Mao Zedong Thought Propaganda Teams

Mao Zedong Thought Propaganda Teams (Chinese: 毛泽东思想宣传队) were organisations established across the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution, mainly from the summer of 1968 onward. They were sent into the sectors of education, culture and even into Party and state organs, with the primary purpose of bringing these work units under control and maintaining basic order. Depending on the background of their members – workers, soldiers or peasants – these teams were commonly referred to as “worker propaganda teams”, “military propaganda teams” and “peasant propaganda teams”. Among them, the extent, depth and duration of the military’s intervention in national and local government affairs, as well as the number of military personnel involved, were unprecedented in scope in the history of the PRC and the PLA. After the propaganda teams entered these institutions, large-scale local armed clashes came to an end, and the Red Guard organisations made up mainly of students rapidly declined. Subsequently, worker and military propaganda teams directly participated in political purges such as the campaign to “cleanse class ranks”, the “One Strike, Three Anti” campaign, and the investigation of the so-called “May 16 counter-revolutionary group”. Many members of rebel factions who had been active in the early Cultural Revolution were purged or suppressed during this process.。