SANDRO BORDONE

La lotta per la successione a Mao e la fine del maoismo

213

Settembre-Dicembre 2006

Anno LXXI    n. 3

Summary - The 1970 was a tumultuous decade in the history of the CCP. Plagued by political extremism and acrimonious leadership infighting, the decade saw the demise of Lin Biao, the rise and fall of the radical Gang of Four (including another potential successor Wang Hongwen), the death of Zhou Enlai and Mao in 1976, the emergence of a complete outsider as leader in the shape of Hua Guofeng and the subsequent and rapid eclipse of Hua by Deng Xiaoping, returning from his second period of political exile. The emergence of Deng was of huge significance in that it marked the end of radical Maoism and the beginning of a new era of economic reform. After decades of political instability the party in effect turned its back on the discredited Maoist paradigms of mass mobilization and charismatic legitimacy and re-invented itself as the party of economic performance based on the program of the Four Modernization.