Zhang Weiwei: On Deng Xiaoping – This is China

Pepe Escobar has this on his Telegram channel as a “must read”. I translated with Yandex translator. The deeper into this article and subsequent round-table I read, the more I realized that this is a very practical study on the product, the humanity that a civilizational state produces. We can see this as well in the Chinese management of their civilization. We can see this with the Jack Ma Saga, where it is now being called the Post Ma Saga. Jack Ma needed to restructure his Ant Group, in order to make sure that not even one part of it (and it is huge) can be under one man’s control. It is taking years to devolve this behemoth of a company, but at the end of the day, the Ant Group will not be able to take over the CPC’s monetary functions, and neither will they be able to look too deeply into a capitalist trough. Wealth will be distributed.

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Chinese: https://m.guancha.cn/ZhangWeiWei/2024_09_01_746744.shtml

Zhang Weiwei “This is China” No. 248: Unforgettable Red Years

Source: Observer Network

Zhang Wei is the author

Distinguished Professor of Fudan University, Dean of China Research Institute, Researcher of Spring and Autumn Development Strategy Research Institute
Liu Yuwei

Liu Yuwei Author

Deputy Director, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

“Deng Xiaoping made very important strategic choices for China, and their significance cannot be overestimated today.”

“Deng Xiaoping is very famous in Russia, and we are becoming more and more aware that the reform and opening-up for more than 40 years has been very successful.”

“How to ensure that the dividends of development benefit the vast majority of the Chinese people in the process of deepening reform?”

This year marks the 120th anniversary of Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s birth.Comrade Xiaoping is the chief designer of China’s reform and opening-up and the pioneer of the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics.In the program “This is China” broadcast on August 26, Professor Zhang Weiwei, Dean of the China Institute of Fudan University, and Professor Liu Yuwei, Deputy Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, gathered in the studio to commemorate Comrade Xiaoping.

Zhang Weiwei’s speech

This year we solemnly commemorate the 120th anniversary of Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s birth. I would like to use this opportunity to talk about Deng Xiaoping in my impression and some of my thoughts on him.

In the mid-1980s, I was honored to have the opportunity to do many English translations for Comrade Xiaoping.Deng Xiaoping left me with at least four very deep impressions.

One is vision.

He is a person with a long-term strategic vision.When I translated for him, he was already in his 80s, but what he talked about was how China should develop and do in the next few decades. The first step, the second step, the third step…are all things he can’t see in his lifetime, but when he talks about these future goals, he always seems so confident, so persistent, and so focused, it feels as if he is only in his 30s or 40s, and his life is not in the end.

What he planned for China was a one-hundred-year road until China became a veritable socialist modern power.Western politicians generally talk about “what to do in a hundred days”, while Deng Xiaoping talks about “what to do in a hundred years.”People have no long-term worries, but they must have near-term worries. After we have set the long-term direction and strategy, the near-term problems will be easier to solve.

The second is the idea.

He is a person who has been thinking about problems.He likes to ask sharp questions, and he also likes to face sharp questions directly. His thinking on issues is very broad and thorough.Before each meeting with a foreign guest, the leader of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will give him a simple report. He will ask a few questions, interact with everyone, and then light a cigarette, silently look ahead, waiting for the foreign guest to arrive.The image of this thinker has been frozen in my mind, lingering.His evaluation of people is also like this. When he says “This person is very intelligent”, this is one of his highest evaluations of a person.

And he always sees opportunities in his thinking. When there is only half a glass of water in a cup, he always sees half a glass of water, so he is an optimist.The most typical is when the Soviet Union collapsed. He asked everyone to stabilize their positions, observe calmly, and conclude that as long as China adheres to socialism, continues reform and opening up, and achieves its stated goals, the world will soon be impressed with China. Look at each other.Later developments proved that this was the case.

The third is sobriety.

Deng Xiaoping has a thorough spirit of seeking truth from facts.He is very sober, refuses to be romantic, and emphasizes that anything new must be tried and seen first.Deng Xiaoping insisted that all foreign ideas and practices must be tested by Chinese practice before determining whether to promote them in China-this alone has allowed China to avoid the financial crisis and the collapse of a country like the Soviet Union. At the same time, many things that were originally considered incredible were gradually absorbed into the framework of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The fourth is the atmosphere.

