Politics at the ‘core’: the Political Circumstances of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin

During the grand parade celebrating the 50th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on 1 October 1999, three floats appeared among the displays of regime achievements and the demonstration of military might. These floats represented the three ‘core leaders’ of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the PRC period and indeed going back to the 1930s during the Party’s revolutionary struggle—Mao Zedong, the ‘core’ of the so-called ‘first generation’ which won the revolution and established the PRC, Deng Xiaoping, the ‘core’ of the ‘second generation’ who became the ‘paramount leader’ after Mao’s death and guided China on her reform course, and Jiang Zemin, the current Party leader and ‘core’ of the ‘third generation’ who gradually consolidated his leading position during the 1990s. While the concept of ‘core’ was designed to convey a predominant guiding role for an individual in a collective leadership, the three leaders so designated have been dramatically different men, who emerged in very different times with contrasting problems, and were moved by their own visions and goals. My task is to examine these contrasting individuals and their circumstances, as well as the linkages among them and to the larger political system.1 In broad terms, key distinctions among the three leaders are well known. Mao was the visionary, the romantic revolutionary, and above all the all-powerful figure who, after 1949, was always obeyed even when he launched initiatives profoundly destructive of individual, organizational and national interests. ‘Emperor’ well and truly captures the Chairman’s position in the system. Deng was,