Between Two Plenums: China’s Intra Leadership Conflict, 1959-1962 by Ellis Joffe

Author:Ellis Joffe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kenneth G. Lieberthal and Richard H. Rogel Center for Chinese Studies
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

To the Tenth Plenum

Regardless of how the attacks of the intellectuals affected Mao’s relations with his top colleagues, there is no doubt that these relations were strained during the period between January and September 1962. For it was during this period that the nascent differences between Mao and his supporters on the one hand, and Liu Shao-ch’i and other like-minded leaders on the other hand began to surface and to be aired in Party circles. As has been noted, these differences, can be traced back to the early years of the People’s Republic, and, in fact, long before that, but there is no doubt that they became irreconcilable only after the collapse of the Great Leap Forward. Deriving from the divergent conclusions which the two men and their supporters drew from the experience of the Great Leap, these differences, as has been shown, were submerged at the Eighth Plenum by more compelling political considerations, and during the period of retreat by a basic policy consensus. This consensus, however, rested on a shaky foundation, as revealed, for instance, in the politically-significant attacks of the intellectuals on Mao and his policies. Thus, when the leadership began to reappraise its policies and to make plans for the future, the elements of conflict came to the fore. As a result, the consensus that had prevailed at the apex of the power pyramid during the period of retreat began to break down.

The reappraisal of Party policy apparently began at a major conference in late January 1962, which was attended by no less than some 7, 000 cadres from the five levels of Party administration (commune, county, district, province, and center). It was evidently at this conference that Liu Shao-ch’i expressed views which could be construed as contradictory to Mao’s approach in some important respects. The debates triggered by the reappraisal apparently continued after the January Conference, culminating in the two-month long Peitaiho and Peking Work Conferences, which preceded the landmark Tenth Plenum of the Central Committee. This Plenum apparently brought the debates within the Party to an end, because Mao succeeded in getting the Party to adopt a resolution which called for the revival of “class struggle,” thus terminating the period of retreat, and seemingly resolving the differences between Mao and other leaders. In practice, however, these differences were far from resolved, but rather were again hidden behind a facade of unity. After the Tenth Plenum the policy disagreements at the top levels of the Chinese leadership would develop into an organizational conflict that inexorably propelled the Chinese power structure toward the Cultural Revolution.

Although the materials which became available during the Cultural Revolution, especially from Red Guard sources, seem adequate to substantiate the broad framework of leadership relations outlined above, they are woefully inadequate when it comes to filling this framework with concrete contents. What precisely were the specific issues which separated Mao and other leaders? What was the scope and intensity of the conflict between them at various junctures ? What exactly were the

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