Deng Xiaoping A Revolutionary Life, Alexander Pantsov and Steven Levine, 2015

Deng Xiaoping is a much more nuanced figure than Mao, and I believed at the outset of reading this book that he was also more important than Mao. In high school I read a large biography of Deng by Ezra Vogel which Pantsov and Levine address directly in this new biography. They suggest Vogel focuses sympathetically on Deng's time as Paramount Leader and his economic policies of modernization and opening up. Pantsov and Levine instead tackle Deng's entire biography and perhaps overcompensate in doing so. Similarly to their work on Mao, a relatively small portion of this work is spent on the man's time at the helm and a larger portion is spent on intraparty conflicts throughout his career. However, Pantsov and Levine here claim that this is done in order to present a holistic presentation of Deng, and there are episodes from Deng's earlier life that can be seen as early signs of features of his time as Paramount Leader.

First, to address the comparative importance and relevance of Mao and Deng. It is clear that it is Deng's China that we see today. It follows the Four Cardinal Principles; 1. upholding socialism, 2. upholding proletarian dictatorship, 3. upholding leadership of the CCP, 4. upholding Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. It follows socialism with Chinese characteristics. It pursued "two systems, one country." It allowed "some people to get rich first." This all means China has pursued economic development and modernization and balances state-planning with market forces, all under the CCP whose authority drapes over state power, corporate power, and military power. Deng's willingness to pursue material wealth rather than political ideology and to push that willingness onto the rest of the ruling class resulted in China's growth from a backwards nation to one that enjoys the economic heft we see today. Deng's economic program, which was somewhat inspired by Lenin/Bukharin's NEP (which Deng experienced first-hand), is worth studying more.

However, praise for Deng's pursuit of economic reforms and the successes thereof must be attenuated by criticisms for his adoption of the "supreme leader" precedent set by Mao. He also displayed his own ruthlessness. Early in his career, Deng ran the regional party apparatus in Southwest China where he engaged in bloody purges and conquered Tibet. Later, as Paramount Leader Deng ordered the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square. But more generally Deng engaged in many campaigns against Western liberalism and Democracy. Deng could use the centralized authority of the leader within the party and the position of the party in China, developed by Mao, to further his own goals once power was in his hands. All in all, Deng doesn't project the radical, irrational, and unpredictable character of Mao despite projecting similar levels of dictatorship. In addition, it seems that Deng made some first steps towards institutional rather than personal leadership in the CCP, but this was accelerated after his time and prior to Xi Jinping.

It is interesting to read two overlapping works on similar subjects by the same authors. It is an important reminder that each work of history is a narrative and a prism. Each work emphasizes certain events and trends that best or most-relevantly dovetail with the primary trunk of the work's subject and may minimize or exclude those that don't. That is certainly the case here with the portrayal of Mao. For much of Deng's career, he had to guess at the inscrutable mind of the Great Helmsman, whose shifting moods and politics literally meant life or death. It should be noted that Deng's final chapter at the pinnacle of power, commanding everyone around him, followed a long time as a total dependent on Mao. Deng was exiled in political shame three times and humiliated by Mao, but Deng repeatedly groveled and resumed his status after these episodes. Similarly, the resulting free speech from the Hundred Flowers campaign was portrayed in the Mao biography as surprisingly vocal and critical such that Mao reacted with an angry clamping down. Here in the Deng biography the campaign appears more as a cunning ruse to lure out Mao's critics for a fuller strike. In the Mao biography and here in Deng, the period of New Democracy after the founding of the PRC and before the Great Leap was portrayed differently. Each man experienced these events differently, and perhaps historiography has changed over time as well. 

This work was in reaction to the more sympathetic and widely-read work by Vogel. Pantsov and Levine indeed wanted to show how Deng was an enemy of western liberalism. This is important to bear in mind when making a moral appraisal of Deng, since on one hand he was that. But on the other hand, under his leadership an immense mass of humanity was raised up from poverty and put on a path towards prosperity, greatly increasing the total happiness and quality of life of mankind. It is tempting to admire Deng for his managerial effectiveness and willingness to fight against materially counterproductive ideology. In concrete terms Deng is responsible for destruction of life as well as the enhancement of it.