Deng Xiaoping Theory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Deng Xiaoping Theory (simplified Chinese: 邓小平理论), also known as Dengism, is the series of political and economic ideologies first developed by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Since the 1980s the theory has become a mandatory university class. Having served as the Communist Party of China's (CPC) major policy guide since the Third Plenum of the 11th CPC National Congress in 1978, the theory was entrenched into the Communist Party of China's Constitution as a guiding ideology in 1997, and was also subsequently written into the Constitution of the People's Republic of China.
Traditional Maoist theory put China's development focus on the building of socialism and class struggle, while Deng's Theory emphasized economic construction and stability. Deng's social and economic philosophy attempted to merge a market economy model with a socialist political system, termed socialism with Chinese characteristics. Basic tenets of Deng Xiaoping theory included opening the country to the outside world, the implementation of one country, two systems, and the phrase "seek truth from facts", advocating for political and economic pragmatism.
[edit] Overview
It is often attributed to Deng that "It doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice." In other words, he did not worry too much about whether a policy was capitalist or socialist as long as it improved the economy.
China's phenomenal economic growth largely owes its success to Deng Xiaoping Theory.
Deng first launched his theory in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), which was ordered by Mao Zedong. The general outline of the Deng Xiaoping Theory consists of the "Four Principles" which the Communist Party must uphold, namely,
- Upholding the basic spirit of Communism
- Upholding the People's democratic dictatorship political system
- Upholding the leadership of the Communist Party
- Upholding Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought
In addition, the party's official line maintains that Deng Xiaoping Theory must also clearly oppose bourgeois liberalization.
In 1992, fourteen years after Deng had risen up as China's de facto leader, he embarked on the "nanxun" or "Inspection visit to the South". There he, being already very old, uttered the famous words: "kaifang 开放!". These words, which literally mean "open up", would indeed prove to be very significant for China's economic and social development up until the current day. After this surge of motivation, China both economically and socially started expanding.
Deng Xiaoping Theory overshadowed the earlier guidance from Mao Zedong Thought and Marxism-Leninism, but discredits neither. The Communist Party's official definition is that Deng's theory is a pragmatic extension of Mao Zedong Thought practically applied to suit China's economic development goals in the so-called primary stage of socialism.
