Hua Guofeng and the return of Deng Xiaoping (1976–1978) Mao Zedong,
Chairman of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), died on September 9, 1976. The CCP, in the wake of his death, officially urged "[the carrying out of] Chairman Mao's revolutionary line and policies in foreign affairs resolutely." Scores of capable party officials, bureaucrats, intellectuals, and professionals were languishing in prison or laboring in factories, mines, and fields. Many schools had been closed, and an entire generation of young people were unable to obtain an education, coming of age as a "lost generation", finding it harder to be employed and integrate into social life. Chinese people mourned him, but not in the more emotional way they had mourned the late
Premier Zhou Enlai. Meanwhile, Mao's designated successor
Hua Guofeng had assumed the post of party chairman. None of them put up any resistance, although one of
Jiang Qing's housekeepers reportedly spat at her as she was being taken away. The demise and arrest of the Gang of Four prompted nationwide celebrations, such as parades in the streets, not limited to
Beijing and other major cities. The Gang of Four symbolized everything that went wrong during the ten years of chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and their demise, the general populace had expected, would mark the beginning of a new era. In late 1976 and early 1977, the state propaganda machine was working overtime to promote Hua Guofeng. He was billed as being Mao's personally appointed successor (with paintings produced showing him receiving Mao's final blessings) He stated that "in order to honor Chairman Mao, we should govern in accordance with his wishes." and proclaimed the
Two Whatevers, meaning that "Whatever Chairman Mao said, we will say, and whatever Chairman Mao did, we will do." but pinpointing the focus at a nominally separate era. To provide for distinct identity, Hua attempted his own change of the
Chinese written language by further simplifying characters. A small number of these Hua-era simplifications continue to be in use informally, as there was no formal sanction of their legitimacy after Hua left office. In 1978, the
National Anthem was changed to reflect pure communist ideology rather than revolutionary drive, inserting lyrics exclusively dealing with
Mao Zedong Thought and building an ideal socialist nation, as opposed to the wartime patriotism reflected by the original lyrics. However, Hua faced difficulty legitimizing his power due to continuing factional struggle and the fact that his rule was not legitimized by the NPC until his prior promotion to party chairman was legally ratified in 1977. This was the third one used by the PRC, after the original 1954 document, which was scarcely implemented (particularly after the
Anti-Rightist Movement) and referred to by Mao as being "[in many parts] obsolete" by 1958, and the short-lived 1975 "Gang of Four" constitution. In September, Deng Xiaoping also visited the North Korean capital
Pyongyang. He was unimpressed with
Kim Il-sung's extensive personality cult, having seen enough of this sort of thing in China with Mao and also took umbrage at being expected to lay a wreath in front of the giant gold-plated statue of Kim in Pyongyang. Deng reportedly expressed his displeasure at how the aid money given to North Korea by China over the years was being spent on statues and monuments honoring Kim. He suggested that they might be better served using that aid to improve their people's living standards. The North Koreans appeared to have gotten the message, for the gold plating was quietly scraped off the Kim statue in Pyongyang afterwards. Trying to crawl out of its international isolation, China mended fences with
President of Yugoslavia Josip Tito, who visited Beijing in May 1977 after having been long denounced as a "revisionist" and a traitor. In October 1978, Deng Xiaoping visited Japan and concluded a peace treaty with that country's prime minister
Takeo Fukuda, officially ending the state of war that had existed between the two countries since the 1930s. While Japan and China had in fact opened diplomatic relations in 1972, the peace treaty took nearly six years to negotiate, one major sticking point being Chinese insistence on
Tokyo including a clause that denounced Soviet "hegemony" in Asia. There was little sign of improved relations with the
Soviet Union, and Deng Xiaoping declared the
1950 Sino-Soviet friendship treaty to be null and void. Relations with
Vietnam suddenly turned hostile in 1979. These two countries had once been allies, but in 1972 Mao Zedong told Vietnamese premier
Pham Van Dong that they should stop expecting Chinese aid and that the old historical feud between the two countries would erupt again. China also gave its support to the genocidal
Khmer Rouge regime that took power in
Cambodia during 1975, provoking the hostility of the Soviet-backed Vietnamese government. In January 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and drove the Khmer Rouge from power. During his U.S. visit, Deng Xiaoping remarked that Vietnam would have to "be taught a lesson". In February, a full-scale Chinese attack was launched on the Vietnamese border. Although China withdrew after three weeks and declared its objectives met, the war had not gone well and demonstrated the country's weakness. The
PLA lost over 20,000 men due to weapons and equipment that were outdated, poorly made, and in short supply (a side effect of the disruption caused by the Cultural Revolution), maps that were decades old, the continued use of human-wave tactics from the
Korean War, and the fact that the army had no system of ranks. Even worse was that the Chinese had not even engaged Vietnam's regular army (which was in Cambodia), but instead fought militia and home guard units. On the other hand, it was a political victory since the Soviet Union had failed to come to its ally's aid and contented itself with verbal protests. In reference to Moscow's inaction, Deng Xiaoping reiterated Mao Zedong's saying that "You can't know how the tiger will react until you poke its backside." China finally fully established diplomatic relations with the United States on January 1, 1979. This had been planned since
President Nixon's visit in February 1972, but was delayed by the
Watergate scandal and the US withdrawal from Vietnam. The US agreed to recognize the PRC as China's sole government. Diplomatic relations with
Taiwan were terminated, but unofficial and commercial ties remained. Deng Xiaoping visited the U.S. in February and met with
President Carter. Meanwhile, Hua Guofeng headed to Europe in May. He first stopped in
France, reportedly because it was the first western nation to recognize the PRC, and made a fierce attack on Soviet expansionism and hegemony. Later, he visited
West Germany, asking all "peace-loving states" to "demand a stop to aggression and hegemonism", thought to be a veiled reference to the Soviet Union, and expressed his support for German reunification, a move criticized by the
East German news. He displayed some restraint, however, and decided against making what would have been a highly provocative visit to the
Berlin Wall. China's establishment of diplomatic ties with the United States brought about a mixed reaction from the communist world similar to Richard Nixon's 1972 visit. While the Soviets could not condemn this, they were deeply worried about Sino-US collusion against them.
