The Political Reform

Abstract

It was in August 1980 during a speech to a meeting of the extended Politburo entitled “On the Reform of the System of Party and State Leadership” that Deng Xiaoping dealt at length with political reform, laying down its foundations. ¹ Deng said:

When we first raised the question of reform we had in mind, among other things, reform of the political structure … The reform of the political structure and the reform of the economic structure are interdependent and should be coordinated. Without political reform, economic reform cannot succeed … If we fail to do that, the growth of the productive forces will be stunted and our drive for modernisation will be impeded.