H βιογραφία του πατέρα του Xi Jinping
Το τελευταίο που χρειάζομαι είναι άλλο ένα 700σέλιδο βιβλίο να με κοιτάει από τη βιβλιοθήκη μου. Είμαι όμως πολύ κοντά στο να παραγγείλω την βιογραφία του Xi Zhongxun, πατέρα του Xi Jinping, που έγραψε ο Joseph Torigian και εκδόθηκε μόλις. Αντιγράφω από την κριτική των New York Times.
One of the most enduring debates — and, for many people, deepest disappointments — in contemporary China is why Xi Jinping did not live up to his father’s image. After both were persecuted under Mao’s autocratic rule, why has Xi Jinping’s reign come to echo Mao’s cult of personality rather than the more open, institutionalized governance that his father most likely would have preferred?
In a new biography of Xi Zhongxun, the China scholar Joseph Torigian addresses this question and contributes greatly to our understanding of China. The book, deeply researched, tells the story of a man torn between his humanity and his loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, offering insights into the party’s workings and the human suffering that shaped his son’s governing style and conception of power.
Σχετικά με τις αντιφάσεις του χαρακτήρα του:
At times, Xi Zhongxun appeared to genuinely care about ordinary people’s lives. He believed that the Cultural Revolution was a catastrophe and that Mao-style strongman rule should never be repeated. He helped establish the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, a central element of China’s early attempt to open up to the world, and was more tolerant of dissent than most Chinese leaders.
But as Mr. Torigian observes, “Xi’s ‘liberal’ sensibilities were only relative, and they could swiftly change.” In early 1950, Mao was not happy that only about 500 counterrevolutionaries had been executed in the northwest. Mr. Xi, overseeing the region, responded by escalating the crackdown and later pledged to “kill more to create awe and terror.”
Για το πόσο σκληρό είναι το Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα της Κίνας:
Xi Zhongxun was purged in 1962, after Mao accused him of engaging in anti-party scheming. The suffering extended far beyond his family. According to the book, some 20,000 people were persecuted as part of the “Xi Zhongxun anti-party clique.” At least 200 were beaten to death, driven insane or severely injured. For years, Xi Zhongxun’s secretary recalled, the old man couldn’t bear to hear the word “implicated.”
Later Xi Zhongxun, already exiled to a factory, was kidnapped by the Red Guards, humiliated and beaten at what were known as struggle sessions. He was jailed in solitary confinement and did not see his family for eight years. Xi Zhongxun seemed to have developed mental health problems, which led him to weep constantly. One of his daughters killed herself. He had three children from his first marriage and four from his second marriage, including Xi Jinping.
Και για την πειθαρχία και πίστη στο Κόμμα:
Though both father and son endured deep suffering, neither wavered in his loyalty to the party. “In the party, suffering meant ‘forging,’ or strengthening one’s willpower and dedication,” Mr. Torigian writes.
[..] he has echoed the tone and mind-set of his father, steeped in revolutionary struggle, disciplined hardship and an unwavering belief in the party’s moral authority.
Ο Tyler Cowen έγραψε διθυράμβους.