ABSTRACT
Deng Xiaoping's return to power involved quite a twisted process. After the elimination of the "Gang of Four," his followers demanded both a political reinterpretation of the 1976 Tiananmen incident and his return. In November and December 1978, a powerful coalition emerged, consisting of the Democracy Wall movement and the democratic reform forces in the Party who wanted to put an end to the Mao Zedong empire in China. Some demanded rehabilitation; others discussed politics and democracy, or better yet, denounced the bureaucracy and corruption of Party cadres. From the end of 1978 to the beginning of 1979, Democracy Wall was the political center of the capital, attracting people from all over the country, including cadres, not to mention journalists, foreign and local. Under the influence of Democracy Wail, the Central Work Conference completely deviated from the route mapped out by Hua Guofeng and Wang Dongxing.
