Zhao Ziyang signed the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau 27 years ago today. The declaration confirmed the colony’s transition into a special administrative region of China. It was co-signed by the premier of China and Anibal Cavaco Silva, the prime minister of Portugal. Zhao, who was critical of Maoist policies, played an important role in the free-market reforms that opened China to the world. In 1984, he was hosted as a guest at the White House, part of efforts to improve relations with China by United States president Ronald Reagan …
The showbiz star-turned-president defied the childhood nickname, Dutch, given to him by his father because he looked like “a fat little Dutchman”. Reagan’s first job, at age 16, was as a lifeguard on the Mississippi River, in Illinois. His diverse career spanned radio, television, film, military service and politics. He also triumphed over a hearing impairment, colon cancer, prostate problems and skin cancer. He lived to the age of 93, finally succumbing to Alzheimer’s, a disease named after a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist …
Alois Alzheimer identified the first case of what he called “presenile dementia”. When the patient died he spent more than six months dissecting his brain and made the first connection between symptoms of memory loss and pathology involving a build-up of proteinaceous plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Alzheimer studied at the German University of Tübingen, one of Europe’s oldest universities and also the alma mater of philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel …
Hegel has attracted a diversity of enthusiasts and critics. His work is credited with having formed a basis for Marxism but 20th-century philosopher Karl Popper decried it as an inspiration for Fascism. Hegel’s ideas have been condensed into a philosophy summed up by the dictum “the rational alone is real”. Several historical figures have since been branded “Hegelians”, including one particularly bellicose US president …
George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the US, launched the “war on terror” in 2001, an international military campaign that included sending troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. Bush advocated China’s entry to the World Trade Organisation but he didn’t seem to mind offending Beijing, either. In 2007, he presented the US Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama …
Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama, turns 79 this year, making him the longest living incarnation of the leader of Tibetan Buddhism. His advice and ideas are sought on a wide range of issues, from politics and economics to sexuality – and even food. In 2011, the spiritual leader appeared on Australian TV show MasterChef, in which he revealed his favourite foods: cheese, bread, tofu and mushrooms. The Congressional Gold Medal, an award that recognises people who have had a major impact on American history and culture, was bestowed on him on October 17, which had been the birthday of a man who had, it’s been claimed, sought the prayers of the Dalai Lama as he lay on his deathbed in 2005: fellow political exile Zhao Ziyang.