Comrade Liu Bocheng often quotes a proverb from Sichuan, "yellow cat or black cat, as long as it catches mice, it is a good cat". That means, the reason why we could defeat Chiang Kai-shek was that we did not follow the old rule or old pattern, but adapted to the specific scenarios. Similarly, in order to recover agricultural production now, we need to adapt to different situations instead of adhering to one fixed pattern in the relations of production. We need to use whatever method that can raise people's enthusiasm.[8][12]
The cat theory was revived after Deng Xiaoping became the paramount leader of China in December 1978, when he and his allies launched the "reform and opening up" of China.[8][12][14] After the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, the reform and opening-up program entered a period of stagnation, and concerns arose within the Chinese Communist Party that further reforms might lead China down the path of becoming a capitalist country.[15][16] In response, when visiting Shanghai in 1991, Deng stated that "reform and opening up includes taking over the useful things of capitalism."[2] Eventually, after Deng Xiaoping's southern tour in 1992, the reform and opening-up program was resumed, and the cat theory became widely known in China and was accepted as the philosophy of economic reforms, but the "yellow cat" in the popular version of the phrase somehow became "white cat".[5][6][12][17]
^"邓小平：社会主义为什么不可以搞市场经济，这个不能说是资本主义" [Deng Xiaoping: why can't socialism have market economy? This is not capitalism]. People's Net (in Chinese). 17 January 2020. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
^ abc"邓小平同志"黑猫白猫论"背后的故事" [Behind-the-scene stories of comrade Deng Xiaoping's cat theory]. People's Net (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2 January 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
^"邓小平：我是刘少奇之后'第二号'" [Deng Xiaoping: I was the "No.2" after Liu Shaoqi]. Phoenix New Media (in Chinese). 14 March 2007. Archived from the original on 13 October 2022. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
