Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping, perhaps more than any other in history, harnessed the power of radical economic ideas, including market forces and capitalism, to improve living standards and reduce poverty in China. He ushered in economic policies which shifted China from a desperately poor, inward-looking country to the modernized, highly successful outward-looking, rapidly growing economic superpower we know today.

In this film, Sir Vince Cable shares the story of Deng Xiaoping’s extraordinary life and the ways in which he enabled incredible transformations to China. Officially retired in 1992, Xiaoping’s influence remains enormous through a successor generation who continue his approach to economic policy.

Vince also shares that the central dilemma facing China is how to continue this process of economic modernization and reform in an increasingly competitive world while retaining a Communist Party-led, one-party state with little space for dissent and political choice. Share in the comments below what you view as China’s most pressing challenges and how you think China will approach them.