Sara S
09-22-2011, 02:36 PM
from delancyplace.com:
In today's excerpt - Deng Xiaoping (1904 - 1997) took de facto leadership of China
shortly after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. The country was then in a chaotic
and catastrophic condition, but has since ascended past Japan to become the second
largest economy in the world. Deng is widely credited as the leader that led China
toward a market economy, its current prominence, and economic success:
"In March 1979 Sir Murray MacLehose, the widely respected Chinese speaking British
governor of Hong Kong, flew to Beijing to explain Hong Kong's problems. Told in
advance only that he would meet a high official, MacLehose was delighted to learn
after he arrived that he would be meeting Deng Yiaoping, who had just been named
China's preeminent leader. During an intimate meeting in the Great Hall of the
People, MacLehose told Deng about the growing difficulties confronting Hong Kong.
As both men well knew, the British had ruled the colony of Hong Kong since the Opium
War, but the lease from China for most of the land that was now part of Hong Kong
would expire in 1997. Governor MacLehose was measured and diplomatic as he talked
of the need to reassure Hong Kong people deeply worried about what might happen
after 1997. Deng listened attentively to Governor MacLehose's concerns and then,
as they rose after their talk and moved toward the door, he beckoned to MacLehose.
The governor, well over six feet tall, leaned over to hear the words of his five-foot
host: 'If you think governing Hong Kong is hard, you ought to try governing China.'
"Deng was acutely aware that China was in a disastrous state. At the beginning of
the previous decade, during the Great Leap Forward, more than thirty million people
had died. The country was still reeling from the Cultural Rev- olution in which
young people had been mobilized to attack high-level officials and, with Mao's support,
push them aside as the country of almost one billion people was plunged into chaos.
The average per capita income of Chinese peasants, who made up 80 percent of the
population, was then only $40 per year. The amount of grain produced per person
had fallen below what it had been in 1957.
"Military officials and revolutionary rebels had been moved in to replace the senior
party officials who had been forced out, but they were unprepared and unqualified
for the positions they had assumed. The military had become bloated and was neglecting
the military tasks, while military officers in civilian jobs were enjoying the perquisites
of offices without performing the work. The transportation and communication infrastructure
was in disarray. The bigger factories were still operating with technology imported
from the Soviet Union in the 1950s, and the equipment was in a state of disrepair.
Universities had been basically closed down for almost a decade. Educated youth
had been forcibly sent to the countryside and it was becoming harder to make them
stay. Yet in the cities there were no jobs for them, nor for the tens of millions
of peasants wanting, to migrate there. Further, the people who were already living
in the cities, fearing for their jobs, were not ready to welcome newcomers. ...
"Deng faced a tall order, and an unprecedented one: at the time, no other Communist
country had succeeded in reforming its economic system and bringing sustained rapid
growth, let alone one with one billion people in a state of disorder.
"Despite Deng's diminutive stature, once he became the preeminent leader, when he
appeared in a room he had a commanding presence that made him a natural center of
attention. More than one observer commented that it was as if the electricity in
the room flowed to him. He had the concentrated intensity of someone determined
to resolve important matters. He possessed the natural poise of a former wartime
military commander as well as the self-assurance that came from half a century of
dealing with life-and-death issues near the center of power. Having faced ups and
downs, and been given time to recover with support from his wife, children, and
close colleagues, he had become comfortable with who he was. When he did not know
something, he readily admitted it. President Jimmy Carter commented that Deng, unlike
Soviet leaders, had an inner confidence that allowed one to get directly into substantive
issues.
"He did not dwell on what might have been or who was at fault for past errors; as
in bridge, which he played regularly, he was ready to play the hand he was dealt.
He could recognize and accept power realities and operate within the boundaries
of what seemed possible. Once Mao was no longer alive to look over his shoulder,
Deng was sufficiently sure of himself and his authority that with guests he could
be relaxed, spontaneous, direct, witty, and disarmingly frank. At a state banquet
in Washington in January 1979, when told by [American actress] Shirley MacLaine
about a Chinese intellectual who was so grateful for what he had learned about life
after being sent to the countryside to raise tomatoes during the Cultural Revolution,
Deng's patience was soon exhausted. He interrupted her to say, 'He was lying' and
went on to tell her how horrible the Cultural Revolution had been."