As a leader who has commanded thousands of troops and horses, he has very deep feelings for this army. I have heard him talk about his military career many times.Many foreign guests praised him for his understanding of the economy, so China’s economic development is so fast and so good.But he always said, “On economic issues, I am a layman, and even if I say something, it is from a political point of view.”But he has said many times, “If I really have any major, it is the military.””

He has a general demeanor.In terms of strategy, he is a progressivist, with the overall situation in his mind, operational research in hand, and a very strong sense of priority. He has the patience to take small steps as big steps; but in terms of tactics, he is a resolute person. Commanding a war is like commanding a super-scale battle. He is always looking for fighters. Once he catches the fighters, he will hold on and pursue them until he succeeds.

He asked for this for Shenzhen and Shanghai.For example, for the development of Shanghai, once he seizes the breakthrough of Pudong’s development and opening up, he wants you to see results at the beginning of the year and results in three years, until a state of quantitative to qualitative change is formed, he can rest assured.

When I was working as a translator for Comrade Xiaoping, I was in my 20s, and it was also when my thoughts began to mature. It can be said that I was deeply influenced by him.I am thinking that many of the outstanding qualities of our leaders are the very precious spiritual wealth of our entire nation, and they are worthy of our development.Sometimes I also imagine what Deng Xiaoping looked like when he was young. Later, I had the opportunity to go to France to investigate his work and study, and to the Soviet Union to see the former site of Sun Yat-sen University where he had read. I felt a lot.

Deng Xiaoping was only 16 years old when he first went abroad. It was August 1920. Together with more than 80 classmates, he took a French mail ship from Chongqing to Shanghai, passing through Hong Kong, Saigon, Singapore, Colombo, Djibouti, and then crossing the Red Sea, crossing the Suez Canal, and entering the Mediterranean Sea. After 39 days, the journey was more than 30,000 miles, and finally arrived at the French port of Marseille.I heard him talk about going to the port of Marseille, and he said“ ”What a big port.”

At that time, mail ships arrived in relatively large seaports and generally had to stop for a few days to load and unload cargo.According to the memories of classmates who traveled with him, at that time, “Rich people went ashore to eat in restaurants and buy things, and our poor students went ashore to go sightseeing and visit some places of interest.”Almost all of the places they passed by were British and French colonies at the time.For Deng Xiaoping, this also opened his eyes. He not only understood the geography of many parts of the world, but also had a direct feeling of the suffering suffered by the colonial people.Therefore, Deng Xiaoping’s compassion for the Third World may have developed from his own personal experience at that time.

During Deng Xiaoping’s work-study period in France, he worked the longest at the Hutchinson Rubber Factory in the small town of Mondani near Paris.It was in this place that he also accepted the influence of communist thought. He later said, “The pain of life and the insults of the capitalist lackeys and foremen have directly or indirectly affected me a lot. In the first two years, I felt a little bit of the pain of the capitalist society.”

He eventually embarked on the path of a professional revolutionary and became the executive committee of the Communist Youth League of China in Europe.He published a number of articles in the magazine “Red Light”, advocating revolution to save the country.In 1925, the May Revolution broke out. He participated in the organization of the occupation of the Chinese legation in France for an hour. Their slogan at that time was: “Overthrow international imperialism and abolish unequal treaties.” He also forced the minister to sign several documents in solidarity with the domestic anti-imperialist movement.

As a result, he was blacklisted by the French government, but just the day before the French government served the expulsion order, he left Paris to study in the Soviet Union through the arrangement of the party organization.It was January 1926. He arrived in Moscow and was assigned to the seventh class of Sun Yat-sen University, also known as the “Theorist Class”. Jiang Jingguo was also a classmate of Deng Xiaoping at the time.

He returned home from the Soviet Union in 1927, first in Wuhan and then in Shanghai, doing underground party work.

