The Road to the Cultural Revolution

Abstract

Abstract Mao Zedong did not fail to recognize the harsh economic and political situation caused by the "three red flags." At the Central Work Conference and the Ninth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee held in January 1961, he repeatedly encouraged the whole Party energetically to practice investigations and studies, stressing that everything must be done by proceeding from reality, with the approach of seeking truth from facts; he also talked particularly about slowing down for a few years and doing a solid job so as not to suffer real misfortune just for the sake of undeserved reputation. Through efforts made by Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Chen Yun, and Deng Xiaoping, with Mao's approval, the Ninth Plenary Session officially decided that from 1961 on, an "eight-character principle" of "readjustment, consolidation, filling out and raising standards" focusing on "readjustment" would be carried out within two or three years, so the national economy entered the stage of readjustment from the "overall Great Leap Forward." When this was initially proposed, most people had not yet fully recognized the severity of economic difficulties and did not curb the scale of capital construction and industrial production to a practical extent. After the Central Work Conference in August 1961 made a relatively realistic analysis of the difficult situation, the CCP Central Committee convened an enlarged work conference (commonly known as "the seven-thousand cadre" conference) in January 1962 to redress additional mistakes committed since the Great Leap Forward and to implement the "eight-character principle." Participating in the meeting were responsible officials from the central, provincial, prefectural, and county levels and from key enterprises and army units. This meeting encouraged democracy and carried out criticism and self-criticism quite well. In his written report, Liu Shaoqi made it clear that the Central Committee assumed responsibility for the mistakes during the Great Leap Forward. He asked the participants to be honest in word and deed, "pouring out" all opinions no matter who in the Central Committee might be affected. In his speech at the meeting, Mao said, "I'm responsible for all the mistakes directly committed by the Central Committee, and I share responsibility for those indirectly related to it." He corrected some impractical ideas in the Great Leap Forward, saying, "With a big population and a poor foundation, China is backward economically. It seems to me that it is impossible for China to develop its productive forces fully and to catch up with and even surpass the most advanced capitalist countries in the world in less that a hundred years." He thus dropped the slogan of "surpassing Britain and catching up with the United States" within fifteen years. He also said, "Isn't it good to build a powerful socialist economy in our country within fifty or a hundred years?" So he gave up the plan of a hurried transition to communism. He admitted that "there are many realms of necessity in the socialist economy that remain unknown to us. As far as I am concerned, I have yet to understand many problems of economic construction." These words indicate that Mao's knowledge about socialist construction was one step closer to reality compared with his ideas during the fervor of the Great Leap Forward; still, he did not touch upon his socialist ideals and erroneous "Left" theoretical system. Instead, he held that the "three red flags" were correct and could not be challenged. He attributed mistakes in economic construction to the lack of specific principles, policies, and methods adapted to reality, believing that as long as we had a complete set of specific principles, policies, and methods adapted to reality in various fields of industry, agriculture, commerce, education, military affairs, administration, and Party leadership, we would be as successful in the socialist revolution and construction as we were in the Anti-Japanese War and the War of Liberation. He particularly warned the participants to "note this point."