There was a logic to Mao's timing of the public criticism of Deng and his withdrawal from public life. In 1975 the general public had accepted Deng as the leader and had approved of the job he was doing. If Hua were to be accepted as the new leader and not troubled by the presence of Deng, it would be better to remove Deng from the public scene and to take his public reputation down a notch.
