It is undeniable that this man served as one of the greats in the history of modern China. However, was he really merely a power-hungry man as he was made out to be or a military genius and someone who wished the best for China? The answer would be that he could very well be all of them.
He started off with humble origins as the son of a small landlord in Hubei. He later progressed on to joining a military academy when he was 18. He quickly rose up the ranks due to his military expertise.
The Chinese Civil War then broke out and he commanded the Red Army’s 1st Corps fighting the KMT. It was a long and arduous journey for them. Lin Biao partook in the long march and it was through this adversity that he found his strengths. He turned out to be an excellent battlefield command especially adept in the guerilla warfare of that era. When the KMT raced to catch up to the Reds during the Long march, he persevered and pushed on evading capture.
However, he was forward looking as he easily managed to see that the only way to prevail over the vastly superior KMT forces was through irregular and insurgency warfare. On an open battlefield the massive logistical support that could be mustered by the KMT could not have been overcome by the motley crew that constituted the Red Army. This was despite the great dissent apparent in the CCP even as most of the CCP proved adamant towards Lin Biao’s controversial tactics. They believed that the Reds should stand and fight instead. This can be easily explained by the fact that most of the professional officers in the Red Army were trained in large-scale conventional warfare. Lin Biao was daring. He decided to take the plunge and became an ardent supporter of Mao’s hit-and-run tactics despite the opposition from high-levels of the CCP as well as their Russian allies from the COMINTERN.
Lin Biao rose up the ranks quickly from his successes. Following battles for independence with the Nationalists later on, he eventually became the minister for defence as Gen. Peng DeHuai was purged due to political trouble. He used this new-found power to institute various reforms in the government. He believed, as did Caesar, that every man has to learn to obey before leading. As such, every single officer in the Red Army had to spend time as a private. He abolished elitism in the army following Mao-ist thoughts and ideals by recruiting officers from the ranks of the bourgeoisie.
Communism was taking root even in the army. He was evidently here a great visionary due to his foresight. He knew that if he wanted to prevent mass rebellions against the elites and remove social stratification in the Army, he had to move quickly to ensure an equal proportion of the working class in the leaders. People that could relate to the man on the ground.
With his successful reforms, he eventually displaced Liu Shaoqi in the later party congresses and became one of the top 3 leaders. It was set in stone in 1969 when Mao identified Lin Biao as his successor.
This would be Lin Biao’s pinnacle of success. It would also lead to his fall. Perhaps power corrupted him but he sought to overthrow Mao as was is claimed and as a result, was “assassinated” by means of a plane crash.
However, this does not change the fact that Lin Biao was a great tactical leader. One of the greats that had ever lived. He was a visionary who managed to identify the flaws in the Red Army and improve on them. He sought power too, yes, at the later stages but all in all he was a great visionary and yet a military genius.
USA's ideological differences from communist nations in the Mao era
Deng Xiaoping was able to rise to power in 1978 despite being striped of his position in the Chinese Communist Party several times. Before we can study his reforms, it is necessary that we learn more about his journey to the top of the Chinese Communist Party for it would be impossible for him to bring about his reforms if he was not to be the premier of the People’s Republic of China.
Deng Xiao Ping had been born into a family of a prosperous landowner under the name of Deng Xiansheng and spent his childhood in relative comfort. When Deng Xiao Ping became 15 and graduated from Chongqing Preparatory School, he would go overseas to France to study. Before he was sent off in a ship to France, his father asked him what he hoped to learn from France. Deng Xiao Ping’s reply was,” To learn knowledge and truth from the west in order to save china.” He was taught to say these words from his teacher, showing that his former Chinese education had already develop the will to help China. Although he went to France to study, he had to spend most of his time working there to get money for food and other necessities. He worked in a variety of jobs in France. Most of his jobs had brutal working conditions and the workers would get injured very easily. He barely made enough money to survive. It was from here that Deng Xiao Ping first learnt of the cruelty of a capitalist system of government. He also learnt of Marxism-Leninism from France. During his time in France, he also joins various Chinese communist organizations like the Chinese Communist Youth League. He later returns to China in 1926.
He, like several other prominent leaders in the CCP, had participated in the Long March and did so under the role of chief secretary. By the end of the March, he had assumed the role of Director of the war of resistance against Japanese aggression. Under this position he assisted various campaigns to resist the Japanese and later defeat the Kuomintang. He would later lead the anti-rightist campaign to get rid of the critiques identified through the hundred flowers campaign.
