Friday, December 30, 2005

Lee Kuan Yew on Deng Xiao Ping

" I met this small man when he came to Singapore in November 1978. This small four-foot-eleven man, but a giant of a leader. He gave me a long spiel—the Russian bear, Vietnam was his Cuba in the Far East, danger for you. I had provided him with a Ming vase spittoon, and I put an ashtray in front of him. He neither smoked nor used the spittoon. The same arrangements at dinner. He did not use either. At dinner he said, "I must congratulate you, you've done a good job in Singapore." I said, "Oh, how's that?" He says, "I came to Singapore on my way to Marseilles in 1920. It was a lousy place. You have made it a different place." I said, "Thank you. Whatever we can do, you can do better. We are the descendants of the landless peasants of south China. You have the mandarins, the writers, the thinkers and all the bright people. You can do better." He looked at me, but said nothing. In November 1992, during his famous tour of the southern provinces, he said, "Learn from Singapore," and "Do better than them." I thought, oh, he never forgot what I said to him. "

2 comments:

Thomas van Haren said...

Hey Aaron,

Could you tell me where you found the quote from Lee Kuan Yew on Deng Xiaoping? Did you get it from a specific source?

Thanks!

Thomas

t.o.vanharen@gmail.com

stenote said...

Interesting blog, it reminds me of I like to share an Interview with Deng Xiao Ping (imaginary). He is known as China’s “father of reforms” Mister Deng in 1978 announced a new policy, the “Open Door Policy”.
I tried to write a blog about it, hope you also like it https://stenote.blogspot.com/2021/06/an-interview-with-deng.html