Project 571

A draft copy of the Project 571 outline was discovered following Lin's death, and was publicly circulated by the Chinese government as a means of explaining the event.

He was not a genuine Marxist-Leninist, but the greatest feudal tyrant in Chinese history who practiced the principles of Confucianism under the guise of Marxism-Leninism and the laws of Qin Shi Huang.

Because the writers of the outline apparently lacked both the military knowledge and the ability to mobilize large groups of forces, Western scholars generally reject the possibility that Lin Biao could have personally planned Project 571.

[1] Of the sections which deal with military strategy, the outline's authors mention the support of a number of disparate forces, none of which were overwhelmingly powerful.

The authors also noted that they expected the support of an "auxiliary force" composed of the Twentieth and Thirty-Eighth Armies (Lin's own elite units) and several provinces, which were only vaguely mentioned.

The power of this combination of forces was not great, compared to the rest of the People's Liberation Army, and the authors of the Outline noted that "at present the preparation of our strength is still not adequate".

[6] The other major plotters were high-ranking military officers, including Zhou Yuchi, Yu Xinye, and Li Weixin.

From March 23 to 24, Yu Xinye drafted the outline for Project 571, the original manuscript of which was said to have been recovered after the death of the coup plotters.

Mao was unaware of the coup plot, but in August 1971 he scheduled a conference for September to determine the political fate of Lin Biao.

After hearing that Prime Minister Zhou Enlai was investigating the incident, they abandoned this plan as impractical, and decided to flee to the Soviet Union instead.

[5] After he was confident that all of the alleged plotters were either dead or arrested, Mao Zedong had copies of the Project 571 outline widely circulated among cadres in the Chinese Communist Party (relatively senior members only: level 19 and above).

[9] Regardless of Mao Zedong's motives, this objectively played an enlightening role in revealing the inside story of the Cultural Revolution, and its potential impact is very far-reaching.