LASZLO LADANY: The Communist Party of China and Marxism 1921-1985: A Self-Portrait (1988)

Presented below is the Foreword by ROBERT ELEGANT. And this is an excellent review:

Simon Leys: The art of interpreting non-existent inscriptions written in invisible ink on a blank page. Book review

As his seventieth year approached, Laszlo Ladany decided to retire from the strenuous tasks of periodical scholarship to which he had voluntarily subordinated himself since the early 1950s. He gave up producing the newsletter China News Analysis, which was his own creation, in order to consider and record what he had learned in some four decades of scanning the press of the People’s Republic of China. Even those who knew his tempestuous and dedicated character believed that he might then allow himself to assess in tranquility the past and present condition of the turbulent nation to which he has devoted his life. I, for one, hoped—and almost expected—that his self-imposed labours would be less strenuous in quasi-retirement.

I should have known better. Instead of complacently reviewing past accomplishments, he has been breaking new ground. Perhaps he has no choice, for he has been lured onward by the continuing revelations of the chief players in the great drama of China.

Almost an entire generation of senior Communist leaders has in the last few years been setting down its recollections of the decades from 1920 to 1949 with rare and remarkable candour. The spotlight of memory has even illuminated some obscure aspects of the landscape since the establishment of the People’s Republic. Freed by the death of Chairman Mao Zedong in 1976 from his overwhelming pressure, the eminent Chinese have assuredly also felt the wind of mortality chill on their backs. Whether wishing to justify themselves or to set the historical record right, perhaps both, they have recently published extraordinarily candid reminiscences. Because of their implicit disavowal of the Communist Party’s official line in so many cases, those reminiscences carry conviction.

Ladany was clearly impelled by those revelations to enlarge the scope of this work. He originally planned a judicious recollection of the information and insights already published in China News Analysis—with additional material assayed since he gave up the newsletter in 1983. When I first looked into these pages, I expected only a measured assessment of the past.

This book is, however, far more: a fast-moving, yet comprehensive tour d’horizon of China during the past nine decades, and, also, a voyage of discovery. The author is not only a formidable historian, but a journalist of great distinction. Like Xenophon and Herodotus, he explores the frontier between history and immediate events. Parts of this read like a spy thriller—and other parts like a rather grim realistic novel. Drama is inherent. The author writes of the great purges that have regularly shaken the Communist Party—and_ have, consequently, shaken the structure of the People’s Republic which is ruled by that Party.

Yet history is not as obliging as a novel; although further explicated, some events are, of necessity, left unresolved. For example, the fall in the early 1970s of Field-Marshal Lin Biao, who was for a time—a tumultuous time—the designated successor to Chairman Mao. The definitive account of Lin Biao’s defeat and death must wait until the survivors of that violent episode are free to tell the whole story—if, of course, anyone knows the whole story.

Yet Ladany’s revelations are more than enough to force students of China to reassess some cherished ideas. Letting go of long-held concepts is painful since our mature judgments are integral to our intellectual and, even, our emotional being. Moreover jettisoning fundamental facts means writing off substantial portions of one’s intellectual capital. I, too, am reluctant to make major revisions in my estimates of the country that has engaged much of my attention for decades. Nonetheless, Ladany’s revelations and new insights will require of us all substantial revision of many basic concepts.

This book will, therefore, be attacked vigorously by part of the scholarly community. Some will instinctively resist reconsidering basic facts and, therefore, basic interpretations. Others may even feel moral outrage at the doubts cast upon beliefs they have long cherished.

Central to this book, whose tone is remarkably uncontentious, is a view of Chairman Mao Zedong that may appear highly contentious. Ladany offers a portrait of the Chairman that differs significantly from previous portraits. Yet every alteration in the familiar physiognomy is substantiated by the words of Mao’s contemporaries and colleagues.

For one thing, Mao Zedong, Ladany contends, did not himself convince the Chinese Communist Party that it must base its campaign for the conquest of power on the peasantry. Neither did Mao defy the Kremlin by championing that strategy. Nor, it appears, did he become the unchallenged leader of the Party at the Cun Yi Conference in 1935—but only some time afterwards. Such details are, perhaps, of absorbing interest only to specialists—despite their profound implications.

However, Ladany’s full portrait of Mao Zedong will assuredly interest—and, perhaps, horrify—a wider public. Despite consistent criticism of the Chairman by his fellow Communists since his death, the outside world is still inclined to view him as a heroic, self-sacrificing, and idealistic revolutionary leader. Ladany portrays a brilliant schemer, indeed a schemer of genius, but, nonetheless, an essentially ignoble figure.

The Mao Zedong presented here was not only an ignoramus regarding Marxism, but a mean-spirited plotter devoted to his personal safety only a whit less than to his personal advancement. He was also a petty domestic tyrant, as well as a public despot. The story of the Communist Party is the story of China in this century.

This book crowns the career of Laszlo Ladany—and lays upon all China specialists an even greater debt to him. Idiosyncratic, sometimes scathing and sometimes tender, it is unique and quite brilliant.

May 1987

+++++++++++++++++++++

Lessons from the Ultimate China Watcher: László Ladány

Roland Barthes in China; or how to plumb the depths of professorial vacuity…

The Legacy of Liu Xiaobo

China’s treatment of Uyghurs may be crime against humanity, says UN human rights chief

Uyghurs are being deported from Muslim countries, raising concerns about China’s growing reach

China calls these Uyghur parents ‘terrorists’ without evidence. But they say they just want to be with their children again

First independent report into Xinjiang genocide allegations claims evidence of Beijing’s ‘intent to destroy’ Uyghur people

‘She didn’t realise how dangerous it was’: London-bound student held in China over Tibet support

How modern slavery, in China and elsewhere, undermines the fight against existential threats

Xinjiang lockdown: Chinese censors drown out posts about food and medicine shortages