During the 1959 Lushan Conference, Peng Dehuai wrote to Mao Zedong criticizing the Great Leap Forward; after Mao's speech on July 23, the conference's theme shifted from correcting the "Left" to opposing rightist opportunism.
At the Lushan Conference, Liu Shaoqi brought up old accounts against Peng Dehuai, supported the resolution to overthrow the Peng Dehuai anti-party clique, and subsequently signed the dismissal order in his capacity as Chairman of the State.
In 1959, Peng Dehuai was labeled anti-party by Mao Zedong for echoing Khrushchev's criticism of the Great Leap Forward and the People's Communes, ending his political life on the spot.