David Shambaugh - The Making of a Premier: Zhao Ziyangs Provincial Career

The Making of a Premier:
Zhao Ziyangs Provincial Career
David L. Shambaugh

How did Zhao Ziyang rise through the provincial apparatus of the Chinese Communist Party to become premier in 1980? How did he develop the policies of economic reform in the provinces that have now become national policy? What does Zhao Ziyangs professional development indicate about upward elite mobility in the Chinese political system? These are the central questions the author addresses in this political biography, tracing Zhao Ziyangs career in detail from his youth, through the Anti-Japanese War, the 1949 revolution, land reform, a series of political and economic campaigns during the 1950s and 1960s, the Cultural Revolution, political rehabilitation, and the Sichuan Experience. Mr. Shambaugh goes beyond a chronological account to elucidate Zhaos job responsibilities and performance, political and economic philosophy, survival strategies, and behavior during thirty tumultous years in provincial politics. Bringing forth much new information drawn extensively from primary source materials, he also provides insights into the functioning of the post-1949 Chinese political system, especially the interplay between central and provincial politics.

David L. Shambaugh, a doctoral candidate in political science at The University of Michigan, has analyzed Chinese and Asian affairs for the U.S. Senate, Department of State, and National Security Council. His articles on Chinese domestic politics, foreign policy, and military affairs have appeared in several scholarly journals and books.

First published 1984 by Westview Press

Published 2019 by Routledge

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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 84-50031

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-29366-6 (hbk)

This study has evolved through two stages. During the summer of 1980, while I was studying in China, rumors were rampant that Maos successor Hua Guofeng was on his way out of power, and that Zhao Ziyang would replace him as Premier of the State Council. Zhao was generally thought to have the inside track on the job because he had Deng Xiaopings support and had administered a series of successful economic reforms in Sichuan province during his tenure there as first Party secretary. These reforms had collectively become known as the ,Sichuan Experience, and were being touted for national emulation. Despite the publicity these reforms had received, Zhao remained a rather enigmatic figure to Chinese and foreigners alike. Thus my initial reason for undertaking this study was to provide a clearer picture of the man who was to become one of Chinas national leaders and of his reformist policies, later to become national policies.