Zhao Ziyang

Zhao Ziyang is identified as the premier who replaced Hua Guofeng in 1980, as Deng Xiaoping and his allies consolidated influence within the party, army, and government. The book gives no individual actions or later trajectory for Zhao; his significance here is as a named marker of the political transition that preceded the broader economic reforms.

Appointment amid a political transition

The appointment followed the November and December 1978 Third Plenum of the Eleventh Central Party Committee. Over Hua’s objections, the party shifted its stated focus from class struggle to economic modernization and announced tentative experiments with the household responsibility system in some provinces. The book presents the appointment two years later as part of Deng’s gradual advance against Hua’s supporters, rather than as an isolated personnel change.

Deng’s supporters had already begun securing important posts and building parallel bases of power. By 1980, Hua was forced to leave the premiership, and Zhao took his place. Hua was subsequently removed from the Central Committee in 1982. These changes show the reformers’ growing control of state institutions, even as Deng proceeded step by step against his opponents.

Leadership reshaping and reform

Zhao’s appointment formed part of a broader turnover in senior leadership. At the Twelfth Party Congress in 1982 and the National Party Conference in September 1985, Deng achieved an extensive reshuffling that brought younger, reform-minded people into senior positions. Comparing 1980 with 1985, the book reports changes in twenty-one of twenty-six Politburo members, eight of eleven Communist Party secretariat members, and ten of eighteen vice-premiers.

With Deng and the reformers in control, economic changes extended beyond the leadership. The household responsibility system, which introduced incentives for farmers, was universally adopted by 1983. In 1985, mandatory state grain purchasing gave way to more voluntary contracts, administrative control of agricultural prices was relaxed, state enterprises received greater autonomy, and fourteen open cities were designated to attract foreign investment. Zhao is mentioned as premier at the outset of this institutional transition; the account does not attribute these individual measures to him.

Significance in the book’s account

The book uses Zhao’s appointment to illustrate how major economic change depended on political contests and shifts in institutional power, not simply on leaders discovering better advice. Deng’s allies had different interests and objectives from their rivals, built support within the state, and gradually displaced Hua’s supporters. Zhao’s brief appearance locates him within that sequence: he becomes premier as the reformers’ political victory advances, before the account turns to the resulting changes in agriculture, state enterprise, prices, and foreign investment.