Mao was discredited by the failure of the Great Leap Forward, and power shifted to the party boss Liu Shaoqi and his protégé, Deng Xiaoping. Dissatisfied with China's new direction and his own reduced authority, Mao launched a massive political attack on Liu, Deng, and other pragmatists in the spring of 1966. | Mao was discredited by the failure of the Great Leap Forward, and power shifted to the party boss Liu Shaoqi and his protégé, Deng Xiaoping. Dissatisfied with China's new direction and his own reduced authority, Mao launched a massive political attack on Liu, Deng, and other pragmatists in the spring of 1966. |