[1] In some instances, the criteria for Red Guard membership was so exacting that for purposes of the bloodline theory, family background would be traced back to grandparents or distant relatives.
[2] In the period after the success of the Chinese Communist Revolution, the newly-founded People's Republic of China had to address the building of socialist governance, norms, and order.
[4]: 415–416 Under normal circumstances, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s policy was that individuals should not be judged on family class background alone, but rather by their political performance.
[5]: 114 At the Cultural Revolution's outset, questions of legacy or succession reached their peak,[4]: 416 with some children of senior cadre criticized the emphasis on political performance as part of Peng Zhen's "revisionist class line.
[3] In 1966, middle school student Yu Luoke wrote a popular pamphlet, On Class Origins, that played a significant role in discrediting the bloodline theory.
[3] In the view of academic Alessandro Russo, the bloodline theory was a form of "biological classism" and "ideological trick" which ultimately failed because of how widespread political participation was during the early phase of the Cultural Revolution.
[3] Historian Rebecca Karl observes that the bloodline theory had the "curious effect of casting suspicion on the vast majority of the old revolutionaries.