section_path: Leadership of China/Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
section_name: Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
paragraph_text: Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
  
  During the early 1960s, Mao became concerned with the nature of post-1959 China. He saw that the old ruling elite was replaced by a new one. He was concerned that those in power were becoming estranged from the people they were to serve. Mao believed that a revolution of culture would unseat and unsettle the "ruling class" and keep China in a state of " continuous revolution " that, theoretically, would serve the interests of the majority, rather than a tiny and privileged elite.
  
  The Cultural Revolution led to the destruction of much of China's traditional cultural heritage and the imprisonment of many Chinese citizens, as well as the creation of chaos in the country. Millions of lives were ruined, as the Cultural Revolution pierced into Chinese life. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions, perished in the violence of the Cultural Revolution. This included prominent figures such as Liu Shaoqi.
  
  It was during this period that Mao chose Lin Biao to become his successor. Lin was later officially named as Mao's successor. By 1971, a divide between the two men had become apparent. Lin Biao died on 13 September 1971, in a plane crash over the air space of Mongolia, presumably as he fled China, probably anticipating his arrest. The CCP declared that Lin was planning to depose Mao and posthumously expelled Lin from the party. At this time, Mao lost trust in many of the top CCP figures. The highest-ranking Soviet Bloc intelligence defector, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa claimed he had a conversation with Nicolae Ceaușescu, who told him about a plot to kill Mao with the help of Lin Biao organised by the KGB.
  
  In 1969, Mao declared the Cultural Revolution to be over. Various historians mark the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, following Mao's death and the arrest of the Gang of Four. The Central Committee in 1981 officially declared the Cultural Revolution a "severe setback" for the PRC.
  
  An estimate of around 400,000 deaths is a widely accepted minimum figure, according to Maurice Meisner. MacFarquhar and Schoenhals assert that in rural China alone some 36 million people were persecuted, of whom between 750,000 and 1.5 million were killed, with roughly the same number permanently injured.