Chapter 9: Looking into the Future

【9】Looking at the Future

The Chrysanthemum Fragrance Study in Fengzeyuan is famous in later generations, but in reality, it was just an ordinary courtyard house. The stone path in the courtyard connected the long houses on three sides and the gate in a cross shape. Twelve slender, upright pine trees were planted along the stone path. The living room was furnished in a simple yet grand style. A long bookshelf, over two meters high, stood against the wall from one end to the other. Three sofas were scattered in front of the bookshelf—one double and two singles. A floor lamp stood beside the sofas, with a dark green lampshade mounted on a brass pole. In the back of the room sat a small, old desk. Sunlight, filtered through simple sky-blue cotton curtains, fell softly and serenely onto the peacock-blue carpet covering the room.

Cao Xiaoqiang’s laptop was placed on the wooden coffee table in front of the sofa. The Chairman was watching the documentary "New China" playing on the screen with rapt attention. One could see that the tea on the coffee table had gone cold, yet the Chairman hadn't touched it once. It wasn't until four o'clock in the afternoon that Comrade Hu Qiaomu, the secretary, brought in a document. The Chairman merely glanced at it, set it aside, and signaled for Hu Qiaomu to leave.

"Comrade Cao Xiaoqiang, some people didn't believe you came from the future; they thought you were a spy. Investigations have proven that you were telling the truth. Those cars and watches are indeed of a production level and technology never seen before. I think they were making a fuss over nothing. From this laptop you mentioned, I can conclude that you are telling the truth."

Xiaoqiang nervously replied in a low voice, "Chairman, you can just call me Xiaoqiang from now on."

The Chairman nodded, picked up the cold teacup, took a large sip, and then, to Xiaoqiang's surprise, reached out to pick up the thermos on the side to refill both his and Xiaoqiang's cups.

This action by the Chairman nearly made Xiaoqiang faint

"Cao Xiaoqiang, you blockhead! No wonder you were doing so poorly in the 21st century that you wanted to commit suicide. You didn't even know to jump in and do this chore; you really have no sense of the situation!"

With beads of sweat popping out on his forehead, Xiaoqiang hurriedly stood up to grab the thermos. The Chairman glanced at him and waved his hand.

"Don't be so constrained. You are a guest, and it is only natural for a host to pour tea for a guest." After saying this, he sat back down and offered a cigarette to Xiaoqiang, who was sitting upright beside him. Xiaoqiang quickly took it with both hands and grabbed the matches on the table to light it for the Chairman. Fortunately, this guy’s brain wasn't completely useless; he hadn't devolved to the point of needing the Chairman to light his cigarette for him. If that were the case... the protagonist of this book would truly have no lower limit to his IQ.

"I believe that heroic spirits exist in this world. The blood of the heroes of the Chinese nation will not have been shed in vain. The sacrifices made and the lives lost by the martyrs for the future of the country and the nation will not have been in vain. According to what you said, this 'blood soul' only appears once in ten thousand years. It seems this is a once-in-a-millennium historical opportunity, a glorious mission bestowed upon you by countless Chinese revolutionary martyrs. You must complete it well."

The Chairman glanced at the laptop on the coffee table and continued, "I haven't finished watching this documentary. You stay and have dinner with me. I'll trouble you to stay; we'll continue watching tonight. I have many things to ask you, and we must finish it today."

"Yes! Chairman, I will wait for you to assign me tasks after you finish watching," Xiaoqiang said.

Braised pork, mapo tofu, shredded potatoes, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and vegetable egg drop soup. A simple meal of four dishes and one soup, but the taste was superb. Cao Xiaoqiang ate three full bowls of rice. This Chairman’s family banquet was truly delicious.

After dinner, the Chairman ordered that no one was to disturb them that night. So, Xiaoqiang accompanied the Chairman to continue watching the documentary "New China." Xiaoqiang plugged the laptop into an external power source, accompanied the Chairman as he smoked, and continued watching, answering the Chairman's questions from time to time. The living room was filled with smoke all night long.

By the time they finished watching, it was nearly dawn. The Chairman opened the door and said, "Xiaoqiang, are you tired? Come walk with me."

"Chairman, I am not tired," Xiaoqiang hurriedly replied.

He dared not be negligent and followed half a step behind the Chairman. The two walked slowly around the courtyard three times before returning to the living room-cum-study.

"This information from the future is of immense significance for us to better carry out the work of building a New China. Socialism has no precedent; there is no ready-made history to learn from. We only know that the general direction is correct and conforms to the laws of human social development. However, in the process of concrete practice and exploration, it is possible that we might take some detours. You said that people in later generations evaluated that New Culture Movement as a failed attempt to explore a socialist path with Chinese characteristics. I agree with this view. Even if it hadn't been exploited by a small handful of people, its positive significance might not have outweighed its negative effects. People say to take history as a mirror; I suppose I am taking the future as a mirror." Having said this, the Chairman laughed.

He then continued, "I'm sorry for making you stay up late with me tonight. Now, go and rest. Your work is highly dependent on your physical health, more so than any of us. Your significance for building a New China faster and better surpasses anyone else in China; even I cannot compare to you."

