I have one, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit.

In 1966, China was swept by a new political movement, powered by teenagers, young groups

of so-called red guards inspired by Mao Tse Tong, whose job was to try and save Chinese

communism, which was under threat, obviously, as these things always are, from a range

of nefarious individuals and groups, by purging Chinese society, any remnant of capitalism,

of traditional elements, monarchism, aristocracy, ancient religions, all of it was to be destroyed,

scoured.

And what this meant in practice, it was open season for people to beat, to kill, to humiliate

anyone they didn't like within their communities.

Conflict and purging and actually open warfare reached monumental levels.

As Taniya Branagan will tell us, she's the guest on my podcast today.

She was for seven years, the China correspondent for the Guardian, and she's author of Red

Memory, Living, Remembring and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution.

It's one of the most gigantic human catastrophes of the 20th century, traumatized hundreds

of millions of people, led to a catastrophic loss of priceless art and historical artefacts

all over one of the world's biggest countries, China.

But it matters because it's also part of President Xi's story, the most powerful men in the

world today, a man who's currently deciding whether to tip Asia and the Pacific into war

by invading Taiwan.

His life was upended by the cultural revolution.

His father was purged as a senior Chinese Communist Party member.

He was sent to work in a factory in a rural area.

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