Cultural Revolution

1970-76: Room at the Top


As life slowly returned to normal and people began to concentrate on rebuilding the economy, the shock waves from the Cultural Revolution continued to be felt at the highest levels of the Party and government. Through its dominance of the 'Three-in-One Committees', the PLA was now the de facto government in most of China. Mao, whose view of Party-Army relations was summed up in the slogan, 'the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party', had to be on his guard against a possible military power grab.

In August 1970, Lin Biao and Chen Boda proposed that the post of Head of State (which had been abolished when Liu Shaoqi was removed from office) be revived and that the Party formally endorse the 'theory of genius', on the grounds that an intellectual giant of Mao's stature happened along only once in several centuries. Mao probably interpreted these proposals as an attempt to shove him 'upstairs' to a position where he could rule only through Lin and Chen. He defended himself by reducing Lin's power base by calling on several PLA generals and Lin's wife to make 'revolutionary self-criticisms', and removing Chen Boda from office as chief Party theoretician.

Lin had to take action to preserve himself, and matters came to a head in September 1971. It is alleged, but has never been conclusively proven, that Lin, members of his family, and a clique of senior officers drawn mostly from the Air Force planned to assassinate Mao and seize power in a coup d'etat. The attempt did not succeed and Lin fled the country, but his plane crashed and burned in Mongolia. The immediate aftermath of this attempted coup was a purge of several hundred top military and Party officials. The longer-term effect was to undermine the position of the 'radical' political elements within the Party associated with Lin and Chen.

Mao's health began to fail after 1972, and he became less active in public life. Premier Zhou Enlai came to occupy the number-two position of power. His economic philosophy of pragmatic modernization and economic incentives was very close to the ideas represented by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, but he had escaped censure during the Cultural Revolution due to his close association with Mao, administrative competency, and carefully neutral stance. As leader of the State Council, he had essentially run the country by himself when most of the central ministers and their subordinates were removed from office by the Red Guards, a feat which won him great respect. From 1972 to 1976, a seesaw power struggle developed between Zhou's more moderate faction and the radical group led by Jiang Qing. For example, a popular re-education drive called "Repudiate Lin Biao and Confucius" was a thinly-veiled attack by Jiang Qing against Zhou.

Zhou died in January 1976 and Mao appointed Hua Guofeng, one of Zhou's protégés, as acting Premier. Mao himself died in September 1976, and Hua and the 'moderate' elements in the Party arrested Jiang Qing and the radical leaders associated with her (called the 'Gang of Four') within a month. After ten years of turmoil, the Rightists had won.