"Deng Xiaoping is such a great man that we farmers would not have lived our present life today if it hadn't been for the reforms he propelled nearly 30 years ago," said 55-year-old farmer Li Shulin. "We will never forget this great man though he left us 10 years ago."

Li was remembering Deng Xiaoping, the man who led China on its current path of market and social reforms, on the 10th anniversary of his death recently.

Deng died on February 19, 1997, aged 93, from a lung infection and Parkinson's disease. That year also witnessed the return of Hong Kong to its motherland, which was Deng's biggest wish in his later years. He passed away just five months before the historical event took place.

Though not wealthy, Li feels grateful to Deng for the reforms he set in place. In the eyes of honest and simple farmers who have been through famine, "his reforms saved us from starving," Li said.

Times and attitudes in China have changed and although there are still many loyal admirers of Deng and his reforms, some have begun to question their success. Some observers, particularly among China's urban elite and intellectuals, have cited the widening gap between the country's rich and poor, corruption, and the plundering of China's natural resources, as examples of how the reforms have failed.

Unique path

Known around the world as the "little great man", Deng was a chief contributor towards the rapid development in China today. In his lifetime he was given a great many accolades, among which the title "chief designer of China's reform and opening up" remains the most impressive.

At a top party plenary session in December 1978, reform was made a fundamental national policy and China began to take its unique path towards development and building "socialism with Chinese characteristics". It was directly after this meeting that Deng became the central player in China's leadership pushing reforms forward.

China's program of reform began in agriculture. Farmers benefited from the development of the household contract responsibility system (a contract system with remuneration linked to output) and the rural economy was given a needed boost through the development of township enterprises, adjusting the agricultural structure and developing infrastructure.

Despite the initial focus of China's agricultural base, Deng realized that the nation's future lay in its industry. With this in mind the government embarked on a path of that would see China's rural areas providing both cheap labor and raw materials for industrial development. It was this path, many believe, that led to an imbalance in China's economic development with rural areas losing out to urban ones. Rural parts of the country contributed significantly towards China's new path of development, yet benefited not much compared to Chinese cities, leading to a growing disparity of wealth between rich and poor. And in the push for industrial development China also ignored environmental pollution, according to the policies' critics.

Others believe that despite their faults, Deng's policies for developing China were a great success. The reforms helped to pull China out of a 10-year recession, led to greater opportunities for the country's citizens, and encouraged foreign business to invest in China. Deng brought China into the modern world economy through the fast lane, a process that is still taking shape today.

According to Xu Youyu, a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the reform was not impulsive, but a forced reaction in the face of the grim situation of a country. Reform was the last hope for the country.