26
" Since the very beginning of the Communist regime, I had carefully studied books on Marxism and pronouncements by Chinese Communist Party leaders. It seemed to me that socialism in China was still very much an experiment nad had no fixed course of development for the country had yet been decided upon. This, I thought, was why the government's policy was always changing, like a pendulum swinging from left to right and back again. When things went to extremes and problems emerged. Beijing would take corrective measures. Then these very corrective measures went too far and had to be corrected. The real difficulty was, of course, that a state-controlled economy only stifled productivity, and economic planning from Beijing ignored local conditions and killed incentive.
When a policy changed from above, the standards of values changed with it. What was right yesterday became wrong today, and visa versa. Thus the words and actions of a Communist Party official at the lower level were valid for a limited time only... The Cultural Revolution seemed to me to be a swing to the left. Sooner or later, when it had gone too far, corrective measures would be taken. The people would have a few months or a few years of respite until the next political campaign. Mao Zedong believed that political campaigns were the motivating force for progress. So I thought the Proletarian Cultural Revolution was just one of an endless series of upheavals the Chinese people must learn to put up with. "
― Nien Cheng , Life and Death in Shanghai
28
" Akkoriban az újságok tele voltak olyan hírekkel, hogy tanulatlan kórházi segédmunkások sikeres operációkat hajtottak végre Mao idézetei alapján. Egy-egy ilyen operáció alatt a forradalmárok benn maradtak a műtőben, s Mao szavainak mágikus hatását elősegítendő, idézeteket recitáltak a kis piros könyvecskéből, miközben a képzetlen "doktor" küszködött a pácienssel. Mégis, mikor Mao vagy valamelyik másik radikális pártvezető olyan orvosi ellátásra szorult, amilyet a saját orvosaik nem nyújthattak nekik, előszedték azokat a specialistákat, akik a kommunista hatalomátvétel előtt nyugati egyetemeken tanultak, és különgépeken repítették őket Pekingbe, gyakran egyenest a vidéki száműzetésből, ahol kemény átnevelő munkára voltak ítélve. "
― Nien Cheng , Life and Death in Shanghai