Deng Xiaoping

Source date: 10 April 1974. Address to the special session of the UN General Assembly. Editorial overview.

Deng presented a world divided between two superpowers, other developed states and developing countries. He placed China in the third category and argued that political independence remained insecure without economic independence.

The address links sovereignty to control over natural resources, trade conditions and technology. It supports cooperation among developing countries and rejects aid tied to political domination. Self-reliance, in this account, does not require isolation: international exchange can assist development when conducted on equal terms.

The speech is a useful starting point for studying China's international language before the reform era. Its revolutionary rhetoric and attacks on both superpowers belong to the circumstances of 1974. Deng's assertions about particular conflicts are political claims within the address, not independently established findings of this review. His pledge against Chinese hegemonism is a stated commitment, not a verdict on subsequent policy.

Read the English text, transcribed from the Foreign Languages Press edition.