Word: deng
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
China's leap forward is still hampered by its rigid politics -- and the prospect that the system could soon change dramatically. The man who was not there in Seattle but who figuratively sat in on all the meetings was Deng Xiaoping, China's senior leader and chief reformer. Deng, now 89 and very frail, is China's last emperor -- the tail end of the charismatic generation of military and political leaders who held power alone, and he is not likely to rule China much longer...
...Deng slips away -- "going to meet Marx," he jests -- the key question is whether his economic reforms will remain in place or be overturned by elderly hard-liners who survive him. Can the Communist Party, with waning legitimacy and faith, provide the stability to keep the vast country on track and under control? Can China, like neighboring Singapore or South Korea, strike a lasting balance between authoritarian politics and free-for-all capitalism...
...convincingly has he left his stamp on the country that many Chinese will find it difficult to envision a China without Deng. After the ruinous years of the Cultural Revolution and the death of Mao Zedong, Deng consolidated his power. In 1978 he dropped Marxist orthodoxy to begin economic reforms he hoped would make China "a modern, powerful socialist country." He and his disciples insist they are creating a "socialist market economy," an oxymoron they interpret officially as "socialism with Chinese characteristics." While they cling to such slogans to bolster their positions, in practice they are producing capitalism with Chinese...
China does have the capacity to lock horns with the U.S. military. The fact that Deng Xiaoping didn't say, "We will bury you" just means he's less cocky than Khrushchev. China has not carried out any open military operations of late, but it has been particularly insidious in supplying arms, especially the popular Silkworm land-to-sea missile, to nations whose wars are many miles away. The United States perceives China primarily as a cautious backer of North Korea and sometimes Vietnam, not as a direct threat...
...resumption of U.S. atomic testing. As for Hong Kong, Governor Patten's implied threat to go ahead with reform that Beijing has said it will ignore can only set the stage for more confrontation. Even before the Governor's speech, China had issued a statement that reiterated Deng's 11-year-old threat to retake Hong Kong before 1997 should Britain create "serious disturbances," such as going ahead with "unilateral democratization...