Tao Zhu
Ji was a member of the "Whatever Faction" that allied with Hua Guofeng, who was eventually to be outmaneuvered by Deng Xiaoping to resign from the highest command of party leadership. Leading up to the watershed events in 1978, Ji had served as the Executive Vice Premier of the Council in charge of agriculture. Although initially playing a key role in setting the agenda and drafting documents on agricultural development, Ji quickly found himself subject to criticisms from all sides for "mistakes" he made during the Cultural Revolution at the Third Plenum of the Eleventh Party Congress in 1978. Taken over from Hua Guofeng by Chen Yun and Hu Yaobang, the subsequent discussion sessions turned to the historical cases of Liu Shaoqi, Peng Dehuai, Tao Zhu, and Bo Yibo. According to Yu Guangyuan, who was in the same Northwest Group at the Conference, Ji remained noticeably passive throughout these sessions. “Among the 35 members in northwest group," recounts Yu, "34 of them spoke actively." Ji was also named, after his fellow Vice Premier Wang Dongxing was criticized by Hu Yaobang and Yu Guangyuan's reformist camp. Eventually, Ji Dengkui, Wang Dongxing, Wu De, and Chen Xilian, the four high-ranking allies of Hua, were labelled the "Little Gang of Four" and dismissed from the most important of their political posts. Although the decision was made in 1978, it was not made public until February 1980, at the Fifth Plenum of the Party Congress.