Lushan Conference

In most cases, it's power and the narrative that's around it.

Now Mao fits this category specifically because of Lushan Conference moment.

That was the point of no return.

When Peng raised concern in a letter and was destroyed for it, Mao chose the great leap forward, his project, his vision, his legacy claim over the tens of millions of people who were dying because of it.

Officials who reported the famine were purged for spreading capitalist propaganda.

Peng Dehuai, the defense minister who'd fought beside Zedong since Jinggangshan, dared to criticize the policies at the Lushan Conference.

Zedong destroyed him, labeled him a rightist, had him tortured during the Cultural Revolution.

The message was clear: truth was whatever the chairman said it was.