Romanian dictator
Nicolae Ceaușescu hailed it as "an outstanding event in the service of peace", while Yugoslav leader
Josip Broz Tito welcomed the thaw as "a contribution of peaceful coexistence between nations". North Korea also congratulated "our brotherly neighbor for ending long-hostile relations and establishing diplomatic ties with the US" while
Cuba and
Albania openly denounced Beijing as traitors to the cause of world socialism.
Sino-Albanian relations would deteriorate over the course of the next six years, ending in the
termination of diplomatic correspondence between the two countries in 1978.
Deng becomes Paramount Leader Although Hua continued in his leadership role, his power began waning the moment Deng Xiaoping returned to Beijing. The two continued to co-rule for a time, but the latter was rapidly gaining power. With Mao and Zhou Enlai gone, there was no one else in China with his experience and leadership abilities and his ideas seemed fresh and appealing as opposed to Hua's stale promotion of
Mao Zedong Thought. Hua was quickly seen as being nothing more than a vacuous party hack with no ideas of his own. This was reflected in the 1978 constitution, which still contained references to proletarian internationalism and continuous revolution. As Vice-Premier in charge of Technology and Education, Deng restored the
University Entrance Examinations in 1977, opening the doors of
post-secondary education to nearly a generation of youth who lacked this opportunity because of the Cultural Revolution, with 680,000 passing the first entrance exams, though some remained cut off from education. The article stressed the importance of uniting theory and practice, denounced the dogmatic euphoria of the Mao era, and was, in fact, an outright criticism on Hua's
Two Whatevers policy. This article was reprinted in many newspapers across the country, and echoed widespread support amongst party organs and the general populace. Discussions sprung up nationwide in government and military organizations, and Deng's novel and pragmatic stance gained increasing popularity. Despite the freshness of Deng's ideas, in truth his ideas were not really new, but merely an effort to restore China to the situation of the mid-1960s, right before the Cultural Revolution, and in any case, the Politburo continued to be a gerontocracy dominated by men born in the opening years of the 20th century, all of whom had participated in the Long March and Chinese civil war. The 81 year old
Ye Jianying was forced to step down as defense minister in 1978 for health reasons and even with the death of several party elders during the 1970s, the average age of the Central Committee was still around 70. In April, Deng began the political rehabilitation of those who were formerly labeled "rightists" and counter-revolutionaries, a campaign led by Hu Yaobang that pardoned the wrongly accused, restoring the reputation of many party elders and intellectuals who were purged during the Cultural Revolution and other campaigns going all the way back to the
Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957. Prominent politically disgraced people including
Peng Dehuai,
Zhang Wentian,
He Long and
Tao Zhu were given belated rank-appropriate funerals at the
Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery.
