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Abstract
Events since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 have raised doubts in many people's minds about what kind of democratic processes operate in China and within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). These questions have been highlighted by the manner of the purging of the “Gang of Four” and the reappearance of Deng Xiaoping after his purging on the personal orders of Chairman Mao. The charges against the “Gang of Four” are incoherent, and have been framed as much in terms of personal abuse (and in the case of Jiang Qing, sexist abuse) as in terms of principled political disagreements. And the reversal of many of the policies of the Cultural Revolution—a reversal consolidated at the recent National People's Congress—leaves a question mark hanging over the future of the Chinese revolution.