Word: deng
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...legendary "foolish old man" who picked away at mountains that obstructed the view from his house. Because his diligence found favor in heaven's eyes, the "foolish" man finally moved the mountains. Faced with a conservative backlash that has blocked his political and economic reforms since January, Deng Xiaoping, the current master of China, appears to be writing his own version of Mao's parable. Deng has resolutely continued to chip at the mountainous obstacles to his reform program. As a result, reformers seem to have regained the upper hand and positioned themselves for further advances at a crucial Communist...
Through the winter and spring, the reformers had been balked by the doctrinaire Marxists, who were making a comeback after seven years of retreat in the face of Deng's reforms. The doctrinaire faction -- also known as conservatives and, even more confusingly, leftists -- blamed the reformers for last December's huge pro-democracy student demonstrations and launched a major campaign against "bourgeois liberalization." They vigorously attacked many of Deng's post-Mao changes, including greater artistic and press freedom and most moves toward capitalist-style economic reforms...
Indeed, the power struggle in Peking is largely a dispute over how to strike a balance between foreign practices and Chinese ways. While the conservatives are willing to adopt Western ideas, they do not want the borrowing to go too far. Deng's rural reforms were quite acceptable to the aging revolutionaries who had supported the leader since he took power in 1977, but his latest moves have caused them to back away. Conservatives worried that the party's authority was threatened by Deng's 1984 drive to extend free enterprise to China's cities and by public discussion...
...Deng's task now is to put the Humpty-Dumpty coalition back together again. Unlike his predecessor, Mao Tse-tung, Deng has never striven for absolute dominance but instead has shown himself a master at finding the center of the shifting political debate. Foreign observers expect him to remain in power, but with somewhat diminished support. "It would be hard to conceive of Deng being toppled," says Kenneth Lieberthal, director of the - University of Michigan's Center for Chinese Studies. Experts also agree that while the pace of Deng's reforms may be slowed, they will not be rolled back...
...image, Politburo Member Chen Yun, a powerful conservative, has likened the Chinese economy to a bird and described government control as the cage. While the cage may be enlarged to let the bird fly more freely, Chen argues, it must never be thrown away. On that point, at least, Deng Xiaoping and his critics seem to agree completely...