Interesting video interview from the Economist with Sidney Rittenberg, an American who lived in China from 1944 to 1979. He’s had a fascinating life — he spent time with the early Communist party in Yan’an, but was then accused by Stalin of being an American spy, and was put in solitary confinement for six years. He was eventually released, but after an active role in the Cultural Revolution, he was put back in prison and spent another ten years behind bars. In the interview he is asked why he didn’t leave China after being released from his first stay in prison, and he responds that rather than turning against Marxism, he assumed that he had been imprisoned because he hadn’t been revolutionary enough and he determined to try even harder to be a loyal Communist. But he has changed his ideology along with China, and now he makes money advising multinational corporations that want to do business in China.
Among the many topics touched on in the interview, he talks about the change he saw in Mao before and after the Communist Party’s rise to power. According to Rittenberg, when he talked to Mao in Yan’an (before the Communist Party had taken power), Mao would listen intently to what he said, and the party as a whole, dependent on popular support, did its best to deserve that support. After he had taken power, Mao was someone who was listened to, not someone who listened — corrupted by absolute power.