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| 1972, Feb. 21–27 |
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| U.S. president Richard Nixon visited the PRC and met with Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong. Together they issued the Shanghai Communiqué, setting the stage for eventual resumption of diplomatic ties (1979). | 1 |
| Normalization of foreign relations with Japan began. | 2 |
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| 1973, Aug |
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| The 10th Congress of the CCP met in Beijing. The Cultural Revolution Group still maintained control, and many military leaders, former allies of Lin Biao, had been ousted. In addition, some 40 former members of the Central Committee, who had been disgraced during the Cultural Revolution, returned to power, including Deng Xiaoping. Party membership soared to 28 million. At this meeting Zhou Enlai officially denounced Lin Biao in a public forum, the first time this was done by a high-level CCP official. | 3 |
| Late in the year and continuing well into the next, a mass campaign highly reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution was launched to vilify the unlikely twosome of Confucius and Lin Biao. As well, thinly veiled attacks on Zhou Enlai were contained in some of the published material from the campaign, printed in March 1974. | 4 |
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| 1975, Oct |
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| At an important meeting in Shanxi, Hua Guofeng (b. 1920), a little-known party bureaucrat from Mao's native province of Hunan who had only recently been promoted to vice premier of the State Council, gave the keynote address. He had been appointed minister of public security (Jan.) after his investigations into Lin Biao's “plans” to assassinate Mao. | 5 |
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| 1976, Jan. 8 |
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| Zhou Enlai died. His opponents outlawed all public demonstrations of mourning, in spite of which a mass demonstration erupted in Beijing on April 4–5 to pay final tribute to him. Deng Xiaoping delivered the official eulogy (Jan. 15). | 6 |
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| Feb |
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| After Mao, who was severely ailing, appointed Hua Guofeng to be Zhou's successor as premier, another campaign against Deng Xiao-ping (murmurings of which had been heard in late 1975) grew stronger. | 7 |
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| July |
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| Zhu De, founder of the Red Army who was disgraced during the Cultural Revolution but was later rehabilitated, died. | 8 |
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| July 28 |
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| China's worst earthquake in many centuries occurred in Tangshan. The death toll was close to one-quarter million. | 9 |
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| Sept. 9 |
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| MAO ZEDONG DIED. | 10 |
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| Oct. 6 |
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| On the orders of Hua Guofeng, the four top leaders of the Cultural Revolution Group, including Mao's widow, were arrested. They were to become known as the Gang of Four. | 11 |
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| Oct. 7 |
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| Hua Guofeng was named chairman of the Central Committee of the CCP and head of the Military Affairs Committee. | 12 |
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| Nov |
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| Building of a new mausoleum for Mao in Tiananmen Square was commenced. | 13 |
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