Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra F. Vogel (PDF)

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No one in the twentieth century had a greater impact on world history than Deng Xiaoping. And no scholar is better qualified than Ezra Vogel to disentangle the contradictions embodied in the life and legacy of China’s boldest strategist—the pragmatic, disciplined force behind China’s radical economic, technological, and social transformation.

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⭐“Did any other leader in the twentieth century do more to improve the lives of so many? Did any other twentieth-century leader have such a large and lasting influence on world history?” This is how Ezra Vogel concludes his massive 700-page tome, “Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China.” Indeed, who else in history has raised more people out of poverty? There may be no definitively right answer, but Vogel makes a convincing case that Deng Xiaoping has a better claim than anyone else.While lengthy, this book is an easy read and provides fascinating insights and lots of detail on how Deng and his forward-thinking policies turned China from a backward, poverty stricken basket case in the wake of the disastrous Cultural Revolution to an economic superpower in a single generation. It has been a revolution every bit as astonishing and impactful to world history as the Japanese Meiji Restoration of the late nineteenth century.Vogel’s narrative focuses mainly on the years from Mao’s death in 1976 to Deng’s retirement in 1992. Deng’s quite eventful first 65 years of life are covered in just 45 pages; China’s dramatic growth over the two decades since his retirement receive a mere 20 pages of attention. This book could have been called the “Deng Restoration,” the decade-and-a-half period when the Chinese leader blazed a new path, normalizing Chinese foreign relations and assiduously laying the political and economic groundwork for China’s improbably rapid rise from a self-isolated Third World Country into a global leader in manufacturing and burgeoning superpower just beginning to stretch its legs and demand its rightful place in the sun, to paraphrase Bismark.What struck me most about Deng’s leadership and policies, besides their remarkable success, was their consistency – and authority. His power was strictly personal, not positional; Deng was never chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, nor Premier of the Chinese government. Rather, he was something else, the “preeminent leader,” officially only vice chairman of the party and chairman of the Central Military Commission. Aging and hard of hearing, he rarely attended Politburo meetings. Yet, “it is doubtful that anyone [other than Deng] had the combination of authority, depth and breadth of experience, strategic sense, assurance, personal relationships, and political judgment needed to manage China’s transformation with comparable success,” Vogel writes. When he came to power in the late 1970s, he had very firm ideas on what needed to be done, plans that Vogel claims matured in Deng’s mind during his long and humiliating five year exile in Jiangxi working at a tractor factory during the Cultural Revolution.First, stability and unity were paramount in Deng’s plans, according to Vogel. He knew that the economic transformation China must go through would be wrenching and tumultuous, and he believed that only the Communist Party, with its discipline and order, could effectively manage the change. He had to maintain a delicate balance between encouraging innovative thinking and freedom of expression while maintaining the unquestioned rule of the Communist Party. In 1978, Deng formulated the Four Cardinal Principles, essentially four red lines that could not be crossed in China (socialist path; dictatorship of the proletariat; leadership of the Communist Party; Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought), and he never waivered from them. In fact, his most controversial and unpopular decision – the military crackdown at Tiananmen Square in 1989 – was taken precisely because the protests were openly challenging the Four Cardinal Principles. Although he was an ambitious reformer, he was a Communist first-and-foremost. When his two top lieutenants and official heads of party and state, respectively, Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, were seen as going soft on dissidents, he had them unceremoniously cashiered. It was the outpouring of love for Hu at his death in 1989, along with frustration at how he had been treated by Deng and the Party, that sparked the Tiananmen protests, a movement that became truly dangerous when Zhao resigned rather than acquiesce to Deng’s call for martial law.Second, vast improvements in science, technology and education would be the cornerstone of Deng’s policies. Vogel describes Deng as obsessed with the importance of education and the critical role in advanced technology in China’s future. At roughly the same time that Deng formulated the Four Cardinal Principles to guide political discussion in China, he also developed the Four Modernizations, the areas in which the government would concentrate efforts to learn, grow and improve: 1) science and technology; 2) industry; 3) agriculture; and 4) defense. Again, Deng and the Chinese government remained steadfast in pursuing these objectives