The Cultural Revolution in Kwangsi, Yunnan and Fukien

Abstract

During the Cultural Revolution in China, one of the most protracted and difficult tasks of the central leadership was the seizure of in the provinces. Beginning with the formation of a revolutionary committee in Heilungkiang in 1967, and ending with the establishment of the last of the 29 provincial-level revolutionary committees in Sinkiang and Tibet in September 1968, the entire process took over 20 months and was accompanied by bloodshed and disorder. While the term seizure of applies most forcibly to the period in early 1967 known as the January Storm, when provincial leaders all over China came under attack and were toppled, it is used in this study to refer to the period in all provinces between the January storm and the establishment of the provincial-level revolutionary committees as the transitional organ of power in the province. This is the sense in which Peking uses the term, and it provides a useful way of periodizing the stages of the Cultural Revolution in each province. The process of seizing power varied from province to province, both in its stages and in the time it took to complete. In some provinces revolutionary committees were established at the provincial level almost immediately after the overthrowing of the old provincial leadership in Jlanuary and February 1967. In such cases the new revolutionary committee assumed leadership of the Cultural Revolution in the province. In other provinces an interim period of military control was prescribed before the new organs of authority were constructed. The decision that a province was ready to establish its revolutionary committee was the prerogative of the center.'1 While no list of prerequi-