Word: mao
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...runs counter to the "world views" instilled in those growing up in the age of Nixon, Brezhnev and Reagan. Indeed, the cultural landmarks used to define a "post-war world order" were planted before most of us were even born: Prague 1968; Berlin 1961; Hungary 1956. Even in Asia, Mao's Cultural Revolution and America's involvement in Vietnam began and reached their peak in the mid- to late 1960s...
...since then a series of leaks to the foreign press of internal party circulars has provided documentation of Deng's efforts to convince conservative claimants to his throne that the reform-minded Jiang should follow in the footsteps of Mao Zedong and Deng and serve as "the core" of the party's "third-generation" leadership. By playing such a prominent role in last week's anniversary observances, Jiang has achieved front-runner status in the race to succeed Deng. Put another way, Jiang has won his New Hampshire primary -- but the race is far from over...
Forty years ago this Sunday, Mao Zedong stood on a balcony overlooking Tiananmen Square and said, "The Chinese people have stood up, and the future of our nation is infinitely brighter." Infinitely messier is closer to the mark today. The economy's course is uncertain. Provincial and municipal governments will surely pursue their own interests despite efforts to restrain them. The party, with its ideology bankrupt, offers only order and is begging for faith -- and not getting it. How long can a government like that retain control and stay in power? "A regime that . . . is forced to fire...
...long as you are careful not to gloat," says a low-level government official in Beijing. "That's where I think the students went too far. They forced a crackdown by causing the leaders to lose face when Gorbachev visited. Problem is, the students weren't up on their Mao." Had they been, they might have come upon a 1927 essay in which the future Chairman identified atrocity as a desirable power-holding tactic. "To right a wrong," Mao wrote, "it is necessary to exceed the proper limits, and the wrong cannot be righted without the proper limits being exceeded...
Sometimes an interruption is worth a thousand words. Taking the train from Shanghai to Shandong province, Michael Kramer shared a four-bed sleeping compartment with a middle-aged factory official clad in a blue Mao suit. As the man explained to Kramer why only foreigners and very important bureaucrats were allowed to travel in such accommodations, the door opened and in strolled a young Chinese man in a yellow Lacoste shirt, loaded down with boxes of stereo equipment. Absorbed in the music crackling through the headphones of his Walkman, the budding entrepreneur remained oblivious to Kramer and the very-important...