The first time I translated for Deng Xiaoping was on August 22, 1985, not long after Deng Xiaoping celebrated his 81st birthday.When he arrived at the meeting hall, he first shook hands with then-Foreign Minister Wu Xueqian, and then shook hands with the Chinese personnel present one by one.When he heard that I was from Shanghai, he asked“ “Do you know Xiafei Road?””I said“ “It’s Huaihai Road,” he smiled and nodded.Xiafei Road was the name of Shanghai Huaihai Road when it was in the French Concession, and it was also the most famous commercial street in Shanghai at that time.When I was a child, my family lived not far from Huaihai Road, so I often heard old people in the neighborhood mention Xiafei Road.

Deng Xiaoping served as the secretary-general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which can be described as life and death.At that time, there was a single-line contact between the leaders of the Communist Party of China, but as the secretary-General, he had to keep the addresses and telephone numbers of all the people in the central organs in his mind, so he had a good memory.

According to his own later recollection, he passed death twice in his life in Shanghai.Once “I contacted Luo Yinong and finished doing things. As soon as I went out through the back door, the patrol at the front door came in, and Luo Yinong was arrested.”Another time, the patrol learned that Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping’s residence together were going to be searched. Deng Xiaoping said, “The comrades at home moved quickly after receiving information, but I was not there at the time and did not receive notice.”The patrol inside was still searching, and I went to knock on the door. Fortunately, we had Tecco inside. As soon as I heard the voice he promised, I left as soon as I heard it wrong.So there was no accident.”

The seat of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China after the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China is located at the intersection of Fuzhou Road and Yunnan Road in Shanghai, next to the Tian Toad Stage.This photo was taken in August 1946.

I think the reason why Deng Xiaoping was able to lead China on the road of reform and opening up must be related to his early years in major cities such as Paris, Moscow, Wuhan, and Shanghai.A young man from the age of 16 to 26, in the era when his thoughts matured, he mainly wandered in international and domestic metropolises. At that time, Deng Xiaoping was destitute, and the snobbish glitz of the big cities must have brought him a lot of unpleasant experiences; but the city embodies another kind of civilization after all, so I think Deng Xiaoping is the “urban complex” or “urban feeling” among the red leaders of that generation. People with strong “urban complex” or “urban feelings”.

If modernization is in a certain sense a shift from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization, then Deng Xiaoping’s urban experience when he was young made him different and gave him some rare qualities to become an outstanding leader in China’s industrialization and modernization. Qualities.

For example, when he was in France, France had just experienced the First World War and lacked a male labor force, so Deng Xiaoping, who was only sixteen or seventeen years old at the time, was doing heavy physical work there.He later said half jokingly and half seriously that he didn’t grow tall because he didn’t eat well in France at the time and didn’t have enough nutrition.I visited the Hutchinson rubber factory where he worked, and the scale of that factory was quite magnificent.

After all, France was an industrial country that had already experienced the first Industrial Revolution and the second Industrial Revolution.I can imagine how Deng Xiaoping felt at the time, and I think this must also be an important reason for him to promote reform and opening up.He believes that we must learn from and learn from all the strengths of the outside world so that China can realize socialist modernization at an early date.

Deng Xiaoping also mentioned Lenin’s new economic policy many times during the reform and opening up period.He said“ “We haven’t fully figured out what socialism looks like.”Maybe Lenin has a better idea and has a new economic policy.””The new economic policy refers to some of the more flexible and pragmatic methods adopted by Lenin in the 1920s to promote economic development, including renting land to farmers, attracting foreign funds and technology, and expanding foreign trade.

Deng Xiaoping arrived in Moscow to study in 1926. At this time, Lenin had passed away, but 1926 was still in the late stage of the new economic policy, so Deng Xiaoping personally experienced the pragmatic side of the new economic policy and realized that socialism does not need to completely resist the beneficial things in capitalism, but to use all the beneficial things in capitalism to develop socialism.

I remember that on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the Party in 2021, we had a program recalling Deng Xiaoping. The title was “A key move to determine the fate of Contemporary China.” I proposed that at three special historical moments in China’s development, Deng Xiaoping made three strategic choices for China. The far-reaching significance cannot be overestimated.

The first moment was Deng Xiaoping’s decision to carry out reform and opening up in 1978.