Deng Xiaoping would later be appointed to implement reforms to reverse the harmful effects of Mao’s Great Leap Forward which also forced Mao to step down as state chairman of the people’s republic of china. As Deng Xiaoping’s reforms started working such as creating a free market for farmers and incentive bonuses, the economy was starting to recover. This was also the time around which Deng Xiao Ping made his famous statement-"Whether a cat is black or white makes no difference. As long as it catches mice, it is a good cat." This statement was meant to mean that it does not matter where the idea originates from as long as the idea helps China Mao saw Deng Xiaoping’s effective reforms as a threat to his rule and put Deng Xiaoping under house arrest during the Cultural Revolution. He would later return to power after Zhou Enlai fell ill due to cancer and persuaded Mao to bring Deng Xiao Ping to power who Zhou had chosen as his successor as the Premier. Even though he was brought back to power as vice-premier, the Cultural Revolution had not ended yet. He would later be exiled and removed from power following Zhou’s death mainly due to the Gang of four seeing Deng Xiaoping as a threat and also due to the method he employed to deal with the protestors in Tiananmen Square.
Following Mao’s death, Deng Xiaoping would again rise to power with the help of his supporters within the party and would soon take over Hua Guofeng and become the premier of China. From then onwards, Deng Xiaoping was finally able to implement his reforms without hindrance.
Deng Xiaoping’s plans for reforms could be summarized by the plans of the four modernizations. He hoped to modernize the areas of agriculture, industry, technology and defense. To bring about these modernizations, it was necessary to first implement economic reforms to generate enough surplus to fuel the process of modernization. At first, Deng Xiaoping’s biggest challenge to his economic reforms was to motivate the workers and farmers of the nation. The communist system in China had caused a lack of motivation in the people as their income is not based on how hard they work. Deng Xiaoping saw that it was necessary to motivate the workers in order to generate enough profits to modernize China. Thus, we can divide Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms into 2 phases.
The first phase was from late 1970s to early 1980s. The main goal of this shorter phase was to generate profits in China that was large enough to modernize China and bring about his other reforms. His reforms in this phase include the integration and implementation of the Contract Responsibilities System into the Township and Village Enterprises and opening up of trade to the world. The contract responsibilities system meant that the managers of the Township and Village Enterprises were made to be responsible for the profits and losses of their enterprise and only the people of the enterprise would share the loss or profit of its enterprise. This meant that the state no longer shares their losses and profits but instead the various enterprises share profits and losses. This was effective in motivating workers as the local managers would pressurize the workers and farmers to work hard as they would want their enterprise to make as much profits as possible. As these enterprises were also a social group, farmers and workers were pressurized by each other to work hard in order to not be labeled a ‘slacker’. The quota for producing goods was greatly reduced under Deng Xiaoping. This meant that fewer goods were taken away by the state and the enterprises could easily produce more than enough good which they could sell in the free market, which Deng Xiaoping had opened up, and make profits. This reduced quota allowed the enterprises to make profits rapidly and improved the standards of living in China. These reforms were so successful that China’s poverty rate went from 53% before Mao’s death to 12% following Deng Xiaoping’s first phase of reforms in 1981.
The second phase of economic reforms brought about Deng Xiaoping involved the creation of a proper system and reducing the role of the state in resource allocation. Deng Xiaoping had done this through the implementation of a dual track pricing system.
The early phase had already changed the market of agriculture and other goods emphasized during the great leap forward into a dual track economic system mainly due to the introduction of as free market for these products. A dual track economy refers to an economy that uses both a planned and a market economy. This meant that all products had 2 prices, one under the planned economy and one under the market economy. This innovation of having a intermediate stage before transforming China’s economy into a market economy was the key to the success of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms. A dual track pricing system meant that peasants could buy the cheaper but limited products which were priced through a planned economy while and buy more products at a higher price through the market economy. This way, no one would be worse off by the integration of a market economy into China while some people would still be able to improve through the newly implemented market economy. Also, this economy meant that the citizens could enjoy cheaper prices while still be able to sell their products through the open market to foreigners at higher prices. As the price of products in a market economy was regulated through market equilibrium, the prices of the products through the planned economy could be more effectively determined using the prices in the market economy as a guide. The enterprises would soon start producing a variety of products and the dual track pricing system was implemented to various products. This also allowed the formation of private enterprises in various sectors and private enterprises could be more and more involved in the economy and allowed entrepreneurship.
By the end of 1980, China’s food shortage problems were solved and the agriculture sector was modernized. Deng Xiaoping tried to modernize the industries by implementing special economic zones in various regions. A special economic zone meant that the economic laws differed at those areas to make them more business-friendly. Businesses soon flourished in these areas and the industries were slowly getting modernized in these areas.
Technology was modernized by the spread of propaganda that encouraged intellectuals who were discouraged during Mao’s rule. The emerging intellectuals would help modernize technology in China. Also, studying abroad was encouraged. This way, China was able to ‘steal’ technology from other countries and use it to modernize its own technology.
China’s defense capabilities were modernized through developing programs for military training and encouraging technological advances for military use.
It must be noted that Deng Xiao Ping was no genius innovator who thought of such effective policies for reforms in China. Instead, he was merely a person who was open to ideas among a group of conservative people in the Chinese Communist Party. The goal of four modernizations was originally planned by Zhou Enlai. Local Leaders had suggested various reforms and Deng Xiaoping did not reject these ideas outright but viewed them and tried to implement those which he found plausible.
