Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China

by Ezra F. Vogel

By contrast, and in spite of Mao's coolness, among the general public the announcement of Zhou's death on radios and loudspeakers precipitated a huge national expression of grief. In the public eye, Zhou had suffered from unfair treatment since 1973. The spontaneous outpouring was comparable to that in the United States in 1945 when Franklin Roosevelt died and in 1963, when Jack Kennedy was shot. The Chinese people, aware of how emaciated Zhou had appeared at the National People's Congress the year before, were not surprised, but they were frightened that no one else could defend the country against the madness that Mao and the Gang of Four had perpetrated. Some leaders who had suffered during the Cultural Revolution remained deeply upset that Zhou had been so willing to collaborate with Mao, but in the public eye, Zhou had saved them from Mao's excesses.6 Many feared what might follow now that Zhou was no longer around to defend them.