Looking back at the situation at the time, China could also have other options, and China could not engage in reform and opening up.For example, we can continue to adopt the approach of the mid-1960s, that is, only partial adjustments to the planned economic model, not integrated into the global trading system, let alone access to the global Internet, because the risk of doing so is too great.But Deng Xiaoping decided to play a big game of chess and decided to explore a new path of building socialist modernization. His goal was to turn China into a country that could withstand all-round international comparisons.

The second moment was the political turmoil at the turn of the spring and summer of 1989. At that time, many people in the country were at a loss and lost their political determination, but Deng Xiaoping made the final word at this critical moment of historical development and responded strongly to the challenges of Western forces to China’s political system without hesitation.Without Deng Xiaoping’s decisive choice, China would have fallen into long-term turmoil and chaos, where would there be today’s full-scale rise.

The third moment was a series of conversations made by Comrade Xiaoping when he visited the South in 1992.

The international background at that time was very complicated.There were upheavals in Eastern Europe in 1990. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev announced his resignation. The Soviet Union collapsed, and the Western world cheered. Our internal pessimism was full of voices. There are many people who doubt “how long will the red flag last”.

But “the vicissitudes of the sea are flowing, and Fang shows his heroic nature.” On August 20, 1991, four months before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Deng Xiaoping said: Now the world has undergone a major turning point. This is an opportunity.There is no doubt that what Deng Xiaoping saw in the crisis was opportunity, and he saw the opportunity of Chinese socialism, but he felt as if many people around him could not see it yet, and he was very anxious.

Only 20 days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he began to inspect the south, and he had something to say.Along the way, he called on China to adhere to socialism, promote reform and opening up on a larger scale, embrace the market economy more bravely, and improve people’s living standards more substantially. Socialism with Chinese characteristics will definitely succeed.He also had the final word on the debate about the market economy: whether it is a little more market or a little more planning, this is not the main difference between capitalism and socialism, these are all means.

Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour

Looking back, in the more than 40 years of reform and opening up, we have not followed the old path of closure and rigidity, nor the evil path of changing the flag and changing the flag, but have explored a new path of socialism.This is actually a summary of Deng Xiaoping’s three historical choices: Deng Xiaoping’s choice in the Southern Dialogue in 1992 was “not to follow the old path of closure and rigidity”; Deng Xiaoping’s choice in 1989 was “not to follow the evil path of changing the flag and changing the flag”; Deng Xiaoping’s choice in 1978 was to explore a new path suitable for China’s own national conditions.

All this has enabled us to realize the rise of “integrating the four industrial revolutions” on the precious foundation laid in the previous three decades.All this has changed China and the world forever.

Roundtable discussion

Moderator: As Teacher Zhang said just now, Comrade Xiaoping has a very long-term strategic vision, and many of us also have this experience.What do you think of the huge achievements and huge changes that our China’s reform and opening-up has now achieved? Which ones he had already thought of at the time, and which might even surpass the old man’s original prediction?

Zhang Weiwei: In general, China’s achievements today exceed his thinking at the time, because he is most famous for proposing the “three-step approach” to China’s modernization, which is to use 1980 as a base, double by 1990, and double from 1990 to 2000; after that, it was more general, because at that time I felt that there was still a long time before 2050, so I just proposed in a more general way to build China into a medium-sized developed country.If viewed by current standards, the goal of basically achieving socialist modernization in 2035 should be roughly the goal of 2050 that Deng Xiaoping was looking forward to at the time.

Moderator: In fact, it is the result of this prosperity and development that can be brought about by liberating the mind and liberating the productive force, so how important the word “liberation” is.I also want to hear Professor Liu’s opinion. You have also seen generations of Russian leaders over the years. What do you think of the importance of this kind of ideological and productive liberation to a country?

Liu Yuwei: I think that two or three years ago, President Xi announced that the task of China’s well-off has been completed.This is one of the goals set by Deng Xiaoping, and it is quite a great goal.So this proves that his vision is very long.

For ordinary Russians, they basically know that Deng Xiaoping is one of China’s great leaders.Many people know a saying, “Regardless of the black cat and the white cat, catching a mouse is a good cat.”So I think Deng Xiaoping is very famous in Russia.And now we are becoming more and more aware that the reform and opening-up for more than 40 years has been very successful.

