Drag this frighten old man out of taxi and beaten him on the head.
Its getting disturbing. I'm not sure how much I can look.
OMG! What are View attachment 54099 the kids doing"
You've got a lot of things confused.
First of all, you claimed that the CR continued because it had rural support, which is false. Support or no support, rural areas had zero input on the continuation of the CR.
The CR was a political movement started by Mao to purge his political opponents, and was carried on by his wife and the rest of the Gang of Four. When Mao died, Hua Guofeng arrested the Gang of Four and stopped the CR immediately.
When Mao died, Hua Guofeng arrested the Gang of Four and stopped the CR immediately. That alone should tell you that "rural support", even if it had existed, had zero to do with the CR.
[The farmers'] standards of living were improved by policies that had nothing to do with the CR.
Understandably, grievances don't excuse the violence and destruction caused by these people. But it doesn't mean we don't need to understand how the oppositions, traitors, and foreign agents incite fears, prejudice, hates, and ignorance through grievances.
The root causes of many of today's problem can be traced back to the colonial years especially at the very end of the colonial rule. After the failed attempt to persuade the Chinese government to delay the handover by British and the failed attempt by Pao Yue Kong(with other HK business tycoons) to set up a plan to pay the central government $10 billion HKD to lease Hong Kong for 10 years, the British government and the HK business tycoons colluded to enrich themselves before the handover. The results are the following:
1. HK has become the world most expensive housing market with a price of $2090 per sq ft and one of the most expensive rental market with an average monthly rent of $2700. The average living space of each HK resident is 170 sq ft compare with 270 sq ft in Singapore. 27% of the HK government revenue was from land sales.
The waiting list for public rental housing around the handover was 6 1/2 years. Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa has attempted to resolve this through building 85000 flats per year but was forced to step down but his plan did bear fruit by lowing the waiting time for public rental housing to less than 2 years between 2005 and 2009. After Tung was forced to step down, Chief executive Donald Tsang dismantled and scaled back all housing projects and Hong Kong ended up to become the world most expensive housing market.
From what I see here is that initially the central government did understand housing is a major issue and grievance for low income families but somehow they let Chief executive Tsang and oppositions usurped power. Donald Tsang is on business tycoons payroll so nothing was done to alleviate the housing prices.
2. British dissolved the powerful "Special Branch" in 1995 and amended many local laws to weaken both the government and police force. Also British passed many laws before handover to strengthen the media, civil rights, and political freedom. I don't think the central government and HK government realized how weak they have become until occupy central and recent riots. The end result is that nobody fears the government or HKPF anymore.
3. British has ensured that the judicial branch would be seated by foreign judges from British, Australia or other common laws nations by preaching judicial independent.
4. Hong Kong has followed small government, laissez-faire policies for decades, limiting government intervention in business. That created a lot of problems such as the medical council. education and the HK Journalists Association. These self-regulatory bodies have become a major problem.
For example, the HK Journalists Association was the formal body to register journalists and issue press credentials. Since the HK Journalists Association is controlled by oppositions, they turned a blinded eye to the fake press credentials. In a normal circumstance, the HK government should revoke the HK Journalists Association's ability to issue press credentials but nothing is done.
Another example, Hong Kong has a shortage of medical doctors and nurses but due to the fact that the medical council is self regulated. Hong Kong doesn't allowed any foreign doctors or nurses to practice in HK. In addition, any medical malpractice is investigated and ruled by the medical council so pretty much doctors or nurses wouldn't get punished even they are at fault.
There is also the HK educational system. It pretty much is also self-regulated. Nothing is done to prevent teachers from teaching anti-China propaganda.
All I want to say is that the HK government and pro-Beijing legislators are weak and pathetic. They have allowed the oppositions to usurp powers from them. They never dared to confront hard issues and make necessary changes in education, media and judicial. They have gotten too cozy with the business tycoons. Whatever temporary peace they got with the rioters would not last til they act decisively.
It is clear to me that the current Hong Kong riots will not last as long as the Cultural Revolution; the HK people do not support the riots as overwhelmingly as the farmers supported the CR. Hong Kongers will not tolerate the violence for ten years.
Where do you think the Red Guards came from? Answer: from the areas with most of the population, i.e. the rural regions.
红卫兵,是在时期对部分特殊人群的一种称呼,其成员大部分是由高校(,即大专院校以上的学校,并非指和以下各级学校)以上的所组成。
红卫兵是指“文化大革命”中,大、中学生成立的群众组织,也指其成员
You're bloody kidding me right???
红卫兵,是中国在文化大革命时期对部分特殊人群的一种称呼,其成员大部分是由高校(高等学校,即大专院校以上的学校,并非指高中职和以下各级学校)以上的学生所组成
红卫兵是指“文化大革命”中,大、中学生成立的群众组织,也指其成员
The Red Guards were often poor and uneducated teenagers and young adults from the countryside.
Your snippets only say that the Red Guards were mostly students, but do not say where the students came from. This is an English-language forum, so I will counter with an :
(Emphasis added.) (I don't agree with the rest of the Quora article, but that first sentence is spot on.)
As I said, most of the Red Guards were from rural areas; perhaps their leaders were university students, but the vast bulk of the fighting force was from the countryside.
It was support from the rural people -- 80% of China's population at the time -- that kept the Cultural Revolution going for as long as it did. I notice that you have again ignored Han Dongping's statistics showing how much the farmers benefited from the CR. Hence they supported it.
The Hong Kong people will not support the current rioters for long, if indeed most of them ever did. The more vicious the thugs become, the less support they'll have.