ZHOU ENLAI - The last perfect revolutionary
by Gao Wenqian
Translated by Peter Rand and Lawrence Sullivan
Published by Perseus Books Group, 2007
At times unevenly translated, or unevenly written, at times repetitious, and for the vast majority of the time, an incredibly fascinating eyewitness or well researched account about a man the West knew little about.
Some major truths. Mao Zedong was a reactionary, a maniac, a cruel puppet-master, a cunning scoundrel, and a mass murderer - although that last point seemed to have no impact on him whatsoever. This spotty, but incredibly important bio studies Zhou and Mao from before the Great March which led to a communist China, and pushed Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan, to the time of Zhou's death.
First, the strengths:
Gao provides us with a great deal of previously known information about Zhou in France, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe, as he honed his socialist training and skills. Some of the counterparts are familiar, others disappear forever. No matter, learning about these formative years gives the reader a whole new idea about world history, and how it developed.
The next period, the relationship with Comintern, (the USSR effort to globalize Lenin's most bloody aspects of revolution) and how China eventually took its own path is truly captivating. Not only is early China explained, so is the USSR.
The book pretty much skips over the Great Leap Forward, (unfortunately) and deals with the 1950s, Mao's political wrangling and plotting, until he hatches his Cultural Revolution into the 1960s. The disaster Mao concocted threatened to destroy the entire nation. The Red Guard movement he began in 1966, cause hordes, no ARMIES, of armed, violent, uneducated, and violently true believers to wreck havoc over the entire nation. hundreds of thousands, perhaps, millions lost their positions, their homes, their lives. In some ways, the Red Guard reminds you of today's Christian Right and their young conservatives, and their corrosive impact on the US.
The repeated theme seems to be this: Mao would promote his favorite future replacements, then cut their legs out from under them. Every major policy change he made resulted in disaster, leaving it to Zhou to fix. As much as Zhou needed Mao, Mao apparently needed Zhou, and hated him for it, in the process. That jealousy and hatred resulted in Zhou's final demise. When Zhou was diagnosed with treatable bladder cancer, Mao ordered the doctors to NOT treat it, and to NOT inform Zhou. Even as his disease progressed and eventually became untreatable, Mao maintained total control over his medical treatment. In essence, Mao killed off the man who saved his butt more often than the author can count.
The weaknesses of this book are few, but glaring. Nothing, not even a detailed mention of the Great Leap Forward, except in passing. Too many times, the translator seems to repeat the thoughts and words of the author, but only in a slightly different way. Not too many problems, and certainly not so detracting or destructive that the book offends. To the contrary, it provides a glimpse into the minds of the key subjects of this book.
Prominent space is given to the Gang of Four, and in particular Mao's evil, lackluster, power-hungry, and totally inept wife, Jiang Qing, who ends up reminding one of Condi Rice, but with worse choices of shoes.
This book is extremely important and timely in several ways. The idea that China was careening from precipice to cliff, to self-implosion, to a Mao-created explosion, is not taught in today's history books or discussed in today's China discussions. Nor is the fact that what Mao created has almost no resemblance to the China of today. A series of leaders did their best to protect something, anything, about Mao, while rapidly distancing themselves from his many excesses and destructive decisions. WIthout getting a full flavor about Mao's China, today's China is far more understandable. One can easily see how the early people who were denounced or destroyed by Mao would have changed China far earlier, and probably with little or no deaths. THAT China, had it been allowed to grow by Mao, would have been far more important and integrated nation these days.
Overall? I think this is a very important and mostly well written book. It shows Mao to be truly a evil, powerful, often spoiled man.