to put into effect a “sunshine law”-mandating that officials reveal their overall financial worth in order to uncover the discrepancies between their legal incomes and their actual wealth-so angered many corrupt officials that they resolved to work together to overthrow the current party-state leadership.
Ambitious factions within the Party always looked for the current leadership’s weak spots. The two weak spots of this current one were none other than their alliance with Japan, and their postponement of border disputes. Anti-Japanese sentiment had widespread popular appeal that united several generations. Suddenly signing an oath of brotherhood with the Japanese was quite unacceptable to many, even though it was in accord with China’s core national interests. It was also easy for joint development of border areas to be interpreted as a humiliating forfeiture of Chinese sovereignty. The ambitious faction within the Party knew that all they had to do was fan the flames of nationalist sentiment and accuse the leadership of pandering to the foreigners, hinting at surrender, or even treason, and the present leadership group might not be able to hold up. At the very least their reputation with the people would collapse, and when the rest of the world saw the ensuing violent upsurge of Chinese nationalist sentiment, they would also come to believe that China was an expansionist and aggressive new empire. They would be convinced that the “China menace theory” was correct, and they would prepare for mutual hostilities and cease to trust the Chinese government. To see the present leadership group damned from inside and outside the country would be just exactly what that faction had in mind. He Dongsheng feared that if this went on for very long, Chinese popular opinion would be hijacked by the ambitious fascist faction.
He even began to reflect fondly on the now-defunct liberal faction of intellectuals. Without them as a target, all the antiliberal forces-the Old Left and the New Left, the nationalists, populists, traditionalists, and ultraright-directly concentrated all their attacks on the present leadership group. Unfortunately, when the global economy went into decline and China’s Age of Prosperity officially began, the liberal faction, accused of being pro-Western, sharply declined, and the market for their ideas dried up. After a period of reflection, most of the members of the liberal faction came to support the present pragmatic authoritarian leadership. They now believed that China could not follow the path of the Western nations, and that the present Chinese model was the best option in the world as it really exists. Those few well-known liberals who stubbornly refused to change their minds were effectively forbidden to voice their opinions-they could not appear in the media, publish, lecture, or teach. There was now only the occasional small fry, like Little Xi-his eyes met hers-who went on the net and carried on a very weak guerrilla resistance.
Heaven save the Communist Party
This was certainly a long, slow night. As Lao Chen, Little Xi, and Fang Caodi listened to He Dongsheng bombard them with information, their emotions went on a roller-coaster ride; they were totally exhausted, and yawning continuously. Zhang Dou had already dozed off several times, the tiny camera dandling on his knee.
By contrast, the more He Dongsheng talked, the more energized he became. It was as though he had been hosting a one-man marathon talk show, and he didn’t have to hold anything back, he could say whatever he wanted. It’s great, he thought, to be able to say whatever I want; I haven’t felt so happy in a long time. He also realized that he was saying things that he normally could not say, but if he didn’t say them today, he would probably be measured for his coffin before he’d ever have another chance to talk like this. He was also fully aware that he had never before drunk Beijing tap water, but today he had downed several glasses and he was bound to have an unusual reaction to it.
He Dongsheng thought of a strange thing that had recently transpired and he just had to talk about it, would not feel right if he didn’t.
“I’m going to tell you,” he said to his captors, “a state secret. Last month a terrorist organization infiltrated a top-secret state-run chemical plant and tried to blow it up. Luckily our security forces were tipped off in advance and killed them all on the spot. The astonishing thing was that those six terrorists were all members of a fascist cell centered on Beijing-they were all students from the elite Peking and Qinghua universities. After we learned their identities, we kept it a secret and reported that they had died in an automobile accident, but not being given access to their bodies, for a while their parents raised a fuss. I’m telling you all this so you will understand that real fascism already has a firm foothold in China. For these university students to know about this secret chemical factory, they would have to have accomplices in the Party, the government, and the army. And these people have their own agenda; they have not been true Communist Party members or socialists for some time, and only ‘fascist’ can describe them.”
“Was one of the dead students named Wei?” asked Little Xi slowly.
“Wei? No,” answered He Dongsheng.
“Are you absolutely certain?” she pressed him.
“You don’t need to doubt my memory,” said He Dongsheng, “and besides Wei is not a common surname. If there was a Wei, I would definitely remember.”
Seeing that Little Xi looked relieved, Lao Chen knew she was thinking of her son, Wei Guo. His heart went out to her.
“How did you come to have advance warning?” Lao Chen asked randomly to change the subject.
“Lao Chen, you shouldn’t underestimate our security apparatus,” said He Dongsheng. “We have eyes and ears everywhere. In general, wherever people gather, we have informants… but then, how the fuck did we miss you three?”
“Why did they want to blow up that chemical factory?” Fang Caodi suddenly asked in all seriousness.
Since he had already told them about the “Prosperity amid Crisis” and the “Ruling the Nation and Pacifying The World” plans, and the nation’s grand international strategy, what else was there that He Dongsheng could not talk about?
“Let me put it this way,” He Dongsheng said. “At China’s present stage of development, the difference between our government and those fascist elements is that we want the people to have a loving and compassionate nature, not a martial spirit. But the fascists want to promote a martial or combative spirit. The chemical manufactured in that factory makes the Chinese people happy and full of love and compassion, and for that reason the fascist elements wanted to destroy it. Do you understand what I’m saying?” He looked directly into Fang Caodi’s eyes.
“Is it the chemical factory near Happy Village in the Mount Taihang region of Hebei?” Fang Caodi asked, following a sudden intuition. “The one that has its own airport?”
“You seem very well informed,” He Dongsheng said, his eyebrows raised. “It seems that there’s been a leak in our security system.”
“What does that chemical factory make that causes the people to feel happy?” asked Fang Caodi, pressing his line of inquiry. “Professor He, you agreed that you would answer whatever question we asked.”
“There’s no harm in telling you,” said He Dongsheng, “and anyway, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. If you have never heard of MDMA, surely you have heard of Ecstasy. We manufacture ‘generation N’ of MDMA. It’s mild, nonaddictive, and has no bad side effects. After you take it, you feel really great, you feel like the world is full of love, you want to hug other people and tell them everything, but you’re clearheaded and don’t have any hallucinations, just like I am now.”
“What do you want such a big factory to make Ecstasy tablets for?” asked Fang Caodi, looking puzzled.
“It’s not making tablets,” explained He Dongsheng as though Fang Caodi should know, “there aren’t any tablets at all, and it’s not to sell Ecstasy to other countries. China is a big country, we’re not North Korea, so don’t get the wrong idea. We’re merely producing this chemical for our own use.”
“Just as in Aldous Huxley’s novel
“I know what you’re trying to say,” said He Dongsheng a little defensively, “but we were not at all influenced by him. We have an Office of Stability Maintenance staffed by specialist scholars who conduct research on ancient and modern techniques for maintaining stability both inside and outside China. One of the scholars was working on British materials. You know that young people in Western countries like to drink and party wildly on New Year’s Eve, and when they get drunk they often cause trouble. Just look at their soccer games-the British fans are very unruly. For the last few years of the twentieth century, though, when Ecstasy became popular, New Year’s Eve violence