Author: Ezra F. Vogel
Title: Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China
Publisher: Belknap Harvard
Date: Copyright 2011 by Ezra F. Vogel
Pages: 1-4
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China
by Ezra F. Vogel by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Hardcover
In today's excerpt - Deng Xiaoping (1904 - 1997) took de facto leadership of China
shortly after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. The country was then in a chaotic
and catastrophic condition, but has since ascended past Japan to become the second
largest economy in the world. Deng is widely credited as the leader that led China
toward a market economy, its current prominence, and economic success:
"In March 1979 Sir Murray MacLehose, the widely respected Chinese speaking British
governor of Hong Kong, flew to Beijing to explain Hong Kong's problems. Told in
advance only that he would meet a high official, MacLehose was delighted to learn
after he arrived that he would be meeting Deng Yiaoping, who had just been named
China's preeminent leader. During an intimate meeting in the Great Hall of the
People, MacLehose told Deng about the growing difficulties confronting Hong Kong.
As both men well knew, the British had ruled the colony of Hong Kong since the Opium
War, but the lease from China for most of the land that was now part of Hong Kong
would expire in 1997. Governor MacLehose was measured and diplomatic as he talked
of the need to reassure Hong Kong people deeply worried about what might happen
after 1997. Deng listened attentively to Governor MacLehose's concerns and then,
as they rose after their talk and moved toward the door, he beckoned to MacLehose.
The governor, well over six feet tall, leaned over to hear the words of his five-foot
host: 'If you think governing Hong Kong is hard, you ought to try governing China.'
"Deng was acutely aware that China was in a disastrous state. At the beginning of
the previous decade, during the Great Leap Forward, more than thirty million people
had died. The country was still reeling from the Cultural Rev- olution in which
young people had been mobilized to attack high-level officials and, with Mao's support,
push them aside as the country of almost one billion people was plunged into chaos.
The average per capita income of Chinese peasants, who made up 80 percent of the
population, was then only $40 per year. The amount of grain produced per person
had fallen below what it had been in 1957.
"Military officials and revolutionary rebels had been moved in to replace the senior
party officials who had been forced out, but they were unprepared and unqualified
for the positions they had assumed. The military had become bloated and was neglecting
the military tasks, while military officers in civilian jobs were enjoying the perquisites
of offices without performing the work. The transportation and communication infrastructure
was in disarray. The bigger factories were still operating with technology imported
from the Soviet Union in the 1950s, and the equipment was in a state of disrepair.
Universities had been basically closed down for almost a decade. Educated youth
had been forcibly sent to the countryside and it was becoming harder to make them
stay. Yet in the cities there were no jobs for them, nor for the tens of millions
of peasants wanting, to migrate there. Further, the people who were already living
in the cities, fearing for their jobs, were not ready to welcome newcomers. ...
"Deng faced a tall order, and an unprecedented one: at the time, no other Communist
country had succeeded in reforming its economic system and bringing sustained rapid
growth, let alone one with one billion people in a state of disorder.
"Despite Deng's diminutive stature, once he became the preeminent leader, when he
appeared in a room he had a commanding presence that made him a natural center of
attention. More than one observer commented that it was as if the electricity in
the room flowed to him. He had the concentrated intensity of someone determined
to resolve important matters. He possessed the natural poise of a former wartime
military commander as well as the self-assurance that came from half a century of
dealing with life-and-death issues near the center of power. Having faced ups and
downs, and been given time to recover with support from his wife, children, and
close colleagues, he had become comfortable with who he was. When he did not know
something, he readily admitted it. President Jimmy Carter commented that Deng, unlike
Soviet leaders, had an inner confidence that allowed one to get directly into substantive
issues.
"He did not dwell on what might have been or who was at fault for past errors; as
in bridge, which he played regularly, he was ready to play the hand he was dealt.
He could recognize and accept power realities and operate within the boundaries
of what seemed possible. Once Mao was no longer alive to look over his shoulder,
Deng was sufficiently sure of himself and his authority that with guests he could
be relaxed, spontaneous, direct, witty, and disarmingly frank. At a state banquet
in Washington in January 1979, when told by [American actress] Shirley MacLaine
about a Chinese intellectual who was so grateful for what he had learned about life
after being sent to the countryside to raise tomatoes during the Cultural Revolution,
Deng's patience was soon exhausted. He interrupted her to say, 'He was lying' and
went on to tell her how horrible the Cultural Revolution had been."
Author: Ezra F. Vogel
Title: Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China
Publisher: Belknap Harvard
Date: Copyright 2011 by Ezra F. Vogel
Pages: 1-4
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China
by Ezra F. Vogel by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Hardcover