How Maoist China used public humiliation to consolidate power and crush political dissent

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Struggle sessions were meticulously staged public spectacles designed to break social trust and enforce ideological conformity. By forcing citizens to denounce neighbors, spouses, and parents, the state turned interpersonal relationships into tools of political control, effectively cementing the party's authority through mass participation in state-sanctioned violence and public shaming.

Originating from 1920s Soviet criticism practices, struggle sessions—or pīdòu—evolved into a central pillar of Maoist governance. While initially resisted for conflicting with traditional concepts of saving face, they became commonplace by the 1930s. During the Land Reform Movement and the subsequent Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), these sessions were used to identify and neutralize 'class enemies.' The process was rarely spontaneous; it was a highly choreographed performance featuring scripts, agitators, and specific props like dunce caps and placards to ensure maximum emotional impact on the audience.

The sessions served three strategic functions: demonstrating the party's absolute power, eliminating potential rivals, and making the masses complicit in state violence. By forcing individuals to participate in the abuse of their peers, the state ensured that the public became personally invested in the regime's survival. This was particularly effective because the party constituted only a small minority of the population. The psychological toll was immense, leading to a total breakdown of social trust, as children were manipulated into exposing their parents and students were pitted against teachers.

The scale of this persecution was staggering. During the Cultural Revolution alone, estimates suggest nearly 2 million people were killed, while 125 million were subjected to struggle sessions or other forms of persecution. Intellectuals, government officials, and anyone labeled a 'rightist' were frequent targets. Notable figures like Lao She and Chen Mengjia died by suicide following such humiliation, while others, such as Minister of Coal Industry Zhang Linzhi, were beaten to death. The practice only began to wane after December 1978, when reformers led by Deng Xiaoping shifted the national focus toward economic construction.

Today, the struggle session remains an iconic, if harrowing, symbol of the era, frequently depicted in cinema and literature to illustrate the profound disillusionment of the period. Even decades later, its portrayal in media—such as the opening of the Netflix adaptation of The Three-Body Problem—continues to spark intense debate regarding historical memory and the legacy of state-sponsored violence.

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