By u/China_Appreciator on r/trueanon
Think about it. In the Islam, Mohammad (PBUH) didn't invent an entirely new theology, he merely filled in the gaps of what was already spoken before to become the final messenger of God. Likewise, Deng didn't create that much theory compared to his predecessors, but he is nevertheless the last great theoretician. I read on the Governance of China, Xi isn't really creating new theories, he's just guiding China towards the completion of the primary stage of socialism as Deng envisioned. Socialism with Chinese Characteristics is the last major development of Marxist thought.
Karl Marx is like Moses in that he creates this radically new way of understanding the world that all these other guys would later draw from. Marx and Moses are also both Jewish.
(Note - I'd rather replace Moses with Abraham)
Mao Zedong is like Jesus Christ in that they are both venerated by billions of people and draw from the previous guy. Jesus is like "It's cool that Jews have this super awesome God, but wouldn't it be cooler if he could be EVERYONE's God?" and Mao is like "These are cool theories, but wouldn't it be cooler if we actually APPLIED these theories?" Their publications are both some of the most printed books of all time. Their teachings fill their followers with great joy and a hope for a better future. Disrespecting Jesus and Mao deeply offends many people and is considered sacrilegious in a sense.
Where does Deng come in? Well in the Islamic tradition, Jesus isn't the son of God, but is still the messiah and the savior of humanity. Likewise, Deng maintains that Mao saved China, but he wasn't perfect and he made mistakes. He adopts Marxism and Mao Zedong thought to the material conditions of China and introduces market reforms to develop the productive forces with the long term goal of transitioning towards a classless, stateless society. The idea of allowing capitalism as a mode of production to happen on a large scale but to subordinate it to the party is a new theoretical development, thus making him the last prophet of Marxism. If we were to apply the Mao-Deng relationship to Jesus and Mohammad (PBUH), we can better understand Islam as Christianity with Bedouin characteristics.
Here's another similarity: both did not want to be worshiped. Mohammad made it explicitly clear that worshiping or praying to him is a grave sin, there is only one God, he is merely the messenger. Deng understood the utility of the reverence for Chairman Mao as inspired fidelity to the party among the masses, but he also understood that this reverence lead to problems as seen in the cultural revolution and didn't want to create a "cult of personality" for himself. He rarely appeared in public compared to Mao and explicitly stated he didn't want his face posted up everywhere. Isn't that interesting when you consider that it's forbidden in Islam to depict Mohammad (PBUH)?
We can also understand the schism in the Western left between Socialism with Chinese Characteristic upholders like myself, PLAkilledmyGrandma and DearOccupant (my favorite posters in this sub) and "Maoists" that say Deng was illegitimate. In this analogy the Maoists are like Christians who reject the messages of Mohammad (PBUH) and declare him a false prophet. They say the Maoist (Christian) way was correct and that the later contributions by Deng/Mohammad are a false deviation of what is the "true" theory/theology.
What about Deng's successors? Well those are the caliphates. Jiang Zemin was the first caliphate, Hu Jintao/Wen Jiabo were the second and third, and Xi Jinping is the fourth (Ali). If you read their theoretical publications it's not really anything new, it's basically just their standard operating procedure about how they plan to implement socialism with Chinese Characteristics during their respective times of administration that corresponded to China's stage in development. And the caliphates Abu Bakr, Omar, Uthman, and Ali created much of the legal foundations for Shariah during their reign, but ultimately Shariah is just Islam as codified into law. It's not a fundamentally new thing. Mohammad laid out the blueprint they're just implementing it.
Regardless, John Bolton needs to get drone strik'd. Another thing is we're not sure if the Sahrawi referendum is going to be good for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic or Morroco's settler gov't.