By the end of July, our operations on elderly cataract patients were complete, and the findings were submitted to Mao. He decided on the traditional Chinese method. He said it would be safe, less painful, and quicker.

The operation was to be performed in the old swimming pool area, converted now to a huge reception hall. We draped off an area for the operating room. Doctors Tang Youzhi and Gao Peizhi would perform the surgery. Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping came to observe the proceedings.

Mao was nervous, but the two doctors explained what they were about to do in full detail. Finally, the Chairman relaxed enough to crack a joke, saying that in the Yuan dynasty (A.D. 1279–1368), the poet Sadula had written, “Looking southeast toward Wu [Jiangsu province] and Chu [Hubei province], nothing fills my eyes.” After this surgery, Mao said, his eyes would be filled.

The operation on Mao's right eye took only twelve minutes, and when it was over the eye was covered with gauze. Mao agreed that if the surgery was successful, he would ask the doctors to perform the same procedure on his left eye in two months.

Ten days later, the gauze was removed. Mao was excited. “I can see sky and sun again,” he said, “but not very well.” The doctors explained that while they had pushed aside the turbid lens, they had done nothing else to restore his eyesight. They suggested that glasses would improve the Chairman's vision. Mao wanted glasses but refused to have any more eye exams. We brought him glasses in several different strengths before he finally settled on a pair that worked. Afterward, he was able to read official documents himself.

By mid-October 1975, when Mao was supposed to have his second cataract operation, the political situation was almost unbearably tense. Jiang Qing's campaign against Deng Xiaoping continued, and Wang Dongxing believed her goal was not only to have him overthrown but executed, too. Her own access to Mao was limited, but she used Mao Yuanxin and Zhang Yufeng to convey her messages. No one, not even Wang Dongxing, knew what Mao was thinking, and I had few opportunities to see him. We did know that Mao was restless and irritable, and Wang was worried about doing anything that might provoke Mao's anger and lead to the dismissal of Deng. He did not want us to raise the issue of another cataract operation, nor would he allow us to propose further treatment for Mao's motor neuron disease.

The high-level party struggle was considered top secret, and I was not allowed to discuss it with my fellow doctors. I could only say that Mao was too busy for the cataract operation and that we could only continue our present treatment without trying anything new.

Medical ethics and Chinese politics collided. The doctors took their responsibilities for Mao's health seriously and were reluctant to stand back just because Mao was busy. Wang Dongxing was concerned that their attitude would further irritate Mao and thus upset the political balance, so he ordered most of the doctors back to their hospitals. Only Hu Xudong, two ear, nose, and throat specialists, and one anesthesiologist were asked to remain in Zhongnanhai to be available in case of emergency. I was still living in the General Office's guesthouse, where I had supervised the experiments in cataract surgery.

In late October, Mao turned sharply worse. He began coughing up large amounts of phlegm, panting heavily, and his production of urine declined drastically, to less than 500cc a day. He was still not letting me in to see him, and I learned of his condition only from the nurses. But the decline in his output of urine indicated a serious condition of the heart, lungs, and kidneys. At this point, I did think glucose injections were necessary and ordered the nurses to administer them. I wanted the doctors to examine him.

Wang Dongxing called the doctors back immediately, and Tao Huanle, the director of internal medicine at Beijing Hospital, moved into Zhongnanhai.

The situation was nerve-racking, and Hu Xudong, who had originally ordered the glucose infusions for Mao, was particularly anxious. He no longer wanted to be part of the team, but he had no way to escape. One night, after taking a sleeping pill, he dropped a burning cigarette butt on his quilt. The quilt ignited, causing considerable damage to his room and burning his windpipe severely. Hu Xudong was taken to Beijing Hospital, where he stayed until after Mao's death, successfully escaping responsibility for treating the Chairman.

With Hu Xudong's departure, I moved back to Zhongnanhai. I wanted the three neurologists there too, to keep a close watch on Mao. Zhang Yaoci would not agree. Zhang Yufeng thought the doctors were useless, and Zhang Yaoci would do nothing to cross her.

