Deng Xiaoping in Vila Euclides

The Chinese reforms of 1978 and the Worker’s Party (Brazil)

Abstract

This article aims to study the Chinese economic reforms of 1978, their political consequences and how the Brazilian Worker’s Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores — PT) analyzed them. Based on the broad historiographical debate on the socialist character of the People’s Republic of China after Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, we seek to analyse not only how the future largest party of the Brazilian left understood the Chinese role in the construction of world socialism, but also what this kind of interpretation says about the PT’s own conception of socialism. For that purpose, there is a dialogue between bibliography that analyzes the nature of Chinese reforms, with speeches by Deng Xiaoping himself, and documents from PT congresses and meetings made available by the Perseu Abramo Foundation. Based on a Gramscian conception of political parties, we approach PT as an important source of interpretation of national history itself; by extension, we place its resolutions as a reflection of deeply rooted assumptions regarding the interpretation of Chinese reforms. In this way, this work aims to present contributions to the field of studies on Chinese reforms and on Brazilian socialist thought.