Why did Mao Zedong launch the Cultural Revolution?

Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966 to consolidate his power, rectify the Chinese Communist Party, and reshape Chinese society according to his vision of communism.12

Mao’s motivations were multifaceted:

• Political Purge: He sought to remove "bourgeois" infiltrators and senior officials—including his designated successor Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping—whom he believed were not faithful to his ideology or were responsible for past errors.123
• Ideological Transformation: Mao aimed for a "revolution in the superstructure," intending to replace a bureaucratic system with one under his personal control and to make cultural, educational, and health care systems less elitist.243
• Generational Revitalization: He wanted to provide the youth with a revolutionary experience to ensure the survival of his values in the successor generation.23
• Fear of Revisionism: Concerned that China might follow the path of the Soviet Union toward revisionism, Mao mobilized the Red Guards to attack traditional values and "bourgeois" influences, effectively throwing the country into turmoil to reverse perceived historic processes.24