SHANGHAI — On this day 50 years ago … nothing happened. That’s the message from China’s official propaganda machine, as the country marks — or willfully ignores — half a century since the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-76), one of the most destructive political movements of the 20th century, which led to the deaths of at least 1.5 million people, and the arrest, persecution and humiliation of many more — including some of the country’s top leaders and most famous intellectuals.
