Will Trump become America’s Deng Xiaoping or Gorbachev?

In this feature, Tan Kong Yam, Emeritus Professor of Economics at NTU’s SSS, argues that whether Donald Trump becomes America’s Deng Xiaoping or its Gorbachev is a matter of historical function rather than personal temperament. Both Deng Xiaoping and Mikhail Gorbachev emerged when their systems’ legitimacy was already eroding, marked by economic stagnation, elite rigidity and public disillusionment. The difference lies in outcomes: one reformed to preserve the system, while the other’s reforms inadvertently led to its collapse.\

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