Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

by Jung Chang

‘But what are the things for which I need to apply for instructions?’ she asked. ‘Anything,’ was the answer. The need to obtain authorization for an unspecified ‘anything’ was to become a fundamental element in Chinese Communist rule. It also meant that people learned not to take any action on their own initiative.

This absurd situation reflected not only Mao’s ignorance of how an economy worked, but also an almost metaphysical disregard for reality, which might have been interesting in a poet, but in a political leader with absolute power was quite another matter.

‘You must not think you are superior to them,’ he would say. ‘You are just lucky to be here.

There was to be an entrance exam, Zhou Enlai had decided, although he had to change the term ‘exam’ (kaoshi) to ‘an investigation into the candidates’ situation of handling some basic knowledge, and their ability to analyse and solve concrete problems’,