Jung Chang: evaluation

Transcript context

…Yeah. Speaking of which, tomorrow I'm interviewing Neil Ferguson, who has written volume one of his biography of Kissinger, and volume two, which will cover this period, will come out later. He's writing it right now. What should Kissinger have done differently? Should they not have tried to open up China under Mao? What should have been the policy of the United States at the time? China was not opened up by Kissinger and Nixon. I lived in China then. I knew after Nixon and Kissinger's visit 1971-72, China was not opened up. I mean, all the liberalization seemed, you know, relaxation after Nixon's visit was mainly because of the collapse of Lin Biao and Mao lost his arm with which he controlled the army. So I think to say Nixon and Kissinger opened up China is wrong. That's not the case. Kissinger, I think, is a very, very smart person. I think he probably was too fascinated with power. I mean, Mao had the kind of power he could turn the lives upside down of a quarter of the world's population. I think he was very fascinated with Mao. I mean, he said nice things about Mao. And even after Mao died, with the regime was reviving Mao. There were a few people reviving Mao, like the current Mr. Xi and his political rival, Mr. Bo, with whom Kissinger seemed to be very close. He attended these rallies to eulogize Mao, big rallies, and lending his status he had to the Chinese regime's effort to stick with Mao's legacy. I think that's unforgivable. That's one thing. And the other thing is China's opening up to the West. And that happened only after Mao died in 1976 and Deng Xiaoping came to power. I knew this very well because I was one of the first Chinese to be able to leave China in 1978. That's the very beginning of the opening up. I think it's a good thing. I mean, China has ditched Mao's economic lunacy and the ideology that has wrecked China. And the Chinese people are leading a much better life today. And all this could not have happened if the country had not opened up. And also through all this contact with the West, any attempt to go back to the Maoist time would be futile because people knew what the West was like. The people really don't want to be isolated again to lead a life of Mao's time, no matter how they may say they worship the Mao no matter how they make pilgrimages to Mao's birthplace and so on. But deep down, I think nobody wants to go back. So I think that's a very good thing, this opening up. But of course, then it country may grow into a menace to the world. I mean, that's another matter. It's a challenge that the world needs to face now, but it's certainly not to make it's not certainly not true to say China shouldn't have the West shouldn't have allowed China to open up. I mean, you can't just dismiss a billion people coming out of poverty. It's the best thing that's ever happened in history.…

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