For this reason, Liu Shao-qi's book About the conduct of Communist Party members, together with Tao Zhu and others, wielded whatever power they still had in hand, authored books and wrote articles to insinuate Mao Ze-dong. For example- Sunspots, which was personally written by Tao Zhu, (Mao Ze-dong was praised by cultural workers as the sun), raised an "alarm" to the Communist Party of the whole China: even if Mao Ze-dong were really the sun, there were still dark areas. If the Chinese Communist Party did not take heed, it would be degraded as the enemy of the people. Within the whole Party, the whole army and people of the whole country, the prestige of and popular trust given to the three million words of The four scrolls of powerful writing and Selected works of Mao Ze-dong authored by Mao Ze-dong were evidently no match when compared with the fifty thousand words of About the conduct of Communist Party members. There were originally no contradiction between them, but Mao Ze-dong looked at it as an ominous sign. While newspapers and magazines all over the country, about differences in opinion within the Party at central authority meetings like the "Lu San meeting" spread rapidly through the grapevine, were conveyed to the basic levels and the folks who were the object of dictatorship. The information feedbacks received by Mao Ze-dong revealed that Mao's image would most likely be smeared. The situation was extremely serious. The "unusual movement" within the Party showed that the nationwide "non-Mao movement" would constitute a massive storm of "public opinion" originating from ripples and gathering momentum. Mao Ze-dong's great leap forward failed, in some areas, due to false reporting on food production, together with three years of natural disaster, led to wide spread famine and news of death toll of "over thirty million people" spread like wild fire. Various information unfavourable to Mao Ze-dong made Mao realize that that could possibly result in his being driven out of his office within his lifetime. |
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