Abstract: This article examines Mao’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) from a macro historical perspective by showing its effect on what the author terms “the iron triangle”--China’s long-lasting rigid triangular system of bureaucratic, ideological and military control under the aegis of the emperor. The author concludes by showing that the current effort of saving the Chinese Communist Party by Xi Jinping is in essence a cultural revolution in the making.