Attacks of Mao's political opponents Flashcards
Mao’s key political opponents
Liu Shaoqi
Lin Biao
Deng Xiaoping
Why was Mao Jealous of Liu Shaoqi?
Liu was popular because as Head of State, his pragmatic policies helped rebuild China after the GLF
What was used as evidence of Liu’s traitorous ‘rightist’ sentiments?
When he had supported the sending of Party ‘Work Teams’ onto campuses to control the violence when Mao first encouraged students to rise up
What happened to Liu’s family?
Wife was publicly denounced.
Children sent to countryside to live as peasants
What happened to Liu?
Was subjected to constant struggle meeting.
Was abused and beaten.
Why did Liu write to Mao?
To beg him to be allowed to resign after being tortured
At the ninth Party Congress, what did Jiang Qing denounce Liu Shaoqi as?
Traitor who had been an agent for the American CIA
Who gathered evidence to prove Liu was a traitor who had been an agent for the American CIA?
Kang Sheng
Jiang Qing
How did Jiang Qing and Kang Sheng find evidence to denounce Liu as a traitor who had been an agent for the American CIA?
Tortured prisoners to get it
[Quote] What was Liu Shaoqi called as he was denounced and stripped of all his posts?
‘renegade, scab and traitor’
Who was Liu Shaoqi replaced by?
Lin Biao
What happened to Liu near the end of his life?
Exiled from Beijing.
In time, torture and neglect meant he could no longer talk
When did Liu Shaoqi die and where was he buried?
12 November 1968
In an unmarked grave
Why was Mao angered by Deng Xiaoping?
Deng’s statement about the irrelevance of the ‘colour’ of a police was a direct insult to Mao’s belief that it was better to be Communist than practical.
Deng had helped Liu introduce economic reform without Mao’s advice
[Quote] What had Mao complained about in regards to Deng?
‘Deng Xiaoping never came to consult me…from 1959 to the present he never consulted me over anything at all.’
What was Deng damned as?
‘the number two person in authority taking the capitalist road’
What was Deng accused of trying to establish?
His own ‘Independent Kingdom’
What happened to Deng?
Disappeared from public sight after having been sent to a rural tractor factory in rural Jiangxi
What happened to Deng’s family?
His son attempted to escape torture by jumping out of a window (some say he was pushed by Red Guards) and was paralysed from the waist down
Why was Deng later returned to power by Mao?
Mao needed him to help end the chaos of the Cultural Revolution
Since Deng was a target of radicals, what was he blamed for?
The protests that followed the death of Zhou Enlai
What did the Gang of Four radicals blame Deng for?
The violent clashes with police during the 1976 Qingming festival
What did the Gang of Four convince Mao to take away from Deng?
His positions of government leadership
After Mao’s death, what happened to Deng?
He eventually became the most important leader in the PRC.
At the start, why was Mao impressed by Lin Biao?
He was Mao’s most subservient follower.
His loyalty was impressive
Who was Lin Biao chosen to replace by Mao?
The disgraced Peng Dehuai after the Lushan meeting
What did Lin help create?
the Little Red Book
What did the Little Red Book help Mao spread?
His cult of personality
What was one of Lin’s part in the creation of the Little Red Book?
Wrote a foreword to the book that praised Mao as practically a deity (God)
Who was the Little Red Book made compulsory reading for?
PLA soldiers
What did the Little Red Book demand from PLA soldiers?
Self-sacrifice in the service of the Chairman
What did the PLA newspaper begin to do in regards to the Little Red Book?
Began to publish a quotation from Mao everyday
What were soldiers ordered to in response to the newspaper’s published quotations of Mao?
To cut them out and compile their own collections of Mao’s quotes to be studied and recited
What did the Cult of Lei Feng encourage obedience to?
Mao Zedong Thought
What was Mao able to rely on when the violence of the Cultural Revolution spiralled out of control?
The complete loyalty of the PLA to control it
Who were the Gang of Four?
Group of Communist leaders, including Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, who wanted to follow a radical and violent revolutionary path towards turning China into a Communist country
Who was Lei Feng?
A Chinese soldier who was committed to Communism.
After his death, his devotion to Communism was used to inspire other people to be loyal to the Party
When was the ‘Learn from the PLA’ campaign launched?
1963
What was the ‘Learn from the PLA’ campaign?
Army propaganda which turned one rank-and-file soldier, Lei Feng, into an ideological role model and national hero
[Quote] What was Lei Feng described as in Party propaganda?
‘one of Chairman Mao’s good warriors’
Give an example of how posters showed that Lei Feng was deeply loyal to the Party and Mao.
Showed him digging wells for peasants and helping old ladies to cross the road
[Quote] What did Mao declare in regards to Lei Feng?
‘Be like Comrade Lei Feng’
What happened to Lei Feng’s diary when he died in an accident while on duty?
Was published
What did Lei Feng’s diary recall?
His service to his comrades and also showed him to be unselfish in the service of the revolution
Give an example of how Lei Feng was unselfish as recalled by his diary.
On a train he would help staff clean the carriages.
In the barracks he would secretly mend his comrades’ clothes
What did the myth of Lei Feng help create?
Loyalty to Mao
