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

CHALLENGING THE HEGEMONY I
The gist of the two-lines struggle is this: not long after the Chinese
economy had recovered from the Great Leap Forward there were rival
lines of thought within the CCP on China’s future development. One
line of thought was advocated by Liu Shaoqi, Chairman of the State,
and the other by Mao, the Chairman of the CCP, the ruling communist
party.
By the early 1960s Liu did not seem to object to the idea that something
had to be done in China or protests and turmoil against the CCP
similar to those in Hungary and Czechoslovakia would occur.
However, the two chairmen had completely different views on what
the problems were and what measures to take. The Liu line of thought
saw the problem organizationally as CCP grassroots corruption by
elements from outside the party. The Mao line, however, saw the
problem as being ideologically inside the party. Liu was of the idea that
the communist cadres at grassroots level in rural China were either
bribed by the former landlords or corrupted by capitalist thoughts of
comfort, pleasure and greed. Therefore measures had to be taken to
uncover the embezzling and corrupted cadres. Moreover, those measures
should be imposed from top to bottom and from outside forces
organizationally to wipe out these elements of corruption. In contrast,
the Mao line of thought was that the majority of the grassroots cadres
were either innocent or just following policies from above. Corruption
and embezzlement were just symptoms of a deeper problem of
ideology, the ideology of capitalist values and beliefs. To change the
ideology fundamentally, measures had to be taken to correct those
inside the party who made the policies. For Mao the organizational
measure of dismissal or punishment of this and that cadre at grassroots
level would not solve the root problem. The fundamental solution had
to come from changes of values and beliefs, and those changes
required a cultural revolution. Hence the idea of the Cultural Revolution
was developed. The above is only a sketch of the two-line struggle;
a more detailed explication and articulation can be seen in Wang Li
(2001), one of the chief radicals who interpreted Mao’s ideas during the
beginning of the Cultural Revolution. 10
In what follows next I will present a brief case study of how the twoline
struggle developed between Mao and Liu during 1964–65. This
case is presented here along the lines of Ming Mu (2007), which
appeared on Zhurengong website. In the e-media debates most of the
participants do not sign their real names and I believe Ming Mu is a
pseudonym. I cite this source as an example because I find it totally
convincing and Ming Mu, unlike other e-media debates participants,
cites documentary sources such as Bo Yibo (1997), Feng Xianzhi (1996),
Liu’s letter to Mao, Liu and Mao’s speeches as well as records of the
central committee of the CCP work conferences.
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