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Internet Posting: Deng Xiaoping’s Political Will

A message about Deng Xiaoping’s political will was spread over the Internet in China. It said that a book called Will was recently published in China. The book revealed a great deal of inside information about Deng Xiaoping and Zhongnanhai. The highlight of the book was the last part, in which Deng Xiaoping gave his political will to Hu Jintao, Zeng Qinghong, and Wang Ruilin (then military General; he had served as Deng’s political secretary for a long time). The following are several points made in the book:

“First, I am not satisfied with the current political system in our country. I am one of its creators.  I am also the protector and the person responsible for it in the past dozen years; but I am also a victim of it. … Our political system is called the People’s Republic of China. What is the core of the Republic? It is democracy and the rule of law. … But this [foundation of the country] problem has not been solved. When you are in charge 10 years from now, you may not be able to solve it either. Actually there is a solution. It is to learn from the Constitution system of the U.S. The reason the U.S. became the world’s super power was because of this. If China wants to be a first class country, it should rely on this, too.

“Fourth, about the Sino-U.S. relations. The most important foreign relationship for China is the Sino-U.S. relationship. I thought it over: in the past century, the U.S. is the Western power that hurt China the least. … The U.S. is the number one power in the world. … We can only keep a low profile and not to take a lead. We don’t have a choice. We are not strong enough and don’t have that many means [in our hands]. When it is your time [to control China], you may have more options. … You should be more open and flexible. You should try to achieve something. Don’t be so rigid and inflexible like us.

“Sixth, about the development of [our] political system. … [We] cannot rely on guns to maintain our rule. The old saying said whoever won the people’s hearts won the country. I think [we] should rely on being truthful and serving the public’s needs to keep and improve our governance.”

Source: Chejun.com
http://www.chejun.com/archives/68