The true significance of the missing plenum

The Communist Party of China’s Eighth Congress was held in 1956 and the Ninth should be called in 1961. But it didn’t happen until 1969. The reason was that Chairman Mao didn’t feel like it. After the Great Leap Forward, his pet project 1958 – 1961, led to at least 30 million people starving to death in peaceful times, Mao felt his dominance of the party was precarious. A congress could give whom he saw as his rival, Liu Shaoqi 刘少奇, an opportunity to replace him.