DENG XIAOPING
Professor Ezra Vogel
Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, former Pro-VC Brac University, has developed an insight into the ways Chinese society, education system, politics and economy move in his 3-year stay in China as an academic and from reading extensively on the history, past and present, of this great nation. He reviews and recommends this book to the readers, especially to those who have interest to learn about China.
The book, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, was authored by Professor Ezra Vogel a Harvard professor. The book is published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, USA in 2011.
Professor Ezra Vogel was born in 1930 in Delaware, Ohio, USA. He graduated from the Ohio Wesleyan University in 1950 and received his Ph.D. from the Department of Social Relations in 1958 from the Harvard University.
In 1960-61 Prof. Vogel was an Assistant Professor at Yale University and from 1961-64 a doctoral fellow at Harvard, studying Chinese language and history. He remained at Harvard, becoming a Lecturer in 1964 and in 1967, Professor. He retired from teaching in June, 2000. Since retirement he has been working on a book on Deng Xiaoping and his era.
The book is written in very lucid English. It is a result of more than 20 years of research on China and the happenings during the era of Deng Xiaoping. The book is divided into 6 parts:
1. Deng's Background
2. Deng's tortuous Road to the Top, 1969-1977
3. Creating the Deng Era, 1978-1980
4. The Deng Era, 1979-1989
5. Challenges to the Deng Era, 1989-1992
6. Deng's Place in History
A summary of what the book discusses about follows:
Writing about Deng Xiaoping is not easy. When carrying on underground activities in Paris and Shanghai in the 1920s, Deng learned to rely on his memory – he left no notes behind. He was able to give a well-organised lecture for an hour or more drawing only on his memory.
Deng criticized autobiographies in which authors lavished praise on themselves. He chose not to write an autobiography and insisted that any evaluation of him by others, “should not be too exaggerated or too high”.
During the Cultural Revolution, Deng and his wife were put under house arrest first Beijing and then in Jiangxi province. Both Deng and Mao had tremendous respect for each other. So Mao and his family were not treated as class enemies, even though Mao still insisted that Deng needed reeducation.
When Deng came into power after the death of Mao Zedong, he started reshaping China by primarily drastically changing the economic policies without touching the political system. Deng encouraged both policy makers and students to visit the West and learn about their systems. His famous saying was “It does not matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.”
Deng would not tolerate the cult of personality that Mao happily indulged in. In sharp contrast to the Mao era, virtually no statues of Deng were placed in public buildings and no pictures of him hung in homes. And yet, even without a cult or august titles – merely the positions of vice chairman of the party, vice premier and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) – Deng acquired effective control over the important levers of power.
Deng focused on the development of the economy of China through modernizations in the commercial, industrial and the rural sectors. In 1978 China still did not have enough grains to feed its population. Collectivised agriculture introduced in 1955 and later pushed to higher levels had led to advances in irrigation, but it had also brought massive starvation. In 1982, the communes which had been established in 1958 to mobilize peasants for large public-works projects and large-scale collective farming were abolished.
In his pursuit of economic modernization, Deng liked to say that he was groping for stones as he crossed the river. But in fact, from his five decades of experience he had developed some strong convictions about how to get across the river. One was that the Communist Party should be in charge. He wanted China to scour the world to learn about success whatever the nature of the system where they took place. He believed that people needed material incentives and had thrived on competition, not only among economic producers and merchants striving for profits, but also among officials trying to bring progress to their localities.
In 1982 a determined Deng ignited another bigger fire. He took a southern journey at age 87 in his special train to Wuhan, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shanghai, where he successfully lit the fire for further market opening and faster growth.
He was concerned about graft and corruption in China. Deng said, “you have to use a two-fisted approach. With one hand you grab reform and opening. With the other, you grab every kind of criminal behavior. You have to have a firm grip with both hands.
When Deng Stepped aside in 1992, he had fulfilled the mission: he and his colleagues had found a way to enrich the Chinese people and strengthen the country. After Deng stepped down, China continued to change rapidly, but the basic structural changes developed under Deng's leadership had already continued for two decades and with some adaptations, they may extend long into the future.
The ideas underlying this sea change came from many people and no one fully anticipated how events would play out. Deng did not start reform and opening; they began under Hua Guofeng before Deng came to power. Nor was Deng the architect with a grand design for the changes that would take place under his rule; there was in fact no clear overall design in place during this era. Rather Deng was the general manager who provided overall leadership during the transformation. He helped package ideas and present them to his team of colleagues and to take the public at a pace in a way they could accept. He gave a steady hand at the top that gave people confidence as they underwent dramatic changes. He played a role in selecting and guiding the team that worked together to create and implement the reforms. He was a problem-solver who tried to devise solutions that would work for the various parties both within China and in foreign countries. He played a leading part in guiding the process in setting the priorities and creating strategies to realize the most important goals.
Deng said he wanted to be remembered as he really was. He did not want to be celebrated with grandiosity. He did not compare himself with great emperors and did not consider himself to be a “son of heaven”. He asked only to be remembered as an ordinary earthly being, as a “son of the Chinese people”.
After reading this 800-page book, I came to know enormously about how China was transformed during the 30 years after Deng came to power in China after 1978. Anyone who would like to have an authentic understanding about the past and present of China, this book is an ideal one. The book also writes about the traits and characteristics of leadership by analyzing about the styles and qualities of Deng Xiaoping. Some of those are: speaking and acting with authority; building public support before promoting path-breaking policies; setting short-term policies in light of long-term goals; being bold; push consolidate and push again; strengthening unity minimizing divisions; avoid factionalism and select competent officials; uncover even the unpleasant truth; avoid publicizing past grievances etc. It is usually believed that people beyond the age of 40 cannot really innovate and change a society. Deng proved it wrong. He started innovating and change at the age of 70.
If you are interested in China I recommend that you read this book and learn.
Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed is the Managing Editor of The Daily Star
Email: [email protected]
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