ABSTRACT
There have been countless rumors about the health of Deng Xiaoping in China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan since 1989. It is worth noting that financial markets, particularly the stock mar kets in those areas, have been plagued with large fluctuations fol lowing these rumors. Many Western people do not understand why the rumors about the health of the retired Mr. Deng could so strongly influence the investment markets not only in China but also in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. The President of the United States could be a person with limited ability. If this was true and this kind of person was elected, people would still peacefully drink a cup of coffee before they went to work, ball games would still be played, lottery winners would still scream as crazily as they always have. There would not be a major change in America. Of course, the announcement that former President Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer’s disease would influence neither the American nor Mexican and Canadian financial markets. China, however, is differ ent. Throughout the ages, China has been a society that believes it must have a powerful ruler. Most Chinese people do not believe in God, but they need a sage or a powerful man. In Chinese history, when there was not a powerful man who could be emperor or feudal prime minister, China would lose control and enter a stage of chaos in which it would lose wars to foreign countries; wars would arise between Chinese warlords, and even peasant uprisings would occur due to famine from crop failures. These are some of the reasons Deng Xiaoping had so great an influence on China.
