The Return to Power of Deng and Zhou Flashcards
By what time was Mao’s health failing?
What impact did this have?
Early 1970s
Had an eye on who would succeed him.
Very concerned as to the long-term future of the revolution.
Did not trust Jiang Qing Lin Biao (his chosen successor) died in bizarre circumstances
Mao needed steady, reliable leaders
What was the Lin Biao affair?
Lin = Mao’s most trusted servant, named successor to Mao after Liu was purged
BUT Mao began to believe he was plotting to use the PLA to seize power
1971– Lin realised he had lost Mao’s trust. Fled to the USSR but didn’t have time to put enough fuel in the plane. It crashed, Lin died.
What was the official explanation of the Lin Biao Affair?
What was the response by the Chinese people?
(Once lauded as a great hero) was actually a secret enemy spy.
The people treated this explanation with scepticism.
Many no longer trusted what the government/Mao told them.
How did Deng return to power?
Mao recalled him from rural exile.
He was popular and experienced.
He used his organisational skills and support within the Party to re-establish order after the Cultural Revolution.
He was named as Army Chief of Staff.
By 1974– regained his post as CCP Secretary
Talk to me about Zhou Enlai surviving all sorts of groovy things
Not purged by Mao: very useful guy.
Pragmatist, yes, but avoided being associated too much with the cheeky Liu and Deng.
What did Zhou Enlai call for?
Introduction of “The Four Modernisations”— advancement in:
1) Agriculture
2) industry
3) defence
4) science and technology
Designed to make China a modern world power: called for greater trade links with the west.
These were later enacted by Deng
How were less aggressive relations with the west developed by Zhou?
Zhou helped negotiate the visit of American President Richard Nixon to Beijing in 1972
By when was it clad that Mao would soon die, and what impact did this have?
Mid 1970s
First Liu then Lin previously named as his successor, but they both died, so a SUCCESSION STRUGGLE began between radicals and pragmatists
Who were the Gang of Four?
What did they do on account of fearing that the pragmatists take over when Mao died?
(Had wen part of CCRG, radicals, wanted to continue with the cultural revolution)
(Feared pragmatists would take over when Mao died)
Launched an “anti-Confucius” campaign bag denounced Lin Biao as a moderate “rightist”
Who were the real targets of the “anti-Confucius” campaign?
Not the already dead Lin
But
Others who could be linked to him as fellow moderates: Zhou and Deng
Did the “anti-Confucius” campaign succeed?
No. It failed. I’m not going to lie to you.
People saw through the political motives,
Could see it was an attempt by Jiang and her allies to remove their rivals
How do we know the members of the Gang of Four were unpopular?
People fed up with constant campaigns & upheaval
The public reaction to the death of Zhou Enlai in Jan 1976:
- When his body was taken to be cremated, a million people lined the streets to pay their respects
- April (during Qingming festival— Chinese pay homage to dead ancestors) the people of Beijing began laying wreaths at the base of the Monument to the People’s Heroes in Tiananmen Square— honouring Zhou, attacking Jiang and the GoF
What happened as a result of the wreaths at the Qingming festival, 4/1976?
Government sent trucks to remove the wreaths
Violence broke out
Riot police sent in to restore order
The Gang of Four blamed Deng and he was again removed from power, his place as successor given to the inexperienced and little known Hua Guofeng
A poem written on a tribute to Zhou Enlai and placed in Tiananmen Square
You must be mad To want to be an empress Here’s a mirror to look at yourself And see what you really are. You’ve got together a little gang To stir up trouble all the time, Hoodwinking the people, capering about. But your days are numbered...
(Alan Lawrence, China under Communism, 1998 quoted)
What happened after the death of Mao 1976?
Gang of Four believed it would be easy to undermine Hua Guofeng
9/9/1976– Mao died
Hua took over as Party leader and Head of State
He knew he was vulnerable without Mao-> acted quickly-> used the PLA to arrest the GoF
Deng then returned from exile and used his support in the party to replace Hua
Introduced the Four Modernisations— helped convert China into a 21st-C superpower
