CHINA AFTER MAO

An expert on modern Chinese history examines its rapid rise following the Cultural Revolution.

After Mao Zedong died in 1976, his misgoverned and largely impoverished nation began the greatest economic advance in history. Dikötter, chair of the humanities department at the University of Hong Kong and author of multiple books about Mao and the Cultural Revolution, chronicles this period. Many Western observers believe that Mao’s death allowed China’s rulers, led by the sensible Deng Xiaoping, to discard Marxism and welcome capitalism, leading to an explosion of prosperity. This is a myth, writes Dikötter, whose extensive reading in mainland archives, gimlet eye, and bestselling histories have made him a controversial figure among some Chinese scholars. The author argues that China’s leaders dismiss Western ideas of democracy, proclaiming that, as Marxists, they serve the people; according to them, this makes China the world’s most democratic nation. Mao remains a godlike figure, but his successors yearned to recover from his disastrous revolution. They believed that a top-down, disciplined command economy would fix things. Dikötter delivers an excellent, highly critical description of China’s spectacular expansion that emphasizes banking, industrial policy, trade, and currency. He also shows how the country struggled initially because key positions in the finance arena went to party loyalists who lacked sufficient technical knowledge. With time, leaders learned from their mistakes, importing technology and investment from Western nations enraptured by the thought of more than 1 billion new customers and under the mistaken impression that China was “privatizing.” All expressed horror when Chinese leaders slaughtered democratic reformers in Tiananmen Square and throughout China in 1989—and then quickly forgave them. At the time, writes the author, “the regime learned to appreciate the benefits of hostage diplomacy and the price of even a single dissident.” Dikötter brilliantly recounts the defects of China’s economic model and deplores its human rights record, but he is unable to explain why it continues to grow.

A richly informative, disquieting history.