Show Them the Money
On September 9, 1976, Mao, the 'Grand Helmsman', the 'Saviour of China', died. He was 83. The radicals, who were confident that their revolution was a grand success, had lost their leader.
Attempts by the Gang of Four led by Mao's widow to consolidate power failed after Hua, supported by the military, ordered their arrests and purged the party and the military of radicals.
The Revolution was officially over. But the legacy lingers on.
By mid-1977, Deng was reinstated again as vice-chairman of the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party. Within a year, he had sidelined Hua to become China's 'paramount leader.'
Although he never held office as head of State or head of government, Deng ruled China from the late 1970s till the early 1990s, and remained a political player right up to his death in February 1997.
Deng opened up the economy and started improving relations with the West. But while his extraordinary vision of market reforms without totally renouncing State control turned China into an economic superpower, it also went against the ideals of equality preached by Mao. Many Chinese became millionaires overnight. The poor remembered their chairman and his promises of equitable distribution of wealth.
People's Liberation Army soldiers recite from Mao's Little Red Book in April 1970.
Also See: E M S Namboodiripad: What Deng could do in China need not happen in other countries