Overheard on What's App:
Chairman: "What do you want from the Chinese?
No.2 Son: "Sweet and sour chicken, egg fried rice, a portion of prawn crackers and for them to stop persecuting the Uighurs."
I'm currently reading The Private Life of Chairman Mao, by his personal physician, Zhisui Li.
Dr. Li looked after the health of Mao for over 22 years, right up to his death, and had unique insights into his private life, which was quite dissolute.
Li, whose background was middle class and was an American-trained doctor who returned to China after the revolution, had access to Mao and the highest echelons of the Chinese Politburo, but it was a poisoned chalice.
Can you imagine the fear Li felt when Mao died and there was a need for a scapegoat during the internal power struggles for succession? The man must have been paralysed with panic in case he was blamed for having done something wrong.
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