Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China (48 page)

The Chinese Communist Party could make a strong case for the advantages of authoritarian rule. It could point to the nation’s stunning economic achievements and argue explicitly that none of it would have been possible in a messy, multiparty system. But instead of proudly defending its record and its political system, it denies its autocratic nature and tries to argue that it, too, leads a democracy. “Democracy doesn’t belong just to the Western world,” the
People’s Daily
intoned in an editorial in advance of the Olympics, complaining in all seriousness of “a narrowed definition of democracy” imposed by the Western media that excludes China and other countries. It is not unusual for authoritarian states, especially Communist ones, to try to hide their true colors. But rarely has a government had a better case for authoritarianism than this one. By refusing to make it, the party has in effect conceded that, in the struggle for China’s future, it is on the wrong side of the fight.

When I visited Linyi with Chen Guangcheng before his arrest, the blind legal advocate asked me how long I thought the Communist Party could survive. The sun had set, and we were sitting in a car, driving in the pitch dark along a country road toward a village where we had received reports of forced abortions and other birth planning abuses. I told him that when I was studying Chinese in Beijing in the early 1990s, I honestly thought the party’s fall from power might be imminent, perhaps after the death of Deng Xiaoping, who was aging and in poor health at the time. I was reluctant to leave the country at the end of the semester because I didn’t want to miss it, I recalled. But now I felt foolish for being so naive and told Chen that I believed the party could hold on for quite some time and that I planned to leave Beijing as scheduled before the Olympics. Chen smiled and joked that I was abandoning the Chinese people, but agreed it made no sense for me to wait. He had his digital voice recorder in his hand, and he was still wearing his dark sunglasses. It had been a long day and I could tell he was tired. After a moment, Chen turned toward me and said, “I hope it happens in our lifetime.” He said it almost cheerfully, without a hint of sadness.

The main sources of information for this book were interviews that I conducted and documents that I obtained while working in China between late 2000 and early 2008. Because many of those interviewed speak for themselves in the text and many others have requested anonymity to protect themselves, I have not listed them here. I also drew on my own reports in the
Washington Post
and those of my colleague John Pomfret. The following notes highlight other important sources that may not be apparent in the text.

C
HAPTER
1

In addition to interviewing Wang Junxiu and several other participants, I attended Zhao Ziyang’s funeral myself, staying for more than an hour before police identified me and forced me to leave. The account of the negotiations over his funeral arrangements is based on interviews with members of Zhao’s family and information from other sources close to the family. In describing Zhao’s career, I drew on interviews with several former aides, the two volumes of commemorative essays published in Hong Kong after his death, interviews he gave to others while under house arrest, and other materials.

Gorbachev, Mikhail,
Memoirs,
Doubleday, 1996.

Jin Ren,
Ruhe zai zhongguo shixing minzhu zhengzhi—Zhao Ziyang wannian tanhualu,
published in
Ming Pao Monthly,
May 2005.

Wang Yangsheng,
Kouwen fuqiang hutong liuhao—Zhao Ziyang shengqian fangtanlu,
posted online January 2005.

Wu Guoguang, Zhang Weiguo, and Bao Pu, eds.,
Ziyang qiangu—Zhao Ziyang jinian wenji
(Zhao Lives: A Collection of Commemorative Essays), Pacific Century Press, 2005.

Wu Guoguang, Zhang Weiguo, and Bao Pu, eds.,
Ziyang qiangu—Zhao Ziyang jinian wenji xubian
(Zhao Lives: An Additional Collection of Commemorative Essays and Poems), Pacific Century Press, 2006.

Yang Jisheng,
Zhongguo gaige shiqi de zhengzhi douzheng,
Excellent Culture Press, 2004.

Zong Fengming,
Zhao Ziyang nuanjin Zhong de tanhua
(Zhao Ziyang: Captive Conversations), Open Books, 2007.

C
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2–3

Hu Jie generously shared his research materials with me. I also drew on the collections of remembrances written by Lin Zhao’s classmates and her sister that were edited by Xu Juemin. Throughout this book, I relied heavily on Philip Short’s authoritative biography of Mao and Roderick MacFarquhar’s extensive research into his political campaigns. I gathered additional details on how the Hundred Flowers and Anti-Rightist campaigns unfolded at Peking University from Goldman’s eyewitness account and the materials translated by Doolin. Schoenhals helped me understand the party’s use of language. For the Mencius quote that Hu recalled on his bicycle ride, I used the David Hinton translation on page 230 of
Mencius,
published by Counterpoint in 1999.

