Political Developments in the post-Mao era 1976-81

Question 1

What was the key chronology between Mao’s death to Hua Guofeng’s fall from power Sept 1976 - Nov 1980
(10)?

Answer 1

1) Sept 1976: Mao’s death.
2) Oct 1976: Arrest of the Gang of Four.
3) July 1977: Deng Xiaoping restored to his official positions in the Party, State and PLA.
4) Nov 1968: Central Committee reverses the verdict on the April 1976 Tiananmen Square incident.
5) Nov 1968: Democracy wall set up in Beijing.
6) Dec 1968: Third Plenum adopts Deng’s programme for reform.
7) Dec 1968: Deng and his supporters gain a majority on the Politburo.
8) Jan 1979: Crackdown on Democracy Movement.
9) Aug 1980: Hua loses his position as State Premier.
10) Nov 1980: Hua loses his position as Party Chairman.

Question 2

Who was Ye Jianying?

Answer 2

A supporter of Mao since the 1930s, and a PLA Marshal since 1955. Having lost his posts during the CR,
having fallen out with Lin Biao, he was partially rehabilitated after Lin’s death. He was restored to the
Politburo, and became Defence Minister, in 1975.

Question 3

Who were the 4 main factions vying for power after Mao’s death in 1976, and what were the strengths of
each?

Answer 3

1) Hua Guofeng - Mao’s chosen successor, Party Chairman, Chairman of the Military Affairs Commission.
2) The Gang of Four - Although Mao had been increasingly irritated with them, he never denounced them,
and they claimed to be the true defenders of Mao’s ideological legacy.
3) Deng Xiaoping - although dismissed from all his positions in April 1976, he still had popular support and
backing within the Party, State and the PLA.
4) Party cadres, State officials and PLA officers who had avoided the purges of the CR. A leading figure of
the ‘survivors’ group was Ye Jianyiing.

Question 4

What was Hua Guofeng’s ‘Two Whatevers’ statement in 1976?

Answer 4

‘Whatever policy Chairman Mao decided upon, we shall resolutely defend; whatever directives Chairman
Mao issued, we shall steadfastly obey’.

Question 5

What did Mao say to Hua Guofeng (about his succession)?

Answer 5

‘With you in charge, I am at ease’.

Question 6

When did the Gang of Four mobilise the Shanghai militia?

Answer 6

August 1976.

Question 7

Why did the Gang of Four believe they were in a strong position to take power from Hua Guofeng?

Answer 7

They believed that with their control of the media, and important positions on the Politburo, they were in a
strong position to take power.

Question 8

What were the reasons for the Gang of Four’s failure to take power from Hua Guofeng (4)?

Answer 8

1) They wrongly believed that as the ‘defenders of Mao’s legacy’, they would win the support of the majority
of Party cadres and take control over the provincial Party organisations.
2) They did not have the support of the PLA, which Hua Guofeng did.
3) They had failed to build alliances with other beneficiaries of the CR.
4) Their mobilisation of the Shanghai militia posed a threat to the stability of China, forcing the PLA to
intervene to prevent civil war.
5) Although obsessed with MZT, they ignored a basic Maoist principle in regards to guerrilla warfare - when
attacking a superior enemy, do so from a secure base. Their secure base was in Shanghai, but they had
remained in Beijing after Mao’s death. This was at the heart of the government system controlled by Hua
Guofeng.

Question 9

When were the Gang of Four arrested?

Answer 9

6 October 1976.

Question 10

What was the aftermath of the Gang of Four’s arrest (3)?

Answer 10

1) There was some unrest in Shanghai as their supporters tried to fight back. The PLA restored order within a
week.
2) The Gang of Four remained under arrest until their trial in 1980, where they were found guilty of all
charges.
3) The Politburo confirmed Hua as Mao’s successor, installed as Party Chairman, Chairman of the Military
Affairs Committee (CAM), and State Premier.

Question 11

When was the trial of the Gang of Four?

