Song of Dwarf
Unlike Mao Zedong, whose life has been completely researched by both westerners and Chinese, there are still many unknow parts of Deng Xiaoping’s life. The best example is that there have been much less biographies of Deng than those of Mao, let alone the authenticity and accuracy. This might be attributable to Deng’s intentionally keeping low-profile and being accustomed to covering facts which might tarnish his image.
The lack of Deng’s early life records, in particular from 1920’s to 1950’s is commonplace in all biographies on Deng, which is a major defect since the early stage of Deng’s experience is vital to understand Deng’s personality and his intentions behind later historical events.Also Deng’s true relationship with Mao and Zhou Enlai is pivotal to describe the true image of Deng.
Deng’s daughter Deng Rong’s book My Father Deng Xiaoping is still regarded as the authority on Deng’s life and has been referred by most of Deng’s biographies, although it is full of lies and fabricated facts. Junior Deng herself was an active Red Guard who played an important role in the death of her middle school principal Bian Zhongyun[1]. Junior Deng still covers this crime and never show remorse, how can you expect such an arrogant and evil liar to tell you the truth about her father? Alexander Pantsov’s Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life used declassifed dossiers from the USSR to provide many undisclosed details about Deng’s early life in Moscow and in the 1949–1952 period, including his ultra-leftism route when he was the first party secretary of Southwestern Bureau of the CCP, but it failed to provide accurate description of Deng’s activities during major events such as Long March and the Second Sino-Japanese War. In particular, its record of Deng’s role at the Zunyi Conference and his relationship with Liu Bocheng were just copying the orthodox narration of the CCP, which have been proved to be fallacies. Ezra Vogel’sDeng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China provided many interesting details about Chinese politics in the 1970’s and 1980’s. However, Professor Vogel acted as Deng’s fan instead of a neutral narrator, he spared no efforts to defend Deng, even those decisions are self-evident wrong. Those so-called first hand interviews claimed to have great values by Vogle, most are related to Deng’s proteges, who are still benefiting from Deng’s legacies and his great image, there is no way they can speak truths about Deng’s unknown parts. On the contrary, Chinese history researchers have done much ground breaking work, but it is quite difficult for them to publish these kind of unorthodox paper in Mainland China. Deng Xiaoping before the Cultural Revolution[2]disclosed the truth of doubnity of Mao-Deng, its publication should be mainly attributable to its author Zhong Yanling being a Taiwanese.
Now let us turn to the points. Deng’s most well known achievement and the basis for his being regarded as greatness is his proposal and adoption of the open up and reform policy, which laid the foundation for the so-called Chinese Miralce or Chinese Model. But the truth is the nominal heir of Mao Zedong, Hua Guofeng[3]is the real chief architect. Hua not only sent delegates to study from western countries after he ended the Gang of Four’ s ultra-leftism, but also supported those liberal leaders such as Xi Jinping’s father Xi Zhongxun’s pilot reforms in regions including Guangdong ,[4] in addition to his support of the rehabilitation of Deng[5]( Deng and his followers later claimed that Hua was the major obstacle to Deng’s rehabilitation. Although Deng wrote a very disgusting letter[6] to pledge his allegiance to Hua forever[7], once took the power, Deng purged Hua without any mercy. Marshal Ye Jianying, who enjoyed much more prestige and power at that time and also played an important role in Deng’s rehabilitation, was so frustrated and disappointed at Deng’s treacherous behavior that chose to retreat from politics). It was a great irony that one of Hua’s sins was Westernized Leap Forward accused by Deng and his alliance such as conservative leader Chen Yun, although later Deng adopted more drastic open up measures. Since there have been many articles on this topic, including the speech of Professor Han Gang[8], the authority on the CCP history, I will not elaborate on this topic further.
