The Legacy of Deng Xiaoping

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The Legacy of Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping was born is 1904 in Sichuan Province. He died in 1997. He was the General Secretary of the Communist Party. He went to France for higher education. He was a short man, gentle looking and intelligent. He was tough and soft-spoken. He was a chain smoker and he loved playing mahjong. He became the leader of China after chairman Mao. He was in power from 1978 till 1997. He married three times and had five children. (Three daughter, two sons) Deng made three major policies while he was in power. One of them was the One Child Policy. China has always been overpopulated. At the time when Mao was in power, people were encouraged to have a lot of children. The population of China rose so high that millions of people were dying of starvation. In the 1980s, Deng came up with the One Child Policy. Every family is only allowed to have one child. People who had followed the policy were given a lot of privileges, such as free education, houses and etc. The policy worked pretty well. Most people followed it, though the people who lived in the country still had many children. The overall living standards in China have improved. The population growth is controlled. Another one of Deng's Major Policies was the "one country, two systems" model. During the Opium War, the British defeated China and China had to give Hong Kong to Britain. When the Communists defeated the Nationalists, Chiang Kaishek escaped to Taiwan and since then, Taiwan became independent. The Portuguese took Macao away. In order to get those three places back to as part of China, Deng developed the "one country, two systems" model and ap... ... middle of paper ... ...t China used to be when Mao was in power. People were poor at that time, but everyone was the same. But now, there are people who are extremely rich, while others are still very poor. Others said that the daily living prices have soared since the launch of Deng's market economy and although living standards have improved for many people, those at the bottom of the social ladder tend to feel most of the pinch. Overall, I think that Deng's legacy is basically a positive one. He was the one who improved the living standards, and developed the "one country, two systems" model. It is true that his policies also had some negative affects, but after all, his policies improved the lives of most people in China. No body is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. However, Deng's mistakes are secondary compare to his accomplishments.

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