Glorified in the West for ending the Cold War, Mikhail Gorbachev is seen in a very different light in China. He’s seen as the man who brought tragedy on his own people and blithely dismantled a great socialist nation in a cautionary tale of failed leadership.
China on Wednesday criticised the former leader of the Soviet Union over his attempts to open up the country and strike rapprochement with the US, leading to the collapse of the mighty communist nation.
“Gorbachev made positive contributions to the normalisation of China-Soviet Union relations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said when asked about Beijing’s reaction to the death of the former Soviet Communist leader during whose tenure the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991.
“We mourn his death and express our condolences to his family,” Mr. Zhao told a media briefing in a brief cryptic reply to a question seeking Beijing’s reactions to the death of a 91-year-old leader.
The CPC, which has monopolised power since 1949, regards the collapse of the Soviet Union as the most important lesson for it not to repeat the mistakes.
The rise and fall of the Soviet Communist Party formed part of the curriculum in CPC-run ideological schools to educate the cadre.
“Finally, all it took was one quiet word from Mikhail Gorbachev to declare the dissolution of the Soviet Communist Party, and a great party was gone,” he said about the dramatic collapse of the Soviet Communist Party in 1991.
“In the end, nobody was a real man, nobody came out to resist,” President Xi said, referring to the collapse of the Soviet Union after the 74-year-long rule by the Soviet Communist Party.
About the Chinese Communist Party, he said, “we’re a major power, and we absolutely cannot allow any subversive errors when it comes to the fundamental issues”.
He made severe mistakes in judging the international situation, and caused chaos in the domestic economic order, which all serve as a reminder to other countries to stay cautious about any attempt at “peaceful evolution” by Western forces said the state-run Global Times in a report.
In a historical reflection, Gorbachev is naive and immature, who represented a certain historical period of Russia (USSR) shifting between the paths of “seeking an independent way” and “embracing the West,” the report quoted observers as saying.
Must Read: EU To Suspend Visa Deal With Russia
Keep watching our YouTube Channel ‘DNP INDIA’. Also, please subscribe and follow us on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, and TWITTER.
