After Ren's death, the original five secretarial posts were vacant and Chen Yun took over.

After the Eighth National Congress, Chen was elected as the vice chairman of the Central Committee and Deng was appointed as the general secretary. At that time, the ranking was Mao Liu Zhou Zhu Chen Deng.

The Fifth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee elected Lin Biao as the Standing Committee and Vice Chairman, ranking behind Chen Yun and before Deng.