Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China

by Ezra F. Vogel

But Mao did not attend the funeral service. Three days before the service was to be held at the Great Hall of the People, Mao scoffed to his bodyguard Wang Dongxing, “Why do I have to go to the service?” He instructed his personal assistant Zhang Yufeng to explain simply that he was unable to be there (even though, just a few weeks later, Mao was well enough to meet former president Nixon for a full hour and forty minutes).2 Mao did send a memorial wreath for Zhou, but he did not take part in any other expression of grief. During Zhou's last months, Mao had been similarly distant. By September 1975 Zhou's weight had dropped from his usual 143 pounds to a mere 88 pounds.3 Deng, Ye Jianying, and other close associates frequently visited Zhou in his hospital suite, even when Zhou was not able to talk. On January 5, Deng, Li Xiannian, and several other leaders went to be with Zhou during his final operation.