两年前的1976年，毛泽东去世，恢复名誉的邓小平成为他的继任者，并在1978年的中共十一届三中全会上确定了他的经济发展和现代化计划。
Mao Zedong had died two years earlier, in 1976, and the newly rehabilitated Deng Xiaoping succeeded in stamping his vision of economic development and modernization on the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee held in December 1978.