"Chairman, you are too kind! You unified China, gave the people a new set of moral values, raised the status of workers and peasants to an unprecedented level, and established a clean government. What is even greater is that these tremendous achievements were made under extremely unfavorable international and domestic conditions. You bolstered the spirit of the Chinese people, united and organized them, and formed cohesion and combat effectiveness. How can that movement that swept across China be called your personal affair? How could the responsibility be pushed entirely onto you alone later? Even if you made a remark in your old age acknowledging your mistakes, some among us just went with the flow and pushed all the responsibility onto you, especially after you passed away, taking that responsibility into the grave of history so brazenly? I, however, believe that your charm lies in your spirit of taking responsibility. At that time, only you had the courage to shoulder it. This breadth of mind and spirit can only be explained by the fact that you were someone who truly fought for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation for your entire life. In the hearts of the Chinese people, you are a deity that will never, ever be erased."

After a pause, Xiaoqiang continued, "A Taiwanese man named Li Ao in later generations said: 'The great revolutionaries are in mainland China! After the revolution was won, they faced a problem: the new China had stood up, and we had to build a new China. But these experts who were good at revolution were not necessarily good at nation-building. Sometimes, they couldn't keep up.'

So, as you said, everyone was exploring. It wasn't that we felt we knew everything from the start; no, we were also exploring. In the process of exploring, we would take the wrong path, and taking the wrong path would come at a price."

"When the Communist Party of China seized the ruling power of China in 1949, it was a blank slate. The Kuomintang took everything they could move and blew up everything they could. They left mainland China with two million local tyrants, evil gentry, and exiled bandits for you to clear out. The Kuomintang moved the entire national treasury of 920,000 taels of gold to Taiwan. How could such a mess be solved? Many people have a misconception that you didn't understand economics, leading to mainland China's development lagging behind Japan and the 'Four Asian Tigers' of the same period. This is the greatest fallacy of today."

"First of all, the starting points of Japan and the 'Four Asian Tigers' were different from China's. Japan began industrialization after the Meiji Restoration. By World War II, Japan could produce tens of thousands of aircraft annually, while China couldn't manufacture even one. Many people think that Germany and Japan became ruins after World War II. In fact, the factories in wartime Germany and Japan were hidden underground or dispersed, and American planes couldn't do anything about them. Otherwise, the United States wouldn't have needed to drop atomic bombs or entice the Soviet Union to send troops; they could have just used planes to bomb all the Japanese factories to dust. Would Japanese soldiers holding wooden sticks have been able to resist the Americans? By July 1945, Japan still had the capacity to produce thousands of aircraft per month, higher than its monthly production in 1942, which shows that its industry was basically intact; it just couldn't get raw materials anymore."

"Moreover, Japan possessed a massive scientific and technical team and an army of skilled workers, which old China could not compare to at all. Therefore, by 1949, when New China was founded, Japan was actually 80 years ahead of China. Even Taiwan and South Korea, because they had once been part of Japan's territory (colonies), were 50 years ahead of mainland China in their overall level."

"In the short thirty years of your era, China achieved a historic leap from an agricultural country to a great industrial power. China implemented a catch-up strategy, aiming at the advanced industrial level of the West—what others had, we had to have; what others didn't have, we also had to have. By the eve of your passing, China had almost everything the West had. There were jet planes in the sky, cars, trains, and ships on the ground, and satellites, missiles, and atomic bombs—everything was complete. And what could the 'Four Asian Tigers' build? They were typical colonial economies, only able to make things like clothing, shoes, and hats. They caught the good times of the Cold War. At that time, the anti-imperialist and independence struggles of various Western colonies were surging. For the West, only the 'Four Asian Tigers' under the protection of American and British bayonets were safe, so investments were concentrated on them, causing their short-lived prosperity. But they lacked developed manufacturing and core technologies, so the prosperity couldn't last. Argentina in the early 20th century was once rich from raising sheep, but how is it now? After the Cold War ended, the economies of the 'Four Asian Tigers' quickly fell into trouble, while China continued to advance at high speed because China had its own manufacturing industry and could manufacture almost anything. And the foundation of China's industrialization was exactly what you laid for the Chinese people."

"Admittedly, the living standards of the Chinese people did not improve very quickly during your era, but this was to raise funds for China's industrialization. The funds for Western industrialization came from colonial plunder (Britain and France), the exploitation of black slaves (the United States), and war reparations (Germany and Japan). Socialist countries like the Soviet Union and China could only first tighten their belts to accumulate industrial capital, develop their own industries, and then use the wealth created by industry to enjoy a good life."

"In your era, the economic gap between China and the Western powers was shrinking rapidly. Yale University professor Maurice Meisner called your era 'one of the greatest modernization eras in world history, not inferior to the most intense periods of industrialization of the major latecomers on the modern industrial stage, such as Germany, Japan, and Russia.' The book *Modernization of Japan and Russia*, published in the United States in the 1970s, argued that New China achieved accomplishments that no other country had ever achieved."

"Hehe, this is just a summary by knowledgeable people on the internet, and I think it is the truth."

After listening to Xiaoqiang's words, the Chairman smiled and said, "I am not as great as you say. Greatness is created by the Chinese people; the Chinese people are the truly great ones."