On April 10, 1974, Deng Xiaoping, as Mao’s handpicked messenger, delivered a historic speech in the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“Judging from the changes in international relations, the world today actually consists of three parts, or three worlds, that are both interconnected and in contradiction to one another. The United States and the Soviet Union make up the First World. The developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and other regions make up the Third World. The developed countries between the two make up the Second World. The two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, are vainly seeking world hegemony. Each in its own way attempts to bring the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America under its control and, at the same time, to bully the developed countries that are not their match in strength”, Deng said, underlining the Third World theory Mao had been propagating for some time.

China, back then was a country in turmoil, still recovering from the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and had recently begun its détente with the US. It needed allies against the Soviet Union with which it had a bitter fall out. The Third World theory was a careful alibi lest revolutionary China be seen as a stooge of the US against the Soviet Union.

The rest as they say is history. China went on to unleash significant reforms in its economy and has achieved one of the most impressive economic transformations in the history of modern capitalism. However, despite its impressive GDP growth........

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