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| 1967, Jan |
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| Revolutionary committees, largely under PLA control, were established at central and provincial levels. Mao ordered the Red Guards to desist from attacks on government officials. | 1 |
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| Feb. 5 |
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| As the Cultural Revolution reached high tide, a workers' movement in Shanghai toppled the party leadership and established the Shanghai People's Commune, which fell after 19 days. Even Mao believed this movement to be too radical. | 2 |
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| June 17 |
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| China set off its first hydrogen bomb. | 3 |
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| Summer |
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| Many thousands of students in Beijing demonstrated against Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai. PLA arrests of some 500 or more Red Guards in Wuhan led to mass protests and eventually to armed battles, in which over 1,000 demonstrators were killed. The city came under siege in July. | 4 |
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| July |
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| The PLA cracked down on attackers of government officials outside of Beijing. The following month, Mao ordered the army, the only stable institution in the country now that the CCP was in shambles, to return the country to order. | 5 |
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