ON THIS DAY ·
Lin Biao incident
13 Sep 1971 — A plot against Mao organized by Lin Biao’s son is exposed. During the night, Lin, his wife Ye Qun and their son Lin Liguo are driven from Beidaihe to Shanhaiguan airfield. They leave in a Trident jet, heading north without enough fuel. When Mao is told, he reportedly says, “Let him go.”
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The moment in context
Mao’s directive of 22 December 1968 expanded an existing, small policy into a mass movement. Sending urban youth to the countryside solved several problems at once. Schools had closed in 1966, and three years of graduates had accumulated with nowhere to go in the cities. Their departure relieved the cities of mouths to feed and removed the Red Guards, who had fought in Mao’s name since 1966, as a political force.
From Down to the Countryside Movement, chapter 10 of The People’s Republic under Mao, 1949–1976 (1971).
The place: Lin Biao incident — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — The Red Guards had served their purpose. The students Mao had hailed as the revolution’s vanguard became a problem for him. By 1968 factions fought with guns, universities such as Tsinghua…
- The turn — Öndörkhaan, 13 September 1971. Lin Biao had helped build Mao’s cult and was named as his heir in the Party constitution. After the crash at Öndörkhaan on 13 September 1971, the…
- What it changed — Washington becomes the answer. The Soviet threat remained on China’s northern border after Lin’s fall. Mao and Zhou Enlai accelerated their secret approach to the United States,…
Then ask the room: How far did the movement to send urban youth “up to the mountains and down to the villages” achieve Mao’s aims? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
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