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4.2 ★★★★★
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★★★★★ 5
Superb biography and history.
Format: Hardcover
I read this book prior to a tour of China a few months ago. I remember the old videos of China in the '60's and '70's showing the Chinese wearing Mao suits and riding bicycles. Now Beijing and Shanghai have freeways like L.A. filled with Audis, Buicks and other modern cars polluting the air. Much of the population dresses stylishly, particularly the young (many of them the "spoiled children" resulting from the one child law). They have a railroad that is an engineering marvel that goes to Lhasa, Tibet reaching an altitude of 16,000' on the way. Shanghai is the busiest port in the world and has spectacular skyscrapers. Do they have problems? Yes, huge ones including pollution of all sorts, lack of individual freedoms, a restless population among both the poor and well to do, rebellious minorities, and corruption throughout the ruling communist party. Still the changes in the last 30 years are astounding.
No one man is responsible for all this but Deng must get the credit for leading the country to a more pragmatic economic path. No small task after the multiple debacles left behind by Mao and his ideological fantasies. It seems to be that the more ideological a political leader becomes the further he becomes separated from reality - whether the ideology is left or right. And if the ideological stance is extreme they soon begin killing people. Mao killed some by intent and millions by incompetent leadership and egotism. Deng and his supporters led hundreds of millions out of poverty. He was no angel and was part of a bad system throughout his long adult life. But his life is a great story and I would recommend this book strongly to anyone with an interest in modern China.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2012
★★★★★ 5
6 stars
Format: Paperback
If you have to read only one book on China, pls pick up this one.
Dr Vogel has done an amazing job writing about one of the greatest leaders in modern times. In order to understand the enormity of Deng's achievement, one needs to first appreciate the damage that Mao did to the country. Vogel gives a good background of that but quickly moves on to Deng. The approach described has value in achieving anything in life: Do more, talk less. Boldy try and if unsuccessful, adjust and try again. Choose good people, empower them and let them do their jobs. Respect the predecessors - watch his restraint at criticizing Mao - the man who made his life so miserable - 3 times!
While his adoration of Deng is obvious, Vogel was also able to describe the human and less admirable side of Deng, most obviously, his handling of Tiananmen on June 4, 1989 and how he punished his protege (and one many regards as a just and capable patriot: Zhao Ziyang).
China has gone through several leaders since Deng. But in spite of having all his history to learn from, none have come close, much less equalled the achievements of this great leader. Running a country is not easy. The larger it is, the more exponentially difficult. With more than a billion people, China is almost impossible to manage. Almost. Deng managed to and he did it extraordinarily well. This is his story. So well told that even Deng, would have approved.
At $17, you really can't get a better bargain. I'm ordering a few more copies to give away to friends who really want to understand modern China.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2014
★★★★★ 5
Great book for recent China's reforms.
Format: Paperback
The author did a great job, really great job on this book.
He has a deep understanding on China's rich history and how China gets where it is now. Mr. Deng is the right person for China, at the right (yet critical) moment. This book should be the "textbook" for any person who wants to know a little deeper about China.
Deng's life represents the recent history of China. A poor student worked/studied in France in 1920s, being bullied and discriminated. A student in Soviet who saw the system may bring broken China back together. A high-ranking military commander who fought in battles to bring China to true independence in his 20s to 40s. A party leader turned exiler worked in a factory in his late 60s. A father who has to take care of a highly disabled adult son(was a bright student in a top university in China, and was threw out from a high floor window in Culture Revolution). A compromiser grabbed the absolute power in his 70s. A great reformer changed over 1.2 billion people's lives. A ruthless ruler doesn't allow his goal being sidetracked(1989 crackdown of street protesters). And finally, his goal, a stronger China, is here today.
A great book.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2020
★★★★★ 4
Very thorough treatment
Format: Hardcover
This book provides a thorough treatment of the career of a man whose influence on China was arguably as great as anyone's in the 20th Century, Mao included. The picture that emerges is of a man who exercised good judgment, was a skillful politician, held certain core beliefs, but was pragmatic and capable of reversing course when necessary. I see parallels to FDR, in some respects. The author gives him credit for working masterfully within the Chinese Communist Party framework to achieve and exercise power, which required a certain amount of misdirection if not subterfuge, yet the prominent Americans who dealt with him all regarded him as being direct if not blunt to deal with.
