Cultural revolution, from Wikipedia

a social-political movement that

took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966
through 1976. Set into motion by Mao Zedong,
then Chairman of the Communist Party of China, its stated goal
was to enforce socialism in the country by removing capitalist,
traditional and cultural elements from Chinese society, and to impose Maoist orthodoxy
within the Party. The revolution marked the return of Mao Zedong to a position
of absolute power after the failed Great Leap Forward. The movement politically paralyzed
the country and significantly affected the country economically and socially.

The Revolution was launched in May
1966. Mao alleged that bourgeois elements were infiltrating the government and
society at large, aiming to restore capitalism. He insisted that these "revisionists" be removed through violent
class
struggle. China's youth responded to Mao's appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country.

In 1958, after China's first Five-Year Plan, Mao called for
"grassroots socialism" in order to accelerate his plans for turning
China into a modern industrialized state. In this spirit, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward, established People's
Communes in the countryside, and began the mass
mobilization of the people into collectives.
Many communities were assigned production of a single commodity—steel. Mao
vowed to increase agricultural production to twice 1957 levels.[1]

The Great Leap was an economic failure.
Uneducated farmers attempted to produce steel on a massive scale, partially
relying on backyard furnaces to achieve the production
targets set by local cadres. The steel produced was low quality and largely
useless. The Great Leap reduced harvest sizes and led to a decline in the
production of most goods except substandard pig iron and
steel. Furthermore, local authorities frequently exaggerated production
numbers, hiding and intensifying the problem for several years.[2][3]
In the meantime, chaos in the collectives, bad weather, and exports of food
necessary to secure hard currency resulted in the Great Chinese Famine. Food was in desperate
shortage, and production fell dramatically. The famine caused the deaths of
millions of people, particularly in poorer inland regions.[4]

The Great Leap's failure reduced
Mao's prestige within the Party. Forced to take major responsibility, in 1959,
Mao resigned as the State Chairman, China's
head of state, and was succeeded by Liu Shaoqi.

In 1956, Khrushchev denounced both Stalin and
his policies and subsequently set about implementing post-Stalinist economic
reforms. Mao and many members of the Chinese Communist Party were opposed to
these changes, believing that it would have negative repercussions for the
worldwide Marxist movement, among whom Stalin was still viewed as a hero.[8]
Mao believed that Khrushchev was not adhering to Marxism–Leninism, but was instead a revisionist, altering his policies from basic
Marxist concepts, something Mao feared would allow capitalists to eventually
regain control of the country. Relations between the two governments subsequently
soured, with the Soviets refusing to support China's case for joining the
United Nations and going back on their pledge to supply China with a nuclear
weapon.[8]
– points to Stalinist nature of China