Die LA Times berichtet vom Deng-Revival in China anlässlich des 100. Geburtstags des großen Führers: Deng Xianyan runs his fingers over a bottle of Deng family liquor as he mulls the legacy of his famous cousin, the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, on the 100th anniversary of his birth. "He unleashed the creativity of a billion Chinese people," the 52-year-old company president says of the man known as the father of China's modernization. "Even having a couple of extra chickens before Xiaoping came along was enough to brand you a hated capitalist." ... Hooch-making relatives aren't the only ones basking in Deng's reflected glory more than seven years after his death. Other Chinese, including those in the upper reaches of the Communist Party and in the halls of commerce, continue to invoke the diminutive revolutionary to justify pet projects, innovative policies and sacred cows. Deng's bold reforms during the 1980s liberated China's economy, foreign policy and thinking after decades of economic mismanagement and political turmoil epitomized by the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. On the road into Guangan, Deng's hometown in Sichuan province, a huge red banner calls on Chinese to follow the principles of the "paramount leader" and his successor, former President Jiang Zemin. The pairing is significant. The aloof Jiang hopes to elevate his own standing by associating himself with the far more popular Deng, analysts say, as Jiang angles for power from his position as the head of China's military. In Zhongnanhai, the high-walled Beijing compound where China's top leaders live and work, Jiang's rivals use Deng to justify their more moderate line. Insiders say allies of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are spreading the word that China's increasingly confrontational stance toward Taiwan and Japan — policies associated with Jiang — is a potential disaster that departs from Deng's enlightened principle of regional peace and prosperity. "There's a big move to refocus attention on Deng's theories of diplomacy," said one party member who declined to be identified. "Jiang purposely took advantage of nationalism after the 1990s without fully understanding what he'd unleashed." The Communist Party has its own reasons for hitching its propaganda star to Deng: For one, he arguably saved the party from its own excesses. By systematically reversing many of Mao Tse-tung's sacred ideas, Deng, starting in the late 1970s, freed Chinese intellectuals to think again, entrepreneurs to build wealth and diplomats to expand national influence on the world stage. "His theories helped China recover its common sense," said Liu Zhiguang, a professor at the Marxism Research Institute of Beijing University.

Eine Reportage zum Deng-Geburtstag gibts heute auch in der Welt am Sonntag: Bis heute sind die Spuren von Deng Xiaopings Politik allgegenwärtig. Als er vor sieben Jahren starb, war China nicht mehr das rückständige, verarmte und im Chaos versunkene Land, das der "Große Steuermann" Mao Tse-tung nach seinem Tod im Jahre 1976 hinterlassen hatte. Im Gegensatz zu seinem einstigen Weggefährten war Deng in ideologischen Fragen ein flexibler Pragmatiker. Mit Parolen wie "Es ist egal, ob eine Katze schwarz ist oder weiß, Hauptsache, sie fängt Mäuse" oder "Man muss die Wahrheit in den Tatsachen suchen" brachte der brillante Parteistratege Deng den theorieverliebten Mao gegen sich auf. Er war 65 Jahre alt, als Mao ihn verstieß, unter Hausarrest stellen ließ und schließlich "zur Umerziehung durch Arbeit" in ein Traktorenwerk nach Jiangxi verbannte. 1972 wurde er rehabilitiert, vier Jahre später fiel er erneut in Ungnade. Doch erst nach dem Tod Maos im September 1979 und erfolgreichen Machtkämpfen gegen Maos Witwe und ihre Anhänger konnte Deng Xiaoping seine Vision vom "Sozialismus mit chinesischen Charakteristika" vorantreiben. "Reformen im Innern, Öffnung nach außen", lautete die Zauberformel, mit der die Volksrepublik China wieder Anschluss an die internationale Politik und die Weltwirtschaft finden sollte.