Why did the Chinese Communist Party clear Liu Shaoqi’s name in 1980?

In February 1980, the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) decided to completely rehabilitate Liu Shaoqi, formally clearing his name after he had been purged and labeled a "renegade, traitor, and scab" during the Cultural Revolution.1

This rehabilitation was part of a broader political shift following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 and the subsequent fall of the Gang of Four, who had orchestrated the persecution of many party leaders. As Deng Xiaoping rose to power, the party sought to distance itself from the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and restore the reputations of officials who had been unjustly targeted.12

In the process of clearing Liu’s name, the CCP officially designated him a "great Marxist and proletarian revolutionary." Furthermore, the party identified Lin Biao as the individual responsible for concocting the false evidence and orchestrating the political frame-up and physical persecution that led to Liu's downfall and death.1