Zhao Ziyang's Contribution to the Scientific Advancement and Development of Space Technology in the PRC : a Preliminary Reassessment

· In continuing on the path initiated by the historian Julian Gewirtz (2019, 2022), who has recently reassessed the contribution of Zhao Ziyang to the scientifc advancement of the PRC, the present paper looks at the Chinese aerospace industry as a case study to evaluate the contribution of the leader to the technological development of the country. To this end, the paper draws on the Collected Works of Zhao Ziyang (Zhao Ziyang Wenji) and on the so-called “aerospace literature” (hangtian wenxue), a form of Chinese reportage-style writing mostly ignored and untranslated by Western scholars. The preliminary analysis seems to confrm that, although Chinese ofcial historiography identifed Deng Xiaoping as the sole political supporter of China’s space-related reforms, this conventional narrative should be questioned, reassessing the positive role that Zhao Ziyang too had in shaping and implementing the space agenda. The analysis also demonstrates that the Premier’s support for aerospace development was neither unconditional nor uncritical, thus making him a pure interpreter of the pragmatic spirit of the “reforms and opening up” period.