Another look at Mao's China (cf. #S502, with John King Fairbank), this time with

a former student of Professor Fairbank's. Mr. Butterfield's book was regarded as a landmark, and today's discussion, rich in detail, ranges from the price a peasant gets for his grain, to the changes in the contacts Chinese are permitted to have with foreigners, to the steps Deng Xiaoping has taken to avoid a personality cult. FB: "When Deng, in 1978, was fighting for his own political--I won't say survival, but trying to increase his power and--" WFB: "His ascendancy, yes." FB: "His ascendancy--and get rid of a number of people who were still taking the Maoist point of view, Deng allowed the wall posters [on which citizens could criticize the government] to go up. They were largely critical of Mao and of the people who were still siding with Mao, the so-called 'whatever faction'--whatever Chairman Mao said is correct, was correct then, is still correct now.

Hua Guofeng was obviously a target. But then when the posters began to go a bit further, when they began to call into question the whole Communist system and when they attacked Deng in particular and said that he too was a despot, then Deng moved to clamp down."