ABSTRACT
The early months of 1972 seemed fine for Zhou, who was put in charge of the Politburo’s routine affairs because of Lin Biao’s sudden death and Mao’s continuing refusal to play any frontline role. He worked hard on rebuilding the national economy and rehabilitating veteran cadres to central or provincial leadership posts, both under the general slogan of rectifying Lin’s “leftist line”. At a Politburo meeting chaired by Wang Hongwen on October 17, 1974, Deng and Jiang crossed verbal swords for the first time. The argument started over a casual matter. It was reported that a Chinese-made cruiser, the Fengqing, had just successfully finished its maiden voyage abroad. Jiang claimed this event as a grand victory in the class struggle of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie and went on to condemn any purchase of foreign ships as constituting a capitalist line. Deng could not easily accept that kind of extravagance.