even when they led in politically sensitive directions, such as dropping class background from college admission criteria and instead relying solely on meritocratic entrance exams; encouraging thousands of students to study overseas, especially in Western countries, exposing them to potential “dangerous” ideas; establishing special economic zones (SEZ) along the coast to promote capitalist investment and trade, even though they encouraged graft and corruption; and the dramatic downsizing of the People’s Liberation Army to create a more highly educated and technologically savvy armed forces. “Deng was unique in that he pushed doors open far wider – to foreign ideas, foreign technology, and foreign capital – than his predecessors, and he presided over the difficult process of expanding the opening despite the disruptions it caused,” Vogel writes.Third, Deng was adamant that China must be fully engaged in world affairs. He was very much his own foreign policy strategist and built his policies around a few basic objectives. Above all, Soviet expansion must be stoutly resisted. Deng went to war – “Deng’s War,” Vogel says – with communist neighbor Vietnam in 1979 to “teach Hanoi a lesson.” Namely, that China refused to allow Vietnam to become a hegemonic power in Southeast Asia while serving as the Soviet’s “Cuba in the East.” China’s month-long invasion captured five northern Vietnamese provincial capitals at the cost of 25,000 PLA soldiers killed in action, according to Vogel (that is, China lost half as many men in one month in Vietnam as the US did in a decade!). Next, Deng sought to normalize and improve relations with the Western world, an objective he largely achieved, although the backlash from Tiananmen Square was sharp and prolonged. Finally, Deng desperately wanted to consolidate Chinese territory in his lifetime, achieving peace and stability in Tibet, reintegrating Hong Kong, and, most important of all, reunifying with Taiwan. The last goal was one of Deng’s great disappointments, although he did successfully prevent the Reagan administration from formally recognizing Taiwan and worked to reduce arms shipments to the island nation. “Under Deng’s leadership,” the author writes, “China truly joined the world community, becoming an active part of international organizations and of the global system of trade, finance, and relations among citizens of all walks of life.”Finally, Deng was a political virtuoso, albeit of a distinctly communist variety. Deng was well-described by US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance as “remarkable… impatient, feisty, self-confidently outspoken, direct, forceful, and clever.” Standing just five-feet-tall, with limited formal education and a lifelong habit of using a spittoon even when negotiating directly with world leaders in the West, Deng was nevertheless a man of immense natural ability and innate political instincts. Unlike the “mercurial” Mao, who Vogel describes as “ranked high among world leaders” in megalomania and lust for power, Deng was personally humble, wanting nothing more than to serve his country and then be forgotten. Upon his death, he donated his corneas for eye research, his internal organs to medical science, was cremated and had his ashes scattered into the sea. There would be no “Cult of Deng” if he had anything to say about it.A deeply and sincerely committed communist, he was nevertheless open-minded and had no use for communist dogma. He was highly opposed to Mao’s revolutionary radicalism, yet sensitive to charges of being the “Chinese Khrushchev.” He quickly worked to overthrow the so-called “Gang of Four” after Mao’s death, but steadfastly espoused a flexible, results oriented approach to reform. “It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white, just so long as it catches mice,” he liked to say. He used his liberal approach to outmaneuver and then oust Mao’s handpicked successor, the middle-aged cipher Hua Goufeng, who stumbled badly in 1977 when he penned an editorial claiming that future policy “will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave” (the so-called “Two Whatevers”). Deng had different ideas – and they would prevail.Although he a had clear vision for where China should go conceptually, Deng honestly admitted that he had to “grope for stones as he crossed the river” the entire time, never knowing for certain which approach was best, but always open to learning-by-doing. “Don’t argue, just push ahead,” was a favorite mantra. His SEZ experiment at Shenzhen was controversial, but ultimately successful beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. And unlike Dahzai, Mao’s experimental ideal collective community, Chinese leaders and others flocked to Shenzhen out of genuine interest rather than political expediency.Twenty-first century China is Deng’s China. If the sun is setting on the American century and rising in the East, no one man had more to do with it than Deng Xiaoping, a man Vogel believes may be one of the greatest men in his nation’s long history. “The transition from a predominantly rural to a predominantly urban society and the spread of common national culture are among the most fundamental changes that have occurred in Chinese history since the country’s unification in 221 BC,” Vogel declares, and it was mainly the work of one little, unassuming man from a small village in Szechuan.

