Chinese Politician Quotes

Mao Zedong

Sun Yat-sen

Xi Jinping

Deng Xiaoping

Hu Jintao

Zhou Enlai

Soong Ching-ling

If we Communists show no interest in industry and the economy and are not good at any other useful work, if we know nothing about these things and are capable of nothing, except 'revolutionary work' in the abstract, this kind of revolutionary is of no use at all. We must oppose this kind of good-for-nothing revolutionary and learn all kinds of technical knowledge that will help China's industrialization.

Maintaining the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and maintaining no changes to the position that Taiwan is part of China is a sacred mission for all the sons and daughters of China.

Cadres should be capable of climbing upward and going downward, advancing and retreating, serving as officials and acting as ordinary citizens.

Western capitalism really does want to see turmoil in China. And not only that; they'd like to see turmoil in the Soviet Union and all the socialist countries of Eastern Europe.

How could we justify to the rest of the world imposing martial law on our capital?

When the Beijing Party Commission had proposed imposing martial law after the Tiananmen Square protests

There is no such thing as a perfect leader either in the past or present, in China or elsewhere. If there is one, he is only pretending, like a pig inserting scallions into its nose in an effort to look like an elephant.

Tell you what, I've been through hundreds of battles. I've seen it all. Which country in the west have I not been to? Every time! You should know Mike Wallace, in the U.S. He's way above you all! I and he talked and laughed comfortably, which is why the media need to raise your level of knowledge. Got it, or not? I'm anxious for you all, it's true. You really, I. You guys are good at one thing.

I think both sides [China and United States] should work hard to build a new type of relationship between big powers. The two sides should cooperate with each other for a win-win result in order to benefit people from the two countries and the world.

Enhanced interactions and cooperation between China and the United States serve the interests of our two peoples and are conducive to world peace and development. We should stay firmly rooted in the present while looking ahead to the future, and view and approach China-U.S. relations from a strategic and long-term perspective. We should, on the basis of the principles set forth in the three Sino-U.S. joint communiqués, respect each other as equals and promote closer exchanges and cooperation. This will enable us to make steady progress in advancing constructive and cooperative China-U.S. relations, and bring more benefits to our two peoples and people of the world.

The British had a poor record of retreating from colonies. There are more than ten years of transition period before our resumption of sovereignty. Will the British be irresponsible and "mess up" Hong Kong like comrade Deng Xiaoping said? We should be on guard. This is our major consideration for setting up the Joint Liaison Group. Surely, it will be beneficial for both countries, as other things may need to be settled by the two sides.

In a meeting with Xu Jiatun

As classes the landlords and rich peasants have ceased to exist [...] The capitalists no longer acts as a class [...] we recognize that class struggle has not yet come to an end and that at the same time there is no longer any need for large scale and turbulent class struggle [...] But class struggle is no longer the principal contradiction in our society; in waging it we must center around and serve the central task of socialist modernization.

Meanwhile, on the topics of most concern to people and raised by the students—such as corruption, government transparency, democracy, rule of law, and public scrutiny of government—we needed to take active measures.

The American system is said to be 'designed by a genius for the operation of the stupid'. A bad system makes a good person behave badly, while a good system makes a bad person behave well. Democracy is most urgent; without it there is no sustainable rise.

The people are patient, but the stomach cannot wait too long.

Soong Ching-ling

[China] should make foreign trade a channel for making adjustments in the home market so that it is improved. Light industry products and goods needed by the market should be imported.

Since my hair was plaited and we became man and wife
The love between us was never broken by doubt.
So let us be merry this night together,
Feasting and playing while the good time lasts.

To his wife

And 'speak truth unto power'? What does this mean? It means giving your best advice to superiors based on the best information available and objective analysis even when you know it may not be music to their ears.

Tell the cook, that we will either have ten more courses or the crows will have him.

Only when the masses are reassured, can the country be at peace. Only when the country is at peace, can the leaders be relieved.

In the years to come, I also hope that both sides (Taiwan and Mainland China) can work to facilitate policy communications, reinforce their economic cooperation, push ahead with cross-strait negotiations, accomplish more achievements beneficial to the public, expand their scope of amicable interactions, cement the 'family bond' between the people on both sides and jointly build a better home for Chinese.

Of all the inventions that have helped to unify China perhaps the airplane is the most outstanding. Its ability to annihilate distance has been in direct proportion to its achievements in assisting to annihilate suspicion and misunderstanding among provincial officials far removed from one another or from the officials at the seat of government.

Rural workers are not educated at all, stupid enough to know nothing, and even more outdated than the average peasant.

The will of 1.3 billion Chinese people cannot be infringed upon.

When we undertake a task, we should not falter from first to last until the task is accomplished; if we fail, we should not begrudge our lives as a sacrifice-this is what we mean by loyalty. The ancient teaching of loyalty meant sometimes death.

[Hua Guofeng's time in office was] just a transition, not an epoch: his policies were a continuation of the late Mao, and there was nothing original about him.