Ordering the bloody crackdown of 1989 Democratic Movement is the largest stain in Deng’s record, since there have been few historic events more shocking than massacre of the innocent people in pursuit of democracy and freedom in modern history, let alone the crime has been broadcasted to the world at the eve of globalization. Deng’s fans including Professor Vogel defended Deng with the excuse of Deng’s being fooled by the hard-liners and the necessity of crackdown. I would not spent time on the details of the process of this movement,since I always believe that the time can tell everyone the truth and it will be rehabilitated and have justice upheld sooner or later. It is now disclosed that Deng has always been updated about the development of this movement from the very beginning. The hard-liners such as Li Peng might exaggerate certain events such as the students’ protest were directing at Deng’s family who were notorious for rampant corruption, which made Deng believe that tough measures would be necessary to guarantee he and his family’s safety. No one can deny the fact it was Deng who ordered the use of force to crackdown the movement,[9]even facing the opposition from his confidants like Yang Shangkun.[10]
Furthermore, when we look back into the history of the CCP and Deng, we can find out that Deng was only a ruthless, shrewd(and treacherous to some extents), arbitrary and tyrannic pragmatist who was prone to achieving his goals by all means. Deng can be regarded as a competent politican, but far away from being among great leaders, let alone the greatest.
Firstly, before Deng succeeded in ascending to the top echelon of the CCP by playing a dishonorable whistleblower role in the Gao Gang-Rao Shushi Incident, Deng was only a second tier leader within the CCP although he was a loyal aide of Mao. The best example was at the 7th National Congress of the CCP, Deng was only elected as members of the Central Committee instead of the elite politburo. Compared with other senior leaders such as Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi , Ren Bishi, Chen Yun ,Peng Dehuai and Lin Biao, Deng was much more junior and with few track records, in paricular his lackluster military performance as a commissar(only when Deng took the power after the Cultural Revolution, he was polished as a skillful military leader. The worst example was that Deng played an active role in the purge of general Su Yu and refused to rehabilitate Su after the Cultural Revolution, so as to appropriate the credit for commanding the Huaihai Campaign[11]). Moreover, Deng was notorious for being irresponsible and evasive at the early stage, in particular he deserted the army twice after the Baise Uprising[12],which resulted in his demotion before the Long March. As Deng was a rather insignicant figure during the Long March, he had to fabricate the fact of attending the important Zunyi Conference after all attendees died. Many parts of Deng’s myths of being a great revolutionist and leader have been built on the basis of such fabricated facts. You can find more clues from my answers under What are some interesting facts about Deng Xiaoping? and do your own researches.
Secondly, although Deng claimed that he is “the son of Chinese people”, he never places Chinese people’s well being above his own interests. Just as Pantsov disclosed in his book, Deng carried out the most drastic purge in Southwestern China under his reign after 1949, but abused his power to save his relatives including uncles from the purge, although these people should belong to the purged group according to his own policy. Dr Zhong also in his book used detailed documents to prove Deng actively followed Mao’s ultra-leftism in major political movements such as Anti-Rightists and the Great Leap Forward. Especially Deng was the director of the Leading Group to crack down rightists, which led to his refusal of rehabilitation of Anti-Rightist Movement till his death. The worst of all , in 1975 when a dam in Zhumadian Henan province broke, the rescue work was severely delayed due to Deng’s tardy response,[13] resulting in death toll more than 200,000.Although under heavy pressures from Deng’s family members, the informant later denied the claim that Deng was playing Majon at that night and refused to answer the call from local cadres, it was quite possible that Deng intentionally delayed the rescue work so as to exert pressures on the leftists who were in charge of Henan at that time. To say the least, even if Deng did not play Majon, his malpractice in this great tragedy was self-evident, which was quite consistent with his indifference towards lives of Chinese people, including the bloody crackdown 24 years later.
