I do not approve of reading so many books. The method of examination is a method of dealing with the enemy. It is most harmful and should be stopped" (Johnson 1992:552). Mao wanted control of China's destiny -- and he wanted that destiny out of the hands of the religionists, whose doctrine was not formulated by him but by an outside body. Thus, places like Sacred Heart convent in Peking were closed, the sisters expelled, the school children sent home. Not limited to Christianity, Mao's Cultural Revolution targeted "Moslem institutions and Buddhist sanctuaries" as well (Fitzgerald 1967:124).

The Cultural Revolution was, of course, fueled by Mao's own Romantic tendencies. Unable to accept reality on its own terms, Mao insisted on having it his own way. His pseudo-intellectual wife convinced him to leave Peking in 1965. They settled in Shanghai, where Mao nursed his "hatred of Soviet Russia and its leadership,...
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