China's Commie Revolution

Obviously, the Communist party in China was using both the Red Guards and the land reform to cement a stable power structure for themselves.  With the land reform, they gained the mass support that they needed to avoid too much complaining.  And to guard against letting the peasants get too powerful, they created the Red Guard to keep order through fear.

In a very zoomed-out view of things, both these moves by the Communists were made to accomplish the same goal: eliminate everything associated with the previous, Nationalist government.  These measures may have also had positive other results, but that was the main goal.  The land reform basically destroyed the widely-hated aristocracy in rural China, which had been a key element in the Nationalist government as the primary local tax collectors and rulers.  The Red Guard was assigned the task of removing all traces of the old China from people's lives, whether documents or art or people who just wouldn't shut up about it.  And in both measures, the government used the same tactics.  Inspire a mass following, especially among young adults, that is willing to partake in violence for your cause.