Word: deng
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Deng's regime has done little to eliminate corruption, repression or inertia, and has in fact given rise to some new problems. The swelling of riches in a few areas has made for inequity and envy. The open door has admitted a host of unhealthy and unwanted foreign influences. Many diehard Maoists, still entrenched in the bureaucracy or established in the military, have managed to resist, and even reverse, the new direction. Though China has, at last count, 1.1 billion people, its G.N.P. is less than half that of France (pop. 55 million). Above all, in its attempt to balance...
...basis of Deng's pragmatic philosophy is summed up in his oft quoted dictum "It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice." The practical effects of that maxim have centered on the area in which Mao made his costliest errors: agriculture. During 25 years in power, Mao channeled the vast bulk of all investment into heavy industry, while neglecting to ensure a corresponding rise in food production. At the same time, he encouraged his people to maintain the country's explosive birth rate. Because of this, and a striking rise...
Even before Deng effectively assumed power in January 1979, he began to experiment with a "contract" system of incentives for farmers. In just three years, that scheme boosted agricultural production in Sichuan province by 25% and industrial output by 80%. Encouraged by those startling results, Deng soon began replacing the Maoist commune, an unwieldy aggregation that often included tens of thousands of peasants, with a system of smaller economic units, sometimes no larger than a household...
...only were farmworkers liberated at last from the cruel and often capricious authority of the "team leaders" who supervised the communes, they were soon given tangible inducements to work hard, earn more and live well. In 1979 Deng introduced an "agricultural responsibility system," whereby China's 800 million peasants could make contracts with the state to sell a fixed amount of produce at a set price each year. After that level was reached, the workers could then sell any surplus to the state at a markup of 50% or on the open market at whatever price they could...
...trendy "me" generationism from the West are bound to disrupt a culture famous for both its antiquity and its insularity. As it has tried to yank itself into modernity while preserving its respect for history, to sustain simultaneously its dedication to progress and its devotion to the past, Deng's China?like contemporary Japan in its very different way?has often lost its balance...