Unexpected Twist
During the conference, Peng Dehuai, then PRC's defense minister, wrote a public letter to Mao criticizing some elements of the Great Leap Forward. In the letter, he criticized elements like the "winds of exaggeration" (i.e., over-reporting of grain production), the communal dining and also the establishment of commune militia which he felt would undermine the strength of the People's Liberation Army.
For this reason, Mao extended the conference for more than ten days.
Read more about this topic: Lushan Conference
Famous quotes containing the words unexpected and/or twist:
“Later
Some movement is reversed and the urgent masks
Speed toward a totally unexpected end
Like clocks out of control.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“The hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes. The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that forever afterward it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach. Or, again, the heart of such a child may fester and swell until it is misery to carry within the body, easily chafed and hurt by the most ordinary things.”
—Carson McCullers (1917–1967)