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soul by reforming your way of thinking. You will be allowed enough clothing and basic furniture to carry on a normal life, but you won't be allowed to maintain a standard of living above that of the average worker.'' Before he left, he told me, ''It's the objective of the proletarian revolution to form a classless society, where no one is above anyone else.'' After living in Communist China for 17 years, I knew that such a society was only a dream because those who seized power would invariably become the new ruling class. Even this very junior official in the party hierarchy could make arbitrary decisions about my life and lecture me and accuse me of crimes simply because he was an official and I was just an ordinary citizen. We were not equals by any stretch of the imagination.
HOUSE ARREST
