Memo #121
(The second Memo from the Theme, Ezra Vogel’s Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China)
Featuring Ezra Vogel
Last week, we published the first part of our interview with Ezra Vogel, where he discussed writing his new book, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China.
In part two of our interview with Ezra Vogel, he discusses the domestic politics of Deng’s career. Professor Vogel outlines the forces that shaped Deng as a leader, from his experiences with senior Chinese communists in Europe in the 1920s to Deng’s own “years in the wilderness” in the Cultural Revolution. Loyalty for Deng Xiaoping was based on comradeship over personal friendship – his primary loyalty was to the movement and to its supreme leader, Mao Zedong.
Finally, the transformative political changes that Deng shepherded in the 1980s and 1990s were directed by a subtle and strategic support of promising regional leaders and examples rather than by overarching policy models or fiat.
Here’s the second in a series of three interviews with Ezra Vogel:
Part 1 – What shaped Deng Xiaoping as a leader? (2:00 min)
Part 2 – What does Deng Xiaoping teach us about loyalty in the Chinese political system? (1:57 min)
Part 3 – How did Deng Xiaoping handle political changes? (2:37 min)
About the Author:
Ezra Vogel – Henry Ford II Research Professor of the Social Sciences, Emeritus. Harvard University.
Link:
- Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, Book by Ezra Vogel, September 2011.
Related Memos:
- Our other memos on China