ABSTRACT
China's political, social and economic developments in the years of Mao Zedong's ascendancy (1949-1976) were critically shaped by Mao's radical, if not always consistent ideas. Mao's dominance notwithstanding, independent debate took place within the government and Party leadership during the first decade of the People's Republic, subject only to acquiescence in whatever final decision was collectively agreed. In this regard, as in others, the Great Leap Forward was a watershed. The confrontation between Mao and the Chinese Defence Minister, Peng Dehuai, at the Lushan Conference (July 1959) ended the scope for relatively free debate1 and began a process that would culminate, during the Cultural Revolution, in Mao's belief that any disagreement with his own views must, by definition, be 'revisionist'.2