I am around 70% through the book and have branched off twice to read other books, which I almost never do. It occurs to me that this book is not a particularly easy read. In part this is due to the seemingly endless parade of characters whose identities can be difficult to keep straight. Part is due to the fact that Deng did not seem to leave behind much in the way of personal writings or interviews, so the book lacks a personal narrative feel. Also, a lot of Deng's accomplishments as a politician involved the indirect exercise of power, through others. Much of the book involves telling us not what Deng himself did in a given situation, but what Deng arranged to have acomplished, which doesn't involve the same urgency. There is very little revealed of his personal life. It is arranged topically within an overall chronology. It is very straight-forward, with basically no subjective content or even reflection.
The book appears to have been exhaustively researched. It is well worth the effort, given the importance of the subject, which is, ultimately, China itself.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2012
★★★★★ 5
An Enigma
I became interested in the life of Deng Xiaoping after reading THE TRAGEDY OF LIBERATION by Frank Dikotter and AVOIDING THE FALL by Michael Pettis. Deng is an enigma. He was a key player in the Chinese leadership from the earliest days. He was one of the core revolutionary leaders and one that was heavily involved in directing military campaigns leading to liberation. Afterward, he was the administrator for Sichuan and southwest China and implemented Maoist programs that led to mass starvation and incalculable human suffering. So, how was it possible for Deng Xiaoping to emerge as supreme leader of China, opening up the country to 4 decades of unprecedented growth? Did he learn from the failures of earlier policies? If so, what led to his change in thinking and when did it happen? Or was he always a pragmatist and a loyal follower? And if his thinking did change, how was he not one of the many leaders who were expelled from the Party and sent to prison or executed? It seems highly unlikely that a country that went through the purges, the witch hunts and the upheavals like the Cultural Revolution could have produced a leader of the stature of Deng Xiaoping capable of implementing the policy reforms that have led to China's 4 decades of unprecedented growth. These are the questions that motivated me to tackle this 800-page biography.
Ezra Vogel is one of the world's pre-eminent China scholars. His knowledge of the events, people and places as well as the research of other scholars is second to none. He uses this knowledge combined with written accounts and interviews to piece together a comprehensive history of the life of Deng Xiaoping. The account is not strictly chronological. Vogel takes different periods of Deng's life and divides each period into a set of topics covered in separate chapters. This makes the explanation of the events driving each topic easier to follow but it means that the reader may lose track of contemporaneous events discussed in a previous chapter.
Unfortunately, Vogel's review of the life of Deng Xiaoping has not fully answered my questions but it is not for lack of trying. Vogel points out early in the book that Deng Xiaoping did not keep a diary or personal writings or confide his inner-most thoughts on government policy with those around him. His speeches were well-organized and thought-out but without written notes. Consequently, we have no window into his thoughts; we have only his actions and events surrounding him to judge his thinking and how it changed over his life. This lack of a personal written record no doubt was a key factor in his survival of the many leadership purges under Mao Tse-tung. Another factor was his complete loyalty to the Party and to Mao. Although Deng was removed from top leadership positions three times in his career, including a 3-year exile during the Cultural Revolution, he was never expelled out of the Party.
We also learn that Deng Xiaoping was, above all, a pragmatist and a patriot. His driving motivation was to do whatever necessary to foster China's economic development and re-emergence as a global leader. He was not an ideologue, although he was a skillful politician, sensitive to those who opposed his ideas and careful to find ways to test out policy reforms in isolated cases before moving toward full implementation.
Deng Xiaoping is easily one of the most important leaders of the 20th century. We are indeed fortunate to have Ezra Vogel's scholarly and literary talents applied to an English biography of Deng Xiaoping. There is much we can learn from Vogel's account but even more that is left for interpretation reading between the lines.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2014
