The struggle for power following the death of Mao Zedong, Hua Guofeng, the

reemergence of Deng Xiaoping and the defeat of the Gang of Four

2.1.1 Events Before 1976

Mao was the leader of the People's Republic of China since it was created in 1949
He introduced the Great Leap Forward in 1958
The Great Leap Forward was a policy which was put in place to modernise the Chinese

economy by mobilising its population, most of the population was placed on communes
where they had to help with industrialisation and increase productivity, due to the lack of
China's resources the plan failed and caused wide spread famine
Due to the failure of the Great Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Cultural

revolution that resulted from this failure Mao's reputation and position in the Party was
damaged, although the Chinese population still had a lot of respect for him especially the
youth as they had grown up with the communism propaganda at school as well at home
Liu Shaoqi succeeded Mao in 1959 and became the new Chairman of the People's

Republic of China, Deng Xiaoping became the General Secretary of the Party, even though
Mao was no longer the at the head of the government he was still Chairman of the
Communist Party
The new leaders of the Party wanted to find solutions to fix China's economy however

these went against Mao's revolutionary policies which he had insisted upon to catch up with
the West and compete for leadership in the communist world with the Soviet Union
One of the solutions implemented by Liu to restore the economy was to allow peasants

to cultivate on small plots and make crafts which they could then sell at markets
Mao was against this return to capitalism and wanted to keep a revolutionary focus,

even though many leaders still respected him, a lot of them questioned his leadership which
angered him
Mao turned more and more to his wife for support and she became his confidant
In 1965 Mao created the Red Guards (revolutionary youth), initiating the Cultural

Revolution
The Red Guards would go to Universities to look for students who where not loyal

enough to the Party, some Party members where removed from their positions, other were
put under house arrest, and the people who were not loyal enough outside the public eye
where treated with violence
The situation got out of control quite fast, the Red Guards confused the revolution with

violence when Mao had said "learn revolution by making revolution"

In 1966, Mao realised that his campaign had failed and he had to put an end to the

violence by breaking up the Red Guards

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution ended in 1969, a new constitution was

adopted and Lin Biao was named as Mao's successor

The People's Liberation Army and the Party congress where put in charge of the

country however they where told that this was only temporary and that once stability had
returned they where to go back to answering to the Party instead of controlling it, however
two thirds of them where military staff and so the question was how to remove them from
the leadership of the Party
Mao wanted to remove Lin from his power which was mot easy

According to official Chinese records, Lin was planning a coup against the government

however the plan was uncovered

Lin and his family fled the country but died in a plane crash that they had boarded in

Mongolia in September 1971

The power then went back to Mao and Premier Zhou Enlai
These two grew weaker with age and so new potential leaders started to emerge.
These included the Gang of Four (Jiang Qing and her supporters) Hua Guofeng (a new
member of the Party) and Deng Xiaoping.

2.1.2 The Gang of Four

Mao's wife, Jiang Qing started to get involved in government matters in the 1950s
when she started to work with the Ministry of Culture
She wanted to create opera and theatre which put the Communist Party in good view
Her involvement in politics increased more and more from then on
She controlled the media to great extents in the hopes to control national culture
In addition she had a lot of propaganda at her disposal which helped her political

position
Many members of the Party were worried about the influence Jiang Qing had on Mao,

especially during the Cultural Revolution

The Central Cultural Revolution Committee was formed in 1966, Jiang Qing was first

vice chair woman

The Committee also included Jiang Qing's closest friends from Shanghai, Yao Wenyuan,

Zhang Chunqiao and Wang Hongwen

Together these three with Jiang Qing would become known later on as the Gang of Four
Yao Wenyuan was Mao's chief propagandist
Zhang Chunqiao was deputy secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee
Wang Hongwen was the union leader
During the Cultural Revolution the Gang of Four wanted to eliminate bourgeois

influences and the revisionist ways

They also wanted to eliminate the Four Olds which were Culture, Customs, habits and

thought
Jiang Qing managed to keep her position of power after the Cultural Revolution was
over

