Product Description

To the outside world Deng Xiaoping represents a contradiction: he is both China's most successful moderniser, and the `Butcher of Beijing'', who must take responsibility for the events surrounding Tiananmen Square in June 1989. However, for Deng the politician there is no such contradiction: only the Chinese Communist Party can bring modernisation to China. For Deng any threat to the Communist Party is a threat to the project of China's modernisation. This book reaches beyond the spectacular economic success of recent years to understand Deng's own particular role and the sources of his political power. Deng Xiaoping was involved with the Communist movement before there was even a Communist Party of China and his entire career has been shaped by both the party and the network of relationships and people within it. David Goodman explores the way in which Deng has survived being purged three times via his contacts with key politicians, Zhou Enlai in Paris in the early 1920s and Mao Zedong from 1933 to the early 1960s. His close relationship with the military from the Sino-Japanese War of 1937 through to the present day has also enabled him to survive difficult political periods. Indeed, Deng's wartime experience, in the Taihang Mountains, plays a central but often overlooked role in his later career, particularly as a source of political support. David Goodman has drawn on the substantial documentary sources that have become available from China since 1989 as well as the analysis of Deng's political life that has proliferated inside the People's Republic in recent years. In addition, the catalogue and analysis of the speeches and writings of Deng Xiaoping since 1938, which is included, will prove to be an invaluable reference aid to his years of influence and power. The result is a balanced evaluation of Deng the politician that provides fresh insights into the career of one of the twentieth century's greatest political survivors.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116830 in eBooks
• Published on: 2007-03-14
• Released on: 2007-03-14
• Format: Kindle Book
• Number of items: 1

From Library Journal
Although 91 years old, Deng Xiaoping is still believed to be the most powerful leader in China. Widely considered responsible for China's rapid economic growth, political reform, and open-door policy since the late Seventies, he is also linked to the Tiananmen Massacre in Beijing in June 1993. He thus represents a paradox, an enigma to the outside world. Goodman's political biography gives a detailed explanation of the relationship between these two images. Deng is characterized as a "committed communist" with a pragmatic view, who would like to bring forth China's modernization through the "organizational" rather than "ideological" leadership of the Communist party. The author's approach is more analytical and scholarly than Richard Evan's in Deng Xiaoping and the Making of Modern China (LJ 1/94). Recommended for academic libraries. [Librarians may also wish to consider a recent account by Deng's daughter Deng Maomao, Deng Xiaoping: My Father, LJ 1/95.?Ed.]?Mark Meng, St. John's Univ. Lib., New Yor.
-?Mark Meng, St. John's Univ. Lib., New York
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