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Monday 29 December 2008
Man Who Altered History
The approaching close of 2008 should remind us of the day, 30 years ago, that marked the onset of a chain of events that was to alter the course of Asian - and human - history.
The approaching close of 2008 should remind us of the day, 30 years ago, that marked the onset of a chain of events that was to alter the course of Asian - and human - history.
In December 1978, the Chinese Communist Party endorsed the opening up of agriculture to private, small-scale farming, a radical departure from Mao Zedong’s policy of communised agriculture. Ironically, the capital surpluses accumulated by agricultural privatisation helped finance the build-up of urban areas, which eventually widened the gap between the rich and poor.
In any case, the fundamental turnaround in economic policy led to the surge of the Chinese economy and its linkage to the international economy. More importantly, the new policies resulted in a massive reduction of poverty. Not least, the policies were adopted amid the expansion of personal freedoms and the elevation of living standards to a degree that the Chinese people had not enjoyed for centuries, if at all.
Much of this can be attributed to the strength of will, vision and pragmatism of one man - Deng Xiaoping. His strength of will could be measured not only by his resilience in surviving two purges and exile but also by his ability to have his vision of the country prevail.
This month not only marks the 30th anniversary of China’s opening up. It is also an occasion for remembering and paying tribute to Deng. I first met him in June 1975. An officer in the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs, I was in the delegation of president Ferdinand Marcos on his state visit to China. Zhou Enlai , premier of the State Council, was terminally ill in 305 Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army, where he introduced Deng to Marcos and the rest of us.
Vilified by powerful radicals as one of the two “party persons in authority taking the capitalist road”, Deng, general secretary of the Party since 1957, had been purged in 1969, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, and sent to do manual labour in Jiangxi province. After Zhou was diagnosed with cancer in 1973, Deng was rehabilitated and, in April, appointed vice-premier, in which capacity he effectively ran the government.
I served as the note taker during the Marcos-Deng talks, and I remember clearly Deng’s articulation of China’s policy on the South China Sea: “shelve” the conflicting sovereignty claims and, in the meantime, undertake co-operative activities in the area.
Zhou died in January 1976. When I returned to Beijing on April 7, 1976, to take up my post in the Philippine embassy, I was met by a long procession of people screaming to the banging of drums: “Beat down Deng Xiaoping!” Deng was purged again on the same day.
Crowds of a different persuasion had protested vociferously against the removal of the paper flowers and posters that had been placed in tribute to Zhou at the Monument to the People’s Heroes in Tiananmen Square. Regarding Deng as a rival in the fierce struggle for power then wracking the country, the Gang of Four had tied Deng to the protests and had him purged.
On September 8, 1976, Mao died. The next month, the Gang of Four was arrested. Hua Guofeng, who had replaced Zhou as premier, succeeded Mao as party chairman and Deng returned to the good graces of the party and the government.
In March 1978, Li Xiannian, vice-premier and later president, paid an official visit to the Philippines. As charge d’affaires at the embassy, I was invited to join Li on his plane. There to see us off was Deng. The last time I saw him was during his meeting at Zhongnanhai with Philippine president Corazon Aquino, in 1988.
Since his second return to power, Deng held no government position except as chairman of the Central Military Commission, although he wielded supreme authority. In 1989, he stepped down from that post, setting an example of a top leader voluntarily relinquishing office.
As “paramount leader”, Deng saw his reforms bear abundant fruit - export-led manufacturing, the openness to foreign investments and foreign trade, financing by taxation or through the banking system, decentralisation of economic decision-making. He oversaw the success of the special economic zones, and also presided over the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Washington. He guided China’s emergence as a global power.
Today, the Chinese economy is buffeted by the global financial crisis. There is now a question of whether the reforms that Deng set in motion will enable China not only to survive the current turmoil but serve as a locomotive to help haul the global economy out of it.
Rodolfo C. Severino was the secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations from 1998-2002
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Man Who Altered History
Rodolfo Severino
29 December 2008
The approaching close of 2008 should remind us of the day, 30 years ago, that marked the onset of a chain of events that was to alter the course of Asian - and human - history.
In December 1978, the Chinese Communist Party endorsed the opening up of agriculture to private, small-scale farming, a radical departure from Mao Zedong’s policy of communised agriculture. Ironically, the capital surpluses accumulated by agricultural privatisation helped finance the build-up of urban areas, which eventually widened the gap between the rich and poor.
In any case, the fundamental turnaround in economic policy led to the surge of the Chinese economy and its linkage to the international economy. More importantly, the new policies resulted in a massive reduction of poverty. Not least, the policies were adopted amid the expansion of personal freedoms and the elevation of living standards to a degree that the Chinese people had not enjoyed for centuries, if at all.
Much of this can be attributed to the strength of will, vision and pragmatism of one man - Deng Xiaoping. His strength of will could be measured not only by his resilience in surviving two purges and exile but also by his ability to have his vision of the country prevail.
This month not only marks the 30th anniversary of China’s opening up. It is also an occasion for remembering and paying tribute to Deng. I first met him in June 1975. An officer in the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs, I was in the delegation of president Ferdinand Marcos on his state visit to China. Zhou Enlai , premier of the State Council, was terminally ill in 305 Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army, where he introduced Deng to Marcos and the rest of us.
Vilified by powerful radicals as one of the two “party persons in authority taking the capitalist road”, Deng, general secretary of the Party since 1957, had been purged in 1969, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, and sent to do manual labour in Jiangxi province. After Zhou was diagnosed with cancer in 1973, Deng was rehabilitated and, in April, appointed vice-premier, in which capacity he effectively ran the government.
I served as the note taker during the Marcos-Deng talks, and I remember clearly Deng’s articulation of China’s policy on the South China Sea: “shelve” the conflicting sovereignty claims and, in the meantime, undertake co-operative activities in the area.
Zhou died in January 1976. When I returned to Beijing on April 7, 1976, to take up my post in the Philippine embassy, I was met by a long procession of people screaming to the banging of drums: “Beat down Deng Xiaoping!” Deng was purged again on the same day.
Crowds of a different persuasion had protested vociferously against the removal of the paper flowers and posters that had been placed in tribute to Zhou at the Monument to the People’s Heroes in Tiananmen Square. Regarding Deng as a rival in the fierce struggle for power then wracking the country, the Gang of Four had tied Deng to the protests and had him purged.
On September 8, 1976, Mao died. The next month, the Gang of Four was arrested. Hua Guofeng, who had replaced Zhou as premier, succeeded Mao as party chairman and Deng returned to the good graces of the party and the government.
In March 1978, Li Xiannian, vice-premier and later president, paid an official visit to the Philippines. As charge d’affaires at the embassy, I was invited to join Li on his plane. There to see us off was Deng. The last time I saw him was during his meeting at Zhongnanhai with Philippine president Corazon Aquino, in 1988.
Since his second return to power, Deng held no government position except as chairman of the Central Military Commission, although he wielded supreme authority. In 1989, he stepped down from that post, setting an example of a top leader voluntarily relinquishing office.
As “paramount leader”, Deng saw his reforms bear abundant fruit - export-led manufacturing, the openness to foreign investments and foreign trade, financing by taxation or through the banking system, decentralisation of economic decision-making. He oversaw the success of the special economic zones, and also presided over the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Washington. He guided China’s emergence as a global power.
Today, the Chinese economy is buffeted by the global financial crisis. There is now a question of whether the reforms that Deng set in motion will enable China not only to survive the current turmoil but serve as a locomotive to help haul the global economy out of it.
Rodolfo C. Severino was the secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations from 1998-2002
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