Erm...quick history lesson.
Post-Great Leap Forward Into The Frying Pan, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping WERE bringing China out of Maoism and reforming the economy towards market socialism. They managed to do this because of the thorough job Mao did of blackening his own name and reducing his cult of personality. Basically, it WAS what happened...until the Cultural Revolution kicked off.
Now, a better PoD for this would be in the 50s, where Mao starts heading back to the center at the time of OTL Great Leap Forward instead of taking a corner to the left and off the cliff. Come Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy is overjoyed at the thought of China leaning towards the US. He may well trade Chiang for North Korea. Vietnam...unknown. That would really depend on Ho Chi Minh's call.