1992

The Legacy of Deng Xiaoping
I would like to thank you all for gathering here today to celebrate the rebirth of the legacy we had all come to know, Deng Xiaoping. He was a leader, guider and a single man who has made a footprint on all of our hearts. He was the one to shape China’s economy and pave a new path for our future. Deng was a politician, statesman, theorist, diplomat and sole leader of our Chinese Communist Party. He was also an exceptional leader and contributor to the People’s Republic of China. Deng first began his governmental construction by contributing to the final Communist victory that drove Jiang's, a Communist Party leader, forces off mainland China to Taiwan. He was then summoned to Beijing to fulfill important national offices, which he successfully completed. In 1955, he gained appointment to the CCP Politburo, the nation's central decision-making body. Deng was arrested a few years later for being condemned as a "capitalist in-roader;" where he was then sent off to a tractor factory for political "reeducation." Deng was always a defender of the communist system, but he soon realized that it is limited when it came to managing the national economy. Therefore he made a political compromise which freed up many of the Western-style market economic power, while taking steps to ensure the supremacy of the Communist Party. Deng created the economic liberalization program, which was released in December 1978 as the Third Plenum of the CCP's Central Committee. It was officially called the "Four Modernizations," which intended to modernize China's agriculture, industry, science, and technology. This new system created free markets, foreign investment, decentralized controls, greater emphasis on production of consumer goods over traditional heavy industries, and a completely new outlook on national priorities. Deng also improved China's economy by gaining closer ties with the United States, Japan, and the Soviet Union. Deng was able to produce enormous wealth for the Chinese people. Despite Deng’s leadership and strength, he never was granted any titles. Deng never lived to see his plan and goal of having a socialist market economy flourish. We continue his legacy of advancing the free market in China as well as his many other contributions. Deng has been like a god, giving us the power and strength to survive. Let us all bow our heads and pray to this man of help. “It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.”