The actions of the Red Guard came to be known as the "Red Terror," reminiscent of the title given to the events during the French Revolution about 150 years earlier, the Reign of Terror. Nor would it be contained just within the education system. Mao’s Minister of Public Security, Xie Fuzhi, would spread the violent ideology to the police and security forces as well. They were instructed during an internal meeting that they were to provide assistance and support to the Red Guard. They were also allowed to enter homes, initiate beatings, and deport anyone who was "found" to be an enemy. The official word was given on August 22nd that the police were not to act against the student movements, which meant that anyone the students identified as enemies were at the complete mercy of those students. Police and security forces were not allowed to provide any assistance to those being persecuted, beaten, or killed. The result was that between August 1966 and the year’s end, the Red Terror allowed for mobs of Red Guard to roam the streets unchecked. Families were evicted from their homes, their possessions taken, and they were forced to leave the city. The confiscation of anything that was considered bourgeois saw millions of dollars’ worth of art, currency, and culture stolen from Chinese citizens.

The Red Terror had begun in Beijing, but Red Guard were shipped to other major Chinese cities. From the beginning of August 1966 until the end of September, an estimated 1,772 people were killed in Beijing alone. The Red Guards killed another 534 people in Shanghai and forced more than 700 to commit suicide (some in front of Red Guards, others in private after they were publicly humiliated and beaten). By the end of 1966, it is estimated that more than 100,000 people had been killed as a direct result of the Red Guards’ fervor and unchecked power.