Set 7 | 60 : Chairman Mao, Lushan

Chairman Mao

Chairman Mao Zedong in a relaxing moment on Lushan mountains, Jiangxi Province in 1976

At the Lushan meeting of the Central Committee in July-August 1959, Peng Dehuai (P'eng Te-huai), the minister of defence, denounced the excesses of the Great Leap Forward and the economic losses they caused. He was immediately removed from all his party and state posts and remained in detention until his death during the Cultural Revolution. From that time on, Mao regarded any criticism of his policies as nothing less than a crime of lèse-majesté, meriting exemplary punishment.