In 1921, there were only fifty members of the Communist Party in China. In 1922, still fewer than 200.
However in 1922, an organization formed in France that members referred to as Communist and in February 1923, Deng took part in a Congress of European Young Communists
By the time he left France at 21, Deng had become a hardened and experienced revolutionary leader
In his military years, Deng had begun each day by dumping a bucket of cold water on his head. In Jiangxi, he doused a small hand towel in ice water and washed his head and face with it.
Long before he was sent to Jiangxi Deng had already decided that he would not be China’s Khrushchev
Chinese leaders should praise Mao and keep him on a pedestal. But they also should interpret Mao’s teachings not as a rigid ideology, but as a successful adaptation to the conditions of the time.
Canada and China normalized relations in 1970, before the US
The West’s willingness to transfer technological know-how and equipment had been central to Japan’s modernization. How could China develop a relationship with the US that could reap similar benefits
When Deng had some free time in NY, without hesitation, he said he wanted to visit Wall St. To Deng, Wall Street was the symbol of American capitalism and economic might.
On the same trip, he visited Paris and bought 200 croissants and some cheese to distribute to fellow revolutionaries who had been with him in France in the 1920s.
Deng’s approach to overcoming chaos and the example others were to follow: he did what he could to make sure Mao remained on his side; he relied on officials with a proven record of success; he provided documents, held large mass meetings, and assigned troops to assure local people that there would be no easy return to Cultural Revolution policies; he arrest d those who blocked progress; and he supervised the establishment of new leadership teams. Further, he did all this quickly and with a firm hand.
Deng and the Gang of Four fought over who put together the fifth volume of Mao’s collected works as this could be used as a source of legitimacy for both these groups policies and programs
Some years after Mao’s death, Deng could boldly explain that China must borrow ideas from capitalist countries, and that doing so would not threaten it’s sovereignty or rule by the Communist Party.
In the late Imperial period, when Confucianism lost its vitality, it was still celebrated in temples and museums, which people visited to pay homage, but it had lost its connection to people’s daily lives. A similar thing happened to radical Maoism.
In Japan, the historical turning point that set the nation on the road to modernization was the Iwakura Mission. From 1871 to 1873, 51 leaders traveled to 15 different countries. The mission was composed of officials from all major sectors. When the group left, Japan was essentially a closed country, the Japanese knew little about the outside world. As they visited other countries, their eyes were opened to ways that Japan could remake itself, not only with new technologies but also new organizational strategies and ways of thinking. The trip created a shared awareness among members of just how far behind Japan was and a common perspective about how to introduce change.
Guangdong had a border problem; tens of thousands of young people were escaping to Hong Kong each year. Deng explained that the solution lay not in tightening border security but in improving the economy of Guangdong so young people would not feel that they had to flee to Hong Kong to find jobs.
In the annals of world political history z it would be difficult to find another case where a person became top leader of a major nation without formal public recognition of the succession. This is what happened to Deng.
Lee Kwan You set up a spittoon and a vent to allow Deng to smoke and spit during their meetings, but Deng didn’t because Lee had allergies
When setting up his leadership team, Deng said in a speech to the Navy that the key issue facing the country, he told them, was preparing successors.
Meetings should be small and short, and they should not be held at all unless the participants have prepared. If you don’t have anything to say, save your breath. The only reason to hold meetings and to speak at them is to solve problems. There should be collective leadership in settling major issues. But when it comes to particular jobs or to decisions affecting a particular sphere, individual responsibility must be clearly defined and each person should be held responsible for the work entrusted to him.
Sent found a delicate balance that praised Mao enough to avoid weakening the authority of the party, while still criticizing Mao’s role in the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.
Deng rarely met visitors during his three hours of morning reading, but for 20-30 minutes in the middle of the morning he would take a brisk walk around his garden.
Xi Zhoungxun, Xi Jinping’s father, was the one who championed the special economic zone for Guangdong, enabling it to attract foreign capital.
It is estimated that 100m migrants flowed into the coastal areas of Guangdong by the time Deng retired in 1992.
Between 1978 and 1982, twice as much chemical fertilizers were available and electric power in the countryside doubled too. But the positive effects of both of these proved wildly optimistic. Deng believe that a successful Chinese agricultural system would require spurring the enthusiasm of peasants by decentralizing rural production.
From 1978 to 1982, peasant income roughly doubled.
Hu Yaobang believed that one of the ways he could best contribute to modernization was to travel the country giving encouragement to local officials. He listened to their problems and tried to cut through the obstacles to growth. Based on his visits, he became convinced that local areas that the capacity to grow faster.
In June 1984, Deng began using the term “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, a grand but marvelously vague expression that perfectly fit Deng’s basic approach: stretch the acceptable ideological framework to allow the country to pursue policies that worked.
It’s fascinating to see the transition from socialism to capitalism needing to be done in the language of socialism.
Deng advanced step by step, rather than with a “big bang.” In 1991, Russia had followed the advice of economists who recommended opening with a big bang.
Deng understood what many Western economists who took institutions for granted did not: that is was vitally important to take the time to build national institutions with structures, rules, laws, and trained personnel adapted to the local culture and local conditions.
Sympathy for the students was so widespread that Li Peng had difficulty retaining support of lower-level officials for the crackdown. For several days no newspapers of any kind appeared. One day, a news announcer said “There is no news today.”
Deng was ready to try almost anything to clear Tiananmen Square before Gorbachev’s arrival. Two days before he was scheduled to arrive, students leaders who were desperate to keep their dwindling movement alive and confident they would not be arrested when Gorbachev was in Beijing announced a novel addition: a hunger strike.
Between May 13 and 24, 8205 hunger strikers were taken to hospitals
During the Gorbachev visit, the number of students in the square grew daily. On May 18, an estimated 1.2 million people were in Tiananmen Square despite the rain.
Never since 1949, not even during the Cultural Revolution, had so many people in Beijing spontaneously demonstrated against party leadership.
Chinese citizens were kept in the dark about the fate of Ceausescu in Romania. He was the only eastern European leader to order troops to fire on his citizens.
Chinese leaders who had frequently praised Ceausescu as proof that Communism could survive a liberal onslaught panicked when they heard about the events in Romania.
Mao was unhappy with bourgeois policies of Beijing which he didn’t control. He couldn’t get his views published in the central party newspaper, so he did it in Shanghai and then launch a tour of southern cities where he lit the fire that launched the Cultural Revolution
For over a decade, Deng was so busy he had never gone shopping
In the several years after Deng’s 1992 southern tour, China achieved some of the fastest growth rates the world has known, on a scale never seen before. From 1992-1999, China grew more than 10% per year.
Foreign investment averaged more than $35B per year.
Did any other leader in the 20th century do more to improve the lives of so many? Did any other leader have such a large and lasting influence on world history.
At the peak of subway building, some large cities like Guangzhou and Beijing constructed an average of one entirely new subway line per year for several successive years.