Conclusion: Revolution, Continuity and Synthesis

Abstract

The preceding chapters have introduced the rise of Deng Xiaoping to supreme leadership through many stages and struggles. Readers are now better able to appreciate the various kinds of problems Deng has had to confront since 1977. China under Deng began to fight all the odds in an uphill battle. Some of the policy goals and methods needed to accomplish his reform he could freely and openly spell out. Other sensitive issues he did not feel free to announce. By 1977, he was a mature and well-seasoned politician after having been humiliated and removed from office several times. He had then few or none of his former close colleagues on hand in 1977 to team up and fight. The leadership authority was still in the hands of Premier Hua Guofeng and his Maoist supporters. Deng remained in the leadership minority for two years among colleagues in the party’s political bureau which is the highest real decision making body in China. He has to be very tactful despite his devotion to reform China in a more comprehensive way as he expected at long last.