Questions over timing of documentary about Mao right-hand man Liu Shaoqi
A new documentary series portraying Mao Zedong’s right-hand man, Liu Shaoqi, will begin shooting on Wednesday, official media reported.
The former No 2 leader of China under Mao – and concurrently the country’s president – was best known for directing workers’ revolutions and implementing policies on economic reconstruction.
Liu was once poised to be Mao’s successor to the party chairmanship but abruptly fell out of the chairman’s favour during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. He disappeared from public life and died in 1969.
It was not until 1980 when the reformist leader Deng Xiaoping took power that Liu’s name was politically rehabilitated.
The documentary will emphasise the military accomplishments of Liu, the China Youth Daily newspaper reported, despite him being more commonly remembered for leading proletariat revolutions, directing economic development and carrying out land reform in the early years of the People’s Republic of China.
Co-produced by the PLA Academy of Military Science and the China Youth Daily, the mouthpiece of Communist Youth League of China, the series has five episodes, each 40 minutes long. They are set to air next year.
