History of Tsinghua University
The Qing imperial court used the difference to create the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Programme and established the China Institute along with a preparatory school.
The Qing dynasty had to pay war reparations amounting to US$333 million with a four percent annual interest rate in taels of fine silver to the Eight-Nation Alliance, in which the United States had a share of US$24,440,778.81.
Prince Qing responded to the United States government as follows: We appreciate your President's sincerity in encouraging our students to enrol in American schools and seek higher education.
The National Tsing Hua University at Hsinchu, Taiwan was formed in 1956 by Tsinghua academics who fled the communist revolution.
[9]: 108 During the Third Front construction to develop infrastructure and industry in China's rugged interior in preparation for potential invasion by the Soviet Union or the United States, Tsinghua established a branch in Mianyang, Sichuan province.
[11] Beginning in the early 1960s, the attached high school's cadres promoted the ideology of class struggle based in familial pride.
At the beginning of May 1966, some students, under the influence of the 5-16 Circular, posted a big character poster stating "participate in this class struggle in the most positive and self-aware way", receiving resistance from the school authorities.
On June the 2nd, they posted the big character poster "Pledge our lives to defend Mao Zedong thought, pledge our lives to defend the dictatorship of the proletariat" in response to Nie Yuanzi's big-character poster at Peking University, attracting students from surrounding secondary schools to sign their names in support.
[13] Between June 24 and July 27, the Tsinghua University High School posted three big character posters, the ensemble of which was entitled "long live the proletariat class's revolutionary spirit of rebellion!"
On the afternoon of August 24, 1966, the historical secondary gate to the university was pulled down by the Red Guards to symbolize their opposition to feudalism and capitalism and their support for Marxist–Leninist revisionism.
[15][16] On June 8, 1966, a task force led by Ye Lin with participation from Chinese President Liu Shaoqi and his wife Wang Guangmei entered Tsinghua University,[17] attacking principal Jiang Nanyu and other cadres as "capitalist roaders", "counterrevolutionary academic authorities", and "cow demons and snake spirits", took over the Tsinghua party committee, and criticized rebellious students.
[18][19] In July, Mao Zedong returned to Beijing, condemned the task force, supported the radicals, and hinted at disagreements with Liu Shaoqi.
[18] On April 10, with the agreement of the "proletariat headquarters", the "Jinggangshan corps" rallied tens of thousands of people for the public denunciation of Wang Guangmei.
[20][22][23] On April 14, 1967, due to internal disputes over major issues in the Cultural Revolution, the Jinggangshan Red Guards split into the "Corps headquarters" and the "414 faction".
[24] The "headquarters" and "414 faction", on the radical and conservative sides of the Red Guard movement respectively, both declared themselves to be the proper representatives of the proletariat.
[24][25] In the winter of 1967, to prevent chaos, the Chinese government demanded that all students return to school to engage in "revolution in the classroom".
In March 1968, following the "Yang, Yu, Bo incident", the Cultural Revolution Group launched a campaign against "rightist inclinations".
[20][27][28] On July 27, the Chinese Central Committee, seeking to stop the clashes in higher-education schools, placed the Ministry of Education under military control.
The "headquarters faction" Red Guards refused to surrender and publicly resisted the propaganda team,[29] using spears, grenades, and rifles to attack its members.
On 3:00 AM Beijing Time on the following day, Mao Zedong and Lin Biao held an emergency meeting with the "five important leaders" of the Red Guards, including Kuai Dafu, demanding an end to armed clashes and the welcoming of the propaganda team into Tsinghua.
Finally, the institution was to follow the path of the people and uphold the Cultural Revolution's new educational method, which, in practice, meant public denunciations.
In August and October, vice general secretaries of Tsinghua's party committee Liu Bing, Liu Yi'an and Hui Xianjun as well as political work department director Lu Fangzheng wrote letters passed on through Deng Xiaoping to Mao Zedong expressing their strong dislike of the de facto leaders of Tsinghua, Chi Qun and Xie Jingyi from the propaganda team.
Mao saw this as a form of rebellion against the Cultural Revolution and began criticizing Liu Bing and other cadres who wrote the letter and Deng Xiaoping.
Within a period of ten months, hundreds of thousands of big-character posters were posted and Liu Bing was subjected to criticism and denunciation 214 times.
[20][36][37] On March 31, 1976, after the death of Zhou Enlai, Chi Qun demanded that "Tsinghua must not send a single flower wreath to Tiananmen".
