Xi Jinping Threatens Another Cultural Revolution to Target Opponents Within the CCP

The then-Chinese military delegate General Liu Yuan, political commissar of the General Logistics Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, arrives at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China, on March 12, 2015. Feng Li/Getty Images

Lately, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been reviving the idea of the “Maple Bridge Experience,” which was advocated by former Chinese leader Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). This move is being viewed as an escalation of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) internal power struggle.

On Jan. 5, The Epoch Times interviewed Yuan Hongbing, an Australia-based Chinese jurist and dissident. He said, “Rumors are coming out of the CCP that a group of ‘princelings’ represented by Liu Yuan, the son of former vice chairman of the CCP Liu Shaoqi, have formed a consensus against Xi Jinping’s dictatorship. For Xi, this represents a major direct challenge to him.”