Social media users in China pointed out the lack of coverage
The 50th anniversary of the start of the Cultural Revolution, which plunged China into a decade of chaos, has been met with silence in state media.
On 16 May 1966 Communist leader Mao Zedong began a campaign to eliminate his rivals. At the same time he called on Chinese youth to "purge" society.
Years of bloodshed and turmoil ensued, ending with Mao's death in 1976.
How to handle the era's contentious legacy has remained a challenge to China's Communist rulers to this day.
On Monday, the main state media outlets made virtually no mention of the anniversary, focusing on coverage of the South China Sea and other domestic issues. No official events were planned by the authorities to mark the 50-year milestone.
Stephen McDonell, BBC News, Beijing
Fifty years after Chairman Mao sent a quarter of the world's population hurtling into a decade of chaos, there is virtually no mention of the anniversary.
Yet this is not a blanket censorship policy like with, say, any discussion of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. On China's Twitter-like Weibo the Chinese words for "cultural revolution" have not been blocked.
On the Sina News website there is no article but there is a link to a Communist Party document from 1981. It states that the Cultural Revolution was created by Chairman Mao Zedong and that it "caused the most serious setback and loss for the Party, the country and the people since the founding of China".
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