Abstract
BOTH HALVES OF MY TITLE MAY REQUIRE EXPLANATION. WHY, IN AN issue devoted to political forces, an article on one man, and why the use of the vague term ‘equilibrium’? Because China today confronts us with the singular oddity of a country in which the existing political system has been attacked and partially dismantled on orders from the supreme leader, but nevertheless subsists to some extent; and in which the new system which he is striving to create has still not been firmly established or taken definite shape. It is, therefore, impossible to trace with precision the contours of the political forces, and indicate how they are related to one another, but while there may or may not exist in China a political system in the sense of an integrated whole, functioning according to definite rules, there clearly does exist a certain equilibrium – dynamic and unstable, but a kind of equilibrium none the less – between the various illdefined contenders for a share in political power, and the ‘force’ which stands at the centre of this political jungle is unquestionably Mao.
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