January 13–17
The 1st Session of the 4th NPC was convened. It reiterated the goal of the four modernizations, elected Zhu De chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, and appointed Zhou Enlai as premier of the State Council and Deng Xiaoping and others as vice premiers of the Sate Council. Earlier, Deng Xiaoping was appointed as vice-chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission on January 5, and was elected vice-chairman of the CPC Central Committee at the 2nd Plenary Session of the 10th CPC Central Committee held from January 8 to 10.
February
With the support of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping started to take charge of the routine work of the State Council. In July, he started to take charge of the routine work of the CPC Central Committee. During this period, he rectified every sphere of work in the country and made notable achievements. In November, the rectification work had to be suspended.
November 26
China successfully launched a recoverable remote sensing satellite and succeeded in retrieving it as planned, becoming the third country after the United States and the Soviet Union with satellite recovery technology.
From: Chronicle of the People's Republic of China (October 1949 — September 2019) ,edited by The Institute of Party History and Literature of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, PP82-83