Xiaoping was much more experimental and incremental. With a focus
on pragmatic results, Deng was willing to experiment with various
and expedient methods, characterized by a process of trial, error, and
correction. In his effort for greater and surer success, he adopted a
gradual and incremental methodology in his experimentalism. This
section will cite Deng’s writings and speeches to illustrate his leader-
ship style of experimentalism and cautious gradualism.
Deng Xiaoping was accredited with several famous quotations. One
is, ‘‘Let’s cross the river by feeling for the stepping stones.’’ This well-
known saying epitomizes Deng’s experimentalism. Deng’s reforms
and opening to the outside world in the post-Mao years were a great
experiment, something completely new for a nation accustomed to
Maoist movements. Deng adopted a method of trial, error, and corre-
ction in many of his reform endeavors. As seen in many of his
speeches, some cited below, he would experiment with a new method
or strategy in particular locales before broad adoption of that
method or strategy. As affirmed by Pye ( 1986 ) and Solinger ( 1981 ),
Deng’s leadership of post-Mao development, though sharing the
theoretical root of Mao’s ‘‘seeking truth from facts,’’ was evidently
pragmatic and experimental. It could be argued, by the way, that
Deng’s political wisdom may be seen here. The reassertion of an
important Maoist principle theoretically justifies his economic
reforms with orthodox CCP ideology, thereby helping to gain more
support from Maoists for the reforms.
Deng experimented with reforms in many areas unfamiliar to a nation
governed with the Maoist mentality. The prominent ones included a
practical focus on economic development, theoretical reconciliation
between socialism and the market economy, establishment of the
‘‘special economic zones’’ that introduced capitalist management,
‘‘one country, two systems (socialism and capitalism)’’ to facilitate the
return of Hong Kong, Macao, and hopefully also Taiwan, and abolition
of the traditional lifelong tenure of Party functionaries.
In his speech, ‘‘Our chief task ahead is building up the country’’
(Deng, 1992 : 242–249), in contrast to Mao’s continuous revolution
of class struggle, Deng emphasized a gradual rather than grandiose
approach to building up the country. Mao inured the nation to a
mentality of precipitous methods and massive ‘‘great leaps’’ to catch
up quickly with Western superpowers. Everything in the Maoist era
needed to be new and grand, but Deng advised against this. He said in
Leadership theories and practices of Mao and Deng 227