Question

After Mao Zedong died in 1976, Deng Xiaoping became China’s leader and adopted
Communism
as the country’s main goal.

Answer 1

That statement is inaccurate.

Brief corrections and context:
- Mao Zedong died on 9 September 1976. Immediately after, Hua Guofeng (Chairman of the Communist Party) was the official successor for a short time.
- Deng Xiaoping was politically rehabilitated after the Cultural Revolution and by 1978 had become the country’s paramount leader (he never held the single top state title continuously but exercised supreme influence).
- Deng did not “adopt Communism” as a new goal — the Chinese Communist Party remained the ruling party and Marxism–Leninism stayed the official ideology. What changed was the emphasis and practice: Deng moved away from Mao’s class‑struggle focus toward pragmatic economic modernization.
- Starting with the Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee in 1978, Deng launched “Reform and Opening Up” and policies often called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics.” These reforms introduced market mechanisms, decollectivized agriculture, created Special Economic Zones, opened China to foreign investment, and prioritized economic growth (the “Four Modernizations”).
- In short: Deng preserved the Communist Party’s political monopoly but shifted China toward market-oriented economic reforms rather than intensifying Maoist-style communism.