⭐I became interested in the life of Deng Xiaoping after reading THE TRAGEDY OF LIBERATION by Frank Dikotter and AVOIDING THE FALL by Michael Pettis. Deng is an enigma. He was a key player in the Chinese leadership from the earliest days. He was one of the core revolutionary leaders and one that was heavily involved in directing military campaigns leading to liberation. Afterward, he was the administrator for Sichuan and southwest China and implemented Maoist programs that led to mass starvation and incalculable human suffering. So, how was it possible for Deng Xiaoping to emerge as supreme leader of China, opening up the country to 4 decades of unprecedented growth? Did he learn from the failures of earlier policies? If so, what led to his change in thinking and when did it happen? Or was he always a pragmatist and a loyal follower? And if his thinking did change, how was he not one of the many leaders who were expelled from the Party and sent to prison or executed? It seems highly unlikely that a country that went through the purges, the witch hunts and the upheavals like the Cultural Revolution could have produced a leader of the stature of Deng Xiaoping capable of implementing the policy reforms that have led to China’s 4 decades of unprecedented growth. These are the questions that motivated me to tackle this 800-page biography.Ezra Vogel is one of the world’s pre-eminent China scholars. His knowledge of the events, people and places as well as the research of other scholars is second to none. He uses this knowledge combined with written accounts and interviews to piece together a comprehensive history of the life of Deng Xiaoping. The account is not strictly chronological. Vogel takes different periods of Deng’s life and divides each period into a set of topics covered in separate chapters. This makes the explanation of the events driving each topic easier to follow but it means that the reader may lose track of contemporaneous events discussed in a previous chapter.Unfortunately, Vogel’s review of the life of Deng Xiaoping has not fully answered my questions but it is not for lack of trying. Vogel points out early in the book that Deng Xiaoping did not keep a diary or personal writings or confide his inner-most thoughts on government policy with those around him. His speeches were well-organized and thought-out but without written notes. Consequently, we have no window into his thoughts; we have only his actions and events surrounding him to judge his thinking and how it changed over his life. This lack of a personal written record no doubt was a key factor in his survival of the many leadership purges under Mao Tse-tung. Another factor was his complete loyalty to the Party and to Mao. Although Deng was removed from top leadership positions three times in his career, including a 3-year exile during the Cultural Revolution, he was never expelled out of the Party.We also learn that Deng Xiaoping was, above all, a pragmatist and a patriot. His driving motivation was to do whatever necessary to foster China’s economic development and re-emergence as a global leader. He was not an ideologue, although he was a skillful politician, sensitive to those who opposed his ideas and careful to find ways to test out policy reforms in isolated cases before moving toward full implementation.Deng Xiaoping is easily one of the most important leaders of the 20th century. We are indeed fortunate to have Ezra Vogel’s scholarly and literary talents applied to an English biography of Deng Xiaoping. There is much we can learn from Vogel’s account but even more that is left for interpretation reading between the lines.

⭐A brilliant book on the greatest reformer in the 20th century. Many people think Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan where the greatest reformers when it came to economics but Deng Xiaoping outshine them both and this book shows that how he and colleagues remodelled a failed and crumbling economy into what it is today a modern and relentlessly ambitious economy which will be the largest economy in the world in the near future. This book shows the fascinating life of this giant on how he went to France and how going their changed his few of the world when it came to economics and also his thwart relationship with Mao and how he won the power game and became one of the main figures in China after Mao’s death. I would recommend this book it is has been written by one of the most respected people in his field and if you want a clear understanding of modern China this book on its main architects will show you

⭐I think that if you’re interested in personal development and getting better as a human being, this man flies under the radar. What do I mean? When you think of autobiographies and great people you think of Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Mother Theresa, Winston Churchill you know people like that. But for a country like China to come from obscurity to the top 5 countries in the world! The key players contributing to their growth need to be studied. And this book does Xiaoping the justice he deserves. Detailed, meticulous, and a fascinating introduction to the history of China.

