D.B.W.I. The Gang of Four Lose Power

What if a more pragmatic leadership had taken power in China after Mao´s death. Would the less ideological rulers have actually paid attention and learned from the demise of Communism in Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R.?
 
Well, without the actions of the "Gang of Four", current leader Mao Yuanxin , the nephew of Mao Tse-tung wouldn't have come to power in 1989. His rise to power was seen in 1989 as a continuation of the legacy of Jiang Qing. Some weird "butterfly effect" ideas that come to mind is that with Jiang Qing's role as the world's most powerful female leader, surpassing Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's role, would the role of women have changed without her rule? Just remember how the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) passed in 1982, despite Republican opposition, as means of showing that the West would not be seen as "sexist capitalist dinosaurs"...

As for the nature of China, it is hard to imagine the country outside of its isolationist and Stalinist background. It almost seems ASB to imagine any reforms taking place....
 

ninebucks

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The Peoples' Republic of China is a basketcase, but its a nominally stable basketcase. Without the G4 there to enforce order, China would no doubt collapse into civil war by early-80s. The Taiwanese would reassume the role of the rightful Chinese government and would reinherit the UNSC seat, this would deliver a striking blow to world communism, probably crippling it more completely than OTL.

So in TTL, there may well be no communist states left by the present day, as opposed to our own TL where China, Laos and Yugoslavia still call themselves Communist.
 
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