Word: mao
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...titular if not still the actual ruler of one-fifth of humankind; yet China's Mao Tse-tung remains the most shadowy figure among the leaders of 20th century Communism. There seems to be almost no middle ground between his reverential propagandists and his vituperative critics. As a result, the man who has altered the destiny of China -and the world-almost invariably appears two-dimensional. In the '30s and '40s, a few foreigners, notably the American journalist Edgar Snow, captured some titillating glimpses of Mao. But after the Communists gained power in 1949, Peking...
...least some of the shadows around Mao are being dispelled. Recently, a cache of Mao's secret speeches, letters and other writings came into the possession of the U.S. State Department. Many of the documents were seized by zealous Red Guards who broke into highly secret Communist Party files during the 1966-68 Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Others were leaked to the Red Guards by unnamed Chinese leaders. The papers were then smuggled out of mainland China and were obtained by U.S. officials from sources in Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo. After a thorough preliminary check of the documents...
...torrent of Mao's words that flow from these extraordinary papers reveals the long-obscure human dimension of the man. He emerges as a compelling personality, supremely confident of his ability to surmount China's immense domestic problems. In speeches delivered at secret meetings of the Politburo, he comes across as passionate and often earthy. All told, the documents amply demonstrate that Mao, now 75 and reportedly nearing death, left an imprint on China and its 750 million people that will surely prove ineradicable for generations to come...
...reputation as a Mao enthusiast, Li differed with the chairman on several occasions. One was in 1958 over the ill-conceived Great Leap Forward. Another was in 1962, when Mao decided to send party cadres to work among the peasants. "Damn it," he reportedly complained, "we have not even completed our revolution in Peking. How can we make progress if we weaken our organization by sending cadres down to labor...
...poor peasant family, Li received at best a patchwork education and in his teens was apprenticed to a carpenter. His chairs and tables regularly collapsed, however, and he was fired. By his early 20s, Li had joined the party and soon won a reputation for unquestioning loyalty to Mao Tse-tung and for his talent at organizing effective guerrilla bands. After the civil war ended in 1949, Li rose steadily in the party's central China hierarchy. In 1954, he was summoned to Peking as Minister of Finance...