ABSTRACT
During his latest visit to Canada, Deng Pufang was reported as making some remarks about his father, whom he perhaps knew better than anybody else: "My father’s thinking on politics seems to have recently reached a status of luhuo chunqing , or supreme maturity". The year 1994 arrived presumably as a special year for Deng—of course, to somebody of his old age, any new year could be regarded as special—for he would celebrate his ninetieth birthday on August 22, and the People’s Republic would celebrate its forty-fifth anniversary on October 1. Gradually, by late 1993 and early 1994, Deng had become a symbolic figure, somewhat like the Japanese emperor and the British queen. His national prestige had come way up, while his political function had gone way down. He might still be consulted with on personnel assignments and international policies, but his practical leadership was over.
