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China expert Fu Gaoyi talks about “China-US confrontation”, “Comparison between Xi and Deng” and “Hong Kong problem”
The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University stated on Sunday (December 20) that Ezra F. Vogel, a well-known China expert and Henry Ford II Professor Emeritus of Social Sciences at Harvard University, passed away at the age of 90 years.
Steven Vogel, Vogel’s son and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said on Twitter that his father had died of complications after the surgery.
Fu Gaoyi was born in 1930 and speaks Chinese and Japanese. He is an expert on China and Japan and one of the famous “Masters of China” in the United States. He was director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies at Harvard University.
Study Deng Xiaoping’s China
Fu Gaoyi obtained a doctorate in sociology from Harvard University in 1958 and then did two years of research in Japan. He served as an assistant professor at Yale University from 1960 to 1961. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University in 1961-62 and 1963-64, studying Chinese language and history.
His research interests mainly include China in the Reform Age, Deng Xiaoping, and modern Japan. Courses taught at Harvard University include Chinese Communist Society, Japanese Society, and East Asian Industrialization.
In 2011, Fu Gaoyi published Deng Xiaoping’s biography “Deng Xiaoping and the transformation of China”. The Chinese version of this book, “Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China,” is known as a “monument-like” work on Deng Xiaoping’s studies. It is one of the most influential books on China’s reform and opening-up.
The New York Times reported that the continental version of “Deng Xiaoping Times” has removed 53,000 words compared to the Hong Kong version. The abbreviated content mainly includes the Tiananmen incident, the contradictions and struggles within the CCP, and the evaluation of the leaders. Fu Gaoyi said at the time that the decision to allow Chinese censors to delete and modify his works was an unpleasant but necessary compromise.
In 2018, a Chinese reporter for the BBC asked Fu Gaoyi during an interview that the “Deng Xiaoping Times” has been out for so long and that the relationship between China and the United States has changed a lot. Do you want to modify or add something? Fu Gaoyi said that in recent years, the value of this book has stood the test of time and there is nothing to review.
When “China News Weekly” interviewed Fu Gaoyi in 2015, he had stated that he planned to spend four years writing about former Chinese Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang.
Deng Xiaoping’s historical assessment has never been without controversy. He only created China’s economic miracle and also caused the political reforms to stall. Looking back 40 years of reform and opening-up, the success and failure of this huge country seem to be inseparable from Deng Xiaoping.
Fu Gaoyi stated that he planned to write about Zhu Rongji, the former prime minister of China, because he was very intelligent and capable in political and economic matters. Later, some Chinese friends suggested to him which path China should take in the future and what issues should be considered. In this regard, what Hu Yaobang Greatest meant.
Besides “Deng Xiaoping Times”, Fu Gaoyi is also the author of “China and Japan: A History of Exchange in 1500”, “Japan’s New Middle Class” and other books.
Advice on Sino-US relations
Fu Gaoyi retired in 2000. Despite his advanced age, he remains active in his field of research, accepting interviews with the media to express his views on Sino-US relations and other issues.
In July 2019, more than 100 academics and diplomats familiar with China and Asian affairs issued an open letter. In the open letter, they expressed concern about China’s increased control over private companies and the breach of trade commitments. , strongly criticized Trump. The administration’s behavior believes that the many practices of Trump himself and his aides have made China-US relations “a sharp turn of the day.” The open letter was written by five people, and Fu Gaoyi was one of them.
In April this year, more than 90 well-known American academics and former government officials issued an open letter calling on China and the United States to cooperate in addressing the global crisis caused by the new corona epidemic and saving lives. . Fu Gaoyi also signed this open letter.
In late 2019 and early 2020, Fu Gaoyi visited Hong Kong twice, during which time she accepted interviews in Chinese from the BBC. Speaking of China-US relations, he said: “Now in America, because we are very concerned about China, its suppression of freedom, human rights, Hong Kong and Xinjiang. American politicians find it useful to criticize China. now. They think this will contribute to their development in America. “
Fu Gaoyi also spoke about the difference between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Deng Xiaoping. He believes that Xi Jinping does not have much experience abroad like Deng Xiaoping, and it is not so easy for him to cooperate with leaders from all over the world like Deng Xiaoping.
“He can talk about China’s policies and explain things, but he doesn’t have that much experience abroad and he doesn’t have an instinctive understanding of foreign leaders,” he said.
Response from China
On Monday (21), Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that Professor Fu Gaoyi is a well-known American expert on China issues and an old friend of the Chinese people. China expresses its deepest condolences on his passing and its sincere condolences to his family.
“Professor Fu Gaoyi has made unremitting efforts to promote communication and exchanges between China and the United States and enhance mutual understanding between the two peoples. We will remember his contribution to the development of China-United States relations,” said Wang Wenbin.
The Chinese ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, expressed his deepest condolences to Fu Gaoyi’s family on Twitter. Cui Tiankai said that she has known Fu Gaoyi for a long time and has learned a lot from him.
“He is a prominent Chinese scholar and an old friend of the Chinese people. He has dedicated his life to enhancing mutual understanding between the peoples of China and the United States and has made significant contributions to the friendship and relations between the two countries,” he said.