Doolin, Dennis,
Communist China: The Politics of Student Opposition,
Hoover Institution Studies, 1964.

Goldman, René, “The Rectification Campaign at Peking University: May–June 1957,”
China Quarterly,
Oct.–Dec. 1962, pp. 138–53.

MacFarquhar, Roderick,
The Hundred Flowers Campaign and the Chinese Intellectuals,
Octagon Books, 1974.

––––––.
The Origins of the Cultural Revolution: Contradictions Among the People, 1956–1957,
Columbia University Press, 1973.

Mu Qing, Guo Chaoren, Lu Fuwei,
Lishi de shenpan,
published in the
People’s Daily,
January 27, 1981.

Peng Lingfan, interview on Radio Free Asia, February 28, 2005.

––––––.
Wode jiejie Lin Zhao—2004 xinzuo,
published in
Kaifang,
May 19, 2004.

Schoenhals, Michael,
Doing Things with Words in Chinese Politics: Five Studies,
RoutledgeCurzon, 1995.

Short, Philip,
Mao: A Life,
Henry Holt & Co., 2000.

Wu Fei,
Hu Jie: Yong jingtou jishi yi yingxiang sixiang,
published in
China Youth Daily,
November 22, 2004.

Xu Juemin, ed.,
Zhuixun Lin Zhao,
Changjiang Literature and Art Press, 2000.

––––––. ed.,
Zoujin Lin Zhao,
Ming Pao Publishing House, 2006.

Yue Daiyun and Carolyn Wakeman,
To the Storm: The Odyssey of a Revolutionary Chinese Woman,
University of California Press, 1987.

Zhang Yuanxun,
Beida wangshi yu Lin Zhao zhisi,
first published in
Jinri Mingliu,
February 2000.

C
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4

The history of the Cultural Revolution by MacFarquhar and Schoenhals is the best so far, and I draw on it for details, chronology, and interpretation. My account of how the Cultural Revolution unfolded in Chongqing relies on the work of He Shu, a scholar and editor in the city, who generously shared his unpublished research with me, as well as on memoirs written by former Red Guards there. Other amateur historians in Chongqing who helped me include Chen Xiaowen and Han Pingzao.

Chen Xiaowen,
Chongqing Shaping gongyuan hongweibing muyuan beiwen jilu,
unpublished.

Esherick, Joseph, Paul Pickowicz, and Andrew Walders, eds.,
The Chinese Cultural Revolution As History,
Stanford University Press, 2005.

He Shu,
Chongqing wenge wudou dashiji,
unpublished.

––––––.
Lun zaofanpai,
unpublished.

––––––.
Wenge shouli daguimo wudou buzai Shanghai zai Chongqing,
unpublished.

Li Musen and He Shu,
Qinli Chongqing dawudou—Chongqing fandaodipai yihao qinwuyuan zishu,
unpublished.

Liao Bokang,
Lishi changheli de yige xuanwo—Sichuan Xiao Li Liao shijian huimou,
Sichuan People’s Publishing House, 2005.

Liu Zhiming,
Chongqing hongweibing muqun chaiqian fengbo,
published in
Phoenix Weekly,
January 19, 2006.

MacFarquhar, Roderick and Michael Schoenhals,
Mao’s Last Revolution,
Belknap Press, 2006.

Morning Sun,
documentary film produced and directed by Carma Hinton, Geremie Barmé, and Richard Gordon, Long Bow Group, 2003.

Wang Youqin,
Wenge Shounanzhe,
Open Magazine Publishing, 2004.

Yu Liuwen and Han Pingzao,
Qingchun mudi maizang Chongqing wenge wudou,
published in
Southern Weekend,
April 29, 2001.

Zhou Ziren,
Duanyi Chongqing wudou,
unpublished.

––––––.
Hongweibing xiaobao zhubian zishu,
Fellows Press of America, 2006.

––––––.
Zheng Siqun zhisi he Chongqing bayiwu yundong,
unpublished.

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5

In addition to Xiao Yunliang, I interviewed several of the worker leaders as well as Yao Fuxin’s daughter and wife over a period of years. For information on Mao’s brief career as a labor organizer, I consulted the Short biography as well as the earlier work of Lynda Shaffer. During my research into labor issues in China, I often crossed paths with Ching Kwan Lee, whose excellent academic treatment of the protests in Liaoyang was helpful. The state sector employment figures are drawn from the government’s statistical yearbooks, and the numbers of “mass incidents” are taken from statements by Chinese public security officials. Details of the Shenyang corruption scandal are drawn from state media reports as well as articles published in Hong Kong. The best English accounts of the scandal were written by John Pomfret in the
Washington Post
and James Kynge in the
Financial Times.

