Deng saw China’s modernization not as any kind of political, let alone ideological, transformation but as a pragmatic economic move in the tradition of the various national self-strengthening movements from China’s imperial past. While opposed to the political and economic chaos brought about by Mao’s mass movements during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, Deng had no interest in any form of fundamental democratic reform. While Deng may not have seen the United States as a source of political reform, he did see it as a source of foreign trade, investment, technology,
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