 His attempts at mitigating the Red Guards' damage and his efforts to protect others from their wrath made him immensely popular in the Cultural Revolution's later stages.As Mao's health began to decline in 1971 and 1972 and following the death of disgraced Lin Biao, Zhou was elected to the vacant position of First Vice Chairman of the Communist Party by the 10th Central Committee in 1973 and thereby designated as Mao's successor (the third person after Liu Shaoqi and Lin), but still struggled against the Gang of Four internally over leadership of China.His last major public appearance was at the first meeting of the 4th National People's Congress on 13 January 1975, where he presented the government work report.