THE DECLINE OF A MORAL REGIME - CHINA GREAT LEAP FORWARD IN RETROSPECT

Chinese political culture has undergone profound changes since the Great Leap Forward (GLF) Campaign in 1958. The campaign extended the scope of the Chinese moral regime to its extreme. Ironically, the failure of the GLF destroyed the moral consensus in Chinese politics, undermined the myth of a supreme leadership, bred moral alienation in the masses, and more importantly, led to cadre corruption. This article sets out to examine the interaction between economic development strategy and political culture in China, constructs the logic of moral decline in that society, and documents the signs of the decline.