MAO AND XI: STORY OF THE MAN, STORY OF THE PEOPLE Bryce Kositz S XI JINPING the new Chairman and Xi built a story, or mythos, about IMao? Now that the Chinese Com- their lives that positioned themselves munist Party (CCP) has eliminated as the representative of the nation as the two-term limit for the leader of a whole, with their personal struggles the People’s Republic of China, there’s being depicted as identical to those of nothing to stop Xi from serving as China. leader-for-life — despite official deni- Mao told his version of his story to als that he intends to do so. Like Mao American journalist Edgar Snow, who Zedong, Xi has carefully crafted a nar- published his account, Red Star Over rative of his personal history to legiti- China, in 1937. As he described it to mise his power and policies. Both Mao Snow, each period of his life followed Liu Shaoqi (L), Mao Zedong (C), and Edgar Snow (R), 1960 Source: Wikipedia a similar pattern: Mao recognised 10 right from wrong and was punished 11 for pointing it out, but after gather- ing allies to fight with him, he and his ideas eventually emerged victorious. Mao’s narrative of his life story reflect- ed China’s struggle for independence from the foreign powers that had es- tablished their power over it since the 1839–42 Opium War. He struggled with Mao and Xi: Story of the Man, People Bryce Kositz his highly traditional father to educate himself in new, Western topics in- POWER cluding Marxism. He persevered and ‘Son of the loess lands’: Five-year-old Xi Jinping (L) with his younger brother, Xi Yuanping, and father, Xi struggled with enemies outside the Zhongxun, 1958 Source: Wikipedia Party and rivals within it, until he won CHINA STORY YEARBOOK CHINA STORY the right to lead the CCP, which was graphical work: ‘No matter where I go, fighting against both the Japanese and I will always be a son of the loess lands Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist govern- 黄土地’.1 Similarly, he described his ment. His personal struggle embodied work as provincial governor in Zhe- that of the Party; Mao’s victory was jiang by saying, ‘I have seen nearly all that of the Party — and China itself. of Zhejiang’s mountains and waters … The son of Mao’s comrade Xi and personally experienced the state Zhongxun, Xi Jinping was sent to and characteristics of Zhejiang and work in the rural area of Liangjiahe all its counties’.2 Xi presents himself in Shaanxi during the Cultural Revo- as China’s son, revolutionary by birth, lution before eventually climbing the humble by experience, and rising to ranks to become General Secretary of power through hard work: a mirror of the CCP in 2012. His preferred narra- China’s progress over his lifetime. Dur- tive is that of the ‘man of the people’ ing his first visit to the US as General who achieved power and prominence Secretary, Xi even returned to a town while remaining grounded in the in Iowa that he had visited during an realities of China’s least privileged agricultural survey in 1985 to recon- citizens. It can be summed up by the nect with ‘old friends’.3 So, not only is closing sentence of a short, autobio- he connected to all the Chinese people, Xi also has friends abroad — an impor- nition within the CCP stood in for the tant point for an outward-looking Chi- history of China from the beginning na. These friends in Iowa, moreover, of its loss of national independence in reinforce Xi’s story about remaining the 1840 Opium War; the story of all grounded in the struggles of the least Chinese history since 1840 condensed privileged, even as China asserts itself down into the story of one man — Mao. globally. Mao thus predicted that, just as he had Both Mao and Xi spoke sparingly gained control of CCP to fix the prob- about their personal histories and only lems within the Party, so would his during the early years of their political power within China solve its national career, thereafter letting their allies problems. This legitimised his power elaborate on their stories for them. Of over the Party and explained the ne- his interview with Mao, Edgar Snow cessity of his policies of resistance and remarked that, ‘During Mao’s recollec- collectivisation. tions of his past I noticed that an audi- Xi’s story about rising through tor at least as interested as myself was the ranks of the Party while remaining Ho Tze-nien [He Zizhen] — his wife. in touch with all levels of society sim- Many of the facts he told about him- ilarly projects a narrative of China’s self and the Communist movement she retention of its revolutionary ideals had evidently never heard before’.4 after 1949. The story portrays Xi, and Snow’s interview of Mao is one of the the Chinese nation as, having learned only records of Mao discussing his per- the revolutionary morality of the Mao sonal life. Xi, likewise, has spoken little era, using these inherited values to about his life and only during the ear- guide the modern economy — thus the ly years of his political career, largely importance of his campaign against in the single-page autobiographical corruption, for example. Xi, moreover, work, written in 1998, quoted above. likens his own rise to personal power Most importantly, Xi Jinping and within the Party to his plans for China Mao Zedong both used their personal to rise in prominence and power on the stories to define the story of China for world stage, ensuring that all its people their times, legitimise their policies, can attain the China dream in the pro- and control political discourse. As seen cess. Like Mao Zedong, if he has to take through the prism of the official narra- a lifetime to achieve these national tive, Mao’s personal struggle for recog- goals, he will. This text is taken from China Story Yearbook 2018: Power, edited by Jane Golley, Linda Jaivin, Paul J. Farrelly and Sharon Strange, published 2019 by ANU Press, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. doi.org/10.22459/CSY.2019.00B.