When Lin died, the Gang of Four condemned numerous philosophies and the moderate ideals of Deng Xiaoping. Mao grew worried that he was being controlled by Jiang, which led to him distancing himself from her, but he continued to use the Gang of Four to monitor other groups within China and oversee their actions. Zhou and Deng suggested more moderate policies, but the death of Zhou in 1976 weakened Deng’s position. After Zhou died, the focus was targeted towards who would become Mao’s successor. The Gang of Four supported Zhang, and Zhou had supported Deng. The death of Zhou resulted in Deng being a less rational candidate for Mao. Instead, Mao chose Hua Guofeng, a moderate between the opposing factions. At the Qingming festival of 1976, a large wave of people entered Tiananmen square to mourn Zhou and show support for Deng. Hua attempted to remove the wreaths a day after the festival, and sparked a mass protest. Uncertain of what to do, Hua followed Mao’s suggestion and violently ended the protest. The blame for the protest was put on Deng, forcing him to flee to Canton under the protection of a …show more content…
Hua, however, had support of the Politburo and military. Losing support, the Gang of Four attempted a rebellion, but failed to gain enough support. Without the protection under Mao, the members of Gang of Four were arrested and imprisoned. Deng Xiaoping was reinstated back into the government and in 1977 he was appointed General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party met in 1978 and appointed Deng Chairman of the Committee in charge of economic reform. It accepted Deng's policy of the four modernizations and decided to bring back Party democracy. Deng looked at Mao’s ruling and proposed a compromise; he was validated as a great leader who had made some grand mistakes, but overall his contributions to China outweighed his mistakes. The Central Committee decided that Mao had been 70% right for his contributions and 30% in the wrong for his mass murders and other errors. The Gang of Four was put on trial in 1981 for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people during the Cultural