Editing Cultural Revolution (section)

=== Deng Xiaoping's rehabilitation (1975) ===
Deng Xiaoping returned to the political scene, assuming the post of Vice-Premier in March 1973, in the first of a series of Mao-approved promotions. After Zhou withdrew from active politics in January 1975, Deng was effectively put in charge of the government, party, and military, then adding the additional titles of [[People's Liberation Army General Staff Department|PLA General Chief of Staff]], [[Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party]], and vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|381}}

Mao wanted to use Deng as a counterweight to the military faction in government to suppress former Lin loyalists. In addition, Mao had also lost confidence in the Gang of Four and saw Deng as the alternative. Leaving the country in grinding poverty would damage the positive legacy of the CR, which Mao worked hard to protect. Deng's return set the scene for a protracted factional struggle between the radical Gang of Four and moderates led by Zhou and Deng.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

At the time, Jiang and associates held effective control of mass media and the party's [[Propaganda in China|propaganda network]], while Zhou and Deng held control of most government organs. On some decisions, Mao sought to mitigate the Gang's influence, but on others, he acquiesced to their demands. The Gang of Four's political and media control did not prevent Deng from enacting his economic policies. Deng emphatically opposed Party factionalism, and his policies aimed to promote unity to restore economic productivity. Much like the post-Great Leap restructuring led by Liu Shaoqi, Deng streamlined the [[Rail transport in China|railway system]], [[Steel industry in China|steel production]], etc. By late 1975, however, Mao saw that Deng's economic restructuring might negate the CR's legacy and launched the [[Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend]], a campaign to oppose "rehabilitating the case for the rightists", alluding to Deng as the country's foremost "rightist". Mao directed Deng to write self-criticisms in November 1975, a move lauded by the Gang of Four.<ref name=Mac/>{{rp|381}}