WI: Mao dies early?

So there's quite a bit of discussion here about how to avoid the PRC altogether, or about post-(OTL)-Mao Chinese politics, but what I haven't seen is much discussion about anything in the middle. So, suppose Mao dies (in an accident, say) between 1949 and 1958 (IOW, after the announcement of the formation of the PRC and before the Great Leap Forward). What happens then?
 
Depending on the time either Zhou Enlai or Liu Shaoqi pulls a Deng.
Mao isn't in the same league as Hitler or Stalin.
 
Depending on the time either Zhou Enlai or Liu Shaoqi pulls a Deng.
Mao isn't in the same league as Hitler or Stalin.

Absolutely, China does receive the reforms that were necessary but is spared the Maoist insanity of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. It remains a dictatorship but the worst excesses of OTL don't happen. Deng comes to prominence much earlier and begins his reforms, China is then probably the world's largest economy today.
 
Mao is fondly remembered and even praised throughout much of the world. China is much, much happier and healthier.
 
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