Deng Xiaoping was not the successor to Mao. That was Hua Guofeng. An interim leader, but an important interim stopgap.

I have no idea who N S Lyons is other than a substack author. There are many other small factual errors and romanticisms of writing in the piece, as well as avenues left unexplored not least if Confucianism is but an excuse for authoritarianism as it has been used by past dynasties who've tended to flip from Confucianism to Taoism, and sometimes other, to justify themselves.

But that shouldn't shadow the subject at hand, which is casting some light on the limelight avoiding figure of Wang.