Eric's Beijing Diary

Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's birth. He would have been 100 years old. Actually, he almost made it. He was 93 when he died.

Deng Xiaoping really was the father of modern China. Deng was unique, because he was with the Communist revolution in China from its very beginnings in France; he was not some young new upstart. Yet, he put in play the forces which so transformed Marxism that one cannot recognize it as Marxism.

The Great Leap Forward of the late fifties was a colossal failure. There are many reasons, but in lieu of writing a book to explain them, lets just say that Mao was a brilliant, determined fighter, but a poor administrator. After the widespread famine created by the Great Leap Forward, the party put Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping in charge of the economy. Through the early sixties, the Chinese economy noticeably improved. Mao was sidelined by the party, but still viewed as an icon by the masses. He was both angry and jealous. This appears to be the main reason he set the young people loose on their ten year rampage of the country. Liu Shaoqi was detained and eventually allowed to die without treatment in a cold damp cell. Deng was lucky. Liu Shaoqi was the president, but Deng had no such position of power, and really wasn't interested in power. This quality was really what saved his life, because Mao always insisted that Deng be treated differently. More than once Jiang Qing, Mao's fourth wife, tried to destroy Deng, but Mao protected him, even though he kept Deng out of power under house arrest. Toward the end of the Cultural Revolution, Deng was put back in leadership, but this didn't last long, because even though Mao trusted him, and respected his management genius, he was irritated with Deng's position on the Cultural Revolution. Deng was unapologetic in his determination to correct the abuses. He obviously saw the Cultural Revolution as a disaster, while Mao considered it his crowning achievement.

So, once again, Deng was out of power, but still protected by Mao. After Mao's death, Deng was eventually brought back into leadership, and soon became the most logical fill for the gaping vacuum of power left by the death of Mao and the revered Zhou En-lai.

That was in the seventies. But the major reforms that Deng is known for began in 1992, three years after he had resigned all positions of power. Deng's leadership is an extraordinary lesson in the supremacy of influence over power. But what motivated these phenomenal reforms? Were they influenced by Deng's visits to the United States? Perhaps. It would make sense. Could they have been influenced somewhat by the effects of Tiananmen? I tend to think so. I have often said that the students at Tiananmen lost the battle but won the war.

The new younger generation of Chinese seem to take for granted much of what Deng Xiaoping gave them, although they always agree with me when I tell them that much of the life they now enjoy is due to the reforms he put in place. I don't know...societies are like that. The young too quickly forget the source of their blessings. I heard more about the Olympics yesterday than I did about Deng Xiaoping.