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Deng is so underrated.
Some of his epic grandpa moments:
Deng: My birthday? Is it my birthday tomorrow?
Fallaci: Yes, I read it in your biography.
Deng: Humph! If you say soโฆ I donโt know. I never know when my birthday is, and, even if it is, itโs hardly something to be congratulated about. It means Iโm turning sixty-six. And sixty-six means decay.
Fallaci: My father is sixty-six, Mr. Deng, and if I tell my father that this means decay, I think heโll clock me.
Deng: As well he should! You certainly shouldnโt be saying such things to your father.
Deng: I just told you that the Chinese people would never do to Chairman Mao what Khrushchev did to Stalin!
Fallaci: What if I told you that in the West they call you the Chinese Khrushchev?
Deng: [He laughs.] Listen, they can call me anything they like in the West, but I know Khrushchev well; I dealt with him personally for ten years, and I can assure you that comparing me to Khrushchev is insulting.
Iโd never read in detail on him before, so this was insightful. I feel like I understand better what he was doing and why the approach made sense, with the conditions China was in. Figuring out how to rapidly develop the previously-subjugated productive forces at the scale of China, while dealing with imperialism, attempts at color revolution, etc., was no small thing to work out. Itโs humbling to think about the degree of collective experimentation, learning, and labor they had to do to get to where they are now.
