Word: deng
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...these are not normal times, and many experts in Beijing do not think a quick compromise is in the offing. The obstacle is much larger than a trade issue: it is an overall political stalemate brought on by the succession crisis. Deng Xiaoping, China's 90-year-old senior leader, is in his last days, and decision-making power has dropped into the hands of a group of technocrats and military officers. And that has opened the door to critics who are publicly debating China's future...
While most Chinese do not favor bowing to the wishes of Washington, they can see the tentativeness in Beijing and assertiveness in the provinces; many of them are concerned about it. Deng's economic reforms have led to immense growth and considerable prosperity for some, but they have also brought worrisome side effects. Inflation is in double digits, corruption and crime are on the rise, and development is very uneven...
Most China watchers anticipate a period immediately after Deng's death in which the party will strive to demonstrate unity and calm. Yet this period, which could last several years, will be marked by the fact that no individual in the collective leadership commands the moral and political pre-eminence needed to retain power, especially amid the tumult of economic change. "Deng is probably the last Chinese to have this untrammeled, personalized political authority," says Andrew Nathan, professor of political science at Columbia University. "I don't see anyone coming along who has this authority...
Whoever does emerge on top will find his most daunting tasks defined by the problems that Deng left behind. China's economic explosion has produced the inevitable side effects: income gaps, bankrupt state-owned enterprises and a surge in crime and corruption. Expectations among ordinary Chinese are rising in a way that could rapidly undermine faith in the party. Up to now Deng has provided an indomitable link between China's central and local governments, as well as between the party and the military. Now, as regions, especially in the booming south, taste the fruits of prosperity, they will...
...Deng is rightfully credited with wrenching the country from the xenophobia and brutality of Mao's flawed experiment with collectivism. But by amassing the power required for such a prodigious turn of the helm, he foreclosed debate on crucial issues like political reform and institutional change. Left unresolved in his lifetime, those questions will now be thrown open in a way that threatens to loosen China's moorings. The country's stability, at least in the short term, may depend upon finding a new strongman, one who can offer a gravitational center while the nation struggles with the questions Deng...