| dc.description.abstract | Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi had been working together for more than thirty years. They cooperated as well as clashed many times during this period. First, they became friends, then close comrades, and eventually enemies, due to their divergence on opinion. After the Long March, Mao became more familiar with Liu. Because Liu had been leading communist movements in the “white area” (the Kuomintang-controlled area) and was good at making theoretical analyses, Mao chose Liu as his partner. Through cooperation, they successfully defeated Wang Ming and other communist leaders who used to study in Russia. Liu thus became Mao’s right-hand man. In the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Mao’s his supreme power was consolidated. His dream came true; Liu also become the number two man in the Communist Party. The cooperation of Mao and Liu had finally born rich fruit. However, during the establishment of the communist rule, Mao and Liu encountered their first conflict on the understanding and implementation of the New Democratic Revolution. Since then, Mao had been dissatisfied with Liu, he even wanted Liu to “give place to other person”. In public, Mao tried to draw Gao Gang to his side and belittle Liu. Therefore, Gao started to take action to replace Liu. Later, by admitting his own mistakes and self-criticizing, Liu regained Mao’s trust. Liu and Mao restarted their political cooperation. However, since then, in their relationship, Liu became more inferior to Mao. Liu even became completely submissive to Mao. Afterwards, Liu did nothing but agreed with Mao on the Anti-rash advance policy, the Great Leap Forward, which led to a catastrophe in China, and even the criticism on Peng Dehuai in the Lushan Meeting. Due to Liu’s total obedience, his conflict with Mao was alleviated. As a result, Liu remained Mao’s designated successor. However, at that time, the Three Red Banners had brought about severe damages to China’s economy. Liu hoped to take bold and daring steps to prevent further deterioration and help the economy to recover from the bottom. Later, on the Seven thousand men’’s assembly, Liu and Mao had different views on some major issues. As time went by, their divergence widened. While Liu was leading the Four Cleanups Movement, Mao felt that his authority was threatened by Liu. Hence, in order to solidify his power, Mao resorted to his own personality cult to eliminate Liu’s power. Eventually, Mao beat Liu in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
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