ABSTRACT
The death of Mao in 1976, and Deng’s seizure of power in 1978, ushered in what has justly been described as a new era in Chinese development. The ‘Gang of Four’, Chen Boda (Mao’s secretary) and five officers accused of plotting to assassinate Mao in 1971 were tried and imprisoned after a Stalinist show trial in November 1980 which was little more than a demonstration of the justice of the victors. The Party was purged of those, like Hua Guofeng and Chen Yonggui, who had been committed to the late Maoist development model. And late Maoist economic structures were progressively abandoned. Instead, China moved unequivocally in the direction of creating a market-orientated economy based on private ownership and presided over by an authoritarian state.
