Generational Transition in China

Washington Quarterly

Volumn 25, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 23-35

  Fewsmith, Joseph ^a  

^a BOSTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0141881972     PISSN: 0163660X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1162/016366002760252518     Document Type: Article

References (5)

1. The expression "third generation" of leadership derives from a speech Deng Xiaoping gave right after the Tiananmen Square incident. In that speech, he called Mao Zedong the "core" of the first generation of leadership, himself the core of the second generation, and Jiang Zemin the core of the third generation. See Deng Xiaoping, "Disandai Lingdao Jiti de Dangwu Zhiji" ("The Urgent Task of the Third Generation Leadership Collective") in Deng Xiaoping Wenxuan (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping), vol. 3 (Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, 1993), pp. 309-314. Although this usage has become popular, it distorts history. Mao, born in 1893, and Deng, born in 1904, were really of the same generation; Deng made the Long March with Mao and others destined to rule China. In this sense, Jiang, as representative of the successor generation, really marks the second generation of the leadership of the People's Republic of China. Nevertheless, popular usage wins out and Hu Jintao is taken as the core of the fourth generation of leadership. Cheng Li defines the fourth generation as those born between 1941 and 1956. See Cheng Li, China's Leaders: The New Generation (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001), p. 10.
2. The expression "third generation" of leadership derives from a speech Deng Xiaoping gave right after the Tiananmen Square incident. In that speech, he called Mao Zedong the "core" of the first generation of leadership, himself the core of the second generation, and Jiang Zemin the core of the third generation. See Deng Xiaoping, "Disandai Lingdao Jiti de Dangwu Zhiji" ("The Urgent Task of the Third Generation Leadership Collective") in Deng Xiaoping Wenxuan (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping), vol. 3 (Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, 1993), pp. 309-314. Although this usage has become popular, it distorts history. Mao, born in 1893, and Deng, born in 1904, were really of the same generation; Deng made the Long March with Mao and others destined to rule China. In this sense, Jiang, as representative of the successor generation, really marks the second generation of the leadership of the People's Republic of China. Nevertheless, popular usage wins out and Hu Jintao is taken as the core of the fourth generation of leadership. Cheng Li defines the fourth generation as those born between 1941 and 1956. See Cheng Li, China's Leaders: The New Generation (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001), p. 10.
3. Richard Baum, "The Fifteenth National Party Congress: Jiang Takes Command?" China Quarterly, no. 145 (March 1996): 153-175.
4. He Qinglian, Xiandaihua de Xianjing: Dangdai Zhongguo de Jingji Shehui Wenti (The Pitfalls of Modernization: The Economic and Social Problems of Contemporary China) (Beijing: Jinri chubanshe, 1998).
5. He Zengke, Fanju Xinlu (New Path to Combat Corruption) (Beijing: Zhongyang bianyi chubanshe, 2002).