Thirdly, Deng was a pragmatist. Rules are only applied when it is beneficial to him. Otherwise Deng would break the rules with no hesitation. Although Deng denounced Mao’s dictatorship and the Cultural Revolution, he refused to denounce Mao’s evils completely since Deng knew actually he was a little Mao and under Mao’s reign, he and his colleagues had committed major crimes (or at least as accomplices) against Chinese people. A complete denouncement will be a denouncement of himself too. When Deng was rehabilitated in the late 1970’s, he took advantage of booming democratic movements to purge Hua Guofeng and his followers. Once Deng completed his mission, he purged these movements merciless as usual, then the Democracy Wall[14] and Wei Jingsheng[15] became his new victims. Moreover, Deng realized the great danger of Mao’s dictatorship and claimed to apply the collective leadership. He forced senior veterans to retire so as to ensure the rejuvenation of the CCP leaders. But at the same time Deng was so obsessed with power that he kept manipulating behind the curtains. Also in international relation, Deng adopted this pragmatism to ensure his personal gains. As to seize more power, Deng would take the gamble of a conflict with the USSR to invade Vietnam in 1979[16], let alone his famous strategies in Hong Kong and South China Sea issues, which in essence are leaving the liabilities to his successors.
Fifthly, Deng lacks the tolerance and self-discipline as a great leader. Deng’s abitrary and tyrannic style direclty resulted in the purge of both successors nominated by Deng himself, which made Deng later become a de facto lone tyrant and weaken his authority in return. Although Deng was regarded as the core of 2nd Generation of the CCP leaders, he failed to estbalish his own faction due to his history of treating subordinates harshly and being ungenerous.(his children failed to enjoy high political treatment due to few supports) At the same time, Deng indulged in privileges and failed to regulate his family members, whose rampant corruption set very bad examples for the princelings and provoked public anger, partly contributing to the democratic movements in both 1987 and 1989. Even in personal life, Deng was not so unassailable as his followers claimed. Both Pantsov and Dr Li Zhisui in their books mentioned that Deng failed to join the Lushan Conference[17] in 1959 becuase he broke one leg when playing billiards. Deng’s being hospitalized directly resulted in the pregnancy of a young nurse who took care of him.
Many Chinese, in particular those so-called successful people(other than princelings) expressed their gratitudes to Deng and regarded Deng a great leader, because they firmly believed that without Deng’s adoption of policy such as restroration of college entrance examination(Gaokao) and open-up& reform policy, there was no way that they could succeed. However, this is just a symptom of the Stockholm Syndrome. Don’t they know that Deng is also responsible for the making of a chaotic China along with Mao? Don’t they know that without Deng, other CCP leaders such as Hua Guofeng and Ye Jianying will also adopt these policies because they fully understood that these were irrevisible history trends which can be stopped by no one. As for the later so-called Chinese Miracle, it should be mainly attributable to Chinese people’s diligence and intelligence, in addition to the incoming globalization and information revolution. Chinese people will realize that Deng’s so-called reform is a very limited improvement since it only focused on the economy, and on the basis of maintenance of the CCP’s authoritarian regime. Even in economy, Deng’s true intention is to make “some Chinese”(priviledge families) be rich first, which paved the way to the rampant China crony capitalism, and made China more divided and disintegrated than ever, even though history has granted Deng chances to make China great and make himself great leader.
Footnotes
[4] 华国锋与经济建设、对外开放_田书华资本市场观察与研究_新浪博客
[5] Hua Guofeng did not obstruct the Deng Xiaoping comeback suspension called Deng mountain what to consider?
[7] http://digitalarchive.wilsoncent...
[9] 罗瑞卿叛将儿子回忆录披露64下令开枪镇压内幕(组图) | www.wenxuecity.com
[11] Huaihai Campaign — Wikipedia
[12] Baise Uprising — Wikipedia
[13] http://m.creaders.net/blog/user_...
[14] Democracy Wall — Wikipedia
[15] Wei Jingsheng — Wikipedia
[16] Jason Chen’s answer to Why did China invade Vietnam in 1979?
