The Red Guards (Chinese: 红卫兵; pinyin: hóng wèibīng) were a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 until their abolition in 1968, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted. [3] According to a Red Guard leader, the movement's aims were as follows:

The Red Guards combined Mao’s socialist idealism with political fanaticism and the militancy, iconoclasm and anti-authoritarianism of young students. At the August 18th rally Mao and Lin Biao urged the students to “Destroy the Four Olds”: old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits. The Red Guards took up challenge task with zeal.

In February 1967, Red Guards led 3 million peasants into Shanghai for a pro-Mao rally. Mao met with hundreds of thousands of young people in Tiananmen Square in Beijing 8 times during the Cultural Revolution.

August 8th: The CCP Central Committee issues its 16 Points, calling for a mass revolution. August 18th: The first of eight Red Guard rallies in Tiananmen Square. September: Lin Biao gives a speech encouraging students to criticise and purge “Khrushchevists”.

On August 18, 1966, a million “Red Guards” were brought to a rally (the first of eight) organized by Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, in Tienanmen Square. Mao circulated among them for six hours wearing a Red Guard armband.

Feb 4, 2014 · During China's Cultural Revolution, communist youth known as Red Guards persecuted, tortured and killed millions of Chinese — so-called class enemies.

The shock troops of this purge have been the Red Guards, [who] publicly surfaced at a Beijing mass rally on August 18th 1966, and the Revolutionary Rebels, who swung into action later in the year as reinforcement for the youthful fanatics.

From August 18 to November 26,1966, Mao Zedong greeted more than 12 million Red Guards in eight massive rallies in Tiananmen Square. During those months, millions of Chinese youth, Red Guards, middle school and university students, and workers from across the country rushed to Beijing for the chance to behold Chairman Mao.

Sworn to protect Chairman Mao and his revolutionary line, the Red Guards [hong weibing] and other, older revolutionary rebels caused havoc and eventually turned on each other, resulting in...

Nov 19, 2021 · In August 1966, Mao Zedong and his supporters staged a rally of the hungweipings, at which they expressed words of support. For almost three years, classes in universities, secondary, and then primary schools were suspended. Thus, the work of the Red Guards began throughout China. They got rid of all names that in any way indicated the past.