“So you helped him get back to Earth?”
“Yes. I liked him. He’s a technician in quantum communication, working for a Swiss firm. But the moment we arrived here, he and Chan’s daughter were taken into custody. So I decided to come to you to see if you could offer me any clarification, or advice.”
“Not very much of either, I’m afraid. I heard about Chang Yazu’s murder, of course. I knew him, so I’m having the inspection commission look into it. Here, let’s have some tea. I can at least tell you some of what I know.”
“Thank you.”
They sat across a low table from each other, and a young woman came in carrying a tea tray, leaving it on the table beside Ling. As she tested the hot water in a cup, then sniffed the dry tea leaves inquisitively, she asked Ta Shu to tell her about his moon adventures, and he gave her what he considered the most entertaining of his stories, which turned out to be Earthrise and the feather and hammer. As he told them, she tapped on her wristpad for a while, and then brewed the tea.
“Here’s a little about Chan Qi and your friend,” she said after reading for a time. “Listen to this—it appears they’ve been released by someone, and have gone missing here in Beijing.”
“Really?”
“So I’m told.”
“That couldn’t have been easy.”
“No. It suggests there are powers involved above the level of the people who arrested them. Those were part of Public Security, and they don’t really have a tiger in this fight. They probably wanted out of the crossfire.”
“So there’s some kind of infighting?”
Peng Ling nodded, looking at him over her teacup. She tested it with a tiny sip.
Ta Shu said, “Do you think Chan Guoliang could have had anything to do with it?”
“Of course. It may have been his security people who sent her back from the moon. I think he’s the one who sent her up there in the first place.”
“Why would he do that?”
“She’s a troublemaker. Involved with some dissident groups.”
“Oh my. Tail Wags Dog?”
“Both Hong Kong and mainland groups. While she was in China, Chan could never be sure he had gotten her away from them, so he sent her off to the moon. Or so I heard. But apparently she is capable of getting into trouble wherever she goes.”
“And out of it too.”
“Maybe. That will be hard to tell, until we find her again.”
“Are you going to look?”
“Yes. I like Chan Guoliang. We’ve been working together pretty well, we are allies on the standing committee. And I need to know what’s going on. If one of Chan’s enemies gets hold of his daughter, he could be forced to do their bidding. That could be bad for both of us.”
“Isn’t Chan a New Leftist?”
“I don’t like these names, but he is sympathetic to that line.”
“And you?”
She sipped again at her tea. “Try it, it’s good.”
He ventured a sip; it had cooled just enough for him to abide it. A white tea called Handful of Snow, Ling said. One of her favorites from Yunnan. Subtle but distinct, with a delicate fragrance. He took a bigger sip, enjoying the sense of being back on Earth, immersed in its substance. Grounded. And he seldom drank a white tea.
After this pause for sipping, and possibly reflection, Peng Ling said, “You know me, Master. I am always for weiwen. Maintenance of stability. All the old virtues. Lean to the side. Harmonious society. Scientific outlook on development. All the best old ways.”
“It’s really Daoism,” Ta Shu said.
“Confucius too. Or really it’s Neo-Confucian. Like Deng Xiaoping. I like it. It suits me, because I’m a practical person. But now we have the New Leftists, wanting to steer us back toward socialism.”
“Socialism with Chinese characteristics,” Ta Shu added. This was what every system since 1978 had called itself.
“Of course. And don’t get me wrong, I like the New Leftists for that very reason. It’s a way to stay free of the snares of globalism. To keep us all together here in China. So I lean that way, just between you and me. Not so much toward the liberals, because they seem to want Western values imposed on us, and thus they become part of the globalization package. That said, the liberalizers have some good points too. Their best suggestions need to be taken into account. We need some kind of integration of both, or all.”
“Finding the pattern,” Ta Shu said. “Yin and yang.”
“All your feng shui patterns, sure. Harmonious balance. The triple strand.”
“And yet things are always slightly out of balance, being alive. So which do you like most of the liberalizers’ ideas?”
“That’s easy. The rule of law.”
“Including independent judges? I’m surprised you would say that.”
“Just between us, I do say it. I don’t see how rule of law can hurt the Party. Not the way the constitution is written. It would only mean a big clampdown on cronyism and corruption. Really, I think anything above the law is wrong.”
“You say that!”
“I do.”
“But the Party is above the law.”
“The Party makes the law, but then it shouldn’t be above it. Party members shouldn’t be above the law, that’s the important point. The people have to be able to trust the Party.”
Ta Shu sipped his tea, regarded her. “Isn’t this part of Tail Wags Dog?”
“Maybe it is. Rule of law was always Hong Kong’s great advantage over the mainland. They got it from the British, and they kept it during the fifty years of transition as best they could. That’s why they did so well. We built up Shanghai to try to make it a rival financial center and cut Hong Kong down a little, but Shanghai was always a Party town, so it’s never been trusted by the outside world like Hong Kong is. In that sense you could say that rule of law is an economic value. It makes us stronger.”
“When you say us, you don’t mean the Party?”
“I mean China.”
“This seems like a dangerous thing for one of the seven to be saying!”
“I don’t say it to everyone. I trust you will keep this between us, and this room is privatized. I want you to hear my views.”
“So far, I hear that you want to stabilize things by agreeing to the New Leftists in their direction, and to the liberalizers in their direction. Feeling the stones indeed!”
“Well, we do have to get across the river.”
“Isn’t it just whateverism, like Hua?”
“No. Hua meant we should just do whatever Mao might have wanted. That was whateverism. The two whatevers! Come on, Master, I’m better than that. I’m doing what we have to do to keep China from falling into chaos.”
“Was going to the moon your idea too?”
She laughed. “Please! I’m not that old! I was still in your class when they started that!”
“I know. But it was a good move. So that makes me think it’s your kind of thing.”
“Thank you for your vote of confidence. But tell me why you think it’s a good move.”
“Mainly because it’s the moon, plain as that. That makes what we do up there important, because it’s a symbol of our national achievement.”
She laughed again. “I’m remembering now why I did so poorly in your class. I don’t really get feng shui, or any kind of symbolic thought.”
“But think how China has always been Zhongguo, the Middle Kingdom. That middle was always said to be halfway between Earth and heaven. Now, with us on the moon, it seems to be coming true. China really is between Earth and heaven.”
“So it wasn’t symbolic after all.”