Some old Maoists feel like dissidents in modern China Most of the Maoists were men in their 60s filled with nostalgia for the Cultural Revolution - a turbulent period they lived through along with the next generation of Chinese leaders who will be named next month. But 36 years after Mao's death, his loyal followers often feel more like dissidents. "Today's leaders are capitalist-roaders and revisionists," says one retired worker surnamed Zhou, resurrecting terms used during the Cultural Revolution, which wreaked havoc on China from 1966 until Mao's death in 1976. Zhou and the group were visiting Shaoshan, Mao's birthplace in Hunan province, to commemorate the anniversary of the death of the former leader. "They call it socialism, but Deng Xiaoping, [the architect of China's market reforms], has created a system that combines the worst of all worlds: hyper-capitalism, corruption and fascism," says Zhou. While the Communist party has refrained from carrying out a complete reappraisal of Mao's rule, which claimed millions of victims in a series of murderous campaigns, he is no longer held up as its principal idol and criticism of him is widespread. For more than a decade, China's leaders have faced censure from the left as market reforms have seen the country's income gap widen, corruption soar and peasants fall far behind urban residents in access to social security. When they came to power 10 years ago, Hu Jintao, president, and Wen Jiabao, premier, appeared to respond to concerns by introducing health-care reform plans and tax cuts. But leftwing critics say those efforts have stalled. In their first [five-year] term, Hu and Wen still achieved some things. But in their second term, many reforms couldn't be continued so they stopped again," says Wang Hui, a professor at Tsinghua University whom many see as the academic leader of China's "new left." As a result, both the left and the right are dissatisfied. In such a situation . . . a radicalisation of the left is unavoidable. In 2008, a group of Maoists founded the Chinese Communist party Maoism, which branded the ruling Communist party "revisionist traitors." A year later their leaders were arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Many on the left saw a leader in Bo Xilai, the charismatic politician who took over as Communist party secretary of Chongqing in 2005. After Bo launched policies that resonated with leftist ideals, including a low-income housing programme and a campaign that sought to revive Maoist traditions such as singing "red" songs and sending cadres to learn from peasants, they rallied around him - only to see him purged in March this year. The removal of Bo has left the Maoist camp disenfranchised and angry, and fed rumors over the past week that allies of Bo might have attacked Xi Jinping, China's president in waiting who has disappeared from public view.