Jiang, Zhang and Wang became members of the politburo in 1969

When Lin died, the Gang of Four seized the opportunity to increase their power within

the government and wanted the Cultural Revolution to keep going

Mao who had previously relied on his wife as his confidant started to lose trust in her,

he felt like she was controlling his access to knowledge and people
The two then separated and would only meet on appointment
Mao was judgmental of the Gang of Four but still used them against some of the
members of the politburo to prevent any small group from gaining too much power

2.1.3 Deng Xiaoping, Zhou Enlai and Hua Guofeng

There was a more moderate and down to earth group in the politburo

Deng Xiaoping was the leader of this group and was against the Cultural Revolution

which the Gang of Four were so keen to reinstate, he also wanted to introduce some degree
of capitalism within the Chinese economy
Zhou Enlai was the Premier and supported and protected Deng Xiaoping, they both

wanted order to be restored within the country

In early 1973, during the course of the power struggle Zhou died
Mao was to choose who was to succeed Zhou
Zhou's own choice would have been Deng
The Gang of Four tried to have Zhang replace Zhou's position as premier
Mao eventually named Hua Guofeng as Premier
Hua Guofeng was not well known and had been top security official from Mao's home

province
The leaders of the Party were not exactly enthusiastic about Hua being named as
Premier but they did not object either

2.1.4 The Qingming Festival 1976

The festival was in Beijing

Started on March 29 th and ended on April 4th
The population took advantage of the festival to publicly mourn Zhou and support

Deng and indirectly criticize Mao and the Gang of Four

The government was not expecting this and was by which means to react
Hua and Mao agreed that the government was to discretely remove the flowers and

poems that had been written, the day after the end of the festival
By doing so the hope was to lower tension and prevent a conflict from taking place

between the government and the people

However instead of preventing a conflict it started one as when news about the

removal of the flowers and poems spread through Beijing, the population started to protest
The people marched to the square carrying anti-Mao message banners
The decision was taken to go ahead with the removal of the flowers and poems and

subdue the protestors using violence

Protestors were arrested, beaten up and it is said that some were beheaded in the

square
The population was once again repressed under Mao's leadership
Mao then accused Deng of leading the protests and so Deng was removed from his

position in government and was suppose to be investigated for political mistakes

However Deng fled from Beijing and found refuge in Canton under the protection of

General Ye Jianying
He stayed in Canton until the death of Mao

2.1.5 Mao's Death and the Defeat of the Gang of Four

Mao was suffering from Parkinson's disease and grew weaker and weaker in time
On the 9th of September 1976 Mao succumb to the disease
Mao had wanted Hua to succeed him but all the others were waiting for Mao's death
before trying to take over the power

When that day arrived the Gand of Four seized the opportunity to take over by using

the influence they had over the media, urban militia and universities
However they did not realise Hua's strength and the support he was to get from

politburo members and the military

After Mao died, Jiang altered some of Mao's writings to make it appear as if Mao had

wanted her to succeed him, this was exposed however she still remained in a strong position
In the politburo meeting Jiang argued that she should succeed Mao as Hua was

incompetent to do so
Hua argued on the other hand that succession should be dealt with as it had been in

the past, that is the vice chairman should succeed the chairman until the next session of the
Central Committee
Hua had support from many people including the defence minister Ye Jianuang
The Gang of Four quickly realised that they were losing power and so decided to carry

out a coup on October the 6th

The Gang of Four was to get military support from Mao's nephew and political

commissar of the Shenyang Military Region

The plan was to take the power by force from the government and assassinate some of

the politburo members including Hua and Ye

When Jiang realised that even with the support of Mao's nephew the Gang lacked

weapons, she tried to recruit some members of the politburo to help her with military
support however her plan back fired as these decided to tell Hua of her plans rather than
joining her cause
When Hua found out about Jiang's plans, he held a meeting and together with Ye, Chen

