[3] Ji worked at Luoyang Mining Equipment Factory, which was built in the mid-1950s as one of the key industrial projects which the USSR helped build during China's First Five-Year Plan.
[3][5] Mao Zedong visited Henan more than ten times before the start of the Cultural Revolution, and summoned Ji Dengkui for reporting whenever he was in the province.
His release was announced after a visit to Henan from representatives of the central government, and was believed to be partly due to his relationship with Mao.
[1] Ji was a member of the "Whatever Faction" that allied with Hua Guofeng, who was eventually to be outmaneuvered by Deng Xiaoping to resign from the highest command of party leadership.
Although initially playing a key role in setting the agenda and drafting documents on agricultural development, Ji quickly found himself subject to criticisms from all sides for "mistakes" he made during the Cultural Revolution at the Third Plenum of the Eleventh Party Congress in 1978.
[1] Taken over from Hua Guofeng by Chen Yun and Hu Yaobang, the subsequent discussion sessions turned to the historical cases of Liu Shaoqi, Peng Dehuai, Tao Zhu, and Bo Yibo.
Ji was also named, after his fellow Vice Premier Wang Dongxing was criticized by Hu Yaobang and Yu Guangyuan's reformist camp.
[7] Eventually, Ji Dengkui, Wang Dongxing, Wu De, and Chen Xilian, the four high-ranking allies of Hua, were labelled the "Little Gang of Four" and dismissed from the most important of their political posts.