That Zhang Yufeng should have such power over Mao's health was preposterous. The Chairman was seriously ill, and we needed the specialists in case of emergency. I told Zhang Yaoci that I would write a request that the doctors be brought to Zhongnanhai and wanted a written reply from him denying it. Only then did Zhang Yaoci relent and raise the matter with Wang Dongxing. Wang ordered the three doctors to Zhongnanhai.

Mao and Zhang Yufeng began watching movies from Taiwan and Hong Kong in his study, and a screening room was set up in the old swimming pool area for the staff of Group One. The doctors were often invited to watch, and sometimes it was impossible to refuse. Zhang Yaoci wanted everyone there. It would not look good for the staff of Group One to watch movies without the doctors when the Chairman was so seriously ill. Often the movies ran until two or three in the morning.

The campaign against Deng Xiaoping was picking up. In August, the deputy secretary of the revolutionary committee at Qinghua University, Liu Bing, had written a letter to Mao criticizing the party secretary of the revolutionary committee, Chi Qun, and another deputy secretary of the revolutionary committee, Xie Jingyi, for being arbitrary in their work and leading lives of decadence. Liu Bing gave the letter to Deng Xiaoping and asked him to forward it to Mao. Deng, in turn, gave the letter to the Bureau of Secretaries, which gave it to Mao.

Mao defended Chi Qun and Xie Jingyi, saying that the two had firmly carried out his revolutionary line. Later, Mao used the letter to attack Deng Xiaoping. He saw Liu Bing's letter as an attack against himself and accused Deng Xiaoping of siding with Liu Bing. The Qinghua incident, Mao said, was not an isolated event but a reflection of the two-line struggle that the Cultural Revolution had apparently not solved.

In October, Mao had begun meeting with Mao Yuanxin to put his views of Deng Xiaoping on record. The talks were secret, their content available only to high-ranking party officials, and they were highly critical of Deng. He accused senior party officials of retreating from revolution to protect their vested interests—nice houses, cars, drivers, servants, and high salaries—and he argued that a new bourgeois class had grown up within the party. They should be the target of the new socialist revolution. Mao reiterated his support of the Cultural Revolution, criticizing it only because the movement had overthrown everything at once and become an all-out civil war. He criticized Deng Xiaoping by name for not caring about class struggle and for saying that any cat whether black or white was good so long as it caught mice. Deng was one of those party members who had joined the new party bourgeoisie. Deng refused to listen to instructions or report to his superiors and did not consult with the politburo, the State Council, or Mao. Deng thought political campaigns had hurt the party's veteran cadres, and Mao wondered what Deng thought about the campaigns against Chen Duxiu, Peng Dehuai, Liu Shaoqi, and Lin Biao. Deng had said that the Cultural Revolution hurt students because they had not been allowed to study, but Mao accused Deng of not studying Marxism-Leninism. Mao did not believe that Deng would never attempt to reverse the verdicts of the Cultural Revolution and said the reason Deng did not talk to others was because everyone was afraid of him.

Mao thought Deng's leadership style was a major problem. But he still thought Deng could be reformed. He was not willing to overthrow him yet.

Another campaign was launched—against rightists and against reversing the verdicts of the Cultural Revolution. Deng Xiaoping was the main target.

Mao was by then so weak that he had great difficulty standing, and the paralysis of his right side was becoming more pronounced. He needed oxygen to breathe. He refused to be fed through a nasal tube, and his weight continued to drop. His attendants fed him a liquid diet of sticky chicken broth that they dripped into his esophagus while he lay on his left side. His whole appearance had changed. Only his black hair was the same.

Mao needed nutrients, and the medical team decided he should be fed intravenous solutions of amino acids imported from the United States and Japan. Zhang Yufeng objected. “The doctors are always asking the patient to take more medicine,” she said. “Why don't they try it out on themselves first?”

Wu Jie and Tao Huanle were shocked. They had spent their professional lives treating high-level cadres at Beijing Hospital, but no one had ever asked them to try out the medicine first. They wondered whether they would have to undergo surgery if their new patient ever needed an operation.

In the end, I was the only one to receive the amino acid infusion. The imported solution was expensive, and our supplies were limited. They had to be reserved for the Chairman.