Zhang Weiwei: We now often talk with Russian scholars about some of the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union. I have an interpretation of it myself.How many generations have you seen the leaders of the Soviet Union go through?Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and finally Gorbachev, he had long forgotten about Lenin, and Stalin became a sinful leader.

Therefore, the reform ideas of the leaders of China and the Soviet Union are completely different.Deng Xiaoping and Chairman Mao were almost contemporaries, but he was younger and lived longer than Chairman Mao, and he became the core of the second generation of leadership.Chairman Mao said before his death that Deng Xiaoping was more fair.He learned from the lessons of the Soviet Union, that is, he did not deal with many problems like he did with Stalin. Deng Xiaoping called it “Three-seven-open.”In this way, we have inherited a good political legacy, and at the same time we have paid attention to solving some problems that existed in the past, and finally followed such a path.I am telling my Russian friends now, and they are also very touched.

Liu Yuwei: Every time we Russians talk about China’s reform and opening up, we naturally think of our own reforms.Just as China did in the late 1970s, the Soviet Union faced similar problems in the mid-1980s, namely, in what direction to develop and what goals to set.

At that time, our leaders Gorbachev and Deng Xiaoping were very different. We just started talking about “reforms”. The people of the Soviet Union hoped that these “reforms” would be as successful, but after a year and another year, we slowly discovered that Gorbachev is not like Deng Xiaoping. He has no clear goals and no specific plans.

Gorbachev infographic: Russian Satellite News Agency

In addition, we found that Gorbachev did not have the attitude of seeking truth from facts like Deng Xiaoping.Gorbachev said at the beginning, “Comrades, we need reform and opening up, but the domestic conditions are not yet mature, so we have to wait.”In the end, the Soviet Union and the people of the Soviet Union waited for 6 years. After 6 years, the situation in our country is not as good as it was six years ago, so we have no way to start reform.At that time, we felt that the Soviet Union lacked its own “Deng Xiaoping”.

Moreover, because Deng Xiaoping had an attitude of seeking truth from facts, he carried out reform and opening-up from the bottom, from agricultural reform, from the countryside, from small and medium-sized enterprises.Older Chinese friends remember very well that after 1978, after 6 years, the situation in China is completely different from that in 1978. It is getting better year by year and making progress year by year.

The Soviet Union is the opposite, one year is not as good as one year.At that time, the Soviet Union even had a joke: Why are the Soviet people happy every day?Because they know every day that today will be better than tomorrow.At that time, the attitude of the Soviet leadership was relatively arrogant-the Soviet Union was the “big brother”, so what is the need to learn from the “little brother”?We didn’t learn from China at the time, which was a big mistake.

Host: Maybe because at that time, after all, for China itself, it was still in a stage of exploration.Comrade Xiaoping famously said“ ”We have to touch a stone to cross the river.” At that time, we were also groping, which is different from the great achievements of reform and opening up that everyone has seen now.Maybe the Soviet friends at the time had no way to see what they were going to learn at once, and they hadn’t summed up these things to learn.

But just now, Professor Liu repeatedly talked about the importance of ”seeking truth from facts“. Teacher Zhang, in your speech, you also said that Comrade Xiaoping ”rejects romance”-these four words are very graphic and very pragmatic.Coupled with what Professor Liu just said, what do you think of the vitality of the four words ”seeking truth from facts”?

Zhang Weiwei: Deng Xiaoping is highly realistic and seeking truth from facts.For example, what we have experienced is that in the mid-1980s, we did not use GDP statistics in the past. Later, we asked experts from the World Bank to help China conduct statistics. According to the standards of the World Bank, it turned out that China’s GDP per capita is very low-more than 400 U.S. dollars per capita.Later, people asked Deng Xiaoping if he wanted to announce it. Deng Xiaoping said“ ”It doesn’t matter if it is announced.” Behind this is self-confidence, which is to firmly believe that we will be able to catch up in the end through reform and opening up.At that time, China’s GDP per capita, if calculated according to the standards of the World Bank, was lower than that of most African countries and even lower than that of Western countries.

