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 vice-chairman until this position was abolished in 1982, he remained a member of the Central Committee until 2002