y motivated to continue on its current path of engagement with the rest of the world and to continue to evolve toward a more open society.
Many of Deng Xiaoping's edicts, like the ones that reorganized an ancient financial system, were so quickly enabled for a simple fact: he was in power. To the Chinese, authority and power have been considered natural to the human condition. It is a strong part of the Chinese belief system that authority and power derive from the moral and ethical excellence of those who hold it. The presence of power indicates that its holder, in this case, Deng Xiaoping, had accumulated merit in a previous life and is now enjoying the fruits of past superior behavior. The traditional organization of Chinese society has been built on lines of command.
Throughout Chinese history, the Chinese have shown respect for age, seniority, rank, maleness, and family background. When the Chinese version of capitalism was instituted, it ignored the American pattern of decentralization and adopted the Chinese system of respect for authority will obviously affect both people's thinking in many areas of their lives, including their approach to business. In post-Deng Chinese society, class distinctions are very clearly separated, with scholars, professors, doctors and government officials holding the top. In America, in contrast to Asia and Europe, the external attitudes of different classes toward each other tend to be toned down rather than played up because of the overall emphasis on equality. Despite the emphasis on equality, upward social mobility in post-Deng China is a much more strenuous proposition than in pre-Deng Chinese society for two reasons.
The first reason has many aspects, all of which are related to the concept that those citizens who are born to rich well-to-do parents are destined to be rich and well-to-do, while those who are born to poor parents are destined to be poor. Second, those m...