and other allies they agreed to launch a pre-emptive strike by safeguarding Beijing and
arresting the Gang of Four
On the 5th of October Hua called an emergency meeting of the politburo for midnight,

when Zhang and Wang arrived they were arrested

Yao and Jiang were arrested later at their homes as they had not gone to the politburo

meeting
The Gand of Four was expelled from the Party and was awaiting trial, it lost all its

support as well as its power

After this Jiang was portrayed as a power hungry woman who had exploited the death

of her husband
The population had lost all respect for Jiang and her reputation was destroyed
There was still great respect for Mao and so if his wife appeared in a photo with him,

she was blacked out and this was done so that people knew that she had been removed
from the photo
The Gang of Four finally went on trial, Jiang and Zhang initially received the death
sentence but this was then changed to life imprisonment, Wang received life imprisonment
as well and finally Yao received 20 years imprisonment

2.1.6 Events After the Defeat of the Gang of Four

The actions of the Gang of Four where condemned

In addition to being Premier, Hua was made chairman of the Party and Military
Commission

Deng was reinstated by Hua to the politburo and was made vice-chairman of the

Central Committee once again

Hua decided that China should focus on industrialisation again
Deng was in charge of the four modernizations which were agriculture, science and

technology and industry and national defence

Deng had important economic and political power again
Within the Politburo three power groups emerged
Nine members supported Deng
Nine members supported Hua
Three members supported Ye
Even though Ye had fewer supporters he held the balance and this made him the

decision maker
There was tension between the groups however the Congress called for unity, stability

and cooperation
Hua adopted a policy which was called the Two Whatevers: We will resolutely uphold

whatever policy decision Chairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever
instructions Chairman Mao gave
This was not a popular policy for those who wanted to move away from the Maoist era
When Hua found himself implicated in the crimes of the Gang of Four as he had the

position of head security and premier when the worst atrocities of the Gang where
committed he gave up his position
He resigned as Premier in 1980 and in 1981 he resigned as Party Chairman and chair

of the Military Commission

He was succeeded by Zhao Ziyang, Hu Yaobang and Deng respectively
Hua admitted to his mistakes and so he was allowed to take the position of vicechairman until this position was abolished in 1982, he remained a member of the Central
Committee until 2002

China under Deng Xiaoping, economic policies and the Four Modernizations

2.2.1 China under Deng Xiaoping

Deng had full control of the Party and the government by 1982
He wanted to make important changes so that China could compete West
He also thought that it was important to start separating the government from the

Party as he wanted to put in place policies which would differ from communist ideologies
The goal was to modernise China so that it could compete with the West in consumer

goods and industrial production

Even though Deng wanted to put in place Western policies he was still a communist
and made sure that the political system remained communist

2.2.2 The Ten Year Plan

Hua Guofeng announced the new Ten Year Plan in 1978

The plan focused on economic sectors with a heavy industry
The goal was to reach a level at which China would be able to support itself and

compete with the West

Deng was put in charge of these political changes
The opening up of China to the West by Mao and Zhou was very beneficial to the plan

as it provided some of the capital needed for the plan

The plan focused on China's development, especially steel production
Goals where set for natural resource extractions (oil, petroleum, coal and non ferrous-

metals)
In addition the plan included extensive infrastructure development which involved

electricity, rail roads and water transport

The plan proved to be too ambitious and the government could not afford the costs so

in 1979 the goals of the plan were modified

The plan would focus on the Four Modernizations: agriculture, industry, science and
technology and the military

2.2.3 Open Door Policy

The Party introduced the Open Door Policy in December 1978

This was a major factor for the success of the Plan and the Four Modernizations
A high level of capital was needed to make the changes and the Open Door Policy

provided this capital

Also China would benefit from learning and importing science and technology by

trading with the West

China focused on quality of its products, the diversification of its exports, the

devaluation of the Yuan and built up its currency reserves

China became very attractive to investors like Japan, West Germany and the United
States