In addition, it is indeed very risky, because I was working as a translator for him at the time, and I realized that he had a bottom-line thinking.At that time, I translated a lot of his conversations with African leaders.There are more left-wing African leaders, and many people ask him, what should socialism look like?He said that we must adhere to at least two articles: the first is the leadership of the party, and the second is that public ownership should occupy the main body.These are his two bottom lines that cannot be given up.It is quite important to look back. With these two, we can explore boldly. In case something goes wrong, we can also use these two to correct it.

One good thing about China is that it always pays attention to the development of the outside world, not only Western countries, but also the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.I went to the Soviet Union in 1990. Before I went, I didn’t know what Gorbachev’s reforms were.But after going in person, I came to the conclusion that Gorbachev’s reforms had failed.At that time, consumer goods in the Soviet Union were extremely scarce, and the largest Gum department store on Red Square was empty.Through the initial reform and opening-up of China, by 1990, the market had begun to prosper.

The Nanyou Development Zone in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, photographed in the 1990s.Infographic: Xinhua News Agency

Host: Yes, so you just talked about the importance of pragmatism. In fact, there is still a kind of self-confidence behind seeking truth from facts. Only when you are confident in yourself can you look at some issues very completely.

Just now, Teacher Zhang also talked about what he saw when he went to the Soviet Union in 1990. I would like to ask Professor Liu, during the period of the collapse of the Soviet Union, what stage of your life were you probably at?What was the whole society like at that time?

Liu Yuwei: Teacher Zhang mentioned the Gum Department Store in Red Square just now. I also suddenly thought that in 1987, I was admitted to the doctoral class of the Asia-Africa College of Moscow University. It happened to be September. The weather got colder. I wanted to buy a top. I ran around Moscow and went to Gum and other places in Red Square. I ran for two weeks and couldn’t buy a top-everything was out of stock at that time, and I couldn’t even buy a top.It happened that in October of that year, I arrived in China. I bought a very good top on the first day. I couldn’t believe it. Don’t line up yet.This is a good example.

When the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991, I was just about to defend my doctoral thesis.In 1992, we suddenly launched market reform, the domestic situation suddenly changed, and the entire country changed its track.I was under illusion at the time, thinking that this might be a sign of improvement.Because our country has a free market, everything is available, and we can also participate in free trade, so I think it is a good opportunity.It’s true that there will be things everywhere soon, and there will be no problem with what to wear and eat, so don’t line up.

But there is one feature: these things are all imported-things imported from the West are very expensive, and things imported from China are very cheap.Everything is not domestically made, which is a big problem.So after a few years, we found that what we joined was not a very free and happy free market economy, but a relatively savage market economy.

Seeing China’s experience at that time, I found that carrying out such reforms did not necessarily require abandoning our previous socialist experience.

Host: Yes, there is no need to change from this track to a new track in an instant. It seems to have completely entered a new economic model.

Zhang Weiwei: If you make a long story short and compare Deng Xiaoping’s reform model with Gorbachev’s reform model at that time, the biggest difference is: Deng Xiaoping believes that economic reform is the absolute priority, and political reform is the second, and it is necessary to serve economic reform and remove obstacles in economic reform. This goal is very clear. Deng Xiaoping is a leader with a very clear sense of hierarchy; and Gorbachev put political reform first, and political reform is overwhelming, thinking that it can solve all problems. We call it “political romanticism”, and the result is a complete failure.

Liu Yuwei: That’s right.Also mentioned by Professor Zhang, Deng Xiaoping has made small steps into big steps, developing step by step.And our Yeltsin era is very different. The liberal government came up and they said, “Well, we are now going to come up with a 500-day plan. After 500 days, the people of the whole country will live a very happy life.””We waited for 500 days, only to find that these words were empty words, and we were very desperate.Later, these 500 days turned into at least 10 years of chaos. In these 10 years, there have been two economic and financial crises in Russia, and the brutal economic model has brought a lot of pain to the people.

Host: In such a turbulent and chaotic long year, for ordinary people, they will feel that there is no goal or direction in life, and they don’t know what to do next. It feels really painful.

