ABSTRACT
The years following the Great Leap Forward were characterized by a struggle within the Communist Party to determine the path that socialism would take in China. That struggle culminated in 1966 with the initiation of the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.” The issues in the struggle were complex, but two were particularly salient—collectivity and class struggle. In the face of criticism during and following the great famine, Mao Zedong sought to preserve the communes and the concept of collective production-collective reward. He also advocated continuing class struggle based on his contention that people in official positions would abuse their power and become exploiters unless they were continually monitored by the masses. Those who disagreed with him he characterized as class enemies who were “taking the bourgeois road.”
