Published : 2024-05-16

On May 16, 1966, the "May 16 Notification"(五一六通知) was issued, which is considered the official start of the Cultural Revolution(文化大革命).

 "May 16 Notification" is a notice passed by the expanded meeting of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Central Committee on May 16, 1966.

The content mainly revokes the "February Outline"(二月提綱) and the "Cultural Revolution Five-Person Group"(文化革命五人小組) reported to the Chinese Communist Central Committee.

The "February Outline" opposes the thinking mode that elevates all contradictions and disputes to political factors and class struggles, while the "May 16 Notification" overthrows it, and refutes it article by article, at the same time sternly blaming it.

The "May 16 Notification" systematically expresses Mao Zedong's views on class struggle in the socialist period and becomes the guiding document for launching the "Cultural Revolution".

The "May 16 Notification" is still considered to wipe out the achievements of the ideological and cultural front since the founding of the People's Republic of China, distort the class form of the state, and the status of the party and state.

The official narrative of the Cultural Revolution was completely negated in 1981.

According to the statement in the "Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the People's Republic of China"(關於建國以來黨的若干歷史問題的決議), the Cultural Revolution was a "initiated by a leader labouring under a misapprehension and capitalized on by counter-revolutionary cliques, led to domestic turmoil and brought catastrophe to the Party, the state and the whole people". It is "not in fact constitute a revolution or social progress in any sense, nor could it possibly have done so".