Claude Cadart (; 12 November 1927 – 4 May 2019) was a French sinologist and a specialist in the history of contemporary China. Together with his wife Cheng Yingxiang, he translated and published the memoirs of his father-in-law

Peng Shuzhi Peng Shuzhi (also spelled Peng Shu-tse; ;alias Ivan Petrov, Xi Zhao, Nan Guan, Tao Bo, Ou Bo. 1896–1983) was an early leader of the Chinese Communist Party who was expelled from the party for being a Trotskyist. After the Communist victory in Chi ...

, a dissident

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

early leader of the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

. He was one of the first European intellectuals to criticize

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

's political campaigns.

Biography

Cadart was born on 12 November 1927 in Paris. He participated in

anti-Nazi resistance Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda, hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, r ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and later worked as a journalist. In the early 1960s, Cadart became a researcher at the (CERI) of

Sciences Po , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public university, Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , a ...

and dedicated himself to the study of contemporary China. At a time when many sinologists considered

a visionary leader, Cadart cautioned that Mao's political campaigns, most notably the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

, were not the liberation movements that many European leftists had envisioned, but were merely political machinations for maintaining his own power. This was before

Simon Leys Pierre Ryckmans (28 September 1935 – 11 August 2014), better known by his pen name Simon Leys, was a Belgian-Australian writer, essayist and literary critic, translator, art historian, sinologist, and university professor, who lived in Austral ...

published ''Les Habits neufs du président Mao'' in 1971, the famous work that exposed the destructions of Mao's Cultural Revolution. Cadart was married to Cheng Yingxiang (程映湘), the daughter of the early

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

leader

. Peng had been expelled from the Communist Party for supporting

Trotskyism Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

and fled to France with his family after the Communist victory in China. Cadart and Cheng organized, translated into French, and published the memoirs of Peng Shuzhi, which exposed an aspect of Communist China little known to the outside world at the time. After Mao's death in 1976 and the advent of the

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CC ...

era, Cadart assisted Cheng with her book ''Dégel de l’intelligence en Chine''. Cadart died in Paris on 4 May 2019, the

centenary {{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation) A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years. Notable events Notable centennial events at ...

of China's

May Fourth Movement The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace) to protest the Chinese ...

, at the age of 91.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cadart, Claude 1927 births 2019 deaths French Resistance members French sinologists Historians of China Academic staff of Sciences Po Writers from Paris 20th-century French historians