President Jiang Zemin has launched a new propaganda offensive to play up Deng Xiaoping Thought. However, the theme of a plethora of forthcoming books, movies and exhibitions about Mr Deng is that Mr Jiang has 'further developed' the patriarch's teachings about economic reform. A source close to Mr Jiang's office said three major series of books on Mr Deng had been planned on orders from the President. They included Mr Deng and the reform and open-door policy; the patriarch's contribution to the special economic zones; and his contribution to the development of Shenzhen. Central ministries, as well as the administrations of Shanghai and the zones, have appointed corps of top cadres and scholars to work on the tomes, due to be published before the end of the year. 'The theme of the books is while Deng has laid down theories for opening up the coastal cities, it is Jiang who is responsible for their leaps-and-bounds growth in the 1990s,' the source said. Mr Jiang's secretaries are reportedly compiling all the President has said about economic reform and coastal development in the past seven years - and matching the statements with Mr Deng's sayings. Political analysts in Beijing said Mr Jiang's sudden enthusiasm for Deng Xiaoping Thought was surprising given the role he had played in diluting Deng-style reform by mixing it with central planning and Maoist ideology. They pointed out, however, Mr Jiang was convinced that hoisting the Deng banner would help him consolidate power, particularly along the coast. Since late last year, cadres from the coast and the Communist Party's reformist wing have criticised Mr Jiang for failing to stop anti-Deng writings that have been circulated by remnant-Maoist ideologues. A source in Shanghai said Mr Jiang was also using Mr Deng's statement that he should have opened up the city 10 years earlier to justify the special privileges it was getting from Beijing. Officials from other regions had lambasted Mr Jiang, the head of the so-called Shanghai Faction, for favouring Shanghai and neglecting the hinterland. Apart from Mr Deng's reform theories, cadres nationwide have been told to attend classes on the patriarch's ideas about army building and diplomacy.
