Word: zhao
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Cultural Revolution hardened his own resolve, Zhao says, it taught the nation a lesson. "The ultraleft line was carried to its logical conclusion and was thoroughly discredited in the eyes of the people," he says. "The Cultural Revolution paved the way for the current reforms." He disagrees with those who believe that revenge alone is what powers current policies. For example, Zhao argues, the trial of the Gang of Four is a reassertion of the authority of written law after a period when "the top leaders' words were law." "It's very easy to gain vindication," he says, dismissing...
...Today; Zhao still feels little of the resentment and hate that infects other "counterrevolutionaries" who survived the Cultural Revolution. "I was not the only on who suffered," he explains. "There were thousands--tens of thousands--and you really can't pin down who was responsible." He does not blame the Guards, confused children under the spell of Mao, for what they did. "If one doesn't have a choice, you can't make any moral judgment whether he is right or wrong," Zhao argues. "I never doubted that things would change," he says, "because it was so ridiculous, so silly...
...many years later, Zhao can even joke about his experience. Working in the countryside, he says, while pointing at his stomach, rid him of an ulcer and improved his stamina. "I wasn't too unhappy then," he quips, "because you don't use your brain much." The experience brought him closer to Chinese rural life. "Agricultural is hard, back-breaking work," he recalls. "When you pull a handcart of grain mired in mud, it takes a lot of willpower. It gave me a sense of what peasants do." The experience seems to have given Zhao what James C. Thomson...
...trial is also part of a reevaluation of Mao, Zhao explains, with a frankness that several Harvard Sinologists say is unusual for a Chinese today. "It's really cutting [Mao] down to size." Zhao believes. "He was deified. In his late years, when there was obvious senility, he made mistakes...
...those mistakes--one which Zhao believes will haunt PRC leaders for some time--is economic imbalance. Despite recent decentralization efforts, Chinese leaders' attempts to correct the economy's heavy industry and urban biases have not yet been successful. Citing a steel plant, which has already cost the regime more than $20 billion, Zhao says, "It's like sitting on a tiger. You can't give it up because you've sunk so much money into it, and you can't continue it because it's costing more and more...