Basically the title. The more I read about it, the more it seems like an abject failure to capture the nation’s mood which let to greater repression (something the campaign was trying to avoid). To what extent can it be considered a failure?
As an added thought: alongside the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, I’m questioning Mao as a statesman. Obviously he wasn’t working alone, but he has been pointed to in places as the primary driver behind these policies. Is that convenient finger-pointing, opportunistic anti-communist propaganda, or something else?
Mao did some very stupid decisions on his later goverment, it haved good intentions, but it was dumb from an materialistic POV. It was too idealistic for its own good. Thats why Deng Xiaoping was the GOAT, he did not just save the chinese economy, but he found an new way on how to make an socialist economy. Before Deng, AES countries economys where or an version of the USSR economy, or an version of the Chinese economy, and both models where very flawed. Deng basically found the soluction for this lack of economic model that was able to capture the best things out of the USSR and chinese model, while keeping out most of the downsides.