Singapore's success as a trading hub impressed Deng, who imposed his vision of economic reform on China's Communist Party the following month, at an historic meeting known as the "third plenum".Singapore, which has a population of 5m to China's 1.35 billion, remains a source of inspiration for some Chinese reformers.
We are into the fourth and final day of the closed-door meeting held by China's top leaders, a gathering also known as the Third Plenum.
The announcement in China came on the final day of a summit of the Communist Party's policy-making Central Committee, known as the fifth plenum.
"Will President Xi and his team prove the pessimists wrong at the Third Plenum?
Gaining insight into this process is particularly important as China's new leaders prepare to unveil an economic roadmap at the Third Plenum, which begins this coming week.
In October the Central Committee met for the third time at the eighth plenum; top priority was assigned to reducing the rate of inflation to a single digit by 2010.
There are also documents from the highest possible levels of the Communist Party: some of these are identified as having been made available at the Fourth Plenum of the 13th Central Committee, which was convened on June 23rd and 24th to discuss the suppressed demonstrations and to pass formal condemnation of Zhao Ziyang, the party general secretary and advocate of reform.
We should, however, consider the possibility that these moves, along with a State Council announcement on June 19 of a package of financial reform proposals, are part of a larger plan to lay the groundwork for the painful and desperately needed reform proposals reportedly up for approval at the Third Plenum of the 18th Party Congress that is expected to meet in October.
At the fourth plenum in January, the number of Central Committee commissions was reduced from 11 to 6; a directive was issued for the party, army, police, and mass organizations to divest themselves of commercial enterprises; and a resolution was made to draw up a national maritime strategy forward to 2020.
China's Vice-President Xi Jinping has had his status as the next leader of China confirmed at the fifth plenum of the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
