Battle for China's Past : Mao and the Cultural Revolution

THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST
up with any convincing response. In another contribution to repudiate
the Chang and Halliday claim that the famous Luding Bridge Battle
between the Red Army and the Nationalists did not take place during
the Long March, an interview with a veteran solider Tang Jinxin (2007),
who is 91 years old and who describes how he participated in the fierce
battle of Luding, is circulated in the e-media.
Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and the Great Leap Forward
One important aspect of evaluating Mao has to do with how Mao
handled Peng Dehuai’s criticism of the Great Leap Forward at the
Lushan Conference in 1959. The version of the event that is most
widely accepted is the one offered by Li Rui, according to which Mao
not only took action to topple Peng but also used the opportunity to
further implant reckless leftist policies that precipitated the famine.
However, recently there have been a number of contributions on the
Wuyou zhixiang (Utopia) website that try to revaluate the event. Wu
Lengxi (2007) and Zhang Hengzhi (2007) have presented evidence and
arguments that 1) for six months before the Lushan Conference started
in 2 July 1959 Mao made continuous efforts to cool down the Great
Leap hype, 2) the purpose of the Lushan Conference was to improve
the situation, 3) initially Mao did not take too much notice of Peng’s
letter of criticism and intended to conclude the conference as planned
in spite of Peng’s letter, and 4) it was some other CCP leaders who
argued and persuaded Mao to extend the conference to ‘struggle
against Peng’.
Yun, quoting Liu Shaoqi’s speeches, argues that it was Liu who
hunted Peng down by accusing Peng of aiming to usurp power from
the party. Liu specifically referred to Peng as a leading member of the
Gao Gang and Rao Shushi anti-party clique, an accusation with which
Zhou Enlai concurred (the ‘anti-party clique’ refers to the event in 1955
when the Gao Gang and Rao Shushi launched a campaign to reshuffle
the CCP top leadership to replace Liu and his lieutenants). Liu also
accused Peng of working with ‘foreign influence’, referring to Peng’s
visits to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe immediately before the
Lushan Conference.
Wu confirms that during the Politburo meeting in Beijing on 12 to 13
June 1959, Mao criticized himself for the recklessness of the Great Leap
Forward policies and admitted that Chen Yun had been right after all to
be cautious. Wu recalls that Mao’s personal secretary Tian Jiaying was
pleased that Mao made self-criticism and thought that it was then up to
the party secretaries of various provinces to make self-criticisms at the
planned Lushan Conference. When Peng’s letter was circulated, Wu
Lengxi, Hu Qiaomu and Tian Jiaying all thought there was nothing
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