Chairman of the Communist Party of China
Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China, dies. A period of power struggles begins. The so-called Gang of Four (Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan) maintains power for about a month, ousted by a coup in October. Hua Guofeng rises to power and begins abandoning the mandates of the Cultural Revolution. He is replaced by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, which also marks the beginning of a major economic reform in the People's Republic of China. Enver Hoxha becomes increasingly critical of the new Chinese regime(s), leading to a cooling of the relations between Albania and China.