Really China would have collapsed if Jiang Qing took the power?

I read here in the past through comments and timelines (mostly dystopias, to be honest) if Jiang Qing and the civilian, "far-leftist" part of the CCP seized the power soon after the death of Mao, (let's say as simple POD Hua Guofeng hesitated too much to strike - as far I know, he was indeed hesitant - so fizzling the coup of the Old Guard of the party), the inevitable outcome was the Chinese collapse, going from the worse case such as civil war to the "lesser" one (fractionalism of the country even with the existance of the legitimate government in Beijing).

But, trying to be objective the most possible, could be instead plausible Jiang Qing and her clique after weathering the inevitable storm, to stabilize their power and effectively control the country? If yes, what kind of alternate China would have emerged? A really dark place as various people believes or there could be some hope to see a "better" or at least not worse than OTL outcome for the Middle Country?
 
The main problem is that they were the mouthpieces and had almost no idea of how to run a country. It'd look like what happened when the Khmer Rouge ran Cambodjia - basically, ideology-induced mass murder.
 

RousseauX

Donor
I read here in the past through comments and timelines (mostly dystopias, to be honest) if Jiang Qing and the civilian, "far-leftist" part of the CCP seized the power soon after the death of Mao, (let's say as simple POD Hua Guofeng hesitated too much to strike - as far I know, he was indeed hesitant - so fizzling the coup of the Old Guard of the party), the inevitable outcome was the Chinese collapse, going from the worse case such as civil war to the "lesser" one (fractionalism of the country even with the existance of the legitimate government in Beijing).

But, trying to be objective the most possible, could be instead plausible Jiang Qing and her clique after weathering the inevitable storm, to stabilize their power and effectively control the country? If yes, what kind of alternate China would have emerged? A really dark place as various people believes or there could be some hope to see a "better" or at least not worse than OTL outcome for the Middle Country?

Jiang Qing was basically incapable of holding power because she had no base of support in either the army nor the party outside of the propaganda department. Pretty much everyone, even those who had benefited from the cultural revolution, hated her.

And this was by design, Mao had specifically made the gang of four the ones to carry out vicious attacks on his political opponents so he kept his own hands clean. There was also the fact that she was a woman and reminded everyone of Empress Dowager Cixi.
 
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