Perhaps never in human history has an established society gone through such a total transformation, without a war, violent revolution or economic collapse, as did China with the ending of Mao Zedong's reign and the emergence of Deng Xiaoping as paramount ruler. The leitmotiv of Mao's China was orthodoxy, conformity and isolation, a whole people walking in lock-step, seemingly with only one voice, repeating one mindless slogan after another. All Chinese appeared to be united in a state of egalitarian autarky. To have read one newspaper was to have read them all, to have heard one official's briefing was to have heard them all. In amazing contrast, Deng's China was a congeries of elements, not an integrated system at all, with regional differences suddenly surfacing, some urban centres vibrating to the currents of international commerce, its youth in tune with the latest foreign fashions, while the great rural masses were re-establishing bonds with their ancient folk cultures, and nearly everybody rejoicing over the ending of Maoist orthodoxy and politics by mass campaigns. Above all, economics and politics seemed to be adhering to different rules, so that there was openness here, controls there. All the different voices saying different things made it hard to hear any one authority giving vision and guidance. And as the people scram-bled to look after their private selves, corruption seeped in, and while the government did not seem really to expect people to obey all its orders, it also acted erratically, sometimes with cruel violence – a “fragmented authoritarian” system in Kenneth Lieberthal's well–chosen words.

Ever since Edgar Snow's report 50 years ago, it has been well-known that Mao Zedong's rebellious life started first with his defiance of his father. Mao senior wanted his son to work in the fields, while Mao junior wanted to read books; his father wanted him to stay at home pursuing a practical job, while he wanted to leave home for a better education and a more interesting career. The case of Deng Xiaoping seems just the opposite.

Any politician with a career as long and diverse as Deng Xiaoping defies simple designation. Deng Xiaoping the politician has been a complex figure. He has embodied contradictory tendencies and beliefs.

Deng Xiaoping's economic legacy is overwhelmingly positive and quite secure-in this, it stands in contrast to his troubled and ambiguous political legacy. Of all of Deng's achievements, the transformation of China's economic system is the only one that is currently judged to have succeeded, and to have benefited large numbers of people. Deng presided over the Chinese government during a period of enormous economic change. Under his leadership, the government extricated itself from a legacy of massive economic problems and began a sustained programme of economic reform. Reforms transformed the economic system and initiated a period of explosive economic growth, bringing the country out of isolation and into the modem world economy.

Deng Xiaoping's legacy as a social reformer can be considered in the context of his ideas regarding the selection and promotion of human talent, and the implications of those ideas for the political and social order. Deng's ideas are contrasted primarily with those of Mao Zedong, even though at many times and in many of the utterances of both men there is little that can be distinguished.

Deng Xiaoping's attempt to modernize and professionalize the People's Liberation Army (PLA) will surely be remembered as one of the most important components of his historical legacy. Yet, ironically, Deng's military activities formed a decidedly minor part of his career. Deng received no formal military training, and Chinese Communist sources have very little to say about his military contributions before 1980; most of what was reported comes from his enemies and is difficult to corroborate. What has been written after 1980 has a suspiciously hagio-graphic ring and is also difficult to confirm.

Alone of the world's Communist leaders, Deng Xiaoping has charted a course that has combined for his country rapid economic development, successful economic reform and openness to the capitalistic international economy with continued dictatorship by the Communist Party. Under his leadership Communist rule in China has survived the demise of Communism in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union-the motherland of Communism. In the process the regime has weathered the ending of the Cold War and has become more engaged with the Asia-Pacific region. But Deng's reputation at home and abroad has been badly tarnished by his ruthlessness in masterminding the Tiananmen massacre of 4 June 1989. But that ruthlessness is absolutely central to Deng's political philosophy and strategy. For him it is the basis of order at home which alone ensures that the economic policies of reform and openness can be carried out without undermining Communist Party rule through the spread of liberal influences. In so far as statesmanship requires moral dimensions it will be necessary in assessing the quality of Deng's statesmanship to consider the meaning of statesmanship itself.