However, these changes were not managed without overcoming opposition in the party, bureaucracy, and military. There were still a few extremist followers of the Gang of Four, but not many and efforts were made to weed them from the party. There did exist a large number of Stalinists who believed in orthodox central planning, and socio-political conformity. This group generally wanted to return to the ways of the 1950s and restore ties with the Soviet Union, believing that the communist world was China's natural friend. In particular, many of the Stalinists thought that Deng Xiaoping was moving too far in dismantling Mao's legacy and allowing greater freedom of expression. The largest number of them were in the military, which complained about having its budget cut from 10% of China's total GDP in 1978 to 5% by 1982. Several weapons projects that had been in the works during the '70s were dropped due to being too expensive and unnecessary and generals also objected at being asked to produce consumer goods (a common practice in the Soviet Union) instead of receiving badly needed defense modernization. Deng stressed the need for military obedience to party directives, reminding them of Mao's dictum that "The party must control the gun, but the gun must never be allowed to control the party." A higher degree of professionalism was emphasized in the PLA during the 1980s and the system of ranks that had been abolished in 1965 was slowly restored. On National Day (October 1) 1984, China staged its first military parade since 1959 to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. These parades had been held every year during the 1950s, then called off due to cost reasons. The 1984 event however showed the relative backwardness of China's armed forces, which had only recently reached the technological level of the Soviet Union 25 years earlier. In 1985, Yeh Jianyang and several other elderly party leaders agreed to retire.