China Emerging_ 1978-2008 - Xiao-bo , Wu [3]
G L O S S A RY 1 . 1
Two whatevers
After the fall of the Gang of Four in October 1976, a man named Hua Guo-feng became China’s top leader and he advanced the following guiding policy: “Whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao makes are correct and we will resolutely follow them; whatever instructions Chairman Mao gives are correct and we will be unwavering in obeying them.”
In 1977, China reinstituted the college entrance exam. This photograph shows an examination hall in Beijing. The slogan in the background reads, “In order to realize the Four Modernizations...”
Deng Xiaoping among college students.
By the summer of 1978, people witnessed another powerful indication of the momentum for change. The college entrance examination system had been partially restored in 1977, but the first comprehensive examination in over ten years was held in 1978. Over 6.1 million people rushed back to school. Many were no longer young. In the 1960s and 1970s, many had been forced to participate in a political movement that sent them to towns and villages to work on a long-term and indeed indefinite basis. This movement was the result of lack of employment in cities and represented the government’s attempt to disperse a deep urban labor pool to the countryside. People were frantic to leave farming communities and seek new opportunities in life. Of the millions taking the exam, only 400,000 were enrolled in colleges and universities. The fates of those who were chosen changed
radically. Today, many of the outstanding students from that initial class are senior government officials and China’s premier businessmen.
After successfully initiating a national debate about this “standard for judging truth,” Deng Xiaoping made a historic trip to Japan. During his younger days, Deng had studied in France and had worked in a printing plant. For over half a century, however, he had not set foot inside a “capitalist” factory. He left China on October 22 and traveled first to Tokyo where he toured steel and automobile factories. He then made a special trip to Matsushita Electric, where he met the 83-year-old Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of the company. Nakae Yosuke, the former Japanese Ambassador to China, who was also present at this meeting, recalled the occasion. Matsushita asked Deng Xiaoping what he found interesting about Japan. To this, Deng Xiaoping replied that Chinese winters were extremely cold, and people had to burn coal briquettes to stay warm, with the result that they often became victims of carbon monoxide poisoning. He wondered if Japan had briquettes that did not produce carbon monoxide.
Other momentous changes occurred in 1978. One change that is often overlooked is the Chinese government stopping its aid to Vietnam on July 3, 1978. Thirteen days later, China proceeded to announce that it would be stopping all economic and technical assistance to Albania. On October 23, the Sino- Japanese Peace and Friendship Treaty formally went into effect, and on December 16, 1978, a Sino-American communiqué was issued, establishing normal
Deng Xiaoping taking a ride on the Shinkansen highspeed train during his visit to Japan in 1978.
diplomatic relations. Many more subtle modifications to the foreign policy indicated that China had begun to disengage itself from ideological considerations and had placed the focus of its national policy squarely on economic development.
All these major political changes were centered at Beijing; in fact the most significant economic event of 1978 occurred not in a city but in an extremely backward, isolated, and impoverished village. On the evening of
Deng Xiaoping and President Jimmy Carter, waving from the terrace of the White House on January 31, 1979.
Yan Jun-chang, Yan Li-xue,