Man Of The Year: Visionary of a New China

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Chinese character instinctively believes that life constantly swings between extremes, that the law is always change, reversal. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the most popular classical and historical novel in China, begins this way: "They say that the momentum of history was ever thus: the empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide." In any case, the Chinese leaders, preparing for a reversal of nearly everything that Mao Tse-tung taught, have proceeded by subtle indirection to prepare the masses for de-Maoification.

Beginning with their arrest in October 1976, members of the radical Gang of Four, led by Mao's widow, Chiang Ch'ing, have been held responsible for everything from crop failures to the shortage of sidewalk cafes. Many of the accusations are justified. But in China now, when a foreigner mentions the Gang of Four, it often happens that the Chinese with whom he is talking will hold up five fingers and say, "Ah, yes, the Gang of Four." The small subversive joke reflects what most Chinese accept: that Mao not only permitted but encouraged the activities of his wife and her radical friends.

In turning toward modernization, Teng and his backers are attempting the delicate task of desanctifying Mao's memory without besmirching it completely. With doctrinal legerdemain, they put forth the line that Mao's philosophy was basically correct, but that it was distorted and misapplied by his onetime heir apparent Lin Piao—now the most vilified historical figure in China—and the Gang. Mao's sponsorship of the Cultural Revolution is excused on the grounds that he was aged, infirm and confused.

In their guardedly complementary roles, Hua and Teng have so far managed to bridge the chasm between the sanctified but turbulent Maoist past and the future. Hua, who owes his career to Mao and honors his memory, pronounces, "Politics is the commander, the soul of everything, and failure to grasp political and ideological work will not do." During a conference not long ago, when Hua expounded Mao's philosophy, Teng retorted, "There are those who, day in and day out, talk of nothing but Mao Tse-tung's thought while failing to grasp even its most fundamental elements: practical experience, the empirical method and the combination of theory with practice."

Neither the Hua nor the Teng faction has an effective majority on the Politburo. Both seem to understand that a doctrinal bloodletting at this time over the debunking of Mao would endanger the overall modernization program, on which both sides basically agree. Thus an apparent compromise has been struck. When posters appeared in Peking describing Mao's rule as "fascist" and "dictatorial," Teng pronounced soothingly, "Some utterances are not in the interest of stability and unity and the Four Modernizations." He told visiting American Columnist Robert Novak: "Every Chinese knows that without Chairman Mao there would have been no new China. In the process of achieving the Four Modernizations, we must be good at comprehensively and accurately grasping and applying Mao Tse-tung thought. There should be liveliness and ease of mind in the political life of our country."

In fact, the Chinese are being conditioned with some care to accept doctrine so heretically un-Maoist that it could