Three years after Mao died, in 1979, Deng Xiaoping led an effort to rehabilitate members of the Communist Party who had been persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, and Bo was released from prison and reinstated as a member of the Politburo,[1] and to his former position of vice premier.[2] He joined the ranks of a small group of other senior officials of Deng's generation who Deng had returned to government known as the "Eight Immortals".