Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Lin Biao's perfidy shocked the Chinese public, and soon there were
massive anti-Lin Biao rallies. Lin's introduction to Mao's Quotations
was dutifully cut out of millions of copies, and today a first-printing
copy of the Quotations with Lin Biao's introduction still intact is some-
thing of a rarity and a collector's item.
The fall of Lin Biao led to a power struggle between the Maoist rad-
icals and the more moderate voices in the Chinese government, chief
of whom was Zhou Enlai. Zhou was designated as Mao's heir-
apparent, and this did not sit well with the radicals. The center of the
radicals' power was the Politburo, which included Jiang Qing and
her radical literary and cultural supporters. Two of these radicals
were, in fact, members of the Standing Committee, a five-or six-
member core group within the Politburo. Zhou led the moderates
and attempted to reduce the power of the radicals. Zhou brought Deng
Xiaoping, a fellow moderate, back to power in 1974, and the next year
Zhou announced China's “Four Modernizations,” or goals to improve
and modernize agriculture, industry, defense, and science. The radi-
cals were incensed by this and accused Zhou and Deng of plotting to
restore capitalism in China.
Zhou Enlai died in early January 1976 of cancer, and all of China
mourned. He might have lived a little longer had Mao not refused to
allow him treatment for his cancer. Zhou's death led to a power strug-
gle over whether a moderate or a radical would be named as Mao's
successor. Deng Xiaoping, who had no other source of support than
Zhou, found himself in an awkward and precarious position. Mao
designated a compromise candidate as his successor, a relatively
unknown figure named Hua Guofeng, and reportedly told him that
“with you in charge, my mind is at ease.” Meanwhile, the battles
between radicals and moderates continued. By March the radicals
were attacking Zhou's memory and vilifying him as a capitalist roader,
an opprobrious bogeyman tag somewhat equivalent to being labeled a
“commie” during the 1950s in the United States. This infuriated mil-
lions of people who knew that Zhou had been a moderating force
behind the darkest days of the Cultural Revolution and had blunted
its sharpest edges; without him, the Cultural Revolution might well
have been much worse. Zhou, in fact, and not Mao, was by 1975 the
most beloved man in China. In April millions of people marched to
Tiananmen Square and celebrated his memory by placing huge
mounds of wreaths and poems at the foot of the Monument to the
Heroes of the People in the middle of the square. Mao's ordering of
the removal of these tributes on April 5 led to the Tiananmen Incident,
