Mao’s death in September 1976 removed a towering figure from Chinese politics and set off a scramble for succession. Former Minister of Pubic Security Hua Guofeng was quickly confirmed as Party Chairman and Premier. A month after Mao’s death Hua backed by the PLA arrested Jiang Qing and other members of the “Gang of Four.” After extensive deliberations the Chinese Communist Party leadership reinstated Deng Xiaoping to all of his previous posts at the 11th Party Congress in August 1977. Deng then led the effort to place government control in the hands of veteran party officials opposed to the radical excesses of the previous two decades.

The new pragmatic leadership emphasized economic development and renounced mass political movements. At the pivotal December 1978 Third Plenum (of the 11th Party Congress Central Committee) the leadership adopted economic reform policies aimed at expanding rural income and incentives encouraging experiments in enterprise autonomy reducing central planning and establishing direct foreign investment in China. The plenum also decided to accelerate the pace of legal reform culminating in the passage of several new legal codes by the National People’s Congress in June 1979.

After 1979 the Chinese leadership moved toward more pragmatic positions 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. In late 1980 Mao’s Cultural Revolution was officially proclaimed a catastrophe. Hua Guofeng a protege of Mao was replaced as Premier in 1980 by reformist Sichuan party chief Zhao Ziyang and as party General Secretary in 1981 by the even more reformist Communist Youth League chairman Hu Yaobang.

Reform policies brought great improvements in the standard of living especially for urban workers and for farmers who took advantage of opportunities to diversify crops and establish village industries. Literature and the arts blossomed and Chinese intellectuals established extensive links with scholars in other countries.

At the same time however political dissent as well as social problems such as inflation urban migration and prostitution emerged. Although students and intellectuals urged greater reforms some party elders increasingly questioned the pace and the ultimate goals of the reform program. In December of 1986 student demonstrators taking advantage of the loosening political atmosphere staged protests against the slow pace of reform confirming party elders’ fear that the current reform program was leading to social instability. Hu Yaobang a protege of Deng and a leading advocate of reform was blamed for the protests and forced to resign as CCP General Secretary in January 1987. Premier Zhao Ziyang was made General Secretary and Li Peng former Vice Premier and Minister of Electric Power and Water Conservancy was made Premier.