Battle for China's Past : Mao and the Cultural Revolution

THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST
(which was very helpful) during the 1950s, China fell out with the
Soviet Union toward the end of that decade and the Soviet Union
withdrew its support. In contrast, economies in the East Asian region
belonging to the capitalist camp got a lifeline of support from the
United States during the cold war. For instance, in return for allowing
the deployment of US forces in Vietnam, South Korea received approximately
$1 billion dollars from the United States from 1965–70. The
Vietnam War absorbed 94 per cent of Korea’s total steel exports and 52
per cent of its exports of transportation equipment (Hanley and
Mendoza 2007). Japan received similar treatment. American ‘special
procurements’ of war materials from Japan accounted for 60 per cent
of Japan’s steel exports during the Korean War, and for 10–20 per cent
during the Vietnam War (Eiji 2007).
3. By presenting the figures laid out here by Jiang I do not mean to say
that I agree with them. Jiang, like most e-media debate participants,
does not cite sources of the data and does not make references. Therefore
it is difficult to check or even to engage with this kind of argument
in the normal sense of scholarship. However, this does not diminish
the significance of this kind of debate. One reason is that this kind of
narrative is likely to be read more widely than a well-researched
academic paper and therefore has a greater impact. Second, as argued
throughout this book, human behaviour is guided by perceptions and
beliefs more than ‘the truth’. Just as many a Westerner will be
persuaded by the claims made by Chang and Halliday in The Unknown
Story, many Chinese will be persuaded by Jiang.
4. For the importance of the different arrangements in terms of production
organization see Chapter 5.
5. Qi was one of the Cultural Revolution radicals and a close associate of
Jiang Qing.
6. Mao was a friend of Zhu Zhongli’s father. When Zhu arrived in Yan’an
it was Mao who introduced her to Wang Jiaxiang, who subsequently
married Zhu.
7. Hao is an author of two revolutionary novels about rural China Yan
yang tian (The Bright Sunny Sky) and Jin guang dadao (Golden Bright
Path).
8. Yang Guang quotes a doggerel: 上学把家长逼疯,卖房把家底掏空,
治病不如提前送终 (the cost of sending children to school makes
parents crazy, buying a house costs a family everything, and it is better
to prepare a funeral than to be treated for an illness).
9. In July 2007, following the revelation of slave labour in brick kilns in
Shanxi province and shortly before the important 17th CCP national
congress was to take place, 17 veteran CCP party members who used
to hold official positions at ministerial level or above published an
open letter calling for a change of course in China along the lines of
genuine Marxism and ideas of Mao. The letter explicitly warns that
there is a danger of ‘Yeltin-like leaders’ appearing within the CCP (Ma
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