I did study Chinese Studies for about one year while in college. Both my main prof and a grad student assistant stressed how few choices any intellectuals or other people had during the time period. They explained that few intellectuals supported the Community Party when it starte. Chou En Lai was shady. He survived a government crackdown that was a massacre. Maybe he was lucky. Chinese friends regards him as a cunning Confucian scholar. When the Japanese invaded China, Chiang Kai Check offered no resistance. The United States funded him to fight the invading Japenese. He did not fight. Intellectuals, artists and others flocked to the Communist Party.
Deng's communist credentials and stance are worth mentioning. Even a footnote would be preferable to not mentioning them. His life story raises questions that arise in a Western context, even on this forum. When does a person assert their own values at the expense of rising up the ranks. Since we throwing Howard Zinn's name around, I am remind of Robert McNamara, who knew the truth about Viet Nam. He was Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and ohnson. McNamara was a whiz kid. He was CEO of Ford Motor Company before becoming a public official. He maintained silence b/c he believed/was taught that his access to the president was a greater good than a press conference informing the American public.
A classmate of mine, a fellow public interest scholar, arranged for a leading Chinese dissident to be allowed to study at the law school. The White House and the State Department became involved in high stakes diplomacy. There are times in my life when I am grateful that I earned access to newspapers and public officials. Other times I wish I were bolder and more willing to confront issues headlon. From my perspective, it is unseemly to say that the Chinese do not deserve human rights. It is an issue that must be raised. To simply worship China's economic progress and ignore its flaws in basic human rights is troubling.
The WT example is an illustration. People make choices in life. Gandhi wasn't always a mostly naked man in a loin cloth. I just felt that the human rights record of China should be raised. Asians deserve democracy and civil rihts and liberties as much as any other people. Chairman Mao was a cultural hero in my student days. I always felt uncomfortable when he was lionized. Few of the very privilege students.faculty would be alive under Mao. Whether Deng's actions were right or wrong belongs to long term history.
Quoting Howard Zinn to me does not make the widespread denial of human rights an excuse. Of course, the United States might have supported a leader willing to fight the Japanese rather than support a corrupt person.