Liu Shaoqi was given a large
state funeral in May 1980, when the country was asked to mourn the former president eleven years after his death. During this time, the CCP also established rules for an orderly succession of state and government leaders. Deng Xiaoping proposed mandatory retirement ages despite some protests from party elders and also guidelines were put in place that CCP members who lost their posts or were removed from office could not be jailed or subjected to physical harm. In this regard, Deng borrowed much from Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev when the latter had ended Stalin's terror state and established the practice of using more peaceful methods to dispose of his political rivals. To that end, CCP figures such as Hua Guofeng were merely demoted to unimportant posts, but otherwise retained their party membership and state pension. In 1979, the CCP made a pledge to the nation that it would never again embark on mass campaigns like the Cultural Revolution. Meanwhile, the Gang of Four went on trial in 1980 on charges of counterrevolution, attempting to overthrow the state, and plotting to assassinate Mao. Only Jiang Qing tried to defend herself, repeatedly interrupting the proceedings with hysterical outbursts and sobbing. She argued that she had never done anything more than follow Mao's orders, saying "I was his dog. Whoever he told me to bite, I bit." and daring the authorities to cut off her head. The others were given life in prison, but Jiang was sentenced to death. However, Mao's memory still lingered strong, and her sentence was later commuted to life. She hanged herself in a Beijing hospital in 1991 while undergoing treatment for throat cancer. The power transition from Hua to Deng was confirmed in December 1978, at the Third Plenum of the
Central Committee of the Eleventh National Party Congress, a turning point in China's history. The course was laid for the party to move the world's most populous nation toward the ambitious targets of the Four Modernizations. After a decade of turmoil brought about by the Cultural Revolution, the new direction set at this meeting was toward economic development and away from
class struggle. The plenum endorsed major changes in the political, economic, and social system. Hua renounced his
Two Whatevers and offered a full self-criticism. Replacing the old focus of class struggles was the new policy focused on economic construction. It also instituted sweeping personnel changes, culminating in the elevation of two key supporters of Deng Xiaoping and the reform program, Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang. In contrast to previous leadership changes, Hua would resign his posts one by one, although he remained on the Politburo until 1982. Hua was replaced by Zhao Ziyang as Premier of the State Council in September 1980, and by Hu Yaobang as Party General Secretary of the party in September 1982. The post of chairman was abolished to ensure that no one person could ever dominate the party as Mao Zedong had done. Until the mid-1990s, Deng Xiaoping was China's
de facto Paramount leader, retaining only the official title of
Chairman of the Central Military Commission, but not the chief offices of the State, government, or the Party. Meanwhile,
Li Xiannian was appointed to the post of
Chinese President, vacant since 1968. Li was a believer in central planning, and his appointment to this largely ceremonial position was a compromise move to appease conservative elements in the party. With changes to the
Constitution of China in 1982, the
President was conceived of as a
figurehead head of state, with actual power resting in the hands of the
Premier of China and the
General Secretary of the Party, who were meant to be two separate people. In the original plan, the Party would develop policy, and the state would execute it. Deng's intentions were to have power divided, thus preventing a cult of personality from forming as it did in the case of Mao. The new emphasis on procedure, however, seemed largely undermined by Deng himself, who assumed none of the official titles on the grounds that they should go to younger men. After 1979, the Chinese leadership moved toward more pragmatic policies in almost all fields. The party encouraged artists, writers and journalists to adopt more critical approaches, although open attacks on party authority were not permitted. The Chinese government repudiated the Cultural Revolution. A major document presented at the September 1979 Fourth Plenum of the Eleventh National Party Congress Central Committee, gave a "preliminary assessment" of the entire 30-year period of Communist rule. At the plenum, party Vice Chairman
Ye Jianying declared the Cultural Revolution "an appalling catastrophe" and "the most severe setback to [the] socialist cause since [1949]." The Chinese government's condemnation of the Cultural Revolution culminated in the ''
Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China'', adopted by the sixth plenary session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. This stated that "Comrade Mao Zedong was a great Marxist and a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist and theorist. It is true that he made gross mistakes during the "cultural revolution", but, if we judge his activities as a whole, his contributions to the Chinese revolution far outweigh his mistakes. His merits are primary and his errors secondary." As political ideology was downgraded, numerous statues of Mao were removed around the country and portraits of
Marx,
Engels, and
Lenin, were taken down from
Tiananmen Square.
Joseph Stalin's portrait remained until 1989. In late 1978, after an official evaluation of the
1976 Tiananmen Incident as a "completely a revolutionary event", many emboldened people began staging rallies and protests in Beijing. They erected a large number of posters at
Democracy Wall criticizing the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong, the Gang of Four, and Hua Guofeng. All these were tolerated because of being more-or-less in line with official positions, but some began calling for democracy and open elections. One candidate for a local position even declared his disbelief in communism. In 1968, the government of Canadian Prime Minister
Pierre Elliott Trudeau initiated negotiations with the People's Republic of China that led to the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and
Canada on October 13, 1970. Canada and China established resident diplomatic missions in 1971, and it led to a series of diplomatic successes in the west.
The People's Republic of China joined the United Nations in 1971, replacing the international legitimacy previously held by the
Kuomintang Government of the
Republic of China on the island of Taiwan. In February 1972, US President Richard Nixon made an unprecedented
eight-day visit to the People's Republic of China and met with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. On February 22, 1973, the United States and the PRC agreed to establish liaison offices.
David K. E. Bruce became the first U.S. liaison to
Beijing on May 14, 1973, and
Huang Zhen arrived in Washington as China's liaison on May 30. Full diplomatic relations were established in 1979. Deng traveled abroad and had a series of amicable meetings with western leaders, traveling to the United States in 1979 to meet President Jimmy Carter at the
White House. Carter finally recognized the People's Republic, In response to Carter's recognition of the PRC, the
United States Congress passed the
Taiwan Relations Act in order to maintain unofficial diplomatic, cultural and economic relations with the governing authorities on Taiwan. One of Deng's achievements was the agreement signed by the
United Kingdom and the PRC on December 19, 1984, under which
Hong Kong was to be transferred to the PRC in 1997.