The Cost

There were many young people and children that had to serve as a Red Guard so they could not go to school and study. “A lot of students couldn’t study, even after the activity as Red Guards  was over, many students were sent to the countryside to do manual labor”(Galduroz, Michael). This ruined Chinas young talent and really influences the Chinese people today. “The Cultural Revolution had harmful effects on Chinas economy. More importantly, it caused many Chinese people to question their faith in Communism. As a result, The Cultural Revolution helped pave the way towards a western lifestyle” (Michael Schoenhals). Due to Zedong's attempt to contain Communism and keep people from expanding it paved the way to Capitalism. They slowly learned western ideas and drew far away from Communism. The amount of deaths was catastrophic, somewhere between 45 million and 75 million deaths. This was the largest genocide of history and was less than 50 years ago.