⭐After reading it I formed the opinion that Mao is, in fact, less consequential for China today then Deng. I also started to understand why Mao behaved as he did, and why he cannot be disavowed in the way Hrusciov disavowed Stalin in the secret speech. Fascinating and well written, albeit perhaps a touch too long and repetitive. Also clearly written by a Deng admirer (he was as blood-stained as all his colleagues, but this does not come across almost at all).

⭐This is clearly a very well researched and scholarly work by someone who knows China well. The reasons I would not give it 5 starts are:1. it is a rather lopsided account of the life of Deng. The first 65 years of Deng’s life, until 1969, are quite cursorily dealt with. Of course he came to particular prominence at about this time and was instrumental in China’s development in the period thereafter. Before that, like many other contemporaries, was very much overshadowed by Mao. But the book devotes no more than 45 of its 714 pages to Deng’s career until his first comeback in 1969. It gives little real hint about what influenced and drove Deng up to that point or how his earlier history influenced his later outlook. Although mentioned, the treatment of Deng’s leading role in the anti-intellectual, anti-rightist campaign of 1957. is pretty perfunctory.2. the author, clearly fluent in Mandarin, is rather inconsistent in throwing in pinyin phrases to describe some developments/movements etc, but often not the more significant ones which one might expect to be given in Chinese: e.g. the “two whatevers”, “four cardinal principles” and so on. The use of Chinese phrases gives the impression of a rather throwaway, but indiscriminate, show of erudition.

⭐Ezra Vogel’s biography of Deng Xiaoping is a work long overdue within the numerous literature on modern China, and a work in every way entirely worth the wait.As the most consequential Chinese leader of the past 3 decades, or arguably within the world, Deng Xiaoping had long been entitled to a thorough, and scholarly biography, and finally such a work is here.As many may be previously familiar with the later parts of Deng Xiaoping’s life, his downfall in the Cultural Revolution, and his return to power in 1978, here more detail is given to his earlier life in Sichuan Province, and his crucial early years as a student in Paris.That is not to say that any detail is spared on the later more crucial parts of his life, such as his return under Mao and later Hua, and his period at the helm from 1978-1989. Here we learn the difficulty of the path he navigated between hardline conservatives such as Chen Yun, who were ambivalent toward economic reform, and the difficult process of opening up and maintaining the authority of the party.This biography in some ways repudiates the commonly held notion that Deng was a capitalist in disguise. A key insight offered was that he was initially influenced by the new economic policy implemented in the USSR in the early 1920s, which was a much milder version than the socialism implemented by Stalin, and later Mao.We also learn, that Hua Guofeng was the first to initiate Special Economic Zones, and had an inkling toward reform, even if he did not say so, but ultimately lacked the leadership pedigree inherent in Deng, making Deng’s outmaneuvering of Hua inevitable.More than just a chronicling of his economic reforms, the book contains a chapter on his flexible political vision, One Country, Two Systems, Hong Kong Tibet and Taiwan. This details the success of the return of Hong Kong, which despite the expiration of the lease, the British still wanted to continue to administer, and his generous offers at reconciliation with Taiwan and the Dalai Lama.The above chapter should be given thorough reading and re-reading by any sympathizers with Tibetan and separatism, as it exposes the generous opportunity missed by the Dalai Lama and his hardline exile community in Dharamsala.We learn that the Dalai Lama’s offer of return was the most generous he was ever likely to get, residence in Lhasa and Beijing, being made a Vice Chairman of the National People’s Congress, and the autonomy they had long sought. Only this offer was rebuffed to demand more autonomy than was being offered to Hong Kong, and extension of the TAR to include all Tibetan areas in neighboring Chinese provinces.While many China hands will be familiar with Deng’s economic achievements, which are impossible to understate, this book also underscores his foreign policy achievements, which were equally remarkable.Deng set about full reconciliation with the US and the USSR, and on both counts, achieved reconciliation entirely on his terms. Deng’s foreign policy in itself was every bit as remarkable as his economic achievements.What we have is a thorough biography and chronicling of the life of Deng in all aspects, and rather than being simply a biography of the man, it is also in itself, a standalone history of modern China.Truly essential reading for any China enthusiasts, regardless of the immersion in the subject.

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