The Chinese authorities offered their condolences, but the former Soviet leader is held responsible for the end of a great empire. For many in China, his biggest mistake was trusting the West. Deng Xiaoping considered him an “idiot”. Shortly after his visit to Beijing in May 1989, the Chinese regime ordered the Tiananmen massacre.
Beijing () – Despite having offered condolences for the death of the Russian statesman, the Chinese authorities consider Mikhail Gorbachev a “tragic figure” who led to the fall of the Soviet Union, the ideological mother of communist China.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing declared yesterday that China “mourns” the disappearance of the last Soviet leader, who died on August 30, remembering him for his “positive contributions to the normalization of relations” between China and the USSR. These words are more circumstantial than sincere, similar to those expressed by Xi Jinping on the recent death of the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abesupporter of the geopolitical containment of China and, therefore, frowned upon by the Chinese leadership.
The true tone of Chinese sentiments towards Gorbachev was exposed by the Global Times. Citing a couple of academics and other anonymous “observers” in his country, the Chinese regime’s nationalist megaphone describes him as a leader guilty of pandering to the United States and the West in a “naive” and “immature” way. His biggest flaw would be to have misjudged the international situation and to have plunged the internal economic order into chaos.
For communist China, says the Global Timesthe parable of Gorbachev and the USSR should remind other countries to be wary of any attempt at dialogue with the West: a position shared by Putin’s Russia, which has expressed itself in similar terms by “mourning” the disappearance of the Soviet statesman .
As many analysts point out, shortly after coming to power in 2012, Xi repeatedly reiterated that the end of the Soviet Union should serve as a reminder for the future of China and the survival of the Chinese Communist Party. In essence, according to Xi, Gorbachev’s opening to the West is not an example to follow.
The Chinese president’s negative view echoes that of Deng Xiaoping, China’s former “little helmsman.” Pioneer of the national economic miracle from 1980, Deng considered Gorbachev an “idiot”, according to one of his sons.
The former General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party was visiting Beijing when street protests broke out in May 1989. His visit to China would not have the same impact as his visit to East Germany the following October, which led to the replacement of the leader local communist Erich Honecker – a Stalinist, opposed to democratic openings – and to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Unlike the East Germans, Deng opted for repression to safeguard the Party’s power. On June 4, 1989, in Beijing, Chinese leaders ordered the massacre of thousands of students and citizens who demanded freedom and democracy in the country.
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