This book offers a compelling re-examination of Mao Zedong's political authority, giving readers a clear understanding and full picture of Mao, the politics of his era and the political life of the CCP.

The widespread view holds that Mao was an authoritarian leader, enjoying what was called absolute leadership authority. This book reveals that in fact from the late 1950s onwards, the CCP leadership was deeply fractured, during a period when China's internal political and economic dynamics and its external existential conditions were very complex. By analysing four major interconnected challenges to Mao's governing decisions and leadership imposed by senior military leaders from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, the book introduces the concept of a braking mechanism within the CCP during Mao's era, preventing the newly created PRC and its resource distribution rules and patterns from collapse.

Including in-depth textual analysis of documentary sources while contributing to the debate about Mao's authority and political power, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of modern Chinese history and political science.

Jia Gao is Professor of Chinese Studies in the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia.