On the evening of August 21, 1980, Italian journalist Ms. Olynuena Farage interviewed Deng Xiaoping in Zhongnanhai.
She has always been known for her sharp questions and hot words, interviewing dozens of heads of state and important politicians. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said giving an interview to Farage was the stupidest thing in my life.
However, Deng Xiaoping won the heartfelt respect and admiration of "harsh" female journalists with his frank, objective, and calm political demeanor.
Deng Xiaoping met with Orynheena Farage
1. "Always keep it"
In Deng Xiaoping's Zhongnanhai office.
Farage did not open the scene, directly asked: "Should the statue of Chairman Mao on Tiananmen Be preserved forever?" ”
Deng Xiaoping replied decisively: "We must always keep it." ”
He said: "In the past, Chairman Mao's portrait was hung too much and hung everywhere, which was not a serious matter, nor did it show respect for Chairman Mao. Although Chairman Mao also made mistakes for some time in the past, he was the main founder of the Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China. ”
On August 11, 1980, the Central Committee instructed that the excessive hanging of Chairman Mao's portraits, quotations and poems in public places was a manifestation of political disrespect, an obstacle to international viewing, and should be gradually reduced to the necessary limit in the future. Tiananmen Square as a symbol of China's political center, is the statue of Chairman Mao retained? For a time, it became the focus of attention of all Chinese people and world public opinion.
In order to understand the basic position of the CPC Central Committee on Mao Zedong's evaluation at home and abroad, Deng Xiaoping decided to accept an interview with Farage with the wisdom of a politician.
Deng Xiaoping said: "What he (Mao Zedong) did for the Chinese people cannot be erased. From the perspective of our feelings Chinese people, we will always commemorate him as the founder of our party and country. ”
Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping waited together
Deng Xiaoping said: "He has saved the party and the country from crises many times. Without Chairman Mao, at least we Chinese people would have to grope in the dark for a longer time. Chairman Mao's greatest achievement was to integrate the principles of Marxism-Leninism with the reality of the Chinese revolution and to point out the road for China to win the victory of the revolution. "He creatively applied Marxism-Leninism to all aspects of the Chinese revolution, including philosophy, politics, the military, literature and art, and other fields, with creative insights."
Farage asked again: "Will the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall be demolished soon?" ”
Deng Xiaoping replied: "I am not in favor of changing it." If you have changed it, it is not necessarily appropriate. It is not appropriate to build, and if it is changed, people will talk about it. Now the world is speculating that we are going to destroy the memorial. We don't have that idea. ”
He said: The construction of the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall is against Chairman Mao's own wishes. Chairman Mao proposed that all people be cremated behind their bodies, leaving only ashes, no remains, and no graves, and Chairman Mao was the first to sign. We all signed.
2. "Premier Zhou is a person who has worked diligently and diligently all his life"
Farage said that there is such a person in China who has not been touched at any time, and this is Premier Zhou Enlai. How is this situation explained?
Deng Xiaoping said: Premier Zhou was a man who worked diligently and earnestly all his life and worked hard and complained. He always worked more than twelve hours a day, sometimes more than sixteen hours, all his life. We met very early and lived together when we were working and studying in France. He was always a brother to me. We embarked on the road of revolution at about the same time. He is a man whom comrades and the people respect very much.
He said that his position was very difficult, and he had said a lot of things against his heart and done a lot of things against his heart. But the people forgave him. Because he does not do these things, does not say these words, he himself can not keep, nor can he play a neutralizing role in it, play a role in reducing losses. He protected quite a few people.
Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping at the Tiananmen Tower
3. "Isn't capitalism all bad?" ”
Farage asked, do you think capitalism is not all bad?
Deng Xiaoping said that it is necessary to find out what capitalism is.
Capitalism, he said, was superior to feudalism. Some things cannot be said to be capitalist. For example, the technical problem is science, and the management of production is science, which is useful in any society and in any country. We study advanced technology, advanced science, advanced management in the service of socialism, and these things have no class character in themselves.
Farage asked again, when you talk about the rural land reserved, you said that people need some personal interests to engage in production, does this mean that communism itself must also be discussed?
Deng Xiaoping replied: Socialism is the first stage of communism, which is a very long historical stage, and it is necessary to implement distribution according to work and to combine the interests of the state, the collective, and the individual in order to arouse enthusiasm and develop socialist production.
Group photo of the leaders of the "big bag of dry" in Xiaogang Village
4. "Is Jiang Q a person like Cixi?" ”
Farage asked, is Jiang Q a person like Cixi?
Deng Xiaoping said that Jiang Q himself did bad things under the banner of Chairman Mao. Jiang Q is so bad that it is not too much to convict the "Gang of Four", which has hurt thousands of people.
Farage asked Deng Xiaoping, what do you think you should say about Jiang Q, and how many points should you give her?
Deng Xiaoping said, below zero points.
Farage asked again, what do you think of yourself?
Deng Xiaoping said that it would be nice if I could open it in half myself. But one thing I can say is that I have been honest all my life. You must write down my words, I have made many mistakes, including some mistakes made by Comrade Mao Zedong, and I also have a share, but I can say that it is also a mistake made with good intentions. People who don't make mistakes don't. We cannot count all the mistakes of the past as Chairman Mao alone. Therefore, our evaluation of Chairman Mao should be very objective, first, he is meritorious, and second, he is excessive. We must inherit many of Chairman Mao's good ideas, and we must also make clear his mistakes.
Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping
The interview was conducted twice on August 21 and 23. Deng Xiaoping said the interview was a "passing exam."
The interview aroused strong repercussions in the international community, and the international community gave deng Xiaoping a very high evaluation of his political vision, political wisdom, and strategic vision.
In June 1981, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee adopted the Resolution on Several Historical Issues Concerning the Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China, which realistically evaluated Mao Zedong's historical position in the Chinese revolution and fully expounded the great significance of Mao Zedong Thought as the guiding ideology of the Party.
Since then, China's reform and opening up has opened a new page.
(The picture comes from the network, and the version belongs to the original party)