Word: deng
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Though he continued to wield an almost mystic influence from his private Beijing compound, Deng's gradual withdrawal from overt power allowed his successors to prepare for an orderly transition. He was, like the ghosts Chinese revere, a force the current leaders dared not speak of disrespectfully. The steady rise in personal prosperity has persuaded China's citizens that their new leaders will continue to follow in Deng's footsteps without a major change of direction...
...their outward calm, the Chinese are as anxious as the rest of the world about their future. Jiang Zemin, State President, head of the party, chief of the military committee, the "core" of the new collective leadership, was ordained by Deng eight years ago and has been running the government pretty much ever since. But history has never been kind to China in its moments of transition from one ruler to the next. And though there is confidence that these new leaders are firmly set upon the path of reform, there is equal doubt that they have the courage, stamina...
...China, Deng told President Jimmy Carter in 1979, would need a long period of peace to realize its full modernization. To accomplish that, he added, China would also need Western money and know-how. Flinging open the doors, he led China on a capitalist drive from which there is no turning back...
...Shanghai is caught up in entrepreneurial energy. In the mid-'80s, while southern provinces like Guangdong and Hainan turned Deng's experiment in "special zones" into a capitalist boom, Shanghai's decrepit state industries stagnated, its infrastructure disintegrated, and its people sulked. The economic revolution wasn't reaching far beyond a few chosen cities. Recalls Li Bo, a Shanghai economist who runs a consulting firm for German companies: "The most popular expression in 1991 was 'Gao bu hao le'--everything's hopeless...
Everything changed in 1992. Deng emerged from retirement to exhort his successors and lagging Chinese cities to "dive into the sea" of capitalist commerce. Shanghai dived in, reviving all its old spunk and luster. The metropolis is furiously rebuilding, attracting foreign investment, remaking itself into an Asian hub of finance, trade and culture. Officials say they will quadruple the city's industrial and agricultural output by the year...