After Hu Yaobang became Minister of the Organization Department, he proposed seeking truth from facts to correct untrue statements and incorrect conclusions.
On October 28, 1977, over 100 Hong Kong police officers, dissatisfied with investigations by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, stormed its headquarters and injured personnel; Governor Murray MacLehose ultimately announced an amnesty for old cases of corruption that had not been investigated before January 1, 1977.
On February 7, 1977, People's Daily published an editorial titled "Study the Documents Well and Grasp the Key Link," which stated, "We resolutely uphold all policy decisions made by Chairman Mao; we unswervingly follow all instructions given by Chairman Mao." This later became known as the "Two Whatevers," and Hua Guofeng was accused of adhering to this principle.
After the restoration of the gaokao in 1977, Zha Jianying was admitted to the Chinese Department of Peking University, and in 1981, during her senior year, she went to the United States to study.
After Mao Zedong's death, in 1977, with the support of Deng Xiaoping and Hu Yaobang, China restored the gaokao (college entrance exam), allowing many children of families persecuted during the Cultural Revolution to change their fate through the exam. Subsequently, in the 1980s, overseas scholarships and government-sponsored study abroad programs emerged, and large numbers of Chinese students went to the United States for further studies.
After Deng Xiaoping returned to power in 1977, he had Luo Ruiqing, Secretary-General of the Central Military Commission, transfer the affiliation of the Central Guard Regiment from the General Office of the CCP Central Committee to the CCP Central Military Commission, incorporating it into the Guard Bureau of the General Staff Department, and recalled Zhou Enlai's old chief guard, Yang Dezhong, back to Beijing to take charge of the Guard Bureau. From then on, the Director of the General Office no longer controlled this unit.