Deng Xiaoping, the architect of what is called market socialism in the People's Republic of China died on February 19 at the age of 92. Since the 1920s he has been associated with the struggle of the Communist Party of China (CPC) for China's liberation and its reconstruction. Heads of imperialist governments such as Jean Chretien, U.S. imperialist chieftain Bill Clinton, the president of France and many others in the "west" have praised him for "opening" China to the "west." Deng Xiaoping was born in 1904 at the height of the humiliation and division of the Chiense people by the "western democracies" which had reduced China to a country of coolies while using various regions of China for their own ends. Deng began his political activities at the time it had become clear that the bourgeoisie was no longer revolutionary. He participated in the activities of the CPC, even as its General Secretary at certain times but he failed to cope with the main question of the 20th century which is that a country can only secure its national liberation and become truly independent and its people sovereign if they carry out a thorough-going socialist revolution. On the basis of Deng's market socialism the Chinese revolution stopped half-way. At this time of Deng's death, the question of which path the PRC will follow, capitalism or socialism, is not settled. It has actually become even more acute as the contradictions within the PRC and internationally seek their resolution. The PRC, like the rest of the world, has become one of the major areas of contention between monopolies and the imperialist countries. Who will control its vast developing market? This struggle for the capturing of the economies of other countries has once against begun in all earnest. A dependent economy cannot sustain an independent political state. The people of the PRC and the world know it all too well. The subjugation and division of the PRC is foremost on the agenda of various imperialist powers. With market socialism in place, the friends of this "opening to the West" are hoping that the PRC will also, finally, adopt their political system. For the PRC to accept their political system, they will have to once again accept the division of the PRC. They will have to submit to all the "western" institutions which place individual right, the making of the maximum capitalist profit, in the first place. This will threaten the PRC's sovereignty as is the case with all the clamor about "reform" under the pretext that the PRC is "violating human rights." The PRC also has friends who would like to see it march on to socialism and communism through revolution. This would also open great prospects for many countries in the world which have come under the clutches of monopoly capital and the imperialist countries. These friends of the PRC would like to see the harmonization of the individual and collective interests with the general interest of Chinese society. They would like to see a prosperous and socialist China, a country which would be a factor for peace and progress in the world. The death of Deng Xiaoping has, once again, brought the question of which way forward for China to the fore. The PRC has experience of market socialism. This socialism, besides other things which are negative, has opened up the PRC for imperialist take-over and foreign interference. The PRC also knows what is socialism, the organization of all social productive forces of China for the completion of the socialist revolution and socialist construction. This is the only way the PRC can defend its sovereignty and contribute to the forward march of entire humankind. The "leaders" of the "west" have concluded in their self-serving enthusiasm for China's market socialism that the great question , "which way forward for China" has already been settled. Not only has this question not been settled for the PRC but it has not been settled for any country in the world either. Far from having been settled for China, it has actually become acute with the death of Deng Xioping. Every political force within the PRC and internationally will have to reckon with it. Shawgi Tell University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education [EMAIL PROTECTED]