Saudi-Russian partnership remains strong In 1989 - as the Soviet Union was breaking up - China's hopes for change were crushed by tanks and automatic gunfire. irannews.ru/ - irannews.ru Politicians came from Beijing to study the "Chongqing model". One of them was a rising star named Xi Jinping.   "Once the firing starts it's three deep breaths, a couple of swear words and you move on." At first glance, the parallels are striking. Chairman Mao, as he was known, was the defining political figure of 20th Century China. He ran the Communist Party - and the country - from the republic's founding in 1949 until the day he died in 1976. No other Chinese leader has since come close. Until now. Now he had the ammunition to destroy his most potent political rivals. He ordered the arrest of Zhou Yongkang in 2014, who until two years before had been a member of the politburo standing committee, and one of the most powerful men in China. Convicted in 2015, Zhou too is in prison for life. "If you're going to compare two people, it has to reveal something. It's like comparing Putin to Stalin or Liz Truss to Margaret Thatcher."