Zhang Weiwei: I know more or less about the experience of Russia. One is that I have been to the field to investigate. In addition, I have many Russian friends.Now many Russians themselves regret it, reflecting on why they were so naive at the time and trusted the Americans so much?I feel that as long as the Western political system is adopted, everything will be better after that.The West is “painting cakes to satisfy hunger”, but many people in Russia believe it. This is a kind of collective blankness.

Host: They are “political romanticism”. “Romantic“ things are always easier to impress, and everyone is easily attracted by ”romance”.As you said in your speech, all historical events are like a battlefield to him. He must think comprehensively, have a strategic vision, have determination, and have a very practical approach.

Question session

Audience: As our country continues to open up and deepen reforms, it is inevitable that we will encounter some problems, such as development and reform taking the lead, and institutional norms are relatively lagging behind, which can easily cause the gap between the rich and the poor to not be curbed in a timely and effective manner.So how does our government ensure that the dividends of development benefit the vast majority of the Chinese people in the process of continuous opening up and deepening reforms?

Zhang Weiwei: The gap between the rich and the poor, to be honest from facts, also lies in international comparison.China is a socialist country, and the vast majority of people are the beneficiaries of reform and opening up.Moreover, our system is bottom-line. In addition to low insurance, it also includes a complete solution to absolute poverty, which is remarkable; “Two don’t worry about three guarantees”, of which “three guarantees” include guaranteed medical care, guaranteed education, and guaranteed housing. This is not easy-if you look at the United States, the poorest population in the United States is far from reaching this standard. How can it achieve the “three guarantees”?

Today, many foreign tourists are very surprised when they arrive in China, not only in first-tier cities, but also in fourth- and fifth-tier cities.Regarding narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor, the best thing we can do now is to take out the entire Zhejiang Province as a demonstration zone to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. As long as the results of the Zhejiang Province experiment are good, then the hope of narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor across the country is very great.

Majinxi, the source of the Qiantang River, and the coastal villages were filmed in Kaihua County, Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province.The local area preserves the beaches and forests of the watershed to the maximum extent possible, and combines the construction of “solid embankment + green bank + slow road” to drive the vigorous development of rural tourism and homestay economy.Xinhua News Agency

Liu Yuwei: The problem of the gap between the rich and the poor is indeed present in every country in the world, as well as in Russia.Just at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, President Putin mentioned ten structural changes, as well as the issue of reducing the gap between the rich and the poor, and also mentioned a series of measures, such as solving the problem of unemployment, supporting families with multiple children, improving our elderly care and the care of people with disabilities, and other measures.So the key is not whether there is this problem, but how the country treats this problem.

Audience: Teacher Zhang just said that Deng Xiaoping had experienced and traveled in the metropolises of Paris, Moscow, and Shanghai in his youth, which had a very profound impact on his personal vision and thoughts.Does that mean that when our younger generation makes life choices, we also have to go to these metropolises to feel and experience more, and to see the world, which will better help our personal growth?

Zhang Weiwei: When I talk about this, I don’t necessarily mean Shanghai, Paris, or New York, but if you have the opportunity to go or live, it’s fine.

I always say that China is a “civilized country”. The most typical three first-tier cities are Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. You carefully compare the way of thinking, living habits, dining, and even dialects of people in these three places, such as the pronunciation and grammar of the Shanghai dialect and the Guangzhou dialect. The gap between them is actually bigger than that between the British, French, and Germans, including their languages, but everyone has lived together under Chinese civilization for thousands of years, so this difference has become a wonderful.If you have been to or even lived in these three cities, if you can adapt to all three cultures, you will be very adaptable internationally, and you will not be afraid to travel all over the world.

The key is to walk around, go to cities, rural areas, mountainous areas, etc., and truly experience it. This is to see the world.If you have lived in New York, Paris, or Tokyo, this is also a way to see the world.

Like myself, I do research on Chinese models and Chinese dialects, deconstruct Western discourse, and construct Chinese dialects. This kind of international knowledge is very helpful.I set a goal very early on, that is, to go to 100 countries, no less than one, and the result was that I finished more than ten years ago, which was very helpful.You don’t feel unfamiliar wherever you go, it’s easy to understand other people’s culture, and people also find it easy to have a conversation with you.