For China, 1968 became a turning point - a year whose significance grew as its legacy transformed both foreign and domestic affairs. Before the events of that year, China endured international isolation and domestic turmoil. To the north it faced mounting tensions with former allies in the Soviet Union while to the south U.S. escalation of the war in Vietnam jeopardized security. At the United Nations, China remained a pariah, and across the Taiwan Strait it continued to confront a rump regime that challenged its legitimacy and sought to bring it down. Nevertheless, Mao Zedong had believed that the international environment, though hostile, did not pose any immediate danger to the survival of the People's Republic. Therefore, he could take advantage of China's detachment from the world to deal with pressing internal problems that tormented him. Abandoning his party and his government to revolution, Mao sought to arrest the spread of subversive values and institutions.

But 1968 refocused the energies of the nation and most of its leaders. The world, which Mao had shunned, intruded upon China's domestic agenda. Not only did the chaos of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution need to be stemmed so that China would not be torn apart in civil war, but some equilibrium had to be recovered so that Beijing could defend itself against external enemies. Even though years of upheaval still lay ahead, the choices made in 1968 served to sustain a unified nation and made possible the eventual re-creation of a functioning society.