Maurice Meisner

Now, it could be argued that Meisner was just stating the obvious in this book: that China, during Deng Xiaoping's rule, ceased to be even a quasi-socialist country except in name. Fortunately for the reader who has committed himself to finishing this dry and considerably lengthy work, it's a little more nuanced than that. At first glance the bleak authoritarianism of Deng appears more or less identical to the bleak authoritarianism of Mao, but Meisner notes the Chairman's support for the "four great freedoms" (to "speak out freely, air views freely, hold great debates, and write big character posters") near the end of his reign. These freedoms were added to the new state constitution in 1975, but mercilessly suppressed by Deng when he took power. The author's argument that Mao was motivated by even a vague approximation of genuine revolutionary spirit is unconvincing (as Meisner himself concedes, Mao had a history of encouraging criticism and even open revolt against party bureaucracy, only to crack down again when his whim shifted), but the fact remains that when Mao died there was at least a rudimentary constitutional foundation on which a democratic and fully socialist society might have been built. Deng wasted no time in smothering this possibility, cruelly turning against the young members of the Democracy Movement who had supported him during his ascendancy...and foreshadowing the grim events at Tiananmen Square in June 1989. Meanwhile, the end of rural collectivization also meant the end of job security, creating an entire class of "surplus" (i.e., unemployed) workers in the countryside: more than 100 million, according to the government's own reckoning in 1993.

Meisner held out some faint hope that the revolutionary tradition in China might be rekindled. Sadly this has not been the case, and the pro-capitalist economic reforms spearheaded by Deng have created (as capitalism inevitably does) a widening gap between a wealthy, corrupt minority and the masses of impoverished Chinese citizens.… (mehr)

In the decade since the death of Mao Zedong, the People's Republic of China has been swept by dramatic political, social, and economic changes. Now, Maurice Meisner has perceptively updated his widely-acclaimed book, Mao's China-considered the classic study of the Chinese Revolution since its original publication in 1977. Based on a wealth of previously unavailable data, Meisner presents a completely revised account of the now-repudiated Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of 1966-1969, in which he examines the social consequences of this violent upheaval and traces its political legacy from the fall of Lin Biao to the demise of the Gang of Four. And, in a completely new section, Meisner examines the post-Mao era up to 1984, including the ascendancy of Deng Xiaoping and the institutionalization of his new order, the rise and fall of the Democracy Movement, and the Chinese Communist Party's reassessment of Mao and Maoism. In addition, Mao's China and After contains a critical interpretation of post-Maoist economic reforms and the continuing challenges China and its new leaders face in reconciling socialism and modernization.… (mehr)