Power Struggle Key Questions, November 9, 2010

1. Tensions developed within the CCP between 1962 and 1966. One of these was that since the Great Leap Forward failed to meet its goals, Mao adopted a less prominent place in the government and felt as if his colleagues would remove him from power if the opportunity arose. Mao felt a bit more insecure. His suspicions had some basis in fact, given that in the 1960s, the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai (supporters of Liu and Deng, ministers entrusted with fixing the famine that had been growing very popular) took over the local government and reversed collectivization.

2. Lin Biao helped to turn Mao into a cult by compiling the 'Little Red Book', a collection of ideas and sayings from Mao. It covered a wide range of ideas including 'The Communist Party', 'Classes and Class Struggle', etc. This book became like the secular bible of China and became a daily and compulsory part of military training. A copy was distributed to every soldier and eventually, 750 million copies were distributed throughout China. In schools and universities it became the prescribed source for every subject in the curriculum, and workers read it during their communal breaks. Also known as Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, it became a necessity for every household to have a copy, and it defined all issues and settled all arguments.

3. The play 'The Dismissal of Hai Rui from Office' was so significant in the power struggle because it was set in the days of the Song dynasty (960-1279) and told the story of a court official Han Rui who was demoted and punished after defying the orders of the emperor, and since the writer of this play was thought to be critical of Mao Zedong and the play was believed to represent Mao's dismissal of Peng Dehuai for opposing the Great Leap Forward, it provided Lin Biao with pretext for moving against the anti-Maoist elements in the Communist Party.

4. The Wu Han affair revealed these differences of opinion within the CCP; there were 'reactionaries and revisionists' on the right of the party, and the Group of Five had the goal of making sure the party split did not widen, however Mao's wife wanted to denounce both of these groups. The other difference of opinion was moderation vs. ruthlessness, where the Group of Five were known for their moderation in dealing with issues at a time when some believed ruthlessness was the only way. The Gang of Four were the extreme wing of an extreme movement, and they on the other hand were feared for their ruthlessness. The Group of Five were also considered as taking the 'capitalist's road' and they were denounced.


5. The creation of the Central Cultural Revolution Group (CCRG), dominated by the Gang of Four, was so significant because it was the instrument through which Mao would run the Cultural Revolution. The CCRG was so influential that by the early summer of 1966, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping found themselves outmanoeuvred and undermined. Through information given to him by the CCRG, Mao issued a 'notification' to the CCP through which he defined the enemy within (the representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the party/government/army/various spheres of culture).