I feel like if the USSR had avoided Gorbachev and his bloc's bullshit we probably wouldn't be having that conversation and would probably see Khrushchev as a forgettable, minor figure with bad but ultimately inconsequential policies. It's the fact that Khrushchev's reforms ultimately led to Gorbachev (and the material conditions that created his base of support in the liberal-leaning academics and Soviet equivalent of the PMC) that makes him so infamous today.
To put it another way, if Khrushchev's actions didn't have the consequences they did, we wouldn't care enough to argue whether he was a net good or bad. And hell, maybe in ten or fifteen years we'll have stopped caring about Deng because everything will have worked out in the end, or maybe we'll have conclusively decided that just like Khrushchev he was the defining turning point where China's course really changed for the worse.
Khrushchev calling for an end to the dictatorship of the proletariat at the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union certainly did not help either. The fact that he was even allowed to get away with that revealed that significant ideological decay was already present within the party far before Gorbachev became General Secretary. His denouncement of Stalin also arguably contributed to the corrosion of a Soviet identity which helped precipitate the rise of nationalism throughout the Soviet Republics that played a role in the Soviet Union's dissolution. People can also say what they want about Deng (his foreign policy was absolute garbage in true Sino-Soviet split fashion and his "One country, two systems" policy was arguably too lenient), but he did famously call out Gorbachev as an idiot for continuing to dissolve what was left of the DotP via Glasnost and Deng did defend Mao's legacy despite acknowledging what he perceived to be some of his mistakes later in life. Deng Xiaoping also established ideological discipline within the party with the Four Cardinal Principles that are not up for debate within the CPC:
- The principle of upholding the socialist path
- The principle of upholding the people's democratic dictatorship
- The principle of upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China
- The principle of upholding Mao Zedong Thought and Marxism–Leninism
Mao is a hero, but he made mistakes and we need to move forward is pretty dramatically diferent from Stalin was a criminal and we need to move forward.
The Sino-Soviet split was mending under Deng and relations finally normalized in 1990, but by then things were too late for the USSR. The Sino Soviet split was cemented by the Gang of Four.
ehhh citations please.
Motherfucker why don't you cite where Deng "cemented" the Sino-Soviet split? The split happened almost twenty years before Deng took power.
Singapore is state capitalist. Saudi Arabia is state capitalist. Japan and South Korea are arguably state capitalist. China is socialist.
Don't worry everyone, the one true leftist is on the scene, and they're here to tell you that you don't understand socialism
Joke's on you: I have zero historical knowledge of what Deng did and the only thing I know about Mao are landlord and sparrow memes and what I forgot from my Western Civ class. I just stan China.
lmao, love too develop the capitalist productive forces to probably just go "SIKE" maybe
just look at the results: he fooled the USA for forty years
EDIT: okay maybe closer to thirty
post-conflict mine-clearing and police training, but no troops, to stabilize a directly adjacent neighbor? seems reasonable especially if you want to keep tabs on what the US is doing there
they weren't there to support the USA, that was a consequence of the sino-soviet split and the fact that it's directly between them
during the sino soviet split
could you move the goalposts any fucking harder?
https://twitter.com/Itmechr3/status/1296912794642788358
It's all there
You know those 'police' are just the goons of local warlords right?
As a matter of foreign policy and optics, can you imagine if China was deployed in Afghanistan?
Their border spat with India, and just asserting control within their own borders, is controversial enough.
Synthesis: Deng Xiaoping was just applying Mao's ideas of contradiction and continuous revolution.
Materialism like all the carbon they emitted since the Deng era? Actual welfare should start with health and according to the two most important indicators of that welfare was already achieved before Deng.
You're rightly sceptical of world bank definitions of poverty. Please stay sceptical when China's poverty is defined according to similar metrics.
dengs 7head play of opening up was the greatest strategic masterstroke of the 21st century
Boy, do I love Struggle Sessions! Personally, I'm rather skeptical of China due to how their troops behave at various borders but I'm open to having my mind changed.