2.2.4 Agriculture

The goal was to increase the yields of farmers

The government wanted farmers to move away from traditional farming methods
Instead of manual work the government wanted to introduce mechanised farming
The government wanted to improve water supply to farmers
The government supported and promoted the use of chemical fertilisers
The government supported personal incentives and diversification
There where set quotas
12 commodity and food base areas would be created to allow for better regulation and

distribution of food
A big turning point was the implementation of the Household Responsibility System
Under this system even though there was still no private ownership of land, each

farming household received a plot of land

The farming households could use this plot of land as they wanted
They would have a contract with the local commune in which they had to hire a certain

amount of workers and plant a specific amount of crops

The farming households had control over the labour within their households and could

distribute this labour however they wished

Also all farming household surplus could be either sold or kept which was a great

benefit to farmers
In exchange for using the land for a period of 15 years a quota that had been

predetermined would go back to the local commune

The Household Responsibility System was very successful, by 1989 90% of households

where involved in the system

The System alone allowed to increase productivity by more than what had been set by

the Ten Year Plan

China became the largest agricultural producer
Agricultural improvements lead to increased productivity
Due to this increased productivity, factories where built and the communes saw the

revival of local crafts

This meant that farmers could leave their family plots and work locally in the factories

2.2.5 Industry

The main focus was on capital construction and improving heavy industries
Attention was drawn to steel, iron, coal and oil production, 55 billion Yen was invested

into these
There was a total of 120 projects to be completed however the plan proved to be too

ambitious and so in 1979 it was readjusted

The Industrial Responsibility System was introduced
Under this system, the supervisory body of a State Owned Enterprise (SOE) would have

a contract in which a percentage of the production and/or profit would go to the state and
the SOE could keep the surplus, quality of production became a factor in the later stages
This improved the attitude and motivation of industrial workers, increasing productivity
In October 1984 the Resolution on the Reform of the Economic System was introduced
Public ownership was not allowed however the government gave more freedom to

enterprises
The management of these enterprises was a lot more free

In doing so the government hoped to increase production

Private groups could lease small enterprises but larger ones remained under the
control of the state

2.2.6 Science and Technology

The Cultural Revolution had devastating effects on education

China was lacking even the basic technology that was standard in all other developed

countries
There was a need for more scientists, doctors, engineers and architects
A number of goals were put forward
The government wanted to be able to compete with the developing countries my

repairing the damages caused by the Cultural Revolution

By 1985 the government wanted to be only ten years behind the developing countries
The goals included to increase the number of scientists, develop the centres used for
experiments and to complete a nation wide system of science and technology research

2.2.7 Military

China had the largest army in the world however it seriously lacked in military

technology
Nuclear research had come to an end
Science and military modernisation had a direct link
The centres of research that were being either built or improved made it possible to

develop new weapons

It was estimated that the government spend up to 10% on developing and buying new
technology

2.2.8 Results of the Ten Year Plan

Mixed results, the plan succeeded in some ways but not in others
According to government statistics industrial production and agriculture had an

average annual growth of 11%

Growth rates where even higher in the production of coal, steel, electricity and oil
The GNP reached 778 billion in 1985
There was also success in the regions of infrastructure development and construction
There was also tremendous improvements in science and technology
However there were problems with the workforce
Young workers often trained abroad with modern equipment and then had to

reintegrate themselves on their return within an outdated system

Also, older workers who had suffered from a lack of education due to the cultural

revolution felt threatened by the younger workers as they were scared of unemployment
and the younger workers did not respect them as elders
The increased production brought about inflation
The plan focused on modernisation, economic growth and the availability of consumer

goods however other issues affecting the quality of life where not payed attention to
Beijing became very polluted and China suffered deforestation on a big scale

The one child policy was put into place which penalised families with more than one
child

Corruption occurred as the Party members were spared from the policy
Also, the children of Party members had many benefits, they were automatically
accepted into universities and did not have to serve in the military