No matter to what degree China opens up to the outside world and admits foreign capital, its relative magnitude will be small and it can't affect our system of socialist public ownership of the means of production.

Deng Xiaoping

"The principle of upholding the socialist path. The principle of upholding the people's democratic dictatorship. The principle of upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) The principle of upholding Mao Zedong Thought and Marxism–Leninism"

  • 4 Cardinal Principles formulate by Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping, Han nationality (Hakka), was born Deng Xixian in 1904 in Guang'an county, Sichuan province. He went to France in 1920, where he worked, studied, discovered Marxism-Leninism, and joined the CPC in 1924. Deng spent part of 1926 studying at the Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow, before returning to China in 1927.

Deng then joined the Red Army during the first civil war against the Guomindang. During the Long March in 1934, he served as General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee. In the late 1930s and 1940s, Deng continued his political work in the Red Army during the War of Resistance against Japan and the second civil war against the Guomindang.

Deng was named to several important posts in the new People's Republic after 1949. In 1957, Deng became CPC General Secretary and ran the country's daily affairs with then President Liu Shaoqi. Amid growing disenchantment with Mao's Great Leap Forward, Deng and Liu gained influence within the CPC when, in the early 1960s, they directed successful economic reforms.

When Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Deng was purged and sent to work in the countryside. Premier Zhou Enlai was able to convince Mao to bring Deng Xiaoping back into politics in 1974 as First Deputy Premier, in practice running daily affairs. But after Zhou's death in January 1976, Maoists purged Deng once again.

Following Mao's death later in 1976, Deng was able to outmaneuver Mao's anointed successor, Hua Guofeng, and consolidate his control of the CPC in the late 1970s. Hua was replaced by Zhao Ziyang as premier in 1980, and by Hu Yaobang as CPC chief in 1981. After 1987 Deng's only official posts were as chairman of the PRC and CPC Central Military Commissions.

Even while consolidating his political power, Deng initiated a "reform and opening" policy that sparked an industrial revolution in China. Deng decentralized economic decision making, embraced the "socialist market economy," and sought the "Four Modernizations" of agriculture, industry, science and technology, and the military. These reforms were a reversal of the Maoist policy of economic self-reliance, but they accelerated the modernization process through "opening" to foreign trade and investment. Special Economic Zones were established where foreign investment and market liberalization were encouraged.

Deng developed the principle that in foreign affairs, China should keep a low-profile and bide its time. He continued to seek an independent position between the United States and the Soviet Union. On 1 January 1979, the United States recognized the People's Republic of China, leaving the (Taiwan) Republic of China's nationalist government to one side, and business contacts between China and the West began to grow.

From 1980 onwards, Deng led the expansion of the economy, and in political terms took over negotiations with the United Kingdom to return Hong Kong, meeting personally with then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The result of these negotiations was the Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed on 19 December 1984, which formally outlined the United Kingdom's return of the whole Hong Kong colony to China by 1997.

In 1989, Deng ordered the crackdown on the Beijing Spring protestors, precipitating the Tiananmen Square crisis of June 4, 1989. To reassert his economic agenda, in the spring of 1992, Deng made a tour of southern China, visiting Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and spending the New Year in Shanghai, using his travels as a method of reasserting his economic policy after his retirement from office. Deng's health deteriorated drastically since 1994

Deng Xiaoping died on February 19, 1997.

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  • SoylentSnake [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    while i have like 10-12 people i'd consider "close friends" only two of them are semi-consistent and one is my sibling. this is not enough of a social support system. atomization fucking sucks shit. the others are mostly active friendships but i see them like....once every 2 months to a few times a year.

    EDIT: @peppersky@hexbear.net @Rojo27@hexbear.net @Sebrof@hexbear.net i wish i had more to say or add to what we're all going through. on one hand it feels better knowing we're not alone in this issue of being alone, but on the other it's heartbreaking that this is such a far reaching systemic issue. and i still feel powerless to offer up any real solutions. sending love and solidarity from an internet quasi-friend and comrade is the best i can do :(

    • SoylentSnake [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      4 months ago

      and people wonder why i put such a high value on finding good romantic connections. "focus on yourself" no dipshit we are social creatures and there is no social fabric. fuck all the way off.

    • Sebrof [comrade/them, he/him]
      ·
      4 months ago

      Yeah, the person I consider my closest friend I haven't seen in person in years. It's wild how isolated we all are. I find myself unintentionally daydreaming about an alternative life where I'm living in some 'commune' - or really just being in an environment that's actually geared toward being social. It's sad the potentials we're all deprived of

    • peppersky [he/him, any]
      ·
      4 months ago

      I feel you, at least quantity-wise I'm just where you are. Shit fucking sucks. I've got one friend where who lives in the same city as me whom I can semi-regularly do stuff with, but she's also much busier than me (due to having a full-time job) and one old friend from my hometown with whom I fairly regularly play games online. Everyone else is just too busy and too far away to see more than once or twice a year (and even that is dependent on me being the friend who didn't have to have a real job these past three years, which will definitely have to change soon, making any meeting even less frequent).

      I also just don't know how to make new friends. People seem to either already be fully "friended out" and already have large social circles, in which case they have no need for me to be their friend, or they are just as or more withdrawn than me.

    • Rojo27 [he/him]
      ·
      4 months ago

      Feel you on that. Taking some time away from work this week since ive been feeling burned out, but it feels like the only thing I've done so far is just think about how alone I feel even though I live with my family. And it's kind of funny because I really just wanted to take some time to isolate and relax, but that feeling just keeps on rearing it head.

      • SoylentSnake [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        4 months ago

        you've mentioned your family aren't the most emotionally open/aware/available folk right? i could see that feeling even lonelier tbh. my family can be kinda like that as well, and if i still lived with them i'd feel pretty deeply unseen and alone. at least living alone i can live by my own definitions of myself and don't have to feel that invalidating gaze. idk if that resonates

        • Rojo27 [he/him]
          ·
          4 months ago

          Yeah. My mom is probably the closest to being someone I can open up to, but even then I don't usually do it much because she tries her best to get me, but she just doesn't. Part of it is that she's probably way more like me (a bit socially anxious/introverted) but never really fully accepts it aside from talking about how quite she was when she was younger. She also grew up in a larger family and has brothers and sisters she talks to in a consistent basis.

          My dad never really was and is less so now with where he is healthwise. He never really gave me much fatherly affection and had a pretty masochist/machista way of looking at social relationships.

          My brother is pretty much like me, but tends to isolate even more than I do. Like if he's going through anything he rather just not talk about things especially when he gets upset with me. No matter what I've done in the past to mend things he usually only opens back up when he wants and even then he's never really been open at an emotional level.

    • bigboopballs [he/him]
      ·
      4 months ago

      I have 0 friends, 0 acquaintances (nobody I even look forward to nodding at as I pass them by in public, or vice versa), 0 romantic/sexual connections, and never really speak to my family

      kill me sadness-abysmal

    • MaoTheLawn [any, any]
      ·
      4 months ago

      opsec be damned I keep thinking there should be a hexbear meetup

      even if it would be terrible

      • someone [comrade/them, they/them]
        ·
        4 months ago

        It would be fun to have one, with the rule that no-one can directly tell other people their usernames. Everyone else has to guess.