In this chapter, we will see how China depicted the United States as a symbol of all evils of capitalism and imperialism during the Cold War years, but two decades later viewed the United States as an ally to counter Russian aggression in the geo-political play for power. From 1949 to 1979, the relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China was adversarial. The American support of Chiang Kai-shek's regime during the civil war of 1945 to 1949, its continued aid to Taiwan, fighting against China in the Korean war, and in the Vietnam War, pitted the United States against China. During the Cold War years there was little direct contact between the two nations and the Chinese people had no access to information about the United States. America was described in news media and in text books as a ruthlessly exploitative and morally degenerate capitalist country. Here is an example in a 1950 handbook of current affairs. The people enjoy neither freedom to vote nor any freedom of speech, publication, meeting or association. The secret police rule everything. The FBI is a secret police organization on a grand scale. And the greater part of American literature, movies, drama, and the fine arts spreads and teaches degradation, degeneration, mammonism, pornography, gangsterism, superstition, fantasy, war, hysteria, and the like. Mao Zedong launched an intense anti-imperialist campaign against renowned western-educated Chinese intellectuals and later during the Cultural Revolution against anyone who had any contact with the West. In the 1950s, a seven year long attack was mounted against Hu Shi, whom we met in chapter five. If you recall, Hu was a student of John Dewey and advocated pragmatism. He was instrumental in reforming Chinese language, literature, and philosophy during the New Culture Movement in the 1920s. He also served as China's ambassador to the US in the 1940s. In this anti-Hu campaign, all of his former students, colleagues, friends, and even his own son were forced to denounce him. An excerpt, from the official eight volume collection of criticisms of Hu, reads as follows. In his seven years in the United States, Hu Shi came to accept American imperialism's colonial education. The reactionary politics he subsequently advocated things like, education to save the nation, politics of planning, wholesale westernization, were all formed by Hu Shi's throwing himself, and his original semi-feudal culture, into the arms of imperialism. So averse was Mao to the idea of China becoming capitalist, that he created the catastrophic Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to cleanse society of all bourgeois capitalist elements. When Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev rejected violent confrontation and opted for peaceful coexistence with the United States, Mao felt betrayed. At the same time, he was politically marginalized by his colleagues for his mistakes in The Great Leap Forward. By turning society upside-down and relying on the militancy of The People's Liberation Army and young Red Guards, Mao managed to regain power. The so-called Gang of Four, led by Mao's wife, was given free reign early in the movement to go after Mao's political enemies. From 1966 to 1976, the catastrophic Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution persecuted anyone having anything to do with the west, especially with the United States. Intellectuals, scientists, and even the Tibetan religious leaders were subject to severe public criticism, repeatedly beaten, and tortured. Even the president of China, Liu Shaoqi, who in 1961 was designated as Mao's successor, was expelled from the party for being supposedly a traitor and an enemy agent for the imperialists. He was brutalized by the red guards and died a year later in prison. National treasures were destroyed, chaos reigned, the country came to a stand still. The Cultural Revolution officially ended with the arrest of the Gang of Four after Mao's death in 1976. Even as China was roiled by political and social upheaval, tension between Russia and China escalated. Ironically, Mao's advisors suggested making friendly overture to the United States as a way to counterbalance potential Soviet aggression. In October 1970, the United States and China agreed to send high level officials for opening talks. In 1971, the US ping pong team was invited to China and in 1972 Nixon visited China. On this historic visit, Nixon and Zhou Enlai, the premier, issued a joint Shanghai communique in which both countries agreed to work toward a normalization of the relations. Two major concerns delayed the normalization process for another seven years. They were the continued American support of Taiwan and the increasing contact between the United States and the Soviet Union. To explain this about face in foreign relations to its citizens, the Chinese government framed the occasion to the Chinese public as a gesture of friendship between the Chinese and American people, both of whom opposed the American imperialist government. Later when Nixon's visit was announced, the Chinese government claimed that the United States initiated the visit to align against their common enemy the Soviet Union. In 1978 a delegation of Chinese journalists was sent to visit the United States. Wong Ruoshui, deputy editor-in-chief of the official party paper, the People's Daily, wrote positively of his first impressions of America. He said, the American people have many things we can learn from. To be sure, the capitalist lifestyle is inseparable from eating, drinking, and pleasure, but to see only this aspect is too one-sided. Americans are famous for their pursuit of efficiency. When they are working they are energetic and intense, and they clearly differentiate work and play. We were deeply impressed by this on our visits to numerous newspaper offices, television stations, press services, factories and research institutes. Without the industrious toil of a large number of workers and scientists, it is inconceivable that American production could have reached today's levels or that the United States would have been able to put a man on the moon. They do not refuse to learn from abroad, even though their nation's scientific and technical level is the first in the world. As the citizens of the People's Republic of China begin to rediscover America, our next and last chapter on Mainland China will look at the astounding speed with which China absorbed aspects of American culture.
