Deng Xiaoping Theory

Deng Xiaoping Theory (simplified Chinese: 邓小平理论; traditional Chinese: 鄧小平理論; pinyin: Dèng Xiǎopíng Lǐlùn), also known as Dengism, is the series of political and economic ideologies first developed by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. The theory does not claim to reject Marxism–Leninism or Mao Zedong Thought but instead seeks to adapt them to the existing socio-economic conditions of China.

Deng also stressed opening China to the outside world, the implementation of one country, two systems, and through the phrase "seek truth from facts", an advocation of political and economic pragmatism.

One of the most famous maxims of Deng, dating back to the years before the Cultural Revolution, states 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 person is a revolutionary or not, as long as he or she is efficient and capable to do the job under the socialist economy. (This statement came to stand in opposition to the ideas of class struggle projected into economic relations, the latter being epitomized in a phrase "a socialist train coming with a delay is better than the capitalist one that comes on time").

China largely owes its economic growth to the pragmatism of Deng Xiaoping's theory. The task faced by Deng was twofold: to promote modernization while preserving the ideological unity of the CPC and its control of the difficult process of reforms.

It was generalized by the concept of the Four Modernizations.

This became the main motivation for ideological conservatism of Deng Xiaoping Theory: "Four Cardinal Principles" which the Communist Party must uphold, namely,

In 1992, fourteen years after Deng had risen up as China's de facto leader, he embarked on the "nan xun" or "Inspection visit to the South". There he, being already very old, uttered the famous words: "kai fang!" (Chinese: 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.

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