To judge a leader after his death, the only way is to evaluate what he had done that causes permanent changes to the lives of those he led. Sometimes, however, proves are few and there is myth between fact and belief that this method may yield inconsistent results depend on who the judges are. In China, Mao Zedong was, and will likely to be the forever Great Father of the country who had sacrificed so much for its independence and glory. But beyond China’s border, across the Pacific Ocean, he is a dictator who held responsible for the suffering of millions. To judge a leader fairly, both the views of his supporters and his enemies must be considered. During the eventful 20th century, there are no Chinese leaders that could win approval globally, except Premier Zhou Enlai, the leader that shaped the destiny of China in a least disastrous way.
Born to an upper class family in 1899, Zhou Enlai did not suffer from poverty or hunger like most other revolutionaries. During his childhood, there were many chained events, most notably the collapse of the Imperial Rule after thousands of years of dominance and the rise of the first Democratic government in China. At the age of 17, he was opened to the outside world by studying oversea in Japan; then became an activist and for the first time be involved in political movement. In later years, Zhou Enlai travelled to France, Britain and Germany, where he experienced the democratic but highly divided classes’ society at that time. This period shaped Zhou Enlai into a highly skilled and intellectual leader.
The chaotic period since Sun Yat-sen’s Death on 12 March 1925 until the victory of the China Communist Party over the Koumintang in 1949 marked the struggle for power of the CCP and the remarkable contribution of Zhou Enlai for the Party. Upon his return to China on 1924, Zhou Enlai joined the CCP-KMT alliance. After the split of the CCP and the KMT, he followed the CCP and was elected into the ruling Politburo. This internal break signaled the civil war between the two most prominent political parties of China, each pursued a different ideology. The war was forced to stop temporarily because of the invasion of Japan, though Chiang Kai-shek-leader of the KMT wanted to crush the CCP more than fight the Japanese. In this crucial moment, Zhou Enlai helped in the Sian Incident-the kidnapping of Chiang Kai-shek and then negotiated the reunion between the CCP and the KMT to fight against Japan, which resulted in the formation of the Second CCP-KMT United Front. While working as a leading member of the United Front, he also launched a campaign to seek the CPC extensive supports from international personages. After the victory of the Chinese force over Japan in 1945, the CCP with popular supports continued to win the KMT and ended the Civil War in 1949.
On October 1, 1949, along with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, Zhou Enlai became the first Premier and Foreign Minister of the country. Looking back at that time of turbulence which China was scattered by wars, it is acknowledged that without Zhou Enlai and the Sian Incident, the KMT would be able to crush the CCP and the people of China would suffered even more from the Japanese force.
As the first Foreign Minister of China, Zhou Enlai continued to work restlessly to archive international recognition for China. With the USSR, he assisted Mao Zedong in negotiating with Stalin and forging with the Soviet Union the Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance in February 1950. Zhou Enlai also played a key role in the decision-making of China to enter the Korean War in October 1950. This event greatly affected the fate of Korea. Without the help of the People’s Army of China, the US army might have succeed in capturing North Korea and unite the country under the Republic of Korea. Zhou Enlai then held direct responsibility for the ceasefire of the war, which was an effort to popularize China’s peaceful foreign policies. He put forward the five principles of peaceful coexistence, such as "mutual respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference into each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence''. Zhou Enlai also increased China’s influence with the West as he visited the Soviet Union, Poland, and Hungary in January 1957 after the Poland-Hungary Incident to correct mistakes made by the Soviet Union. He improved relationship of China with America by hosting President Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. China represented by Zhou Enlai appeared as a friendly country which wishes to maintain harmonic relations with the outside world but also as a powerful and determined nation which would go to war to protect its border, its ideology.
Zhou Enlai had always been the man behind Mao Zedong when it came to politic. For a long time Zhou Enlai had been supporting Mao despite some of his notorious policies such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural revolution which caused the suffering of millions. After the failure of the Great Leap Forward, Mao’s popularity fell, which forced him to admit his mistake and step down as China’s Chairman. To regain his authority, Mao Zedong initiated the Cultural Revolution, which aimed to revolutionized Chinese society and remove Mao’s political opponents. At first, Zhou Enlai supported the campaign but then he became concerned when fighting broke out between the Red Guards and the revisionists. In order to achieve peace, by the end of 1966 he called for an end to these attacks on party officials. With the help of Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping survived the purge who later rose to become the leader of China after Mao. His various reforms and economic policies helped China became the fastest growing economy in the world.
After all, the question remains is: how to judge Zhou Enlai? Was he also a dictator who supported Mao Zedong constantly during his time in power? Or was he a justified revolutionary who worked so hard for the happiness and prosperity of the people he led? There are myths about the fact behind China’s First Premier, but there is no doubt that without Zhou Enlai, China could have turned out to be very different from what we see today; and there is a high chance that life would have been much worse there.
