Lowell Dittmer - Liu Shaoqi and the Chinese Cultural Revolution

Liu Shaoqi and the Chinese Cultural Revolution

revised edition

Lowell Dittmer

First published 1998 by M.E. Sharpe

Published 2015 by Routledge
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Copyright 1998 by Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dittmer, Lowell.
Liu Shaoqi and the Chinese cultural revolution / Lowell Dittmer.Rev. ed.
p. cm.
An East gate book.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56324-951-0 (alk. paper).
ISBN 1-56324-952-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Liu, Shao-chi, 18981969. 2. ChinaHistoryCultural Revolution, 19661969. 3. Communist self-criticism. I. Title.
DS778.L49D57 1998
951.056dc21 97-41292
CIP

ISBN 13: 9781563249525 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 9781563249518 (hbk)

ACGUAll-China General Union

APCAgricultural Producers Cooperatives

CCCentral Committee

CCPChinese Communist Party

CCRGCentral Cultural Revolution Group

CPSUCommunist Party of the Soviet Union

CYLCommunist Youth League

GLFGreat Leap Forward

GPCRGreat Proletarian Cultural Revolution

MACMilitary Affairs Commission

MCCMilitary Control Commission

NCNANew China News Agency

PL APeoples Liberation Army

RCRevolutionary Committee

SEMSocialist Education Movement

URIUnion Research Institute

ZMZheng ming [Contending]

Note: Each abbreviation in the text or notes is cited in full the first time it appears. If the abbreviation refers to an item in the Selected Bibliography, the full citation will not appear in subsequent notes, but titles not included in the Selected Bibliography are cited in full the first time they appear in each chapter.

Why this book? There are two reasons for a second edition. The first is that the true significance of Liu Shaoqi in Chinese political history has not yet been fully appreciated. It is an unfortunate fact of political life that a large quantity of plausible falsehood can outweigh a small quantity of truth. The 1980 attempt at official rehabilitation, though certainly well-intended, has not entirely erased the impact of ten years of calumniationeven among many well-informed Chinese. Though Liu is no longer treated like the rat whose mere presence evokes cries to kill it, he is still often dismissed as a supporter of the Soviet model, a planner, or a dour martinet. None of these oversimplifications do him justice. In a way, Liu is far more politically meaningful now than when he was a household word: whereas he previously could be considered a major victim of the mass movement, or as the subject of one of historys fascinating counterfactual conditionalswhat might have been, the road not takensince the advent of the reforms he must also be studied in order to understand what is, for it is his thinking that underlies much of Dengs reform program.

The second reason for a revised edition is that new materials have come to light. Since Lius rehabilitation, a significant memorial cum biographical literature has appeared that illuminates important and hitherto obscure facets of Lius character and career. This new material necessitated a far more comprehensive and detailed revision than I had originally foreseen, simply in order to ensure factual accuracy. The essential themes and conclusions remain the same, with one exception. In the first edition, Liu had to be defended against the charge of conspiring to seize power from Mao, a charge that provided the animus for Lius disgrace. Since that time, particularly since the reversal of verdicts on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR), the plausibility of that charge has diminished, and the suspicion has gained credence that it was actually the Maoists who conspired to bring down Liu and Deng. This is not the place to go into detail, but my own conclusion is that both conspiracy and spontaneity theories must be included in a fully satisfactory explanation. I submit that there are two levels of reality in Chinese politics, one on the surface and one lurking beneath the surface, and that while the idealistic and programmatic motives predominated at the surface level, the subsurface realm did entertain various schemes and plotswhich, this being Chinese politics, tend to be convoluted and personal. Yet I do not mean to privilege the subsurface dimension, for great issues were also at stake, such as whether the Chinese masses have an inherent right to rebel against unjust leadership without being repressed, or whether the Party is rather needed to guide mass participation and keep it within safe bounds. If this bilevel explanation is plausible it is of course only a beginning, inviting further research on the dynamics of the relationship between surface and subsurface, public and private, formal and informal.