At the time of Mao’s death, a Deng Xiaoping immediately started repairing China economically, and that’s it. Even after Mao’s death “any mention of human rights was taboo and resulted in imprisonment” (Christensen, 519). Mao’s lasting impact on China’s government was to be imitated by Deng in order to have the same effect, and restricting human rights would effectively censor the civilians from international politics. Deng’s restriction on human rights, although seen as a global crime, proved to be very effective as less than 15 years later, the fall of the Soviet Union’s communist government would occur due to Gorbachev’s implementation of the new policies of Perestroika and Glasnost. Gorbachev’s new policies allowed more human rights, allowed the Soviet civilians to contrast and compare their governments with other countries, and eventually caused uprisings so great, that the communist government crumbled. Trying to maintain the right balance between having total power and keep China’s economic successes coming was prevalent during the Tiananmen Square protests where Deng crushed his “opponents” using Mao’s strategy that “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”. Deng, sensing that his power, his communist influence, and China’s social stability were crumbling, unleashed his troops on the passive protesters, proving himself and his government to be morally no better than Mao was. This effectively ended most protests against the government and sent a warning to all those who have conflicting thoughts with Deng’s. Like Mao, this lead to Deng leading China until his death until
At the time of Mao’s death, a Deng Xiaoping immediately started repairing China economically, and that’s it. Even after Mao’s death “any mention of human rights was taboo and resulted in imprisonment” (Christensen, 519). Mao’s lasting impact on China’s government was to be imitated by Deng in order to have the same effect, and restricting human rights would effectively censor the civilians from international politics. Deng’s restriction on human rights, although seen as a global crime, proved to be very effective as less than 15 years later, the fall of the Soviet Union’s communist government would occur due to Gorbachev’s implementation of the new policies of Perestroika and Glasnost. Gorbachev’s new policies allowed more human rights, allowed the Soviet civilians to contrast and compare their governments with other countries, and eventually caused uprisings so great, that the communist government crumbled. Trying to maintain the right balance between having total power and keep China’s economic successes coming was prevalent during the Tiananmen Square protests where Deng crushed his “opponents” using Mao’s strategy that “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”. Deng, sensing that his power, his communist influence, and China’s social stability were crumbling, unleashed his troops on the passive protesters, proving himself and his government to be morally no better than Mao was. This effectively ended most protests against the government and sent a warning to all those who have conflicting thoughts with Deng’s. Like Mao, this lead to Deng leading China until his death until