Deng got one thing right: that China had to reform. But he had no idea how, and he was too old. He basically just said: tried it, and chose to rely on young generations to pull it off. Hu Yaobang was part of the revolutionary generation (he was a kid on the long March), his main credit was rehabilitating old cadres and encouraging free discussion; Zhao Ziyang also belonged to this generation. He was more like a Chinese Gorbachev, looking good to the outside, but essentially not able to make the tough decision at the right moment; Li Peng, nobody liked him; Jiang Zemin, a jovial No.1, very flexibly-minded, he set the stage and delegated authority of economy to the guy, Zhu Rongji, who in my mind ranked almost at the same level as Deng in terms of historical importance, and was one of the maybe Top 5 great reformers in the long history of entire China. (Bear in mind, a successful reform is hard for this nation. Things usually ended up in violent collapses and revolutions)
Great work. I also recommend a deep reading of Zhu Rongji. If Deng was the “architect” of gaige kaifang, the Zhu was its true engineer.
I am glad you approve! Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely read on Zhu Rongji!
Deng got one thing right: that China had to reform. But he had no idea how, and he was too old. He basically just said: tried it, and chose to rely on young generations to pull it off. Hu Yaobang was part of the revolutionary generation (he was a kid on the long March), his main credit was rehabilitating old cadres and encouraging free discussion; Zhao Ziyang also belonged to this generation. He was more like a Chinese Gorbachev, looking good to the outside, but essentially not able to make the tough decision at the right moment; Li Peng, nobody liked him; Jiang Zemin, a jovial No.1, very flexibly-minded, he set the stage and delegated authority of economy to the guy, Zhu Rongji, who in my mind ranked almost at the same level as Deng in terms of historical importance, and was one of the maybe Top 5 great reformers in the long history of entire China. (Bear in mind, a successful reform is hard for this nation. Things usually ended up in violent collapses and revolutions)
Thanks for this great piece and to Robert for the additional comments.