Deng Xiaoping dies in 1980 and Chen Yun becomes chairman of the CCP

In which direction would China and its economy go?

Everything goes as usual until dengs death somewhen in 1980. Deng has ousted Hua and the reformists are in power. However, with Chen holding the main share of power since 1980, he strongly slows down the more liberal reformers policies and wishes for China to remain socialist, disregarding overtly capitalist policies, opposing any smashing of the iron rice-bowl, promoting his plans of a "birdcage economy" combining central planning and a strong state with some flexibilities here and there to allow some market activity, thereby maybe reducing the role of black markets and promoting rural development.

Officially, the PRC back then did not allow private ownership over the means of production. However, in practice, many cadres owned some wealth and started to become richer and richer starting with the 1980s reforms (in real history, of course). What would be his stance on that? I know, he used to be strongly anti-corruption. Maybe he would implement some form of maximum wage or maximum amount of wealth one and especially CCP members could have to halt the process of the CCP disconnecting itself from the masses and becoming the "communist" party tea get-together billionaires club it is today. He could try to combine some aspects of capitalism with socialism, where work incentive for especially poorer people to rise up a bit exists, but with a strongly distributive element if it goes too far up and where the will of the collective comes to play. The central plan would have included huge public infrastructure projects such as the Three Gorges Dam and provided for pumping the crandle to grave-system with the money it needs creating a healthy and relatively happy working populace neither trapped in extreme rural collectivization nor in the sometimes huge and degrading inequalities China finds itself in today.

Chairman of the Central Committee of the CCP: Chen Yun
Minister of Finance: Li Xiannian (succeeding Wu Bo in 1980)
Prime Minister of the PRC: Zhao Ziyang
Honorary President of the PRC: Song Qingling
How would that work out? Although I can see that Zhao and Li working together on the economy seems a bit goofy.
Zhao and Chen did not dislike each other, Zhao could still succeed Hua as premier in 1980. Hu Yaobang gets smashed in the trash without Deng. Chen Yun officially succeeds Hua as CCP chairman in 1980/1981 and becomes some sort of paramount leader, however he would likely never come even close to Deng regarding one-man power. He would still be vulnerable to the other elders and their opinion on modernizing China. Could he start rehabilitating some former leftist maoists in case he gets in trouble with the other party elders?
Would China under him survive the anti-communist global wave of the late 1980s/early 1990s? He was not as tough on political reform as Deng but he never advocated it either (?).
How would he reform the military?
Since the Special Economic Zones started to open in 1981 in places like Shenzhen, Xiamen could he jump off the wagon and decide not to open them in the last moment?
Could he support them first, but later on crumble them or somehow reduce their role wishing to attract less foreign investment to not disturb the socialist morality ;-D of the people?

What do you think about this idea and how could a Chen-administration and its policies look like, in your opinion?
I think the idea is at least interesting because the Deng clique was very instrumental in transforming a country that took the stance on the soviet union not being socialist enough into one of the modern backbones of production in global capitalism. Whatever you think about China, seeing it taking a different road just because of the death of an over 75 yrs old man (could be heart attack, brain stroke, an "accident", whatever you wish for ;-)) in the right time is a funny thing to think about.
 
Top