Before this thread gets too far behind, here's a catch up on Deng's greatest contribution to China. I cant really list the change to market driven economy as Deng's alone. I believe it was a majority decision within the CPC. Westerner's are hallucinating (based on their experience with their own pollies) when they think that in China, one person can dominate the political landscape.
Anyway, here's my selection as to Deng's greatest contribution to China.
Back in the early 50's, as happens after every war/revolution, the new government was still consolidating. They were dropped into a very dangerous situation by grandfather Kim in N. Korea - the Korean war. Forced to intervene, by Macarthur's excellent tactic of the Inchon landing and the subsequent drive deep into North Korea. The Chinese government warned that they could not tolerate a drive to the border, but Macarthur ignored the yellow light.
The rest of the war, which roughly finished up with much the same border between NK and SK, is just history. But it left an even more unstable political landscape.
The new Chinese government, fearing (justifiably, I believe) an attack on China, by the USA, entered into a longterm plan to build a "fortress China" in the south west of the country. US airpower, even then, would likely (from Taiwan bases) wipe out the east coast cities of China, with mind-boggling casualties and the only recourse was to build this armed fortress in Sichuan and Yunnan.
The problem was, that the area in which it was planned, was almost uninhabited, extremely rugged, and with no transport links. First priority, became the building of a rail link. Western rail engineers, brought into consult, said it could not be done. Deng was put in charge to get it done. And he did.
A rail link had to be built from Chongqing to Chengdu, as the first step to integrating the area into a national transport system. The railway was built at breakneck speed. It had 340 km of tunnel in a total length of 1080 km. It opened in July 1952.
The project went on to incorporate even more transport links to support the new factories that were built inside hollowed out mountains. The cost was enormous and likely distorted the Chinese economy for decades. It had one other benefit though, it set a pattern, that the leadership should have practical experience in getting things done. In the last government headed by Hu Jintao, most of the top leadership were engineers with practical experience, who had demonstrated that they could do that.
Of course, other experience may also be important, and, as I understand it, the requirement now for the top leadership, is that they must have the experience of governing two major provinces and building economic progress, before they would come under consideration by the CPC, for the top leadership positions.
Considering that most of the larger Chinese provinces may have larger populations than most western nations, we may get an idea of why China has progressed so quickly.
In the detail I've posted about Deng, I am reliant on Harrison Salisbury's, The New Emperors, Mao and Deng, A Dual Biography. (Harper Collins, London, 1992) pp 124-128.