As the move towards totalitarian dictatorship accelerated in the late 1950s, Mao also became increasingly manipulative and dictatorial. When public criticism was encouraged in the ‘Hundred Flowers’ campaign, the ensuing torrent wrongfooted and shocked the leadership, and a few months later Mao vindictively turned on his critics and persecuted them, sarcastically citing the First Emperor’s purge of scholars with approbation. Thousands of intellectuals were jailed, tortured and in some cases hounded to death.
