Making It Official

Mao Tse-tung's turbulent Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution had hardly begun before it boiled down to a bitter brawl for power between Mao and the more pragmatic Politburo faction led by President Liu Shao-chi. By last fall, Mao seemed to be getting the upper hand. Liu no longer attended official functions, and his name was dropped from the list of leaders of the People's Republic. Last week Mao finally made it official: Liu was out.

The announcement came in an editorial in Red Flag, the party's most authoritative voice. Though the editorial mentioned no names, its meaning was clear. "During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, initiated and led by Chairman Mao," it read, "we have overthrown the top party person in authority taking the capitalist road, smashed the counter-revolutionary line he pursued and shattered his scheme to turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie."

Mao had good reason to get rid of

Liu. Last year Liu began openly counseling moderation in Red China's revolution, and he sent so-called "work teams" into the provinces to build up his following among the party's rank and file. Last summer, while Mao was on a trip to southern China, Liu's faction called an emergency meeting of the party's Central Committee to try to vote Mao out of power. But Mao got wind of the meeting and managed to have it postponed until his return. Then he declared all-out war on Liu. Red Guard cartoons began depicting the gaunt, grey President as licking the boots of American imperialists; wall posters denounced him as a capitalist-lover and a traitor. Liu's wife was forced to attend Red Guard meetings, where she was expected to offer public criticism of herself and her husband.

Though Liu soon dropped from sight, he became a symbol and rallying point for Red China's anti-Maoists. The Red Flag announcement may have signaled the end of his personal power, but the anti-Maoist forces that he championed must still be reckoned with.

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