Answer 11

Nov 1980 - Jan 1981.

Question 12

What were the Gang of Four found guilty of (3), and how were they (and Chen Boda) punished (4)?

Answer 12

The Gang of Four were found guilty of attempting to overthrow the socialist state, planning armed rebellion
and causing people to be killed and tortured:
1) Jiang Qing and Zhong Chunqiao were sentenced to death, although the executions were delayed for 2
years, and changed to life imprisonment.
2) Yao Wenyuan was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
3) Wang Hongwen was sentenced to life imprisonment.
4) Chen Boda was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Question 13

How did Hua Guofeng acknowledge his debt to Mao after the arrest of the Gang of Four (2), and what did
this show about his leadership?

Answer 13

1) Hua ordered the building of a mausoleum in Tiananmen Square to house Mao’s body, in defiance of Mao’s
wishes, to show ‘The Chairman is always with us’.
2) His ‘Two Whatevers’ statement in 1977.
This showed his wish to perpetuate the personality cult of Mao, and emphasise the continuity between Mao
and himself.

Question 14

How did the economic planning of Hua Guofeng generate debate within the CCP (2)?

Answer 14

1) Before his death, Zhou Enlai had been working on a Ten Year Plan to run from 1976 to 1985. When Hua
took it over, he gave it a Maoist emphasis, leasing to it being labelled ‘Hua’s Great Leap’. His plan failed to
account for the damage to the economy caused by the factional battling 1974-76, leading to unrealistic targets
being set, that were not based on accurate data.
2) This generated debate within the economy within the senior leadership, reflecting the debates of the early
1960s. Hua and his faction - the ‘Whatever’ faction - slavishly followed the ideological certainties of MZT.
On the other hand, other senior figures (like Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun), took a more pragmatic approach
to the economy, believing policy should be based on careful analysis of the real situation, rather than on a
dogmatic application of MZT.

Question 15

How was Deng Xiaoping rehabilitated again by Hua Guofeng (2)?

Answer 15

1) After the arrest of the Gang of Four, Hua began to feel pressure from withing the Party and the PLA to
rehabilitate Deng, following his exclusion from the Party for his ‘role’ in the Tiananmen Square incident in
April 1976.
2) Deng promised to support Hua Guofeng’s leadership in exchange for being reinstated to all his former
positions in July 1977. Deng Xiaoping returned to the heart of government, becoming Vice-Chairman of the
CCP and the Military Affairs Commission, and Vice-Premier of the State Bureaucracy.

Question 16

What did Deng call for in a Party work conference in December 1978?

Answer 16

For the Chinese people to ‘emancipate their minds’.

Question 17

How did Deng Xiaoping and Hua Guofeng differ ideologically?

Answer 17

1) Hua wanted the ‘verdict of the Cultural Revolution’ to guide all future policies. Victims of the CR would
be excluded from power, and MZT would drive policy.
2) Deng wanted the rehabilitation of the victims of the CR, and wanted economic policy to be based on the
Four Modernisations. He believed that gradual growth and the maintenance of order/stability should be
prioritised over MZT. Deng believed there should be a reprisal of Mao’s rule, but was not foolish enough to
disregard and reject Mao’s beliefs, as that would undermine the very foundations of China.

Question 18

How did Deng Xiaoping strengthen his political position (Autumn-December 1978) (4)?

Answer 18

1) He built support amongst CR survivors in the Party, and in the PLA, expressing his pragmatic agenda
through a series of articles in newspapers.
2) By autumn of 1978, cadres in every province were expressing their support for Deng.
3) In November 1978, the Central Committee reversed its previous verdict on the Tiananmen Square incident
of April 1976, labelling it ‘completely revolutionary’. This removed a stain from Deng’s record, and signified
a shift in the power balance towards Deng.
4) At the Third Plenum in December 1978, the process of rehabilitating victims of the CR began. Deng was
also appointed Chairman of the People’s Political Consultative Conference.

Question 19

What was the Third Plenum?

