Capitalist roader

In Maoist thought, a capitalist roader (走资派, or 走资本主义路线派) is a person or group on the political left who demonstrates a marked tendency to bow to pressure from Bourgeois forces and subsequently attempts to pull the Revolution in a capitalist direction. If allowed to do so, these forces would eventually restore the political and economic rule of capitalism; in other words, these forces would lead a society down a "capitalist road". The term first appeared in Chinese Communist Party literature in 1965, but the idea was initially developed by Mao Zedong in 1956-1957, against what he saw as reactionary tendencies in the party. [Chan, S., "The image of a "Capitalist Roader": Some dissident short stories in the hundred flowers period", 1979, Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, no.2 - http://www.jstor.org/view/01567365/di980631/98p0024i/0]

Capitalist roaders are described as representatives of the capitalist class within the Communist Party and those who attempt to restore capitalism while pretending to uphold socialism. Mao contended that Deng Xiaoping was a capitalist roader and that the Soviet Union fell to capitalist roaders from within the Communist Party after the death of Joseph Stalin.

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