Chen Mingjie, a political scientist at Beijing University, came to the United States in 1992 where he writes and sells insurance. This article was translated by Franz Schurmann.

After Mao Zedong's death in 1973 Deng Xiaoping took the course of Chinese history in his hands and turned it around. He transformed a center of revolution and rebellion into a surging economic superpower at a pace that has astonished the entire world.

Teng also presided over an equally dramatic but less visible transformation. In a country whose destiny has long been in the hands of emperors and political strongmen, he inherited the position of "helmsman" and his charisma and will penetrated every nook and cranny of the country. Yet he used that influence to set in motion a radical decentralization of power to the point where the state -- once the master of society -- is well on its way to becoming the servant.

Just twenty years ago, in the Mao era, everything from the functioning of the economy to people's everyday lives unfolded within the framework of state ideology. Hundreds of millions of people -- men and women alike -- wore Mao-style clothes and watched the same eight shows on television.

Today on the streets of Beijing one can see the fresh imprint of new markets and a thriving civil society. Where once there were only a few kiosks carrying the official newspaper, the People's Daily, today thousands provide stock market quotations, real estate news, financial information, legal advice, sports announcements, astrological charts, and announcements on everything from the care and feeding of caged birds (a passion with Chinese elderly) to rearing children. The People's Daily is hard to find.

Beijing people are known for their enthusiasm for politics. In the Mao era, people would see sports events as metaphors for the "rise or fall of the country" -- prompting people at times to rush into the streets to burn clothing, wave bottles around, throw stones, smash cars. Now when people gather on the streets the heated conversations are more apt to be about personal income, kids' educations, Hong Kong and Taiwan movie stars, sports news, electronic gadgets-- even interior decorating -- or to complain about inflation, traffic, crime, official corruption. When China's bid for the Year 2000 Olympics was turned down Beijing people voiced their disappointment on Tiananmen Square for several hours but then quietly went home to bed -- to the surprise of many Western reporters.

Economic data underscores the changes in dynamism and direction in China. Just ten years ago state-owned industries were the pillars of China's planned socialist economy. Today they account for less than 30 percent of the country's GNP, while privately owned, foreign capitalized firms and new rural-township industries account for more than half.

No doubt there is a continuing strong element of personal rule in China, but as the market economy and civil society expand, they steadily shrink the space within which the state and its strongmen can operate, and in this way weaken the tradition of autocratic rule and peacefully lead China onto a path of democratic politics.

Serious problems remain -- like inflation, social corruption, regional and social inequalities, and millions of surplus laborers have produced a lot of tension. And more than seven years after the Tiananmen massacre, the sound of breaking glass can be heard in Beijing University on the nights of its anniversary. But given the vast transformation of China's social outlook, Deng Xiaoping could very well be China's last strongman.