Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life by Alexander V Pantsov and Steven I Levine (Oxford University Press, £22.99)
Deng Xiaoping, the diminutive, bridge-playing Chinese dictator, enjoys a relatively benign reputation in the west. He is seen as the man who rejected Mao Zedong’s later madness and set China on its world-changing path of rapid growth and its integration into the global economy, lifting 300m Chinese out of poverty. While western enthusiasm is a touch excessive, Deng did get the Chinese Communist Party’s foot off people’s neck, liberating their energy, discipline and hard work. But like any dictator, he was far from benign, and a thorough and balanced treatment of a life still sketchily understood is overdue. In Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life, Alexander V Pantsov and Steven I Levine’s use of previously closed Soviet archives and a wide range of Chinese sources has informed the most comprehensive biography to date. They address Deng’s many contradictions: deposed and jailed by Mao twice, he remained slavishly devoted to him while Mao was alive. A relative realist in economic terms, Deng remained politically ruthless: Mao had to restrain Deng’s enthusiasm for butchery in the 1950s and Deng unhesitatingly suppressed citizens’ movements in 1979 (Democracy Wall) and 1989 (Tiananmen Square). On the latter occasion, he also dismissed his Prime Minister, Zhao Ziyang, who had played a key role in initiating China’s reform and opening up to the world: Zhao spent his remaining days under house arrest. In changing China, Deng changed the world: since we live with his legacy, this biography is essential reading.
Deng Xiaoping, the diminutive, bridge-playing Chinese dictator, enjoys a relatively benign reputation in the west. He is seen as the man who rejected Mao Zedong’s later madness and set China on its world-changing path of rapid growth and its integration into the global economy, lifting 300m Chinese out of poverty. While western enthusiasm is a touch excessive, Deng did get the Chinese Communist Party’s foot off people’s neck, liberating their energy, discipline and hard work. But like any dictator, he was far from benign, and a thorough and balanced treatment of a life still sketchily understood is overdue. In Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life, Alexander V Pantsov and Steven I Levine’s use of previously closed Soviet archives and a wide range of Chinese sources has informed the most comprehensive biography to date. They address Deng’s many contradictions: deposed and jailed by Mao twice, he remained slavishly devoted to him while Mao was alive. A relative realist in economic terms, Deng remained politically ruthless: Mao had to restrain Deng’s enthusiasm for butchery in the 1950s and Deng unhesitatingly suppressed citizens’ movements in 1979 (Democracy Wall) and 1989 (Tiananmen Square). On the latter occasion, he also dismissed his Prime Minister, Zhao Ziyang, who had played a key role in initiating China’s reform and opening up to the world: Zhao spent his remaining days under house arrest. In changing China, Deng changed the world: since we live with his legacy, this biography is essential reading.
