An interview with Deng Xiaoping

"You should give them the power to make money"

Deng Xiaoping, 81, looking fit and vigorous in a dark gray Mao suit, appeared in the east wing of Peking's Great Hall of the People to greet 60 U.S. business leaders and Time Inc. journalists traveling through Asia on a TlME-sponsored news tour. The group was led by Editor in Chief Henry Grunwald, Corporate Editor Ray Cave and Chief of Correspondents Richard Duncan. In the past seven years, Deng, who was once sent into internal exile as a "capitalist-roader," has introduced broad and dramatic economic reforms that have decentralized decision-making and placed more reliance on free-market forces. In mid-September, he consolidated...

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