Efforts were returned to the agriculture sector while industries' now apparent inefficiencies were corrected. Strong centralization involved numerous bureaucratic difficulties, but there was resistance to decentralizing because autonomy would reinforce old and/or create new existing economic disparities between regions. Philosophically, Mao was strongly opposed to this happening.
The 1970s had three significant political events which are worth noting here. Nixon visited in February of 1972, signaling the complete breakdown in relations between communist China and the Soviet Union. This fact is profound in that it meant after the Korean War there was no more of the foreign assistance or technology transfer previously supplied by the USSR. The year 1976 saw the deaths of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, opening up the door for Deng to institute his reforms. And in 1978, in response to China's support of Cambodia and under pressure from the Kremlin, Hanoi closed any private businesses within its borders. These facilities were predominantly owne
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