Hi everyone in Beame, Nanme, Ojo, Yajo, fejou,

Oda Oda Lia.

Thanks for downloading this episode of the China History Podcast.

Part 5 already, and this is my favorite episode in the life of Deng Xiaoping.

We left off last time in the latter half of 1975.

After falling down hard during the Cultural Revolution, Joanne Lai sort of cajol's Mao into bringing Dung back, which he does officially on March 9, 1973.

And Dung works tirelessly to bring the nation back from the brink of disaster,

very much like he had done before following the great leap forward.

He focuses on industry, education, science, technology, culture, and healing society.

Deng has formidable enemies.

His enemies were the radicals led by the gang of four, Jiang Ching, Wang Hong Wen-Yuwen and Jiang Chienzui.

And it was thanks to Jiang Ching's personal relationship with Mao and the liking the chairman took to the young radical and gang of

four member Wang Hong Wen that were Jiang's most powerful weapons. You got to hand

it to Jiang Qing. She really knew how to get Mao's goat. She knew just the right things to say and when to say them.

And even though the chairman had repeatedly rebuked her publicly and privately and knew she was eternally up to no good, she still hung in there and kept feeding

them information and spinning the info in such a way so as to ensure the best results

for whatever her ulterior motives were.

As I said many times before, at heart, Mao was an old-fashioned revolutionary,

and although he was all settled and lived like an emperor, he didn't want to be complacent and clung to the concept of perpetual

revolution.

And the one huge gigantic elephant in the room. The one unspoken thing was how to judge the

Cultural Revolution. Mao considered this his masterpiece as far as his you know

...