356 { China’s Quest
off, it became complacent and fell behind. The late Ming and Qing periods,
plus the Mao era, served as examples and warnings against isolation. This
framework resonated with the collective historical memory and identity of
the Chinese people, providing an effective justification of the opening, with
its radical break from Maoist autarky.
But exactly what should China seek to acquire from the advanced capi-
talist countries? The initial emphasis was on importation of modern indus-
trial machinery, equipment, and technologies used in the West but not in
China. These fit fairly neatly into the Marxist category of “forces of produc-
tion,” and the import of such items was an important component of the Four
Modernizations plan drafted by Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping in 1974–1975.
But from the very beginning of his rule, Deng emphasized the need to ac-
quire Western scientific knowledge. Deng broke with Mao regarding the class
essence of China’s intelligentsia. Mao had seen China’s highly educated spe-
cialists, “experts,” as germ seeds of a new bourgeoisie whose consciousness
needed to be transformed. Deng, for his part, saw them as “workers with the
mind,” a respectable indeed vital, component of the working class.
What this meant in terms of PRC foreign relations was that China’s sci-
entists were allowed to engage Western scientific communities for the first
time since 1949. Study of Western languages was encouraged and rewarded.
Foreign publications could be acquired, paid for, and studied. Study at foreign
universities was encouraged, even if and when many Chinese students and
scholars opted not to return to China at the end of their studies. Cooperation
with foreign scientists on joint projects, or attendance of foreign academic
conferences, was encouraged and supported. Travel for such purposes was
often supported financially by the state. Foreign scientific and technological
literature across a wide range of areas was collected systematically. Much of it
was translated into Chinese and disseminated in publications serving appro-
priate Chinese scientific communities.
These reforms were among the earliest following Deng’s selection as para-
mount leader. They quickly won him a solid, supportive constituency among
China’s scientific and engineering elite. They also dramatically symbolized
that China was headed in a new and radically different direction. Deng’s broad
strategic direction was clear from the beginning: to draw on the “positive”
achievements of the “advanced (capitalist) countries” to make CCP-ruled,
socialist China rich and strong. And relegitimize CCP rule.Enlightening China’s Elite about China’s BackwardnessDuring the 1950s, China imported and assimilated a vast amount of Soviet
and East European industrial machinery and equipment. As part of China’s
overall industrialization strategy, most of that relatively advanced gear was