Abstract: The crux of the conflict between Mao Zedong and Lin Biao was about who should be the successor’s successor. Mao was well aware that Lin’s health was so poor that he might not live to the day of succession. Therefore, Mao established Lin as his “successor” as a stopgap measure and recommended Zhang Chunqiao to be second in the line of succession. Rejecting this, Lin aggressively groomed his son Lin Liguo as his successor. Lin Biao participated in or acquiesced to the establishment of Lin Liguo’s private armed force within the People’s Libertation Army and touted his son as a “super genius.” All these measures were against the political norms for both Mao and the traditional political system. Consequently, the Mao-Lin split was inevitable. Ultimately, however, whether Lin Liguo or Zhang Chunqiao became the second generation successor would not have fundamentally changed the totalitarian nature of the regime. If anything, the rule of Lin Liguo, an open admirer and imitator of fascism, could have led China to even greater disasters.