Human Rights Watch,
Paying the Price: Worker Unrest in Northeast China,
July 2002.

Lee, Ching Kwan,
Against the Law: Labor Protests in China’s Rustbelt and Sunbelt,
University of California Press, 2007.

Shaffer, Lynda, “Mao Ze-dong and the October 1922 Changsha Construction Workers’ Strike: Marxism in Preindustrial China,”
Modern China
4, no. 4, October 1978, pp. 379–418.

––––––.
Mao and the Workers: The Hunan Labor Movement, 1920–1923,
M. E. Sharpe, 1982.

Yu Jianrong,
Zhongguo gongren jieji zhuangkuang—Anyuan shilu,
Mirror Books, 2006.

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6

Glowing reports about Chen Lihua and the Jinbao Avenue project are easy to find in the state media, so I have not listed them here. Instead, I have included a few pieces that took a more critical approach. The best research into the demolition of the neighborhoods of old Beijing and the role of developers and local officials in the process is by the urban planning scholar Fang Ke, who is profiled in Johnson’s book.

Chen Yongjie,
Gangshang Beijing chai hutong beikong jin kaiting,
and related articles, published in
Ming Pao,
March 31, 2005.

––––––.
Wei hutong dizheng daodi,
published in
Ming Pao Monthly,
April 19, 2005.

Fang Ke,
Dangdai Beijing jiucheng gengxin—diaocha, yanjiu, tansuo,
China Architectural Industry Publishing House, 2000.

Fang Ke and Zhang Yan, “Plan and Market Mismatch: Urban Redevelopment in Beijing During a Period of Transition,”
Asia Pacific Viewpoint
44, no. 2, 2003, pp. 149–62.

Fang Yu,
Yige hutong baoweizhe de shuangzhong jie,
published in
Economic Observer,
January 27, 2006.

Johnson, Ian,
Wild Grass: Three Portraits of Change in Modern China,
Vintage, 2005.

Liu Chunqiu and Xu Huiying,
Siya yezhu zuchan kaifashang beichai zhi gongtang,
published in
No. 1 Financial Times,
January 7, 2005.

Wang Jun,
Zouchu chaiqian jingji moshi,
published in
Oriental Outlook Weekly,
October 25, 2006.

Xie Guangfei,
1380 yi nali qule? Zhuanye renshi jisuan tudi pizu heidong,
published in
China Economic Times,
October 15, 2003.

Zhang Tingwei, “Urban Development and a Socialist Pro-Growth Coalition in Shanghai,”
Urban Affairs Review
37, no. 4, 2002, pp. 475–99.

Zhang Yan and Fang Ke, “Is History Repeating Itself? From Urban Renewal in the United States to Inner-City Redevelopment in China,”
Journal of Planning Education and Research
23, no. 3, 2004, pp. 286–98.

Zhang Yan and Fang Ke, “Politics of Housing Redevelopment in China: The Rise and Fall of the Ju’er Hutong Project in Inner-City Beijing,”
Journal of Housing and Built Environment
18, 2003, pp. 75–87.

C
HAPTER
7

I visited Wangying Village and interviewed the three Wangs as well as several others who participated in the tax revolt. In quoting from
An Investigation of China’s Peasantry,
I used my own translation in some places and that of the abridged English edition,
Will the Boat Sink the Water? The Life of China’s Peasants,
in other places.

Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao,
Zhongguo nongmin diaocha
(An Investigation of China’s Peasantry), People’s Literature Publishing House, 2003.

––––––.
Will the Boat Sink the Water? The Life of China’s Peasants,
Public Affairs, 2006.

Wang Heyan,
Wo weishenme gao zhongguo nongmin diaocha,
published in
China Business Herald,
July 20, 2004.

C
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8

In addition to my interviews with doctors, virologists, and disease control officials, I obtained from a third party a copy of Jiang Yanyong’s diary notes and consulted the excellent reporting in
Caijing
during the epidemic. Greenfeld also tracks the development of the epidemic well.

Greenfeld, Karl Taro,
China Syndrome: The True Story of the 21st Century’s First Great Epidemic,
HarperCollins, 2006.

Jiang zhenhua de Jiang Yanyong,
published in
Caijing,
June 3, 2003.