Ironically, this all happened under the rule of Deng Xiaoping. He was Mao Zedong's successor in 1978 and launched the economic reforms. These reforms helped life for farmers and people who lived in the countryside, but was bad for city dwellers. Intellectuals, students, and industrial workers, feared unemployment rising and social problems. They felt disenfranchised. This means people felt they could do nothing about these problems.