alternatehistory.com

The military junta administered China for about a full year before it transitioned power back to a civilian government; a piecemeal civilian government, but a civilian government anyway. In this year in which the military ruled China, a lot of the moderate actions of the previous administrators had been completely reversed on a whim; angering the Chinese people, and sending the People's Republic into a mad frenzy.

First, the junta, more than just Lin Biao, agreed to implement Mao's collectivism policies to "jumpstart the state economy and China's industrialization"; this, combined with unfavorable weather and incompetency after dozens of bureaucrats were purged for being unfavorable to the regime, lead to the Great Chinese Famine. The Junta knew that they were becoming more and more untenable in their positions of power, but they gripped on knowing that they would be able to finish their counter-reforms before the powderkeg burst.

Secondly, the People's Liberation Army began to conduct more daring exercises. In late 1958, PLA operatives, combined with Khmer leftists, overthrew the monarchy and established the People's Republic of Khmer; a radical communist state aligned with that of the PLA Junta (who were by and large dominated by Maoists); An attempt to do the same in Laos failed miserably after a CIA counter-coup was quickly organized and defeated the PLA-backed Revolutionaries.

In a final grasp, in the Spring of 1959, China invaded Tibet, hoping to gain a few marginal victories to secure a continued power base. Despite a victory over the Dalai Lama and the Tibet state, China suffered higher losses than expected during the campaign; which damaged the Junta's standing in the public eye.

With the famine worsening, and their figurehead's health fading rapidly, the Junta began to plan a handover of power. Their political situation worsened in the Summer of 1959, as most of the surviving Moderate and Reformist leaders of the Party, whom had all fled to North Korea and the Soviet Union, met in Pyongyang and formed the People's Party of China, and decried the legacy of the Communist Party, saying that it "no longer stood for the good of the Chinese proletariat, and that they had lost their way through militarism and egregious political purging".

The newly formed PPC gained the backing of both the Soviet Union and North Korea, who found Deng's political goals to align very well with their own. The United States watched the situation with baited breath; President Kefauver was reluctant to involve the CIA or any American assets in the chaotic politics of China, and preferred to observe from a distance.

Despite China's rapid step towards totalitarianism, many nations began to recognize her as the proper government of China. From only 1 (Soviet Union) in 1949, by 1959, all of the Communist states, along with all of the African nations whom had already achieved independence, recognized her as the sole Chinese state.

The Chinese government began to petition the United Nations for recognition as the proper successor to China, arguing that with the fact that all of historic China being under the PRC's purvey, that there was "no reason why the People's Republic should not represent the Chinese nation in the United Nations, as opposed to the Taiwanese, who are confined to an island."

On October 1, 1959; ten years after the establishment of the People's Republic, the Junta formally handed power back to a civilian government, this one thoroughly purged of non-Maoists. While the Great Helmsman could have taken power back himself, he was advised by the Junta to "not do so", as his presence could have enflamed the growing discontent.

Instead, the Junta appointed somebody else to rule China...