A miscarried coup

Between April and September, the 'gang of four' did all they could to hasten and hurry in order to catch power. It was then that they arranged to have a military coup. They armed the militia in Shanghai. They stored food. They placed their people then in Chengchow, in Paoting, in order to control the railways. It was in the summer of 1976 that they took over the railways, and immediately there were shortages in many cities except Shanghai.

In order to keep Shanghai their base, they increased the salaries in Shanghai, all the time shouting against material incentives. Shanghai salaries went up, nowhere else in China. They even subsidised bicycles there, because they wanted to keep Shanghai quiet and make trouble everywhere else. In that way, with China in trouble everywhere else, they would have come out and said: 'You see, there is trouble everywhere, people do not like Chairman Hua Kuo-feng. He can't do anything, and it is up to us now to restore order.'