ABSTRACT
It is not unusual for an elder politician, having attained influence in current politics, to begin pondering long-term history a little. Just like Mao Zedong in his later years, Deng Xiaoping in his later years became ever more sensitive about his own posthumous image. He actually raised the issue with Mao in a private conversation in the early 1970s, and appeared satisfied with Mao’s response: “I think you are a person seventy percent right and thirty percent wrong.” “This assessment sounds quite okay, better than I myself expected. Isn’t this what we ascribe to Stalin?” 1
