Feature: Deng is gone, his legacy lives on (3)

While China's economy continues its unprecedented growth, social problems such as wealth distribution, widening income gap, corruption, land requisition, and an overall degradation of the environmental landscape, are becoming alarmingly severe.

Some conventional socialist ideologues attribute the problems to Deng's socialist market economy, claiming that China is falling into chaos once again.

"Some of the current social problems existed before Deng and some emerged in post-Deng era. These problems only suggest that his reforms have not yet been fully realized," said Ding Yuanzhu from the Macroeconomic Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission.

"However, we can not expect economic reforms to resolve all problems, whether social, political or economical," Ding said.

In fact, Ding noticed, Deng Xiaoping had left a legacy of both the accomplishment of reform, and some resultant social problems. "The former was a foundation for the post-Deng leadership to better administrate the country, and the latter is an opportunity for them to make a new political achievement," he said.

Indeed, Deng himself said that there was no definite road map for economic reform. "We must cross the river by feeling the stones with our feet," Deng said.

The opened door can not be closed any more, even if opening-up results in problems to some extent. Ling Fei, 51, a freelance artist trained in France, believed such a move would be disastrous, claiming that an attributing factor behind China's previous lack of significant economic development was that "we closed the country outside international intercourse."

"The development of China is impossible if it stands aloof from other countries," he said.

Ling said Deng's opening-up policy has helped China blend into the modern world, and into the mainstream of international relations.

In other words, he said, whenever China speaks today, the international sits back and listens, thanks to Comrade Xiaoping.

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Source: Xinhua