Perception and National Development

Deng Xiaoping, the architect of Modern China was invited by Lee Yuankew , then President of Singapore to witness first hand the economic miracle wrought under his leadership in Singapore. That visit transformed Deng's perception of the utility of capitalism and the virtue of free enterprise. Thereafter, he sent several delegations of Chinese officials to Singapore. They too felt that a similar economic transformation was possible in mainland China. Altered perceptions of the path of economic development led China to give up Communist notions of state ownership of capitalism and the crushing of private initiative. It led to the concept of the Special Economic Zone. Deng's new orientation to policy was famously summed up in his aphorism that " it does not matter if a cat was black or red, as long as it caught the mice." Communist Capitalism was the net result with the political reins of power in the hands of the Communist Party of China and the reins of economic development in the hands of private enterprise funded by foreign capital.