlines
around the world of Mao.

But what we have said
in that communiqué

is not nearly as important as

what we will do in the years ahead.

To build a bridge across

16,000 miles

and 22 years of hostility,

which have divided us in the past.

Issues like America's
role in Vietnam

and U.S. relations with Taiwan

could not be resolved.

In those cases,

both sides stated their positions

and agreed to move ahead.

Nixon's visit signaled

China's opening to the world.

Gradually, China would become

an active player in world politics.

As the country began to emerge

from the worst terror of the

Cultural Revolution,

Mao turned his attention
to China's peasants.

Small rural factories were set up

to make farm tools and

process local crops.

Thousands of paramedics,

or barefoot doctors,

brought free, basic health care

to remote villages.

Working with Zhou Enlai,

Mao began to rehabilitate

party members who had
been attacked.

Many, like Deng Xiaoping,

returned to their posts.

By 1974,

Mao appeared in public

only to receive
foreign dignitaries.

When his eyesight deteriorated,

he requested someone to read

Chinese literature to him.

I was hurried into the room

where I saw Chairman Mao Zedong.

He was sitting on a sofa.

I was shocked.

I had expected him
to be in glowing health,

our red sun.

But the Chairman Mao I saw
was pale and haggard.

And he had become very thin.

I thought,

I have so many things to tell you.

I've dreamed about you

and hope to pour out
all my suffering to you.

How could you be like this?

So I cried.

I must have looked ridiculous.

With this old man in front of me,

the grandeur and brilliance
of the Mao I had imagined

totally disappeared.

The question of
who would succeed Mao

dominated Beijing politics.

Mao, now 81 years old,

played one faction off
against the other.

Jiang Qing's group,

later reviled as the Gang of Four,

wanted to continue
the Cultural Revolution.

They viewed Zhou Enlai
as their main rival,

and they orchestrated
a campaign against him,

with Mao's approval.

It really shook me.

I didn't expect such a
situation in the party.

I had great respect

and reverence for Mao Zedong.

I respected him greatly.

As for Zhou Enlai,

I loved him very much.

Like many people,
I loved him very much.

But now I realized that

the two leaders had

very different opinions.

I thought, oh, Lord,
whom should I follow?

I, a party member.

It was a dilemma for me.

Although Zhou suffered
from the campaign,

he kept his position.

Many believe Mao saved him

to run the country.

By 1974, however,

Zhou was ill with cancer.

When he made a rare
appearance at a dinner,

the guests were overjoyed
at his apparent recovery.

But Zhou's health was
fast deteriorating.

Zhou Enlai died

on January 8, 1976.

Mao was too ill

to attend the funeral.

That spring, at the annual festival

honoring the dead,

thousands of people went

to Tian'inmen Square.

They laid wreaths, flowers and

poems in honor of Zhou.

The tribute quickly turned

into a demonstration

against the gang of four,

and indirectly

against Mao himself.

For the first time,
I felt that there

in Tian'inmen Square,
I could be free.

Everyone felt the same.

At last, I found freedom there.

During the night,

police removed the tributes.

The next day,
100,000 people returned.

The crowd was ordered to leave.

Many refused.

It never occurred to me

they would use lethal force.

It seemed that communists
would never do that,

because Mao had said
those who put down

a mass movement come to no good,

and this was a mass movement.

Jiang Qing was in the
Great Hall of the People,

watching the events in Tian'enmen.

About 11 that night,
Jiang Qing came.

She hurried into Mao's room.

After she came out,
I heard her say,

we've won, we've won.

Chairman Mao has agreed
that it is a

counter-revolutionary riot.

We should celebrate.

That night, militia were sent
to Tiananmen Square

to put down the demonstrations.

A number of casualties
and arrests is not known.

In July,

the worst earthquake in history

devastated the city of Tangshan.

At least 400,000 people

were injured or killed.

According to Chinese superstition,

a disaster of this magnitude

portends a change of dynasty.

It came two months later,

on September 9, 1976.

I went over to Mao's bed.

He saw me and said, Dr. Li,

do you think there's
any hope for me?

I knew very well that
there was no hope at all.

But I couldn't say that
to a patient.

I said, there's hope.

We're still trying.

He looked very bad
before I spoke.

After, it seemed his face
got a little color.

I felt his pulse, which seemed
a little better, too.

Suddenly, I felt that there was
no more strength in his hand.

His hand dropped.

I saw his eyes were closed.

Then I looked at the
electrocardiogram.

The waves had become
a straight line.

In other words,
his heart had stopped.

All was finished.

We thought at once,

who could hold up the sky now?

China was such a big country.

Who could hold it up
after Mao died?

What will happen to us?

I always thought Mao Zedong was a

great hero of the Chinese nation.

But I also thought that
he was a tragic hero.

So many absurd things
had happened,

and everyone was struggling
in a whirlpool of absurdity.

That was something perhaps
he could not understand.

He thought he was doing good
all the time.

Mao showed us a very rare case

in which cruelty,

selfishness,

hypocrisy and shamelessness

were all found in the same person.

Although he always tried

to cover his actions

with the most beautiful words,

I don't think he ever had

any moral principles.

Never, ever will I forgive Mao

for the crimes he committed
against the Chinese nation.

I didn't really feel
anything special.

Or feel sad.

But I still think
he was a great leader

that the Chinese people
should feel proud of,

and that the Chinese revolution
should feel proud of.

China's new leader,

the unknown Hua Guofeng,

led the funeral ceremony.

If you showed any sign of joy,

people would think
you were gloating.

You could not show
deep grief either

because you would be
suspected if you did.

We put on expressionless faces

like pieces of wood.

We knew an era,

the era of Mao Zedong was gone.

But we didn't know

what was ahead of us.

Subtitles by Andante

Major funding for this
program was provided

by the National Endowment
for the Humanities.

Additional funding was provided
by the Ford Foundation,

the John Dee and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation,

the Albert Kunstadter
Family Foundation,

The Corporation for Public
Broadcasting,

and by annual financial support
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