Deng Xiaoping set a shining example

China marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of its late leader Deng Xiaoping Sunday with a celebration attended by top party officials in Beijing.

In a televised speech in the Great Hall of the People to Communist Party leaders, President Hu Jintao praised Mr. Deng for implementing reforms that freed China from central economic planning.

The Chinese leader also commended a long list of Mr. Deng's achievements, including development of the "one country, two systems" model that China applies to Hong Kong, reports Voice of America.

Chinese President Hu Jintao said Sunday late leader Deng Xiaoping has set a shining example for the people through his unremitting efforts to struggle for the Chinese nation, his indelible contributions to the Party and his noble moral character as a great leader.

One hundred years ago, Deng Xiaoping was born in Guang'an County, Sichuan Province. At that time, the Chinese nation sustained deep misery under feudal oppression and aggression of foreign powers. People with high ideals were groping the correct way to save China, says China Daily.

Many Americans remember the late Deng Xiaoping as a little man with big ideas at a Houston, Texas, barbecue grinning up at the cameras from under a ten-gallon hat.

He was the first Chinese communist top leader to set foot in the United States and his welcome, from Washington, D.C., where he met President Jimmy Carter, to the state of Washington, was about as ecstatic as Americans get over a foreign visitor.

Newspapers across the country headlined his arrival in front-page red Chinese characters and reported his every word and move. When he donned the cowboy hat in Houston and rode around in a stage coach, he was regarded by most Americans as that epitome of good fellowship -- a "regular fellow."

The way had been prepared for him by two centuries of Chinese-American friendship fanned by stories of this strange and distant land brought back by generations of American missionaries, informs San francisco Chronicle.

Read earlier news stories by PRAVDA.Ru

&to=http:// english.pravda.ru/main/2001/09/11/14785.html' target=_blank> The Legacy of Chairman Mao, 25 years on