Answer 19

A meeting of the Central Committee in December 1978, the 3rd time they had met in full session. It began
the process of rehabilitating victims of the CR, and Deng was also appointed Chairman of the People’s
Political Consultative Conference.

Question 20

What was the significance of the Third Plenum for Deng Xiaoping’s political power (2)?

Answer 20

1) It allowed Deng and his supporters to steer the Party agenda away from the radical agendas of Hua.
2) It gave clear and decisive support to Deng’s policy agenda, declaring ‘From this day forward, we renounce
class struggle as the central focus, and take up economic development as our central focus’.

Question 21

What was the Fifth Modernisation?

Answer 21

The Four Modernisations were designed to further China economically and militarily. Democracy activists
believed that political modernisation should go hand in hand with economic modernisation, hence democracy
was named the Fifth Modernisation.

Question 22

Who was Wei Jingsheng?

Answer 22

A member of the Red Guard in 1966, before being sent to the countryside. This opened his eyes to the
famines caused by Mao, leading him to write ‘The Fifth Modernisation’ wall poster in March 1979. He was
arrested and imprisoned for 14 years, and upon his release in 1993, he continued his political activism,
becoming imprisoned again. In 1997, he was deported to the USA.

Question 23

What was the Democracy Movement (3)?

Answer 23

1) In November 1978, there was large support for Deng amongst young people in Beijing. A ‘Democracy
Wall’ was set up in Beijing, where big character wall posters were set up, criticising Hua, and Mao for
supporting the Gang of Four and dismissing Deng.
2) The protest grew, leading to the establishment of discussion groups and the publication of magazines and
pamphlets.
3) Groups known as the ‘Human Rights Alliance’ and the ‘Enlightenment Group’ began a campaign for the
Fifth Modernisation, democracy.

Question 24

How did Deng Xiaoping respond to the Democracy Movement (3)?

Answer 24

1) He initially supported the movement, but then realised that it could get out of hand and threaten order and
stability. Furthermore, it could risk the support of Party cadres, for which he had relied on in the power
struggle.
2) In January 1979, Deng ordered a crackdown on the Democracy Movement. Many activists, e.g. Wei
Jingsheng, were arrested and imprisoned, and the constitution was changed to remove the right to put up wall
posters.
3) In a speech to Party cadres, Deng set out the ‘Four Cardinal Principles’, declaring ‘We practice democratic
centralism, not bourgeois, individualistic democracy’.

Question 25

What were the Four Cardinal Principles?

Answer 25

Adherence to:
1) Socialism.
2) People’s democratic dictatorship.
3) Party leadership.
4) Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Thought.

Question 26

How did Deng Xiaoping consolidate his position/remove Hua Guofeng from power (1979 - 1981) (4)?

Answer 26

1) At a Central Committee meeting in September 1979, Peng Zhen, Bo Yibo, and other victims of the CR
were rehabilitated and placed on the Politburo.
2) In August 1980, Hua’s supporters were removed from the State Council and Hua lost his position as State
Premier. He was replaced by Zhao Ziyang, an ally of Deng Xiaoping.
3) In November 1980, Hua was criticised by the Politburo for lacking the ‘political and organisational ability
to be the Chairman of the Party’. He was replaced as Chairman by Hu Yaobang, an ally of Deng Xiaoping.
4) By 1981, Deng and his allies controlled all top positions in the Party, State and PLA. Although he did not
have the titles of Mao or Hua before him, he was recognised as the ‘paramount leader’.

Question 27

Who was Zhao Ziyang (3)?

Answer 27

1) Joining the CCP in 1938, he was Party leader in Guangdong in the 1950s. Despite initially supporting the
GLF, he began supporting Deng and Liu in the 1960s.
2) For this, he was attacked by Red Guards in the CR, before being rehabilitated in 1971 by Zhou Enlai.
3) He rose to prominence as a reformer under Deng, but was purged for being too sympathetic to prodemocracy protests in 1989, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest (2005).