Julia LOVELL (University of London)

In China in 1971, the shocking flight and death of Lin Biao—Mao's designated successor—after an alleged assassination plot against Mao undermined confidence in the Cultural Revolution, and signalled that this exhausting, destructive campaign might eventually come to an end. Beyond China's borders, however, Mao's most radical international admirers were deploying the theory and practice of the Cultural Revolution in rebellions against their own states. This essay will trace the global journeys and reception of Mao's ideas, which inspired and galvanised insurgencies in Asia and Latin America that continued decades after the death of Mao and the end of the Cultural Revolution in China.