Mao's theatre of power

On 2 January 1959, the brutal dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, Washington's man in Havana, was overthrown. By the end of the month, the leader of the revolution, Fidel Castro, and his comrades had taken control of the country.

7 Ekim 1959'da INRA (UluErnesto Che Guevara, who was appointed head of the Industrial Department of the INRA (National Institute for Agrarian Reform) on 7 October 1959, set off on a tour of the Stalinist countries on 21 October 1960. His aim was to secure economic aid to counter the effects of the "wear-down-the-revolution embargo" imposed by US imperialism against the new Cuban regime, particularly in the sugar and oil industries. During his journey, he signed trade agreements with several countries, most notably the People's Republic of China, Czechoslovakia, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). After more than two months abroad, Che Guevara and his entourage returned to Cuba on 23 December 1960.

At one point during his long journey, Che Guevara left Moscow on 17 November 1960 and flew to Beijing. Upon his arrival in China, he was subjected to a protocol that was almost impossible to make sense of. In his biography of Guevara, French journalist and author Jean Cormier (1943–2018) describes the scene as follows:

One morning, at breakfast time, a car arrives to pick up the Commander—alone. His destination is Zhongnanhai, the truly private wing of the palace, where Mao has his apartments in the section known as the ‘library,’ literally ‘the centre of the South Sea.’ Ernesto is invited to wait in a vast hall. At ten o’clock, a large red curtain slowly opens. To Che’s astonishment, he sees Mao on the other side of a glass partition, sipping tea. Mao greets Ernesto with a slow bow of the head, to which the guest responds in the same manner. Then, like in a theatre, the red curtain closes again. (Jean Cormier, Che Guevara: Ölüm Nereden Gelirse Gelsin, trans. Gülseren Devrim, Istanbul, Can Yayınları, 3rd edition, 1997, p. 292). [*]

When I read this passage in Cormier’s book, in Chapter 14, The Buddha Behind the Curtain, my first reaction was, ‘Damn! What kind of scene is this?’ However, I soon realised that merely describing this protocol as an absurd or even humiliating arrangement would be inadequate. I thought that analysing the factors behind this carefully staged scene might offer key insights into the logic of Maoism [**], which is not a revolutionary alternative to Soviet Stalinism, but its Chinese variant.

On the evening of 19 November, after dinner, Che Guevara returned to the Forbidden City. This time, Mao granted him an audience, and the meeting between the delegations of the two countries lasted more than three hours.

This scene symbolises Mao Zedong’s absolute power and his almost untouchable status. Although Che Guevara is a globally recognised political figure and one of the leaders of a successful revolution, he is made to wait patiently in a vast hall—without even knowing whether he will see Mao.

It should be noted that the fact that Che Guevara alone was chosen from the Cuban delegation was a deliberate decision. If he had travelled to the palace with his delegation or at least one other member, the waiting process would have been very different. Those waiting would have had the opportunity to talk amongst themselves, discuss the atmosphere, and interpret the situation. It is clear that such interaction was not desired.

Perhaps the most striking element of this curious protocol is Mao positioning himself “sitting behind a massive pane of glass, drinking tea”. The curtain and the glass create both a physical and symbolic barrier between Mao and Che. This is intended to reinforce Mao's inaccessibility and perhaps the perception of him as a semi-divine figure.

The ‘communication’ between Mao and Che is also highly minimalist and symbolic: “a subtle nod” and “a mirrored nod in response”. This is a wordless form of communication, a silent expression of power and status. The simple nod likely signified both a greeting and an acknowledgement. Mao’s nod signifies that he recognises Che and the revolution in Cuba, while also reaffirming the hierarchy between them and his own unquestionable leadership. Of course, it was Mao who had predetermined the form of this “communication”.

This extraordinarily bizarre meeting took place during one of the most tense periods of the Cold War, at a time when the ideological divide between China and the Soviet Union was beginning to crystallise. In this context, through this theatrical display, Mao and his team also wanted to show the leaders of the Cuban revolution that China was an independent “communist” power, separate from the Kremlin, with its own protocols and leadership style.

[*] I initially translated this passage from the Turkish edition of Jean Cormier’s biography of Che Guevara into English. To avoid any pitfalls associated with translating a translation, I then asked a friend fluent in French to cross-check my version against the original French text. With his help, this dual verification allowed me to refine the nuances and preserve fidelity to the author’s intent.
[**] Despite various internal divisions within the CCP, the regime remained committed to the Stalinist reactionary utopia of “socialism in one country”. With an autarkic outlook, China remained isolated from the world economy and lurched from one crisis to another during these years. Mao's experiments in rural socialism resulted in severe economic devastation and a disastrous famine in the late 1950s that killed tens of millions of people.