The Unlikely Alliance

Deng Xiaoping was born a hundred years ago into a semicolonized, backward and suppressed society. When he died in 1997, China was emerging as the powerhouse of Asia, uninhibited by foreign domination and seeking a key role in a world rent by clashing civilizations.

After being purged by Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution as a capitalist roader and an archrevisionist, Deng rejoined the Chinese leadership in 1972-73 under the auspices of Premier Zhou Enlai. It was just at that time that the U.S. arrived permanently in Beijing with its Liaison Office, headed in 1974 by George Herbert...