1966

Liu Shaoqi

I have always been a great organizer and had much experience in communist politics. While I worked agreeably for over twenty years with Chairman Mao Zedong we realized out differences. Mao was a proud, melodramatic man, with a vivid and original imagination making him undoubtingly more popular than me. He was the cause for the great Chinese proletarian revolution, which made me have potential to become his successor. He viewed me as passive, and someone who constantly tried to mediate conflicts. In the end I’m the one who did not let personal factors interfere with my dedication to China. Mao did the wrong thing, placing all his emphasis on mass mobilization.

“True enough, the average Party comrade is far from possessing the great gifts and profound scientific knowledge of the founders of Marxism-Leninism, and most of our comrades cannot attain to their deep and broad erudition in the theory of proletarian revolution. But it is perfectly possible for our comrades to grasp the theory and method of Marxism-Leninism, cultivate the style of Marx and Lenin in work and in struggle, constantly heighten their revolutionary quality and become statesmen of the type of Marx and Lenin, if they really have the will, take a really conscious and consistent stand as vanguard fighters of the proletariat, really acquire the communist world outlook, never isolate themselves from the current deep and great revolutionary movement of the proletariat and all the laboring masses, and exert themselves in study, self-tempering and self-cultivation.”

I am now the newly appointed chairman of the People’s Republic of China. I am doing all I can to concentrate on the system of central planning to make up for the devastating affects on the so-called Great Leap Forward. I have abandoned the Great Leap Forwards’ institutions and policies. I think with slow and steady growth we can make our government stronger and increase the cooperation between the masses after the failure of the Great Leap Forward Plan.