By January 21st, the “Revolutionary Rebels” offensive against the Party and state organs had been beaten off in every city and province in the People’s Republic of China with the exception of Shansi. And on this day Mao Tse-tung was compelled to shed the mask that the “cultural revolution” was a movement of “mass democracy” directed against “a handful”, and order the army actively to intervene on the side of the rebels “even though they may be just a minority”.
Our People’s Liberation Army...must...firmly stand on the side of the proletarian revolutionaries. The P.L.A. must firmly support and assist them, for this is a great call from our great leader Chairman Mao. We must follow Chairman Mao’s teachings and enthusiastically, unequivocally and wholeheartedly support them without the slightest hesitation. (“The People’s Liberation Army Firmly Backs the Proletarian Revolutionaries”, editorial in “Jiefangjun Bao” (Liberation Army Daily), January 25th, 1967, in: “Peking Review”, No.5, 1967; p. 10).
The “Red Guards” being in these circumstances of little use to the counter-revolutionaries, primary schools were re-opened in February 1967, secondary schools in March 1967, and colleges in July 1967.
Following this order, army units in a number of cities and provinces moved in to give active military support to the counter-revolutionary “Revolutionary Rebels” and the formation of “Revolutionary Committees’’ was announced as follows:
January 14th, 1967: Shansi
January 22nd, 1967: Tsingtao (Shantung province)
January 25th, 1967: Kweichow
January 26th, 1967: Shensi
January 31st, 1967: Kiangsi
February 11th, 1967: Kwantung
February 17th, 1967: Heilungkiang
February 18th, 1967: Fukien
February 25th, 1967: Anhwei
March 2nd, 1967: Kansu
April 20th, 1967: Shanghai municipality Shantung
August 12th, 1967: Peking municipality Chinghai
November 1st, 1967: Inner Mongolia (autonomous region)
December 6th, 1967: Tientsin (Hopeh province).
Thus, by the middle of December 1967, the counter-revolutionaries had claimed the seizure of 14 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities (plus Tientsin) out of a total of 28 (excluding Taiwan).
But a more detailed study shows that these figures seriously underestimate the failure, up to the present, of the counter-revolutionary forces to establish their military-fascist dictatorship throughout China.