LONDON - Britain praised Deng last night, calling him a "visionary". "We have heard with regret the announcement of the death of Deng Xiaoping," the Prime Minister, Mr John Major's office said in a statement. "Deng's initiative played the crucial part in creating today's economically dynamic and successful China," the statement said.
It added that it was Deng's "visionary concept of one country, two systems" that facilitated the 1984 declaration between Britain and China, guaranteeing Hong Kong's capitalist system would stay in place for 50 years after the British colony returns to Chinese rule later this year.
