Roderick MacFarquhar

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Mao Zedong en 1961 Credit Lyu Houmin/VCG, vía Getty Images

En el ocaso de su vida, agonizando de esclerosis lateral amiotrófica, Mao Zedong se adjudicó dos logros: liderar la Revolución comunista hacia la victoria y el comienzo de la Revolución cultural. Su presencia en estos dos episodios enfatiza la contradicción que demostró toda su vida hacia la revolución y el poder del Estado.

Mao moldeó el comunismo para que se ajustara a sus dos imágenes públicas. En términos chinos, era tanto el tigre como el rey mono.

Para los chinos, el tigre es el rey de la selva. La traducción en términos humanos: un tigre es un alto funcionario. A la agencia que dirige la campaña anticorrupción del presidente Xi Jinping le gusta jactarse cuando atrapa a otro “tigre”.…  Seguir leyendo »

Getting Rid of North Korea’s Dictator, With China’s Help

President Trump has not been shy in saying the United States could go it alone in dealing with North Korea. Raising the alarming specter of a second Korean War, the president has effectively affirmed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s warning that unilateral military action to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear arsenal has not been ruled out.

North Korea is on the agenda as Mr. Trump hosts President Xi Jinping of China this week at his Florida estate. Could Mr. Trump’s hints about his North Korea policy show that he plans to enlist Beijing in ousting the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un? And was the missile attack against a Syrian airbase, launched just after Mr.…  Seguir leyendo »

In the heyday of the Soviet era, Communist leaders were described by the dissident Yugoslav theorist Milovan Djilas as the “New Class,” whose power lay not in ownership of wealth but in control of it: all the property of the state was at their beck and call. There was the apocryphal but appropriate story of Brezhnev’s showing his humble mother around his historic office, his magnificent collection of foreign luxury cars and his palatial dacha with its superb meals, and asking for her impressions — to which she replied: “It’s wonderful, Leonid, but what happens if the Bolsheviks come back?”

But if even a fraction of the stories about the wealth and lifestyles of China’s “princelings” — the descendants of Mao’s revolutionary generation — are to be believed, China’s New Class wants not only control, but also ownership.…  Seguir leyendo »