Deng Xiaoping and Modernizing China

Deng Xiaoping died on Februay 19, 1997
at the age of 92. His policies set the stage
for literally hundreds of millions of people
in the world’s most populous country to rise
out of extreme poverty.

Deng was a leader of the communist revolution
that established the People’s Republic of China
in 1949. He served as a top leader in the
government until he was purged, but then
rehabilitated, then purged again, and then
rehabilitated again. After 1978 he became
the top leader of China’s government, although
his title did not always indicate his importance.
His successors have followed the same general
types of policies.

Deng is credited with saying it doesn’t matter
whether the cat is yellow or white — only that
it catches mice. In other words, do whatever
works, regardless of ideology. This pragmatic
strategy set the stage for freeing and modernizing
the economy of China. Farmers were allowed
to profit from hard work; special export zones
were created to provide jobs in industries
producing products for the rest of the world;
and massive investments in skyscrapers
and infrastructure fulfilled Deng’s goal
of a modernizing the country.
Understanding this history is necessary
to realize how totally different China is from 40 years
ago. The phrase “socialism with Chinese characteristics”
has been applied to the economy which is largely free
but also has some significant state enterpises.

This does not mean that China lacks problems — more
on that at a later date.

Recommended reading: Deng: A Political Biography
by Benjamin Yang. (cat quote on page 151; see also page 216).

For graphs of the trend in China’s per capita income
and trade with the U.S., see

http://myhome.spu.edu/ddowning/USCH1114/China_per_capGDP.JPG
and

http://myhome.spu.edu/ddowning/USCH1114/China_US_trade.JPG
click here for source links

……………..
–Douglas Downing
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